The Observer sits down with Brandon Flowers to talk about The Killers’ new album Sam’s Town, and the band’s changing image, described as “Hollywood to Deadwood”:
“The tuxedos, pastel jackets, eye-make up and skinny Dior-meets-New Romantic stylings that marked the Killers out as a different kind of American guitar band? Consigned to the great rock’n’roll dressing-up box in the sky. They’ve been replaced by facial hair, bootlace ties and waistcoats.”
It’s a change not lost on one of Brandon Flowers’ idols, Pet Shop Boy Neil Tennant, who recently said, ‘When I see someone like Brandon Flowers who has the appetite, and possibly the talent and looks, to be a star, I find that enthralling. I’m worried, though – and I hope he’s reading this – that he’s grown a beard. It means he’s saying, ‘I’m not pop. I mean more than that.'”
Flowers assures Tennant in the interview that the new album won’t disappoint, particularly a track tipped for the third single called “Read my Mind” described as Morrissey meets Springsteen. Flowers calls it an homage to ‘the good old days, the honest men, the restless heart, the promised land, the subtle kiss that no one sees … I used a bunch of cliches that are dying and that were good to have around. In 50 years I don’t think you’re gonna look back at 2006 and say ‘the good old days’. But when you talk about the good old days [of] the Fifties, there really was something good about it. Whereas right now it’s like we’re creeping closer and closer to hell!'”
“We haven’t lost the pop sensibility,” Flowers declares, responding to the Pet Shop Boy. As far as the facial hair goes, Flowers declares “I think we’re embracing a bit more of our own culture. It’s fun – it’s all a part of getting ready for a show. Just like it was when it was a more glamorous-looking version of the Killers.”
(photo source: mediaeater’s flickr page)
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