GrooveVolt
2004
THE KILLERS
writer: Roy Opochinski

The Killers have a hot album (Hot Fuss) and are on the road in support of it. Groovevolt.com caught up with guitarist David Keuning recently and talked about songwriting, touring, and living in Las Vegas.

Groovevolt: What is your reaction now that the album has been released?
David Keuning: It's exciting. It's our first album and things are going pretty well. It's a dream come true.

GV: While the band's Las Vegas upbringing has been brought up a number of times, you are not from Vegas. What has life there been like for you?
DK: Growing up in Vegas, you're immune. The other three [members of the band] are from Vegas. The three of them will all tell you it's normal, like any other town. Being from Iowa, I can tell you that Vegas is not normal. It's cold on Mercury, but if you grew up on Mercury, that would be normal. I moved four years ago. It was culture shock. It definitely is different but I don't think it prepared us for touring.

GV: Tell me a little more about how you write your songs.
DK: On "Mr. Brightside," which was the first song we wrote together, we had this thing recorded on four-track. We had the verse and bridge and [frontman] Brandon [Flowers started] singing over it. I never would have come up with that.

GV: You've been doing a lot of touring. What has the experience been like?
DK: Every member has a different attention span for songs. Brandon gets bored with songs quick. He likes every song on the album and I don't think I'll get tired of it anytime soon. I see why bands become tired of it after 50 years, but if the audience is having fun [then so are we].

GV: You've received much acclaim in the U.K. What do you expect from the U.S.?
DK: It's hard to know what to expect. We'll do well, but there are many degrees of doing well. It depends on radio support which is why it is so hard. It's such a big country. There are so many areas to break like the Midwest, which is not the most populated area. It seems to me, growing up there, it was the last place to hear certain bands.

GV: People have pointed out the numerous 80s influences in your songs. Tell me a little more about your influences.
DK: We have many influences that are not purely from the 80s. Bands like The Cure, New Order, Depeche Mode - they did lots of great stuff in the 1990s. New Order released a great album in 2001. We were also influenced by bands like Oasis and Blur. And we love Duran Duran.

GV: You're going to be playing in many places in the next few months. Are there places you're looking forward to playing?
DK: I'm looking forward to playing in Japan. That should be a lot of fun. We've played England 5 or 6 times and in July play a few European shows in Germany and the Netherlands and France. I'm looking forward to that. I would like to go to Norway and Sweden. I would like to play Brazil. Somebody got a hold of our stuff there and played it.

GV: What are your plans for the next few months after you're done touring?
DK: We're taking a short break in August. I predict that we'll do big US tour this fall. We've been doing dates here and there in the U.S.