Neon
Trees' single "Animal" has reached No. 1 on the Alternative Specialty
Chart and has had major radio play in Salt Lake City, San Diego, Los
Angeles, New York and more.
The song was heard on "Melrose Place" and VH1's "Secrets of Aspen."
The
CD, "Habits," was released March 16 on Mercury Records, and the band is
in the middle of playing gigs at the South By Southwest Music and Media
conference in Austin, Texas.
Furthermore,
Neon Trees is slated to play "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" on March 30 and will
soon hit the road with Mutemath and 30 Seconds to Mars.
Wait, there's more.
Neon
Trees — lead vocalist/keyboardist Tyler Glenn, guitarist Chris Allen,
bassist Branden Campbell and drummer/vocalist Elaine Bradley — was
formed in Provo, Utah.
That's right, The pop-rock quartet got its start in Utah.
__IMAGE1__I caught up with lead singer/vocalist Glenn last week and asked him a bunch of questions.
His musical influences include Michael Jackson, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen, Morrissey and the Smiths, to name a few.
"I was rhythmic, and I eventually developed a singing voice. I would sing at church and perform in other musicals."
Glenn lived in Southern California at the time. And that's when he me Allen.
"Our
dads worked together," he said. "Chris and I were both deadbeats that
wanted to be rock stars in high school. So they wanted to get us
together so we could be deadbeats together.
"I love how Chris played guitar," Glenn said. "He has a way of telling stories through melodies, without using words.
"I
always had a fantasy of having a guitarist like Johnny Marr of the
Smiths who is able to be unique and have compositions without words."
Glenn
liked working with Allen so much that he followed the guitarist to Utah
when Allen decided to attend the Utah College of Massage Therapy.
The two met the rhythm section — Campbell and Bradley — in Provo.
Campbell,
who is from Las Vegas, attended BYU and Utah Valley University for a
spell, and Bradley, originally from Chicago, was the valedictorian of
her class at BYU.
The band played a small gig in Las Vegas in 2008 and was noticed by the Killers drummer Ronnie Vannucci.
"He asked if we would like to open shows for the Killers," said Glenn.
At the same time, record labels came calling.
"Mercury fostered a relationship with us and really seemed personable. They seemed like they right fit."
But Glenn said getting signed didn't happen overnight.
"It
took a while," he said. We did something organic by playing and playing
and playing, even if it was at Chuck-a-Rama or the local coffee shop."
The
band scrapped half of its songs and wrote more, Glenn said. "It wasn't
as if we weren't proud of those songs, but we had an idea of the kind
of record we wanted to make."
That's why Neon Trees asked Sugarcult vocalist/rhythm guitarist Tim Pagnotta to produce "Habit."
"In
2007, Sugarcult asked us to open a show for them in St. George," Glenn
said. "We didn't get any money for that show, but Tim took $100 out of
his own pocket and gave us money to get home."
Pagnotta and Neon Trees stayed in touch, and when the band needed a producer, they chose him.
"It always came back to feeling right with Tim," said Glenn.
Neon Trees is proud to be a band from Provo, Glenn said. "It has been so good to us and the music scene is fantastic.
"We
had opportunities to say we were a band from other places, but I think
it meant more to us that we claim Provo and give some spotlight to
other bands in the area."
E-mail: scott@desnews.com