Post by Ale on Oct 28, 2008 11:37:21 GMT -5
THE KILLERS: Vital Signs
Posted by John D. Luerssen on October 27th, 2008
Aqui The Killers hablan de cuando se conocieron y de lo afortunados que son...
Among the old world, late 1800s architecture of New York’s Lower East Side, The Rivington Hotel is a 21-story glass tower that’s a distinctly modern presence in a hip but decaying neighborhood. It’s a fitting spot to sit down for a one on one with The Killers, the Las Vegas-based band that has risen up from rock’s wasteland to become one of the biggest bands in the world, all while carving out its own unique musical identity and staying true to itself.
The Killers-Brandon Flowers (vocals/keyboards), Dave Keuning (guitars), Mark Stoermer (bass) and Ronnie Vannucci (drums)-have conquered the world in the four short years since their debut album Hot Fuss lived up to its name. Thanks to inventive, pulsating radio anthems like “Somebody Told Me,” “Smile Like You Mean It,” “All These Things That I’ve Done” and “Mr. Brightside,” the hard-touring foursome became a multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated success.
If the band’s fusion of keyboards and guitars winked at modern rock’s first wave while redefining its future, 2006’s Sam’s Town asserted the foursome could sidestep a sophomore slump while expanding its sonic scope and broadening its image.
Paying homage to their Vegas roots, singles like “When You Were Young” and “Bones” again propelled The Killers past a million in U.S. sales. Meanwhile, in the band’s adopted U.K. home-where they first achieved notoriety-the disc outsold its debut, cementing their status as the biggest American rock export.
With the advent of last year’s Sawdust, a compilation of revered B-sides, rarities and new material (including a collaboration with rock legend Lou Reed), The Killers marked their first official pairing with producer Stuart Price for the song “Sweet Talk.” Price-who previously worked with Madonna and Keane, helmed his own projects like Les Rhythmes Digitales and remixed both “Mr. Brightside” and the 2007 Christmas single, “Don’t Shoot Me Santa”-was subsequently brought on board for The Killers’ stunning third album Day and Age.
Although the quirky, beat-driven contagion “Spaceman” could be at home on The Killers’ debut, Day and Age is as much about living up to some expectations as it is about brilliantly defying others. Take the calypso-inspired, acoustic strummed “I Can’t Stay,” which evolved from a skeletal song Flowers wrote into a fully refined means of shattering the group’s artistic boundaries, replete with alto sax.
Elsewhere, the infectious, mid-tempo “Losing Touch” takes the listener in an array of directions, also embracing horns before climaxing in a wall of guitars. “That one came from a traditional jam,” says the impeccably dressed and well-manicured Flowers, 27, from a black modern couch.
“It’s four guys fighting it out and trying to rock,” injects the 32-year-old Keuning, who is very much the Yang to Flowers’ Yin. Long-haired, and outfitted in a white Killers T-shirt with the neck cut out, black jeans and funky striped green socks, Dave is several inches taller than the singer. “We tend to write big things,” he adds. “It’s not much to think about, it’s just what we do.”
Anchored by the uplifting “Are We Human,” which simultaneously evokes similarities to New Order’s finest synth work, guitar lines inspired by The Cure’s epic “Push,” and the aesthetics of Talk Talk’s 1984 classic “It’s My Life,” the song’s fascinating melody and lyrical vital signs are undeniable.
“Close your eyes/Clear your heart/Cut the cord,” sings Flowers, and while he does admit that his and Keuning’s recent forays into fatherhood play into Day and Age’s first single lyrically, he says the idea for the tune “actually came from an interview with Hunter S. Thompson. He said he was afraid that America was raising a generation of dancers. That just turned on a light bulb. So the song is a statement, but it also has an optimism to it that comes from a new life.”
“We sort of knew right away that it should be a single,” says Keuning, matter-of-factly, taking a pull off of his Evian. “It was the first song that we wrote when we started working with Stuart. And I thought, we could put this out right now and people would go crazy.”
Working with Price, an Englishman, much of the pre-production for Day and Age was done through the internet. “It felt really fresh for us,” says Flowers of the innovative approach. “You have this idea, and in a matter of seconds Stuart has it. And he’s halfway across the world. And because of that, the ball was rolling instantly. We’d send our ideas and then we’d run to the computer the next day to see if he liked it or hated it.”
“We took some time off at the end of last year, and for six months or so, we took a much needed break because there wasn’t much of one between Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town,” Keuning says. “But we continued to write and agreed we’d get together at the beginning of April as a foursome for about six weeks. By the time we started, we already had a lot of the ideas that we’d been e-mailing to each other.”
With 40 songs in place, the band took a day with each to separate the keepers from the clunkers. Once the best twenty remained, Price came to Vegas for a more traditional approach. “It was the first time we were hands on with him,” Keuning explains. “He had done a couple of remixes for us from Hot Fuss which we liked. We were also into his work with Les Rythmes Digitales and Zoot Woman. So we decided to give him just a few songs to try on Sawdust and it went really smoothly and it was quick.”
“Plus, with ‘Hung Up’-the Madonna song-Stuart also proved that he’s got an amazing pop sensibility,” says Flowers. But if Price’s chart-bound hand has bolstered “Neon Tiger,” another memorable song on Day and Age, The Killers are still to be credited for the song’s unwavering hook and what just may be Flowers’ richest, most powerful vocal performance yet.
Flowers credits one lone vocal lesson for boosting his confidence behind the microphone. “It was amazing what I learned in that one half hour,” he says. “I’ve learned control and how to get up there in range and still push it. It gave me a lot of confidence.”
One might think that after selling millions of records globally, the Killers would have plenty of self- assurance, but Flowers-who was publicly critical of his failure to tell a story on the group’s second album-evidently read reviews of that disc. Many were positive, but one from Rolling Stone read, “On Sam’s Town they seem like they’re trying to make a big statement, except they have nothing to say,” can’t help by standout.
“I think you can always do better,” says Flowers. “An awakening for me was Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible record. The lyrics just blew my mind. It felt so in line with what was happening right now. But it was good because it lit a fire under me and made me want to be a better writer. And now that the lyrics are finished, I’m really proud of the lyrics on this album.”
And Keuning thinks it’s a good idea to approach each new album like everything’s at stake. “It’s a good attitude to have because if this album were to stink, it really could be the end for us,” the guitarist says. “Every album we’re still trying to prove that we’re not only relevant, but one of the better bands out there-that we deserve to be on the radio. So there’s always something to prove. Look at U2, they’re the biggest band in the world and they’re still trying to prove something with their albums.”
Ever prolific, The Killers aspire to defy the existing approach of rock’s biggest bands, where acts like U2 and Green Day produce a proper new studio album every three or four years. Recalling the mid-1980s, when R.E.M., The Smiths and The Cure would put out new albums every fifteen months with new singles in between, the band dropped two studio albums and a compilation in just three years.
“That was definitely the idea behind Sawdust,” Flowers says. “To put these lesser known songs out and sneak in a few new ones-which was really exciting. We had those songs in the moment and we were able to get them out to everyone quickly. And we’d like to keep doing things like that in the future, whether it’s an EP or whatever.”
Sawdust also allowed The Killers to collaborate with one of their idols, Lou Reed. “We have a lot of heroes that we look up to, so when you’re able to do a song with one of them, its tremendously fulfilling,” Keuning explains. “Whether it’s Lou Reed or maybe someday, Paul McCartney…”
“But, we’ve had some good experiences and bad ones just meeting people,” Flowers says with a laugh, acknowledging face time with the likes of Morrissey, Bono and many more.
“It is a little awkward,” Keuning concedes. “We’ve met a lot of people now. And for me, I’d rather not meet some of my heroes, especially if it’s going to turn out badly. Billy Corgan [of the Smashing Pumpkins] was nice, so I don’t regret that. And David Bowie was nice, but it was very brief, so it was hard to gauge meeting him.”
“One time in Mexico City I got to hang out with [The Cure's] Robert Smith and we were at this weird club, and I really just stared at him for like three hours,” Flowers says, laughing out loud at the memory. “We talked, but it’s really a little strange because I hold him in such high regard. Others were a lot smoother. Like Bernard Sumner from New Order, we were able to hang around and talk. Or Elton John, he was great. I think it may be about being with them over and over. You get used to it.”
If all this name dropping sounds like a dream come true, it’s important to remember that when they first paired up, Flowers worked as a hotel bellhop and Keuning schlepped clothes at Banana Republic. The pair met through a 2002 newspaper ad Keuning placed in The Las Vegas Sun, citing Oasis as an influence.
“I remember Brandon had Clarks shoes on, like Oasis,” Keuning chuckles, thinking back on his first impression of his future singer. “And I remember opening the door and thinking immediately, he’s not like the others. I could pretty much tell in the first minute that he was going to work but we still had to go through the motions of meeting. And we didn’t really say anything. I had my keyboard in my room and he just kind of came over the next day with his keyboard.”
“And we kind of instantly went to work,” Flowers adds. “We started looking for people right away to join our band. So we kind of went through that process together. We’d call people from ads and they’d come over or we’d go to their houses. And it’s true, the moment they’d open the door we’d kind of know. It was a frustrating time, meeting all of those people. But it was kind of fun. You never knew who was going to be behind the door!”
Once their lineup was intact, The Killers came up with their biggest hit almost instantly. “We had our ups and downs writing together in the beginning,” Flowers remembers, “but we had ‘Mr. Brightside’ right away. And so that was always-even when we only played it to twenty people in a bar-obvious that it was different from other bands and different from our other songs. I went through this Saddle Creek phase, listening to all of that stuff [ on that label]. And we started writing these ‘indie rock pour-your-heart-out’ kind of songs, but it just never felt right. So we actually went through phases on the way to getting Ronnie and Mark. Once we were altogether, it was considerably stronger.”
And being able to work off of each other has continued to help the band through songwriting troubles. “Writers block hasn’t been a problem so far for us,” the guitarist says, “because the four of us write music. So even if one of us is struggling, we usually plow through it.”
However, Flowers admits he sometimes struggles with lyrics. “I was never a big reader, but because I want to improve as a writer, I’ve been forced to read more now,” he says. “And it really does help with lyrics, and it’s opened up my mind a little bit. Reading really does help me, plus it takes my mind off of the problem, because you can obsess over it.”
Keuning says they’ve had a number of incomplete songs that he’s been quite fond of, but because they were only “halfway there, we’ve had to abandon them.”
Still, Flowers acknowledges they have gone back to salvage a few of them, to tremendous effect. “With ‘Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine,’we had the verse forever,” he remembers, “and we knew in our hearts that it was good. But we wondered if we’d ever get past that verse. And then the day came where Mark started playing the chorus. And it could have been anybody. Because we’re able to work together like that it helps us to avoid being stuck a lot of the time.”
“Brandon might bring in a song he has on keyboards without giving any direction, and Mark will come in on bass and Ronnie will come in on drums,” Keuning explains. “And I’ll noodle around on the guitar until things sort of formulate. We have to spend time together, working through the songs, because what we start out with may not be what we end up with. And sometimes songs just spawn out of jamming together.”
Yet with four distinct and creative personalities at work, the band somehow manages to keep from coming unglued. “We’re a democracy,” Flowers says. “We recorded 19 songs and ten made it this time around. Sometimes there are songs that one of us wishes was on the album but it doesn’t make it because of that.”
“Were bound to argue,” Flowers continues, “but what I find amazing is the idea that I could have this song in my head and hear it as this driving force, but Ronnie can hear it in half-time. And although it may not be how I envisioned it, I’ve got to give it a try. And through that, it can be difficult, but it can also be productive because it forces you to look at things from different perspectives.”
Turning to the band’s history and its unusual ascent, which found The Killers becoming a U.K. sensation in the summer of 2004 while they were still largely unknown in the U.S., Keuning is still sort of baffled by how they were so quickly received. “I can’t explain it,” he says. “People in England just sort of gravitated toward us right away. A lot of our influences came from stuff they like.”
“Our influences have got to have something to do with it,” Flowers insists. “They say we’re the best British band to ever come from America. They’ve always embraced us and it’s really wonderful to play over there. Our first album did really well here and there, but our second album dipped a little in America, which was sort of frustrating. And you can never really understand it.”
But with Day and Age, The Killers haven’t just rebounded from the stark, black and white imagery of Sam’s Town, they’ve moved forward creatively while delivering what should be the biggest, and most colorful modern rock album of 2008. And despite their seemingly meteoric rise, the band reminds us that they’ve had some pretty crappy A&R experiences leading up to it all.
“I just remember that we got turned down by almost every label at one point,” Keuning says.
“And you just can’t let it get to you if you get a showcase and nothing comes from it,” Flowers advises.
“I just remember meeting these A&R people who were really schmoozy,” Keuning continues. “And they’d all say things and do different things. I don’t want to be too hard on them, but you can’t take much that they say very seriously. We’ve had meetings with labels that said they were going to sign us-literally they were like ‘we’ll fax the contract’-and they never did. And it took us going to England to get a deal. And before we took this deal with a small label called Lizard King, I remember thinking, ‘Well. At least we get to go to London for a week.’ And then we did these four shows and somehow a lot of people were watching. So that was kind of a litmus test. We got a little bit of press and a meeting and so forth and then we came back home.”
“And then all the labels here wanted to take us out to dinner,” Keuning says with a snicker. “I ordered appetizers and gained eight pounds and I knew I wasn’t going to sign with any of them. And it felt good! But we still had to go back to our jobs. The U.K. deal wasn’t enough for us to quit our jobs. In October 2003 we got an American deal and we decided we could quit our jobs. I think we waited until they mailed us a check and then we quit.”
Five years on, one wonders if they ever look back on how far they’ve come when they walk onstage at the Reading or Leeds festivals as headliners in front of 40,000 fans. “Sometimes I feel like maybe we didn’t work hard enough to get where we are,” Flowers acknowledges. “That’s not to say we’re not hard workers. We were all raised to work hard. But it’s heartbreaking when I think of how many people have the same kind of passion that we do for music that don’t get the spoils that we’re getting. And it happened very quickly for us and we definitely appreciate it. I mean we moved our own gear and played bars and all that in the beginning but we’ve been really lucky.”
Perhaps it explains why the band seems hell-bent on avoiding the pitfalls of fame and success in an effort to stay grounded. “I don’t think we want to be affected by it all,” Keuning insists. “I think we’re all still ourselves.”
“My wife has no problem keeping me down,” Flowers jokes.
But Keuning quickly turns serious on the subject. “Our lives and careers have evolved really quickly. That’s the biggest adjustment. You know, during Hot Fuss-which we wrote for a year-and-a-half after work-seemed like we had a lot more time to just play guitar, or just do nothing if I wanted. Now, as fathers with such busy schedules, our free time is pretty much gone. It’s been a whirlwind and it’s been great, but it definitely comes at a price.”
www.americansongwriter.com/20...s-vital-signs/
Posted by John D. Luerssen on October 27th, 2008
Aqui The Killers hablan de cuando se conocieron y de lo afortunados que son...
Among the old world, late 1800s architecture of New York’s Lower East Side, The Rivington Hotel is a 21-story glass tower that’s a distinctly modern presence in a hip but decaying neighborhood. It’s a fitting spot to sit down for a one on one with The Killers, the Las Vegas-based band that has risen up from rock’s wasteland to become one of the biggest bands in the world, all while carving out its own unique musical identity and staying true to itself.
The Killers-Brandon Flowers (vocals/keyboards), Dave Keuning (guitars), Mark Stoermer (bass) and Ronnie Vannucci (drums)-have conquered the world in the four short years since their debut album Hot Fuss lived up to its name. Thanks to inventive, pulsating radio anthems like “Somebody Told Me,” “Smile Like You Mean It,” “All These Things That I’ve Done” and “Mr. Brightside,” the hard-touring foursome became a multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated success.
If the band’s fusion of keyboards and guitars winked at modern rock’s first wave while redefining its future, 2006’s Sam’s Town asserted the foursome could sidestep a sophomore slump while expanding its sonic scope and broadening its image.
Paying homage to their Vegas roots, singles like “When You Were Young” and “Bones” again propelled The Killers past a million in U.S. sales. Meanwhile, in the band’s adopted U.K. home-where they first achieved notoriety-the disc outsold its debut, cementing their status as the biggest American rock export.
With the advent of last year’s Sawdust, a compilation of revered B-sides, rarities and new material (including a collaboration with rock legend Lou Reed), The Killers marked their first official pairing with producer Stuart Price for the song “Sweet Talk.” Price-who previously worked with Madonna and Keane, helmed his own projects like Les Rhythmes Digitales and remixed both “Mr. Brightside” and the 2007 Christmas single, “Don’t Shoot Me Santa”-was subsequently brought on board for The Killers’ stunning third album Day and Age.
Although the quirky, beat-driven contagion “Spaceman” could be at home on The Killers’ debut, Day and Age is as much about living up to some expectations as it is about brilliantly defying others. Take the calypso-inspired, acoustic strummed “I Can’t Stay,” which evolved from a skeletal song Flowers wrote into a fully refined means of shattering the group’s artistic boundaries, replete with alto sax.
Elsewhere, the infectious, mid-tempo “Losing Touch” takes the listener in an array of directions, also embracing horns before climaxing in a wall of guitars. “That one came from a traditional jam,” says the impeccably dressed and well-manicured Flowers, 27, from a black modern couch.
“It’s four guys fighting it out and trying to rock,” injects the 32-year-old Keuning, who is very much the Yang to Flowers’ Yin. Long-haired, and outfitted in a white Killers T-shirt with the neck cut out, black jeans and funky striped green socks, Dave is several inches taller than the singer. “We tend to write big things,” he adds. “It’s not much to think about, it’s just what we do.”
Anchored by the uplifting “Are We Human,” which simultaneously evokes similarities to New Order’s finest synth work, guitar lines inspired by The Cure’s epic “Push,” and the aesthetics of Talk Talk’s 1984 classic “It’s My Life,” the song’s fascinating melody and lyrical vital signs are undeniable.
“Close your eyes/Clear your heart/Cut the cord,” sings Flowers, and while he does admit that his and Keuning’s recent forays into fatherhood play into Day and Age’s first single lyrically, he says the idea for the tune “actually came from an interview with Hunter S. Thompson. He said he was afraid that America was raising a generation of dancers. That just turned on a light bulb. So the song is a statement, but it also has an optimism to it that comes from a new life.”
“We sort of knew right away that it should be a single,” says Keuning, matter-of-factly, taking a pull off of his Evian. “It was the first song that we wrote when we started working with Stuart. And I thought, we could put this out right now and people would go crazy.”
Working with Price, an Englishman, much of the pre-production for Day and Age was done through the internet. “It felt really fresh for us,” says Flowers of the innovative approach. “You have this idea, and in a matter of seconds Stuart has it. And he’s halfway across the world. And because of that, the ball was rolling instantly. We’d send our ideas and then we’d run to the computer the next day to see if he liked it or hated it.”
“We took some time off at the end of last year, and for six months or so, we took a much needed break because there wasn’t much of one between Hot Fuss and Sam’s Town,” Keuning says. “But we continued to write and agreed we’d get together at the beginning of April as a foursome for about six weeks. By the time we started, we already had a lot of the ideas that we’d been e-mailing to each other.”
With 40 songs in place, the band took a day with each to separate the keepers from the clunkers. Once the best twenty remained, Price came to Vegas for a more traditional approach. “It was the first time we were hands on with him,” Keuning explains. “He had done a couple of remixes for us from Hot Fuss which we liked. We were also into his work with Les Rythmes Digitales and Zoot Woman. So we decided to give him just a few songs to try on Sawdust and it went really smoothly and it was quick.”
“Plus, with ‘Hung Up’-the Madonna song-Stuart also proved that he’s got an amazing pop sensibility,” says Flowers. But if Price’s chart-bound hand has bolstered “Neon Tiger,” another memorable song on Day and Age, The Killers are still to be credited for the song’s unwavering hook and what just may be Flowers’ richest, most powerful vocal performance yet.
Flowers credits one lone vocal lesson for boosting his confidence behind the microphone. “It was amazing what I learned in that one half hour,” he says. “I’ve learned control and how to get up there in range and still push it. It gave me a lot of confidence.”
One might think that after selling millions of records globally, the Killers would have plenty of self- assurance, but Flowers-who was publicly critical of his failure to tell a story on the group’s second album-evidently read reviews of that disc. Many were positive, but one from Rolling Stone read, “On Sam’s Town they seem like they’re trying to make a big statement, except they have nothing to say,” can’t help by standout.
“I think you can always do better,” says Flowers. “An awakening for me was Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible record. The lyrics just blew my mind. It felt so in line with what was happening right now. But it was good because it lit a fire under me and made me want to be a better writer. And now that the lyrics are finished, I’m really proud of the lyrics on this album.”
And Keuning thinks it’s a good idea to approach each new album like everything’s at stake. “It’s a good attitude to have because if this album were to stink, it really could be the end for us,” the guitarist says. “Every album we’re still trying to prove that we’re not only relevant, but one of the better bands out there-that we deserve to be on the radio. So there’s always something to prove. Look at U2, they’re the biggest band in the world and they’re still trying to prove something with their albums.”
Ever prolific, The Killers aspire to defy the existing approach of rock’s biggest bands, where acts like U2 and Green Day produce a proper new studio album every three or four years. Recalling the mid-1980s, when R.E.M., The Smiths and The Cure would put out new albums every fifteen months with new singles in between, the band dropped two studio albums and a compilation in just three years.
“That was definitely the idea behind Sawdust,” Flowers says. “To put these lesser known songs out and sneak in a few new ones-which was really exciting. We had those songs in the moment and we were able to get them out to everyone quickly. And we’d like to keep doing things like that in the future, whether it’s an EP or whatever.”
Sawdust also allowed The Killers to collaborate with one of their idols, Lou Reed. “We have a lot of heroes that we look up to, so when you’re able to do a song with one of them, its tremendously fulfilling,” Keuning explains. “Whether it’s Lou Reed or maybe someday, Paul McCartney…”
“But, we’ve had some good experiences and bad ones just meeting people,” Flowers says with a laugh, acknowledging face time with the likes of Morrissey, Bono and many more.
“It is a little awkward,” Keuning concedes. “We’ve met a lot of people now. And for me, I’d rather not meet some of my heroes, especially if it’s going to turn out badly. Billy Corgan [of the Smashing Pumpkins] was nice, so I don’t regret that. And David Bowie was nice, but it was very brief, so it was hard to gauge meeting him.”
“One time in Mexico City I got to hang out with [The Cure's] Robert Smith and we were at this weird club, and I really just stared at him for like three hours,” Flowers says, laughing out loud at the memory. “We talked, but it’s really a little strange because I hold him in such high regard. Others were a lot smoother. Like Bernard Sumner from New Order, we were able to hang around and talk. Or Elton John, he was great. I think it may be about being with them over and over. You get used to it.”
If all this name dropping sounds like a dream come true, it’s important to remember that when they first paired up, Flowers worked as a hotel bellhop and Keuning schlepped clothes at Banana Republic. The pair met through a 2002 newspaper ad Keuning placed in The Las Vegas Sun, citing Oasis as an influence.
“I remember Brandon had Clarks shoes on, like Oasis,” Keuning chuckles, thinking back on his first impression of his future singer. “And I remember opening the door and thinking immediately, he’s not like the others. I could pretty much tell in the first minute that he was going to work but we still had to go through the motions of meeting. And we didn’t really say anything. I had my keyboard in my room and he just kind of came over the next day with his keyboard.”
“And we kind of instantly went to work,” Flowers adds. “We started looking for people right away to join our band. So we kind of went through that process together. We’d call people from ads and they’d come over or we’d go to their houses. And it’s true, the moment they’d open the door we’d kind of know. It was a frustrating time, meeting all of those people. But it was kind of fun. You never knew who was going to be behind the door!”
Once their lineup was intact, The Killers came up with their biggest hit almost instantly. “We had our ups and downs writing together in the beginning,” Flowers remembers, “but we had ‘Mr. Brightside’ right away. And so that was always-even when we only played it to twenty people in a bar-obvious that it was different from other bands and different from our other songs. I went through this Saddle Creek phase, listening to all of that stuff [ on that label]. And we started writing these ‘indie rock pour-your-heart-out’ kind of songs, but it just never felt right. So we actually went through phases on the way to getting Ronnie and Mark. Once we were altogether, it was considerably stronger.”
And being able to work off of each other has continued to help the band through songwriting troubles. “Writers block hasn’t been a problem so far for us,” the guitarist says, “because the four of us write music. So even if one of us is struggling, we usually plow through it.”
However, Flowers admits he sometimes struggles with lyrics. “I was never a big reader, but because I want to improve as a writer, I’ve been forced to read more now,” he says. “And it really does help with lyrics, and it’s opened up my mind a little bit. Reading really does help me, plus it takes my mind off of the problem, because you can obsess over it.”
Keuning says they’ve had a number of incomplete songs that he’s been quite fond of, but because they were only “halfway there, we’ve had to abandon them.”
Still, Flowers acknowledges they have gone back to salvage a few of them, to tremendous effect. “With ‘Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine,’we had the verse forever,” he remembers, “and we knew in our hearts that it was good. But we wondered if we’d ever get past that verse. And then the day came where Mark started playing the chorus. And it could have been anybody. Because we’re able to work together like that it helps us to avoid being stuck a lot of the time.”
“Brandon might bring in a song he has on keyboards without giving any direction, and Mark will come in on bass and Ronnie will come in on drums,” Keuning explains. “And I’ll noodle around on the guitar until things sort of formulate. We have to spend time together, working through the songs, because what we start out with may not be what we end up with. And sometimes songs just spawn out of jamming together.”
Yet with four distinct and creative personalities at work, the band somehow manages to keep from coming unglued. “We’re a democracy,” Flowers says. “We recorded 19 songs and ten made it this time around. Sometimes there are songs that one of us wishes was on the album but it doesn’t make it because of that.”
“Were bound to argue,” Flowers continues, “but what I find amazing is the idea that I could have this song in my head and hear it as this driving force, but Ronnie can hear it in half-time. And although it may not be how I envisioned it, I’ve got to give it a try. And through that, it can be difficult, but it can also be productive because it forces you to look at things from different perspectives.”
Turning to the band’s history and its unusual ascent, which found The Killers becoming a U.K. sensation in the summer of 2004 while they were still largely unknown in the U.S., Keuning is still sort of baffled by how they were so quickly received. “I can’t explain it,” he says. “People in England just sort of gravitated toward us right away. A lot of our influences came from stuff they like.”
“Our influences have got to have something to do with it,” Flowers insists. “They say we’re the best British band to ever come from America. They’ve always embraced us and it’s really wonderful to play over there. Our first album did really well here and there, but our second album dipped a little in America, which was sort of frustrating. And you can never really understand it.”
But with Day and Age, The Killers haven’t just rebounded from the stark, black and white imagery of Sam’s Town, they’ve moved forward creatively while delivering what should be the biggest, and most colorful modern rock album of 2008. And despite their seemingly meteoric rise, the band reminds us that they’ve had some pretty crappy A&R experiences leading up to it all.
“I just remember that we got turned down by almost every label at one point,” Keuning says.
“And you just can’t let it get to you if you get a showcase and nothing comes from it,” Flowers advises.
“I just remember meeting these A&R people who were really schmoozy,” Keuning continues. “And they’d all say things and do different things. I don’t want to be too hard on them, but you can’t take much that they say very seriously. We’ve had meetings with labels that said they were going to sign us-literally they were like ‘we’ll fax the contract’-and they never did. And it took us going to England to get a deal. And before we took this deal with a small label called Lizard King, I remember thinking, ‘Well. At least we get to go to London for a week.’ And then we did these four shows and somehow a lot of people were watching. So that was kind of a litmus test. We got a little bit of press and a meeting and so forth and then we came back home.”
“And then all the labels here wanted to take us out to dinner,” Keuning says with a snicker. “I ordered appetizers and gained eight pounds and I knew I wasn’t going to sign with any of them. And it felt good! But we still had to go back to our jobs. The U.K. deal wasn’t enough for us to quit our jobs. In October 2003 we got an American deal and we decided we could quit our jobs. I think we waited until they mailed us a check and then we quit.”
Five years on, one wonders if they ever look back on how far they’ve come when they walk onstage at the Reading or Leeds festivals as headliners in front of 40,000 fans. “Sometimes I feel like maybe we didn’t work hard enough to get where we are,” Flowers acknowledges. “That’s not to say we’re not hard workers. We were all raised to work hard. But it’s heartbreaking when I think of how many people have the same kind of passion that we do for music that don’t get the spoils that we’re getting. And it happened very quickly for us and we definitely appreciate it. I mean we moved our own gear and played bars and all that in the beginning but we’ve been really lucky.”
Perhaps it explains why the band seems hell-bent on avoiding the pitfalls of fame and success in an effort to stay grounded. “I don’t think we want to be affected by it all,” Keuning insists. “I think we’re all still ourselves.”
“My wife has no problem keeping me down,” Flowers jokes.
But Keuning quickly turns serious on the subject. “Our lives and careers have evolved really quickly. That’s the biggest adjustment. You know, during Hot Fuss-which we wrote for a year-and-a-half after work-seemed like we had a lot more time to just play guitar, or just do nothing if I wanted. Now, as fathers with such busy schedules, our free time is pretty much gone. It’s been a whirlwind and it’s been great, but it definitely comes at a price.”
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