{"id":572897,"date":"2026-08-18T16:50:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/572897\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T16:50:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T16:50:13","slug":"brandon-flowers-tells-us-about-making-his-most-personal-album-yet-im-finally-ready-to-do-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/572897\/","title":{"rendered":"Brandon Flowers tells us about making his most personal album yet: “I’m finally ready to do this”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandon Flowers<\/a> has spoken to NME about revisiting his formative years to give more of himself away than ever before on new solo album \u2018Thrasher\u2019<\/a>, as well as tackling the \u201cloneliness epidemic\u201d for an incoming \u201csister record\u201d and what\u2019s next for The Killers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The frontman of the Las Vegas band will release his third solo album this Friday (August 21), drawing from his early childhood years and country music like Johnny Cash<\/a> and Waylon Jennings <\/a>that his father would play to him while driving around rural Utah. It carries the Americana thread launched by The Killers\u2019 classic 2006 album \u2018Sam\u2019s Town\u2019<\/a> and picks up where their last record, \u2018Pressure Machine\u2019<\/a>, left off with its \u201cSouth Western\u201d leanings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoyed making \u2018Pressure Machine\u2019 so much that I didn\u2019t want to leave,\u201d Flowers told NME as we met in his record label offices in London. \u201cI didn\u2019t think that this should be a Killers record, so I zeroed in even more. Where \u2018Pressure Machine\u2019 was centred around Nephi, Utah, and all those stories were taking place within the town<\/a>, this one is even more personal. I\u2019m zeroing in on my inner circle. That\u2019s how I see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

And why now, at the age of 45 and with such a vivid songbook already under his belt, is Flowers getting so personal?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I\u2019m capable of it now,\u201d he replied. \u201cI don\u2019t think I was capable as a songwriter in the early days. I\u2019ve always wanted to and told stories, but I wasn\u2019t good at it. I think this is just an evolution of my craft, and I think I\u2019m finally ready to do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recorded in country music\u2019s spiritual home of Nashville, \u2018Thrasher\u2019 sees Flowers reunite with longtime producers Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado, as well as team up with guitarist David Rawlings, pedal steel player Bruce Bouton, and 85-year-old Charlie McCoy (the harmonica player who featured on all four of Bob Dylan<\/a>\u2019s Nashville records).<\/p>\n

As Flowers revealed to NME\u00a0last year<\/a>, \u2018Thrasher\u2019 is the first of two new solo albums \u2013 with this one more narrative ahead of a more \u201cromantic\u201d follow-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same band,\u201d he shared of the other album on the way. \u201cIt\u2019s maybe not as country but maybe country-leaning; in the same way that Tom Petty<\/a> is country adjacent, or The Travelling Wilburys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Flowers added: \u201cI see it as an answer to the loneliness epidemic. It is a problem that I\u2019m seeing where we\u2019re separating ourselves. Those beautiful things that make us human are getting lost. The greatest joys of my life have been those moments \u2013 just being a young man and dating, falling in love, whatever it was. That\u2019s what keeps the world turning.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrandonBrandon Flowers. CREDIT: Chris Phelps<\/p>\n

Check out the rest of our interview below, where Flowers looked back on his childhood, opened up about the power of country, his life as an artist and a father, and teased a new Killers record in the works.<\/p>\n

NME: Hello, Brandon. What is it about these memories and your early years that marry so well with an album like \u2018Thrasher\u2019?<\/p>\n

Brandon Flowers: \u201cI think I just have a great memory. I carry around these stories, and it\u2019s become my job to tell them. It\u2019s a big responsibility. There\u2019s a song about my sister on the record called \u2018Miss America\u2019, and you don\u2019t want to mess it up. You want to do justice to her experience. It goes back to age and the care that I can put into it. I didn\u2019t have access to that or to the words before. My abilities weren\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doing your sister justice is quite a burden. Is she cool with it?<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah! I played it to her, and if she\u2019d have hated it or not wanted it out there then I wouldn\u2019t have. I\u2019ve shared those great moments with my wife before on previous records where you\u2019re playing this thing for them. It\u2019s a bonding moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take us back to the time where this record is set. What was life like at home?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something I haven\u2019t been completely forthright about. You put up what you are willing to share in an interview. I\u2019ve always said I\u2019ve had a Rockwellian upbringing, and to a certain extent I\u2019m totally telling you the truth. I love my mom and dad; they stayed together, I went to church, had a lot of family dinners, played golf with my dad and that side of things \u2013 but there are other sides to my upbringing that I\u2019m starting to explore and be more open about.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still scared to bring it up because I don\u2019t want to tarnish my family. My way of doing it is in the songs. It\u2019s tough for me to explain, but there was drug abuse around, there was domestic violence, there were physical fights. I did grow up around things like that. Those are memories that stay with you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Was there an element of intentionally hiding that at first in The Killers\u2019 songs to focus on the glamorous Vegas side of the band? Or is it more about only being able to process it now?<\/p>\n

\u201cIn The Killers, I felt like a representative of the band. Just the thought of writing a song about my sister on \u2018Hot Fuss\u2019<\/a> would have been wild! It\u2019s just this thing that\u2019s been a natural grassroots evolution. That\u2019s really where it came from. You figure out what you\u2019re comfortable sharing in interviews and how you\u2019re getting labelled. We are ambassadors for Las Vegas now. We didn\u2019t set out for that; it was thrust upon us. I\u2019m happy to be now, but that\u2019s the thing people wanted to talk about. We didn\u2019t think we were that weird until it became something that people honed in on.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realised we were proud to be from Las Vegas and were waving the flag. We were just trying to get out at first and not work like our dads.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrandonBrandon Flowers performs with Lucy Dacus at Newport Folk Festival. Credit: Rob Loud<\/p>\n

Growing up in Nephi, how did you imagine your future?<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a song about an ageing valet parker called \u2018Paradise\u2019<\/a>. That was my goal in life. I wasn\u2019t scholastic; I didn\u2019t get good grades, I graduated really below average. My uncles and cousins raised families on their wages from the casinos: from bellmen to valet parkers to people that worked in the food industry. That was their lifeblood. It wasn\u2019t that far-fetched, but the idea was that I wanted to work at a nice place \u2013 The Bellagio, The Wynn or something like that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was what I saw when I looked down the road. I was happy and content, I wasn\u2019t shooting any higher than that. It\u2019s a miracle what has happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve spoken a lot about how you were shaped by Pet Shop Boys<\/a>, Oasis<\/a>, The Smiths<\/a> and New Order<\/a>, but what was your music taste like in your formative years?<\/p>\n

\u201cI had two different educations, and that\u2019s really what it is for a singer or a musician. It\u2019s well-known that I inherited this music from my brother, who\u2019s 12 years older than me. That was everything you\u2019d associate with The Killers: The Smiths, Depeche Mode<\/a>, New Order, U2<\/a>, Billy Bragg<\/a>, all this British stuff \u2013 it was everything. Then there was another education I was getting: my sisters were listening to \u201890s R&B music and my parents were listening to country music. It was always there, since I was young. My dad would have been listening to Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, John Conlee. These were great songs and great songwriting.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was always there and I liked it, but I always felt guilty. You don\u2019t listen to \u2018Louder Than Bombs\u2019 by The Smiths and then listen to Willie Nelson. You feel like you have to choose when you\u2019re growing up. I chose correctly for the time. I chose The Smiths over Willie Nelson, but then as you get older you realise that there\u2019s so much room for all of it. It\u2019s no secret that I fell in love with so much more American music later, but that was just a step towards this. Bruce Springsteen<\/a>, Tom Waits<\/a>, Tom Petty<\/a> \u2013 they\u2019re country-leaning sometimes, and it has led me down this road back to my father\u2019s music on this record.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is it strange to see the worlds of pop and country smashing together so much nowadays then now that country is on trend?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe! I\u2019m a little bit more of a purist within the genre. I feel like right now, this is the vehicle for me and the stories I have to tell.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

What do you think it is about country music that allows you to do that?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an authenticity to this tradition, and it relies on the story. These are American stories that I\u2019m telling, and it\u2019s amazing how easily they fit into it. I\u2019m just surprised how naturally it came to me and how naturally it felt. I just said, \u2018I know how to do this\u2019. Where does that come from? When I was driving to the dentist with my dad, he was listening to this music.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s a true American art form as well\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, and it\u2019s beautiful. It\u2019s sort of gone astray as of late, but there are some people that are writing good songs again and injecting an authenticity back into it. I don\u2019t think anyone expected it to be me to do that, but I surprised myself and I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why do you think there is this hunger for country music at the moment?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know. The storytelling is such a human business. When you can tie to a melody, that\u2019s a powerhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrandonBrandon Flowers performs at Newport Folk Festival. Credit: Rob Loud<\/p>\n

Tell us about the all-star cast of musicians on this album\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of embarrassed, but I\u2019ll admit it \u2013 I didn\u2019t appreciate what I was getting into. I do now and I love it, but I felt like I was hot stuff. I had these songs finished, I\u2019ve headlined Glastonbury<\/a>, I\u2019ve been selling out some stadiums, but when I walked into the room with these guys, that stuff just didn\u2019t matter, and it melted away! It was like, \u2018What have you got?\u2019 I fell in love with their process.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day would just start with 45 minutes of people telling stories. You\u2019re just soaking that in, because you\u2019ve got so many cool experiences. Just Charlie McCoy, he can tell you Leonard Cohen<\/a> stories, he can tell you Simon & Garfunkel<\/a> stories, Bob Dylan<\/a> stories, Roy Orbison<\/a> stories. It\u2019s just like, \u2018Who is this guy? He\u2019s played on everything!\u2019 It should be \u2018Charlie McCoy featuring Brandon Flowers\u2019, because his hooks are so prominent on the record. He\u2019s really great.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen Bruce Bouton is a steel guitar player. He\u2019s one of these guys who will find a lyric and then reaffirm what I\u2019m saying musically. You hear these little nuggets that match what you\u2019re singing, and it\u2019s just such a joy.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that makes you up your game?<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsolutely. I sang live with them, which I haven\u2019t done since \u2018Sam\u2019s Town\u2019. I sang better. For \u2018Miss America\u2019, there\u2019s no cutting \u2013 it\u2019s just me and the band playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018American Dream\u2019 feels like the centre-piece of the album. What dream are you imagining there?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an actual dream sequence. It feels surreal, but it was a great way to wrap up the record. It\u2019s the oldest of the songs. It\u2019s Ronnie [Vannucci Jr, The Killers] on drums. It\u2019s always nice to have Ronnie present. Every other song on the record is very specific, and on that one I am getting a little bit colourful and taking some artistic licence. It\u2019s one of my favourites.\u201d<\/p>\n

You sing about Elvis driving a Tesla. Do you think he would?<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, but in this dream he picks me up in one. I have my own vision of that and what it means, and I hope people pick up on that kind of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

How much should we read into this dream?<\/p>\n

\u201cOh I think you could read into it a lot. I would like to have a psychiatrist or a therapist dissect it.<\/p>\n

How do you imagine the future now?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough to be optimistic about the future right now. It seems to be getting weirder and we\u2019re isolating ourselves more and more. I\u2019m seeing it firsthand with my children, who are three teenage boys. I saw the saddest thing the other day where someone was talking about how kids don\u2019t goof off as much, because there\u2019s bound to be a friend near with a phone who could film it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor some reason, that really dawned on me. All three of my sons have grown up with that. There was always a kid in your friendship group that would do that if they had the chance. Just that loss is heartbreaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe go on hikes and we get outside. I try to instil in them that they\u2019ll fall and break their ass if they get their phones out. Those kinds of moments are really important for me to make time for and for them to see. A lot of people aren\u2019t doing that. It\u2019s become a luxury, even though it\u2019s free to go on a walk. I hope that there\u2019s some sort of course correction, but it\u2019s looking bleak.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve retroactively called the \u201800s the \u2018indie sleaze\u2019 era<\/a> because it was so wild with people partying in the last age before you could film everything on a phone\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s right. I didn\u2019t have a phone until I needed to do interviews, and that was the label telling us. It\u2019s crazy that I didn\u2019t have one. It sounds like I\u2019m 150-years-old!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"BrandonBrandon Flowers \u2018Thrasher\u2019 artwork. CREDIT: Press<\/p>\n

Does age and fatherhood change your ambition as an artist and the way you think about the work?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou feel more responsibility, and you should. I just feel gratitude for taking stock of my life. Regardless of if I\u2019d had kids or not, \u2018What has music given me and what am I going to give back? What mark am I going to leave?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, you don\u2019t want to embarrass the kids! I want to grow old gracefully. As an artist, I think there\u2019s a way to do that. There are some bands who just don\u2019t and try to hold on. You want authenticity. That\u2019s what you\u2019re getting from me, and I feel that should be celebrated. My favourites did that. Look at John Lennon<\/a>\u2019s last few records, he made amazing art out of it and didn\u2019t write \u2018I Want To Hold Your Hand\u2019 again because he didn\u2019t need to. There\u2019s a beauty in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do you see yourself as a Mick Jagger-<\/a>style lifer?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe! It\u2019s become such a big part of my identity that I don\u2019t know what I would do without it. I\u2019m spoiled rotten because I get to be at home and write songs and have those moments, I get to have moments with the band where we share these moments in the studio, I get to go on stage, and I get this other limb where I can tell my family\u2019s stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am really lucky, and I don\u2019t see that slowing down as I get older.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does country music give you more longevity away from the constraints of The Killers? Do you imagine being in The Killers when you\u2019re 75?<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope so. Either way works. This other path I\u2019ve started to carve does feel more age-appropriate. Maybe I will be able to pull off \u2018Somebody Told Me\u2019!\u201d<\/p>\n

September will be 20 years of \u2018Sam\u2019s Town\u2019. With there being something of a thread between \u2018Sam\u2019s Town\u2019 and this record, will you be doing anything to mark the anniversary?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did mark \u2018Hot Fuss\u2019 and did the residency in Vegas<\/a>, but if we do that for every record then we\u2019ll never stop. That\u2019s the problem with it, but there\u2019s nothing planned. Maybe we\u2019ll do something for 25 years? It feels like that could line up. I can\u2019t believe it\u2019s been 20 years. We used to get taxis to Willesden Green to Assault & Battery studios where we finished off the record. It doesn\u2019t feel like 20 years ago!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Killers performing live. CREDIT: Chris Phelps<\/p>\n

Is there a new album from The Killers in the can?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not in the can, but the guys have been really great and accommodating about coming to Salt Lake to write and get demos going. We meet periodically in Salt Lake, and that\u2019s just on account of where I\u2019m at as a father. Ronnie\u2019s kids are really young, Dave [Keuning, guitarist]\u2019s son is already an adult, I\u2019m just at this tender time where I want to have dinner with my family where I can. They\u2019ve been great about it, and we\u2019re just going to keep chipping away.\u201d<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s the full band working together again?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the full band, and we\u2019ve been working with Ariel Rechtshaid and Shawn Rado. The band have got some time off for good behaviour, but we meet every now and again to see if we\u2019ve got anything left in the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which version of The Killers will hear on the next album? More neon arena rock than Americana?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no specific goal, but you have to keep that in mind. Sometimes you forget until you play a song in front of 50,000 people and realise it\u2019s not the time for that. That\u2019s definitely in the back of our minds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brandon Flowers releases \u2018Thrasher\u2019 on Friday August 21 via Island Records, before a headline tour of North America, the UK and Ireland<\/a> kicks off in September. Visit here<\/a> for tickets and more information.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Flowers has spoken to NME about revisiting his formative years to give more of himself away than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":572898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[430,2841,156,591,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-572897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-country","tag-entertainment","tag-indie","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=572897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/572897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/572898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=572897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=572897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=572897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}