Tyler Glenn, center, and his Neon Trees bandmates,
Before the new tour, Neon Trees’ Tyler Glenn reflects on the decade since he came out
RICH LOPEZ | Staff writer
rich@dallasvoice.com
Almost a decade ago, Tyler Glenn spoke with Dallas Voice as he was heading to the city with the band Neon Trees. At that point, the band had released its album Pop Psychology and was on tour, but also, Glenn had just come out in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine.
Today, he and Neon Trees are back on the road with new music, and Glenn continues his queer journey.
The band released its newest single, “Favorite Daze,” in June, previewing the new record. But Neon Trees is getting a head start by hitting the road this fall with a stop in Dallas at The Echo Lounge on Sept. 21.
Prior to the show, Glenn spoke again with Dallas Voice about the new music but also on those years since his coming out as the queer person he is today, having recently received the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award at the 2023 HRC Utah Dinner.
Dallas Voice: Can we jump immediately back to the first chat you had with DV just after coming out publicly? How do you see that person now? Glenn: I love that person, but I don’t recognize him. I am light years different now, But there’s no shame. It’s a good thing I feel. I am comfortable with him.
What’s an immediate thought to how you’ve grown since then? I have my own insecurities but also confidence now, and I do not overthink every step I make. I’ve been able to sit back and learn a lot about the community that I found myself in and that I’m proud of.
At that time, you also still embraced your Mormonism, but you have since renounced it? I was raised to believe in the church and that they have all the answers. But I’ve spent the last 10 years dismantling that and seeking truth. I feel like I’m a way more cognizant person and a happy one as well.
Fast forward to this year and that Visibility Award this past June at the HRC Utah Dinner. Your speech was heartfelt and quite remarkable. What were you thinking up there at that moment? Giving that speech, it all came out so naturally. I’d known for a couple weeks I’d have to give that speech, but I’m that high school kid who crams right before the test. I know my strengths though, and where I can shine. When I got up there, it came from the core of who I am, and I got to express my most sincere thoughts. It helped that my mom was there. She said some incredibly sweet things prior to going up there.
Tyler Glenn onstage with Neon Trees at the Innings Festival in Tampa, Fla., last year. (Photo by Amy Harris/Invision/AP),right.
The award says it right in its name: Visibility. That must mean a lot for someone who was fighting an oppressive environment surrounded by religion, not to mention the closet. I am constantly fighting to be visible. To get an award called that was powerful. I want to do more for those people within a religious-based community, which can feel very isolating.
Neon Trees has a new song out and a new album coming up plus this tour. How are you looking at this next chapter for the band? This has more bite than our other records. It’s classic Neon Trees, but there is a rawness in this record. We’re building upon what we’ve built but really with some new creative strides this time around.
Neon Trees has been around long enough where bands now sound like you or refer to you. How does that feel to enter into that sort of status in the music continuum? I’m grateful and glad we can continue to make records that we wanna make. We’re not beholden to any style, but there’s also this weird pressure you feel you have to be better than previous achievements or other bands.
Obviously Neon Trees is a band with different folks, but how queer is this new music? It’s not our first album that talks about gay relationships, but each new album feels more truthful than the last. We ask a lot of big questions here about systemic problems and dismantling those frameworks. But it’s also a lot of tongue in cheek music as well.
The landscape has really changed with queer music and musicians being so proudly out and open these days. You kind of straddle that line between artists like Melissa Etheridge and George Michael to today’s out singers like Lil Nas X and Kim Petras. I love what pop music and streaming has done to open up the queer audiences more and those artists. I was hungry for representation coming up in the late ’90s and 2000s. I’m definitely not hiding that I’m a gay man.
For me, creating and writing music is the super power I have as an artist. It’s not lost on me that I hold a mic that amplifies my ideas and thoughts so it’s important to me that lyrically I’m pure and honest and to see that with a new generation of artists — I just love that.