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Entry tags interview music musician Brandon Flowers InterviewWe love a guy who dumped his girlfriend because of her fandom for the Killers And this was way before he heard 8220 or are we dancer 8221 and all those plastic saxophone solos Then again Foghat lovers detonated disco records in the centre of Comiskey Park 30 years ago and look at what dull off the mark buzzkillers they appear now What we 8217 re saying is give in The Killers are America 8217 s top pop band Don 8217 t believe us Just ask lead singer Brandon Flowers Though the guy seems pretty modest over the phone Plus he really loves his mom Which is why we kno

him Time Out Chicago After the Killers 8217 debut you were extremely confident in interviews After the second album humbled Where 8217 s your mind at now after Day amp Age Brandon Flowers I 8217 m scared because this is where some people get to get comfortable And I don 8217 t wish to get there I 8217 m not too comfortable yet The matter that 8217 s really kept me on my toes is how my mom would always tell me 8212 it 8217 s not the best thing for a mother to say you 8212 but she 8217 d never tell me after I 8217 d lose a soccer game 8220 You 8217 ll do better next time 8221 She 8217 d always say 8220 There 8217 s always somebody better 8221 TOC So not 8220 You can 8217 t win 8217 em all 8221 so often as 8220 You can 8217 t win 8221 Brandon Flowers There 8217 s always someone ahead For this album it was Coldplay 8217 s 8220 Viva La Vida 8221 I could get actually done without that song And Kings of Leon 8217 s 8220 Sex on Fire 8221 If not for those we 8217 d be on top of the world TOC Your lead singer peers Paul Banks of Interpol and Julian Casablancas of the Strokes both have solo albums out this fall Have you considered it Brandon Flowers When things get really dark in the band When the arguments get rowdy enough TOC So talk me through a Brandon Flowers solo album What would it sound like Brandon Flowers Awesome TOC Could you be more specific Brandon Flowers It would be more adventurous TOC You brought sax solos back And not just a token horn You went all in 8212 big 8217 80s wailing is all over Day amp Age Was there internal debate Brandon Flowers Most of the things that we do we never realize it 8217 s going to have any form of commotion We only thought This is great It 8217 s a small bit Roxy Music it 8217 s a little bit sleazy And so all of the sudden people made a big deal out of it The sax is the moustache of this record TOC Well when I saw you on the back of a magazine last year my first response was Thank God he shaved his face Brandon Flowers My wife likes the mustache It 8217 s a macho thing for me TOC Let 8217 s talk about 8220 Neon Tiger 8221 That 8217 s symbolism right Brandon Flowers No it 8217 s about a tiger I 8217 m not an animal rights activist but I was stressful to find what it must be like to be Siegfried and Roy 8217 s white tigers And you can draw parallels between them and myself being performers from Las Vegas I was finding similarities and putting them in song TOC When in Vegas I see myself nostalgic for the old era Even though it was mafia run and dirty I 8217 m guiltily drawn to it Brandon Flowers I make the same problem I romanticize I live with the ghosts of Zen and Frank Sinatra It seems so glamorous They were American men who don 8217 t exist anymore But there are ugly things around them too I went to high school with girls that would daydream about what strip club they wanted to run at That 8217 s one of the sad things about Vegas TOC One of your songs is in a new public service announcement to raise awareness of human sex trafficking Did your experiences in Vegas lead you to such a cause Brandon Flowers I 8217 m not shouldering the full cause myself It was set up But we 8217 re definitely against human sex trafficking TOC Well that 8217 s a relief Brandon Flowers Ha yeah put that on the cover The Killers Are Against Human Sex Trafficking TOC Lou Reed is playing right before you at Lollapalooza This provides the rare opportunity for you guys to perform your 8220 Tranquilize 8221 collaboration Will you Brandon Flowers You love what sucks We were passing to do it on SNL and the strike happened I was so mad about it He 8217 s the king of New York We were leaving to do that and do one of his songs It 8217 s going to be difficult We don 8217 t have time to practice We 8217 re looking into it TOC As a music writer I 8217 m deathly afraid of him He chews up interviewers and spits them out Brandon Flowers I 8217 m not lying we were frightened at first too He does get a small bit of satisfaction in that He really melted the ice He showed Ronnie Vannucci Killers drummer tai chi I sat at a soft and showed him that the chord progression to 8220 I Will Survive 8221 is the same as 8220 Perfect Day 8221 He laughed He broke down He 8217 s actually a decent guy TOC Anyone else you 8217 re excited to follow at Lolla Brandon Flowers We 8217 re talking about going betimes to see Depeche Mode They 8217 re a real staple for us When he was 13 Ronnie permed and dyed his hair to look like Martin Gore TOC Did he bear the leather S amp M gear too Brandon Flowers He wore the leather boots When you see a keyboard in a Killers song it 8217 s because of Depeche Mode TOC The first Killers song I ever heard was 8220 Glamorous Indie Rock amp Roll 8221 In hindsight it 8217 s totally sarcastic right Brandon Flowers There 8217 s so much snobbery You go through high school and all the paranoia and make that goes with that It 8217 s bullshit I just didn 8217 t wish to be like that We like big songs and we 8217 re going to cover it Source