Flowers beds in Killers’ rural roots

The Killers frontman tells David Skipwith he’s embracing a slower version of life he enjoyed before he found musical stardom.

T‘‘We grew up with the ghosts of Elvis and Sinatra, and stories about Dean Martin and the Rat Pack – it just seemed second nature for us to put on this type of show.’’ Brandon Flowers

he Killers might embody all the glitz and spectacle of Las Vegas, but frontman Brandon Flowers is embracing the quiet rural life that shaped him as a child.

The lead singer and keyboardist of the US rock group is proud of the band’s Sin City origins, but felt compelled to reflect on his formative years growing up and living in the quaint American Southwest on The Killers’ latest album Pressure Machine.

‘‘I was starting to be flooded with memories of my adolescence and my formative years that I spent in a rural town in Utah,’’ said Flowers.

‘‘I do have a lot of fond memories of the place and I just couldn’t escape it once I went there mentally. And so I just kept writing more and more about the town and I just had to follow it through.’’

Released earlier this year while touring was on hold due to Covid-19, The Killers’ seventh studio album is a quieter record featuring acoustic-driven numbers Terrible Thing, Sleepwalker, and Runaway Horses (featuring Phoebe Bridges).

The project contrasts with their typically dynamic previous effort, last year’s critically acclaimed top-five New Zealand chart album Imploding the Mirage, which was heavily influenced by an eclectic range of artists including Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen and New Order.

‘‘You don’t usually put those things together,’’ Flowers acknowledges with a chuckle. ‘‘When we are our best, it’s when we’re able to make those influences work together.’’

The acclaimed four-piece – also made up of guitarist Dave Keuning, bassist Mark Stoermer, and drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr – will return to our shores next year with their Imploding the Mirage tour planned to visit Auckland’s Spark Arena on November 21, and Christchurch on November 25.

Their set list will merge material from their two most recent albums, together with classics such as Mr Brightside and Somebody Told Me.

‘‘It’s pretty strange to have a couple of albums that people haven’t gotten to hear live yet,’’ said Flowers.

‘‘[On] Imploding the Mirage we have these songs that were tailormade for the live environment, whereas Pressure Machine was more of a singular thing, and I wasn’t necessarily thinking about it in that environment.

‘‘We’re really looking forward to playing some of these Imploding the Mirage tracks and seeing how they sit with some of the older material.’’

Hailing from Las Vegas, it made sense for the group to think big when it comes to their live act.

‘‘We grew up with the ghosts of Elvis and Sinatra, and stories about Dean Martin and the Rat Pack – it just seemed second nature for us to put on this type of show. And then we also have an admiration for bands like U2, and Rolling Stones and the chameleon David Bowie. So it’s an amalgamation of all of these things that makes us what we are.’’

Having spent almost two decades as one of the most popular bands in the world – amassing more than 65 million streams in New Zealand alone – Flowers acknowledges being highflying rockstars is juxtaposed by the introspective small town inspiration behind Pressure Machine. Now 40, and a married father of three, he admits to feeling drawn to the same mountainous landscape and idyllic environment that he once struggled to inhabit as an artistic and creatively-minded youngster.

Leaving the family nest in his teens to move to Las Vegas and live with his aunt allowed Flowers to hit the big time, but he now has a renewed appreciation for the comparatively slow pace of life in Utah.

‘‘I just didn’t feel like I fit in and that’s why I left when I was 16. Now it’s funny – I long for that sense of community, and the traditions and the things that I was exposed to in that little town, I have a lot more admiration for it as an older person.

‘‘I have three boys and wanting to expose them to some of that stuff that I was exposed to is definitely a part of it.’’

He is eager to return Down Under next year following a sold out tour in 2018, and says The Killers feel a duty to provide loyal fans who have been starved of live music with a show that meets all expectations.

‘‘There is a form of escape that it offers and some of the greatest moments of my life as a fan were seeing great bands live.

‘‘So we definitely feel a little responsibility after we’ve all shared this traumatic couple of years, and so we’re really looking forward to getting back on stage and doing what we do.

‘‘We’ve been going down there for 17 years. It’s always just been welcoming to us and people seem to get what we do, and we love visiting, so we’re really looking forward to getting there.’’