Interview: Neon Trees.

The day after their energetic performance at the 2011 MTV World Stage in Malaysia, we caught up with Neon Trees and were pleasantly surprised to see how much fun they had in them, even after a massively rocking night on stage.

Speaking exclusively to Tyler Glenn (vocals), Chris Allen (guitar), Branden Campbell (bass) and Elaine Bradley (drums), we found out what they almost named the band, the cool police escort they had to MTV World Stage and their habits.

Did you guys get to do any sightseeing while in Malaysia?

Tyler: No, but I've been taking mental notes because there's so many places to see but I've only seen glimpses of on this trip. So I wanna come back in the next 3-5 years.

3-5 years??! That's a long time!

Tyler: Yeahhh, I know!

Elaine: We have a busy schedule!

Chris: It was kind of a long drive to the venue, so we got to see a lot of the landscape and it was very beautiful.

Branden: It was kinda quick though with our police escort.

Elaine: Yeah! We had police escort! Can we talk about that? It was awesome! That was our first time having police escort. We were enjoying it but the police were enjoying it! It was those guys on the motorbike and they did this thing with their hand and they were like, 'NO! You, back! Back!" They were smiling and zigzagging; it was exciting.

Now the name Neon Trees, where did that come from?

Tyler: It came from a joke me and my friends had in high school. We'd hang out at this fast food place and they had neon palm tree lights and we wanted to start a band called Neon Palm Trees, and it never happened. But I remembered that name was kinda cool and we dropped the 'Palm' eventually. I think of all the band names we were choosing, it kinda fit and felt cool.

So you had a name list?

Elaine: Yeah, I think every band does in the beginning. Like 'what we should be?' it's important!
Tyler: 'Donnie Darko'! Before 'Donnie Darko' became such a massive movie, I loved the movie and that was a band name choice.
Chris: Also 'Cellar Door'!
Elaine: I am so glad we're not 'Cellar Door'.

I read that you guys had wanted to follow Lady Gaga in "breaking the rules". How's that coming along? Have you guys broken any rules yet?

Tyler: I respect her as an artist because she makes very pop music but she did it in a way that made her be able to wear the costumes she wears and break records at the same time. We have a lot of ideas that we've decided not to show on one album so we'll continue to grow. The fact that we wrote a song as catchy as 'Animal' and it reached so many places, I think it's opened doors for us to continue writing music.

Elaine: I think we want to be true to our pop nature but we also don't want to be afraid of anything.

Branden: Yeah, of course we have, that's why we have people talking about us as a polarising band. She is doing something so spectacular and people were like, "you can't do that!" and that's happened to us. So the rule is, there are no rules, right.

Your sound is kinda in between punk, dance and pop. So what's the most recent song you've heard that's inspired you?

Elaine: Katy Perry "E.T." - I love it! There's something bout the feel and beat of that song, it gets me going! It's one of those songs where you're like, "I love this" and people will judge you, but I don't care, I love it!

Tyler: For me, it's My Chemical Romance, the video for "Na Na Na". I saw it and was like, 'this is so rad'. They are such a dark band and they flipped the script and it was so believable and rad. It's really inspired me and I really wanna do that on our next record where people are expecting one thing but we're flipping it but still remaining true to our fan base.

Chris: That is true about them. Everything they do is very believable. Their songs and they way they perform and put it out there, they're the real deal. That definitely inspired me 'cause there are a lot of wannabes out there. It might sound great and seem like cool music but it's not so believable when you really put it under a microscope and listen to it a lot.

Your album's called "Habits", so what're your good habits and bad ones?

Branden: My habit, I'm trying to get off on my own schedule and get on everyone else's schedule. I used to do my own thing and show up, whenever. I'm trying to be on time. My good new habit is being on time.

Tyler: My worst habit is how much Diet Coke I drink. The fact that I subscribe to a vegetarian/vegan diet but then I put so much Diet Coke in my body. It's a beautiful drink...

Elaine: A good habit of mine is I have a good work ethic. I like to do things really well. A bad habit of mine is, I do things really well so I judge other people...

Tyler: I think a bad habit of mine is also I'm very self-deprecating and I shouldn't be, because I'm a cool guy.

Chris: My best and worst habits are diet-based. I feel like I eat pretty healthy for the most part but then I love sweets.

Tyler: There was a time when he drank two milk shakes and a smoothie on top of a meal!

Chris: Don't even get me started on donuts!

(source)