Neon Trees
Neon Trees have made a fantastic return as they have just released their second album Picture Show and Everybody Talks is the first track to be lifted from the album.
We caught up with the band to chat about the new collection of tracks, the development of the band and what lies ahead for the rest of the year.
- You are about to release your single Everybody Talks so what can we expect from the track and what is it about?
Tyler: It is about gossip and it is about how gossip grows. I think it sounds a bit like The Beatles doing a soul/electronic song and it is certainly the song that sounds the most like out last album. I am pleased that people like it so much.
- This is a song that was your first single to crack the Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 so you must be thrilled at how it has been received in the States?
Tyler: It did great and it did more than we ever could have asked for. I think we never set out to make it this giant anthem and that has certainly surprised me.
It is hard these days to have guitars in a group and have that level of radio play so for us it is a feat and it feels good.
- Bearing that in mind how excited are you at getting over here to the UK to get this single and the album released to a new audience?
Tyler: It is probably the only thing that we are thinking about this year as it really is a priority to talk to people like you and to play for fans and grow the audience here.
We have always been enamoured by this side of the world musically and fashion wise and it is just something that we really want to achieve.
- So how have you found the response to the single and the album so far here in the UK?
Chris: I don’t think we had any idea…
Branden: People have been singing along at our shows and that has been great.
Chris: Our first indication has been the shows and the reaction and singing along that we have had from the audiences - the shows have also been sold out.
So it is great that it is growing and it is not depleting because the venues are not giant and that fact that people are filling them is a good sign. We just want to be able to come here as often as you can.
- You have slightly touched on my next question you have been playing some shows here in the UK so how have they been going? And how have UK audiences been reacting to the new material?
Tyler: They are perhaps even more enthusiastic than some American crowds. I don’t know if that is because they have been waiting a few years to see us, they have just got the record or they are just trying to figure us out but there has been a definite enthusiasm that has been palpable vs. some States in America where you have to get them pumped up. It has been great this week.
- I have mentioned the album already but how does this single introduce us to the rest of the record?
Tyler: It bridges the gap from the last album - our song Animal did really well over here - so it bridges the gap between those two. I think all of the songs are very focused in their time and I think that it is a great album as there is a maturity and a growth.
Chris: I think that this album displays a wider range of music than the first one and I think that this record is also more aggressive than the first one - but it is also more tame in other parts.
- I have given the album a listen and there is some pop in there, some indie, a dance beat on track 8 so how would you describe your sound? And why did you choose to put together so many genres on one record?
Tyler: I think we are lovers of songs in general and the producer that went with is a huge fan of dance music; I think that that really is his first passion.
So I think it was a combination of our producer and what our interests are; we are four very different people and what we listen to is very different. I think we let ourselves run with the idea that we didn’t have to be so one thing.
Branden: We also pride ourselves on our life shows and that is where we really get the most out of our job. When you have so many different songs that pull from so many different emotions and places you are able to just explore a lot more when you are playing live as you can have it flow.
Tyler: It makes the set more fun as well.
- Picture Show saw you team up with Justin Johnson so how did that come about? And how did you find working with him?
Tyler: Branden our bass player he…
Branden: I met him at a bass convention (laughs).
Tyler: We have been fans of Justin’s work and we have followed his work online. I think we just wanted to work with him as we did a one off song with him once and we really enjoyed the experience. It was sort of a friendship first and then he really fell for the band and what we were doing.
It was great and I would love to make another record with him. He had come off the heat of M83 record that he had done so it was a nice energy that was brought into ours.
Chris: He feels like another member of the band as we share a lot of the same influences. It was just so easy working with him.
- He has worked with the likes of Nine Inch Nails and Beck so what did his experience bring to this record?
Tyler: I remember when we were working with him there were moments where I really wanted to go to a place that maybe our first producer wouldn’t let us go - I don’t know if that is a knock to him but it was more of a first experience.
But this time around we were like if we are going to make this a very dancey and have those industrial sounds then let’s really do it - let’s really hunt for five hours and find the perfect sound for it. So he was really interested in the craft and that really helped me as a musician - I really learnt along.
Chris: One of the things that I really appreciated about Justin’s work ethic is h only accepted the best takes from us; if we weren’t playing our parts correctly he wouldn’t say ‘it’s ok I will just edit that for you’ we would have to play it until we played it right on.
- This is your second album so how do you feel you have developed as musicians and songwriters individually and collectively between that album and this?
Tyler: I think that we have all learnt a lot and I think that we have a fearlessness that will carry on into the third record that we eventually make.
Elaine: I think that we have better understanding of each of our individual roles between our first album as this album. I think that the learning curve on the first album was really very steep as we had a lot to learn in a very short space of time.
But we have had a lot of time between that first record and this to understand and get to know what we really wanted to be doing while we were playing live.
We learned on the first album how to support the melody of a song much better and so on the second album it wasn’t as much about ‘how do we learn how to do that?’
We know how to do that and we knew how we were going to support the melody and not step on it. So I think we learnt as musicians quite a lot about how to do our job better.
Brendan: As a guitarist I have found that the most difficult thing for me is… growing up and being in all the bands that I have been in I have always been the only guitarist and so I have had to write more complex parts that take on the rhythm and the lead guitar.
Now that we are recording real albums I am having to separate those two parts and write a rhythm part and a lead part - my whole thought process has changed.
- The band has been together for about eight years but how did you all get together?
Chris: My dad and Tyler’s dad shared an office and they knew that we were both musicians and we were both serious about it but we were in bands that were not very serious. So they actually got us together.
I moved up to Utah to go to school and Tyler followed me up there so we could carry on playing music. We met Branden and Elaine in who were playing in other bands up there.
- You have played a handful of shows while you have been over here in the UK so will we bee seeing you back on the road over here later in the year?
Tyler: We will be supporting Maroon 5 and so we will be coming back to play in the UK and throughout Europe.
It will be a vast difference to the clubs that we are playing now and the arenas that we will be playing later in the year. Hopefully fans will get a taste of each and we are just excited about it.
- Finally what is next for you for the rest of the year?
Tyler: We have just started the U.S. leg of the Maroon 5 tour so we will be doing that all the way up to the summer. We have another great tour booked and we are just waiting to announce that. But it is just great to know that our whole year is on lock.
Branden: We are hoping to come back to the UK in the fall for some more live shows.
Single Everyone Talks and the album Picture Show are out now.
Click here to buy the album Picture Show