Bigger and Better

Exclusive:The Killers enter their "Springsteen" phase

Withe the pressures of recording the follow up to 2004's five million selling hot fuss mounting The Killers have been tapping up their celebrity friends for advice.who did they turn to first?Bono of course.

"He told me,spare us the "interesting"second album,"says singer Brandon Flowers taking a break from lyric writing duties to talk exclusively to Q."so our plan is simple to make every song bigger and better than hot fuss."

Since January the Las Vegas quartet have been holed up with producers Flood and Alan Moulder (U2/Depeche Mode)in the new studio they've built in the basement of swanky vegas hotel The Palms (discovered during a Q photoshoot last summer)These new surroundings have clearly had an influence,not least on the frontman's musical tastes.

"I'd been taking classic American rock for granted,"he says."when i finally took the time to listen to Bruce Springsteen and The Doors,it was a new birth for me.that's showing itself in the new songs."

whether this will mean four-hour stadium rock shows and Flowers whipping out his todger onstage remains to be seen.right now they're working on 16 songs.including read my mind (Flowers:"its an upbeat song its got these George Harrison chord changes") and confession of a king ("about a man confessing all to his wife").with a month left in the studio,Flowers still has to finish off his lyrics and record his vocals.

"It's shaping up to be a lot more serious than the last album,"he says."I guess that's because the band is growing up.We're not singing about teenage girls anymore."