It’s been a hell of a ride so far for Dallas based Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights, who are a fairly recent addition to the powerful roster of Atlantic Records. Jumping off the Southern leg of the Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd tour, the band is ready to head into the studio in Nashville to lay down some new material which will be the follow-up project to their 2007 Hot Trottin’. With an aggressive schedule of summer festivals, Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights will be making their second appearance at Tulsa’s 8th annual D-Fest on the Arvest Bank Stage at Dirty’s Tavern on Friday night.
Jonathan Tyler and the Northern Lights – Gypsy Woman
The band warmed up for D-Fest yesterday at Eskimo Joe’s for Joe’s 34th anniversary party, under the stars, and with the retractable roof open above them. This is the second time the band has played at Joe’s and there were definitely repeat audience members in attendance. Joe’s is a large establishment, boasting four separate bars, but the crowd packed into the main room, completely captured by Tyler’s raw energy and the band’s mesmerizing grooves. Before the performance, the band grabbed some burgers and famous cheese fries and then sat down outside on the porch with China Shop.
So are you all from Dallas?
Jonathan: We’re all from different places. Jordan and Nick are from Oklahoma. I’m from Alabama and we all moved down to Texas before we met each other. We started in Dallas and now we’re traveling out of Dallas a lot.
You guys have a ton of festivals coming up. Tell me a little about all those. Also, what is Ski Jam? I saw that you are playing that.
Jonathan: It’s in Steamboat Springs. And it’s like in the middle of the city and they have this tent set up and mountains all around. Last year was with the Whalers, Bob Marley’s band. And then we’re doing this festival called the Music Fest that same week I think. It’s a bunch of Texas bands that are all kind of transplanted in Colorado. And then Austin City Limits.
Nick: We just did Summer Fest in Milwaukee. It was one of our dates with Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Jonathan: We did 8 shows with them. That was Florida thru Georgia, Texas, Kansas City, Milwaukee.
How was Red Bull Detour in Houston?
Jonathan: It was cool. They shut down the street, pulled up a big stage, set it up, on top of a fire truck. It was pretty creative and fresh ideas for putting on a show.
And I see that you guys have a cruise coming up with Lynyrd Skynyrd…
Jonathan: It will be fun for sure.
Nick: It’s with: 38 Special. There’s about 6 or 7 bands.
So how does that work exactly? You guys just jump on a boat for a few days with a bunch of Skynyrd fans?
Nick: I was talking to the Skynyrd guy at one of the shows and he said there’s like 4,000 Skynyrd fans on board and we play and drink all day and it’s music all the time. The cruise goes to Cozumel.
Jonathan: It’s like 5 days so we’ll probably play at least once a day and the rest of the time, probably just hang out under the sun on the boat.
So Skynyrd is probably going to have some psycho fans stalking them around the boat…
Jonathan: Probably. Haha.
Do you guys have any crazy fan stories yet?
Jonathan: We’ve got some crazy fans, there are some hardcores. Just don’t give your telephone number away.
Is that coming from experience?
Jonathan: Yeah, yeah (laughs).
Nick: We’ve had fans from like the northeast fly out to shows all over the country and offer to share their hotel room with us, like if we need another bed or something.
Kansas: That’s not that crazy, that’s actually kinda nice.
Nick: Yeah but when they’re offering more than just their hotel room… you know what I’m saying.
Jonathan, what does your tattoo on your wrist say?
Jonathan: Forgiven, forgotten (he has one on each wrist). It’s the second tattoo I got…just a little phrase. I’ve made some bad decisions on those. I got that one right there (points to forearm) when I was just drunk, wasted. And I woke up the next day with a girl on my arm. I woke up and was like “What the F*ck?” It’s not bad now. I filled around it.
How was playing with Kid Rock?
Jonathan: It was cool actually. A lot of people, big crowds and a big stage. It was really loud, which we prefer. He puts on a pretty big show with pyro and everything.
Nick: He has a great band. His band is just amazing.
Did you guys party with him at all?
Jonathan: Yeah. A couple of nights. He was cool too. Nick punched me out one night. Literally, I got punched out. They gave us 12 bottles of Jim Beam.
Nick: We drank 8 in the first night.
Doesn’t he have a lyric: “Drink a 5th of Jim Beam and still stand still? “
Kansas: Yeah, and we did that.
Jonathan: I drank an entire bottle and was talking ignorant, drunk shit, and he just straight up gave me a back eye on the first night in front of Kid Rock’s whole crew.
Nick: I just remember hearing like 40 people go “WHOA!”
Is this your first time playing D-Fest?
Jonathan: Second. We played last year. It was great. It should be really good this year. I think it will be even better.
What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to you guys on stage, equipment failing, getting pelted in the face by something from the crowd, etc…?
Jonathan: Well nobody has ever pelted us in the face, thank God. Have you seen that Nickleback video where he gets hit in the face, Chad Kroeger?
Nick: They were in Peru and he got nailed with a beer bottle. It’s pretty awesome. They got booed off stage.
So I take it you guys aren’t Nickleback fans…
Nick: Absolutely not!
Kansas: I think the worst thing that happened when touring, was when we lost our air conditioning.
Nick: We drove from Louisville, Kentucky to Dallas with no AC and then did Dallas to Austin to Amarillo…
Kansas: It was so hot. It was so bad.
Jonathan: We were traveling like every day and we couldn’t leave the van for a couple of days so we had to just man up. We’ve had some bar fights in the middle of our shows. That was crazy. We were playing in Houston and this guy was harassing everybody in the crowd, shirtless, and the security came up to try and take care of him and he started to try and fight back. They teamed up on him and just beat the crap out him. We kept playing though.
Nick: There was this door open across the stage that went to backstage and the door opened and I just see like this fire extinguisher flying thru the air and then a chair followed it. He was taken away in an ambulance though. It was bad. He got his ass kicked for sure.
How did you guys hook up with Atlantic?
Jonathan: We started showcasing for labels last February. We went out to LA and we showcased for Capitol, Columbia, Hollywood, American Recordings, Atlantic and Lost Highway while we were there. We just got along best with Atlantic and I think had the same type of vision for what we wanted to do, so we ended up signing with them.
So you guys are going to go into the studio soon… Do you have plans to open for any other artists after that?
Jonathan: Yeah, we’re talking to Shooter Jennings and JJ Grey & Mofro about doing like a month. And we’re in talks with a bunch of people. I’m not sure which one will go thru.
Words by Nicole Pajer, photos by Sidney McMullen
