VOA常速英语:Neon Trees Release 'Picture Show'

Neon Trees is a four member band out of Provo, Utah who made their debut in 2010 with the CD Habits. Two years later the group has returned with Picture Show and continued its success with the hit "Everybody Talks.

Energetic pop rock is how Neon Trees describe their sound. In the last two years the band has made it to the Billboard Top 20 with both of their albums. Their newest CD is titled Picture Show. Tyler Glenn describes how they approached their new project.

"We went into it thinking very fearless about it because many other bands I love have gone in to make a second record and you can tell they have overthought it," said Glenn. "With us we wanted to do the kind of music we wanted to do and [include] the influences we have always talked about. I am very happy with it. It is more mature but still very fun".

Tyler Glenn did not always plan to be the lead singer of a rock band. "I was going to be a journalist," he remarked. "I always liked writing and the arts, but I started playing in bands and that is when I felt me really come out of my shell on stage and feel really alive".

Glenn admits he has an alter ego to help him deal with his stage fright. "I have to, I think, because I am a very natural introvert and I think when I put the clothes on and listen to music before [going on stage] and get hyped," Glenn explained. "In the last couple of years getting fans and a nice fan base to show up and sing with you. You feel that energy and exchange. That has helped me not have to do a bunch of rituals or whatever, I am able to just go out and be natural.

The band was actually discovered by a member of another popular band. "The drummer of The Killers [Ronnie Vannucci] got into us and came to some shows and saw we had something," recalled Glenn. "We were only playing for 10 to 15 people at the time in [Las] Vegas. In our home area we had started selling out shows but it was hard to go national and they gave us a nice break and let us open some shows.

Neon Trees chose their name after seeing the bright colored lights on display at a fast food restaurant in Los Angeles. There is a special connection to the name as Tyler describes.

"When Brandon [Campbell] our bass player joined he asked where the name came from and I told him, he said his dad works at Yesco [a neon lighting company] from Las Vegas and he built the neon lighting in the 1980s and sure enough his dad built those lights years and years before I met Brandon so it was a weird spiritual twist," Glenn noted.

Neon Trees are on tour to promote the new CD Picture Show and have just released their second single from the new album.