He’s a Mormon, but he
smokes and drinks; he’s pompous enough to declare his record the
“best album of the last 20 years,” but self-conscious enough to
drastically change his sound because of the press; he loves
mystique, but lives in the most scorchingly bright media spotlight.
Meet the most paradoxical man in rock: Killers frontman Brandon
Flowers.
With his spaghetti
western-inspired mustache and new musical style to match, Flowers
and the Killers have undergone a major metamorphosis since their
smash debut, Hot Fuss. And the saloon-approved piano and
soaring, epic, American sound of their sophomore effort, Sam’s
Town, has been rewarded with a No. 1 position on Canadian
charts, something that came as no surprise to Flowers.
“I thought when it [Sam’s
Town] came out that it was bulletproof — even against critics,”
Flowers asserts.
But what is
surprising is that a man with seemingly endless confidence in his
musical genius was prodded into changing his style — dropping the
faux-British accent he was known for and abandoning the new-wave
stylings for a more American nostalgia — by what others had to say
about him.
“People focus so much
on our English influences. I think it was talked about a lot. It
almost made me feel bad about myself,” he admits. “Not that we’re
not proud of those influences, because that’s where a lot of the
great music in the world has come from, but I wanted to represent
where I was from, and this is just kind of an overblown version of
that — the bow-tie and boots.”
Like the oddly
dualistic personality of Flowers himself, Sam’s Town has been
met with reviews falling on opposite ends of the spectrum, with
critics either adoring it or hating it. It’s something he admits
“can’t help but affect you,” despite the fact he questions the
reasoning behind some journalists’ dislike for the record.
“If you work at
Spin or Rolling Stone and someone wrote some sweet
article about how amazing the record is, all their buddies and all
the writers at the place are going to make fun of him. That’s how it
is and it’s just pathetic,” he asserts. “It didn’t used to be that
way. The journalists are now the rock stars.”
Flowers prefers rock
stars of yore, musicians like Morrissey, who managed to keep an
element of mystique to their music and persona by largely staying
out of the media. But he admits he’s surrendered to the fact that to
make it in today’s music industry, you have to be ruthless and use
every possible means — including giving in to the rabid curiosity of
fans.
“It’s definitely
difficult to have mystique and all that because if you don’t go do
an interview with the radio, they just won’t play it. It’s really
terrible. It’s really terrible,” he explains. “That’s where mystique
just goes out the window. If you want to be successful, you’ve gotta
give your fuckin’ toes and your stomach. And we’re givin’ it, and I
can’t be ashamed because we want to be successful. It sounds dirty
because I’m giving so much of myself but there’s no other way to
survive right now. Only the fittest of the fit survive right now.”
Right now, Flowers
isn’t just surviving — he’s thriving. But it wasn’t long ago that
the band was just an unknown group of eyeliner-wearing pretty boys
playing regular gigs at Las Vegas drag-queen club Tramps. Flowers
says he looks back at those early days with pride, noting that,
oddly, it was people’s dislike of the band that fuelled him to
succeed.
“I had a chip on my
shoulder because people didn’t like the band — that lit my fire.
That put me on the stage and got me in people’s faces, because I
knew how good ‘Mr. Brightside’ was and I knew how good ‘Jenny was a
Friend of Mine’ was,” he explains. “It was fun playing in those bars
and thinking, ‘I know how good these songs are and eventually
everyone’s going to know.’”
Since Hot Fuss
was released in 2004 the world has learned, and the band has gone
from broke to four-times platinum. Flowers says the world tours and
big business has forced them to seriously grow up.
“You are instantly
considered a professional at something [after that success] and now
there are business decisions that we have to make,” he says. “When
you’re thrown into that, you’re forced to grow up. We’ve all grown
up quite a bit in the past few years.”
Maybe Flower’s isn’t
such a walking contradiction after all. Maybe he really does pine
for mystique and strive to be the most memorable artist of the past
20 years — he’s just figured out he’s also a business man.
Sometimes, that means playing both sides of the fence and being a
little pompous. After all, only the fittest of the fit survive.
The Deadly Truth
From stories saying
he’s deathly afraid of his birthday to rumours of bisexuality spun
from the lyrics of some of the Killers’ songs, there’ve been plenty
of rumours whispered and printed about frontman Brandon Flowers. We
decided to give the crooner the chance to confirm or kill off some
of the more outlandish yarns that have been spun about him.
Rumour: You
once hit a drunk man who wandered onto the freeway and might have
killed him
A. “I don’t know. I don’t want to talk about it.”
Rumour: “Andy
You’re a Star” on Hot Fuss about a boy you had a crush on in
high school.
A. “No. I’ve always been very aware of my sexuality. I’m very
comfortable with that. I do like women. From very early on. Probably
too early.”
Rumour: You
have a specific drinking schedule and ask for different kinds of
alcohol based on the day?
A. “Yeah, that’s in the rider.”
[This includes Maker's Mark whiskey and Absolut vodka on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday. On Sunday, the band drinks tequila and Jameson
Irish Whiskey.]
Rumour: You
wrote “Enterlude” and “Exitlude” on Sam’s Town after having a
dream about Kurt Cobain singing its melody?
A. “Yes. He was in a ship in the clouds. It was
very extravagant, I guess.”
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