Rock school The Killers negotiate stardom BY MIKAEL WOOD

If you’re growing tired of the new new wave of dance-rock acts with precarious haircuts and oily melodies, blame the Killers. This Las Vegas quartet, who headline the sold-out Phoenix/FNX Best Music Poll show at Bank of America Pavilion this Tuesday, have sold two million copies of their debut album, last year’s Hot Fuss (Island), and you can bet that’s persuaded the record industry to scour the earth for sound-alike bands. But the Killers’ meteoric rise to prominence on teenage girls’ bedroom walls wasn’t always a sure thing. Not long ago, frontman Brandon Flowers says, he couldn’t get music-biz bigwigs to give him the time of day. I reached him up at a tour stop in Cincinnati and asked why.

Q: In less than a year, you guys have gone from playing to indie crowds to being played on Top 40 radio.

A: It’s a place where we want to stay. Our music, we consider it be for everybody. It doesn’t bother us that it’s played on pop stations. I mean, I’m sure we’ve lost some indie kids because of it, but that’s their problem, and I’ve always been against people like that.

Q: In the band’s early days, was that a goal of yours? To get played next to the Black Eyed Peas and Hoobastank?

A: Yeah. Radio was just starting to change. I thought it was a big change that they started to play Coldplay, so it made it seem like it was at least a little bit more okay. And then the White Stripes and the Strokes came. So I don’t feel as dirty as I should, I guess. It was always that the bands we liked were played on the radio, so we’re happy to be in that spot.

Q: How was that attitude received by scenesters in Las Vegas? Do you get your share of player hating?

A: Yeah, it’s definitely there. I mean, we’ve bumped heads with a few of them. But for the most part, we got a really great reception there. It was only the kids that were in bands. I remember them saying we were trying to jump on this wave, that we were copying the Strokes. But we really weren’t; our music’s totally different. We didn’t hang out in the scene. The problem I find with scenes is that people want to outdo each other in their scene and just get stuck there. And we just stayed away from it. I was looking at what the White Stripes and the Strokes were doing and saying, "We have to beat that," instead of beating the kids in our scene. It was a blessing to have that mind set. We were never rude, but instead of going and hanging out in the scene, we would write songs and listen to music.

Q: How do you break out of a locally based indie crowd? How do you move beyond that if that’s not where you want to end up?

A: For us, how it happened, I guess, was the Internet. We had a "Mr. Brightside" demo on the Internet. And our manager — who was an A&R guy for Warner Bros., and Las Vegas was part of his territory — was searching through Las Vegas bands and he was attracted to our name. We didn’t have a Web site; we were just on a local-bands Web site. He was on there, and that’s how he heard "Mr. Brightside," and that’s how it started.

Q: You spent some time in England during the band’s early days, right?

A: Our manager tried to get Warner Bros. to sign us and they turned us down. And a couple other people were kind of on the fence. And then this really small indie label in England wanted to do it, so we just did it.

Q: It was just out of the blue?

A: It was. The problem is, if a record label turns you down, every other record label knows about you and knows that they turned you down. They all talk to each other, and you’re tainted then, and they don’t want it. It’s really weird. But if someone wants you, they all want you. It’s just all about saving face for them. So it was a great thing that this indie label wanted to sign us, because we knew how the business was working: they turned us down and we’re fucked. We were hearing the Strokes and the White Stripes and the Hives and the buzz coming from England, so we just decided that that would be an ideal thing for us. Especially since we couldn’t sign to anybody in America.

Q: Did you find a different reception in Great Britain?

A: It’s totally different. Indie bands, it’s just a word, you know? They play it on the radio there, and it doesn’t matter if you’re signed to a major label or what. That’s starting to happen in America, too — they’re calling people indie that are signed to major labels. But it’s common there. They’re not as snotty there about it.

Q: Was that refreshing?

A: It’s great. I mean, we’re all lovers of English rock. To go there and have our first gig there was something that will stand out forever. NME was there, and that was such a big deal to us. And we’re playing in places where Blur and Oasis started playing. We were just so excited.

Q: Once things got cooking over there, you had to move the buzz back over to the States. Did you have a plan?

A: We didn’t know what was gonna happen. NME decided to do a feature on us, and that was all it took. You open it up and there was this whole Killers thing, and that was all it was. Then we came home and it was just like, "Who didn’t want to sign us?" It was really strange.

Q: It just took that one story?

A: It was the one story, that’s all it was. We put out an EP and they sold out really quickly. So all of a sudden it was this huge buzz.

Q: When you’re inside it, is that sort of buzz an exciting thing or a stressful thing?

A: I’ve always just been happy when any of it happens. There’s so many people that are looking for the bad in everything: "Oh, there’s hype about you." "I don’t wanna have this hype." A lot of bands don’t ever get that; a lot of bands don’t ever get out of their garage or out of their bars. Somebody’s talking about you, and we took advantage of it. It made us want to live up to it and to beat it and to make them believers, you know?

Q: When during this time did you settle down to make the album?

A: The weird part about the album was that when we were trying to shop it to American labels, we were making demos. We went to San Francisco to do that with the A&R guy who ended up being our manager; he knew this guy that had a studio. And then we worked out a deal with them where we would record at the studio and they would help shop it and blah blah blah. So we did three songs, and then Warner Bros. said, "Okay, these are great." It was "Mr. Brightside," "Jenny Was a Friend of Mine," and something else, I forget what it was. And they said, "These are great, do three more." So we did "Somebody Told Me," "Smile like You Mean It," and then they said, "Okay, these are all right, but we need three more." So we only had to record three more songs or something to finish the album. We just used those demos. It was already pretty much done. I’m glad, because there would’ve been a lot of pressure with all the people talking about, "What are they gonna do?"

Q: The album doesn’t sound like a bunch of demos.

A: A lot of people think it’s overproduced, but it’s just us doing it. I would like some parts to be a little more stripped-down when I look at it, but I’m happy with it.

Q: Are you comfortable with the touring life? Is it something you can deal with?

A: Yeah, I’m getting used to it. I’m getting tired now. It’s been over a year and half since we’ve been touring. We love Hot Fuss, but I think we’re all ready to kiss it goodbye. We’re looking forward to making the next record. I always have much more fun in the studio than on stage or on the road.

Q: Why is that?

A: I don’t know. That’s just where I feel most alive, I guess. The excitement of what’s gonna happen, I could get up at six every day. I love it.

Q: Are you guys able to write on the road?

A: Yeah, we’ve got a ton of ideas, a few that are done. I’m hoping it’ll come in around 10 songs. We’ve probably got four or five that are really done, that we’re happy with.

Q: Is it more difficult to turn that part of your brain on when you’re in the middle of a tour?

A: For me, I don’t think I’ll ever stop. Because I’m nervous about it. I don’t think you can . . . well, some people can — people like Jack White. I talked to him once and he hardly had anything written, and then a month later the album came out. And there’ll be three hits on it. It’s unreal. I think we’re more worrywarts. The second this next album’s done, I’m gonna be thinking about the next one and starting to write. It’s not just about being prolific; it’s about getting better and better.