Photo By Rob Loud
“While Everyone’s Lost, The Battle Is Won With All These Things That I’ve Done...”
The Killers have played a pivotal role in global rock and music systems for the past 2 decades—but how did they start out, and was that what they set out to do? Founded in 2001 by Las Vegas natives Brandon Flowers (vocal and keys) and Dave Keuning (guitar and vocal backing), the two started writing music together after Flowers responded to Keuning’s ad in a local magazine about needing a bandmate. In 2002, The Killers finalized their lineup — Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoermer, and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. which remains intact to this day. In 2017, Keuning took a hiatus from touring, and Ted Sablay stepped in as lead guitarist, essentially becoming the band’s fifth member. Keuning still collaborates with the group, primarily in the studio. They first got signed in 2003 by U.K. label Lizard King Records before re-signing in 2004 with major label Island Records in the U.S.. While they wanted to reach a broader group of people, they had never set out to become a huge mainstream name, but instead to help influence the next wave of rock at the turn of the century by blending new styles with old while embedding meaningful lyrics in that rhythmic and melodic blend.
Looking into where they’re founded, there’s no mistake that this band centers on personal and social struggles, with the Southwest of the United States being a hotbed of emerging religions and socioeconomic issues. As a native of this area, I tell people that the Pacific Southwest has 3 Cs—cults, cartels, and cattle. While this is a dramatic statement, it isn’t completely unfounded, and The Killers’ back up this assumption with their focuses. In their earlier discography we can see a prominent emphasis placed on relationships (familial, romantic, and platonic), personal identity, and community pressures in songs like Uncle Jonny, My List, When We Were Young, Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine, and more.
Since the release of their first album Hot Fuss in 2004, The Killers established a solid global audience, with their later releases primarily charting in the United Kingdom and Europe. I find this so interesting, because growing up in the United States I heard songs like Mr. Brightside, Somebody Told Me, and When We Were Young, everywhere growing up—in restaurants, school dances, shopping boutiques and more—so before I became a true fan I had thought they had stopped releasing new music. It wasn’t until I was older and “re-discovered” them that I had realized their discography ran much deeper, both metaphorically and literally, than what I knew.
But still, it’s interesting to compare the declining popularity of The Killers in their home country to their increasing (still!) popularity in the rest of the globe.
Why did they succeed in reaching the majority of the world while still being a relatively quick-to-rise-and-fall band in their native country? It could just be because their initial band release was in the U.K. and the fact Mr. Brightside was initially released there a year earlier than the states, but I think something different. I think it might be because in the United States, there’s an emphasis placed on profit and fame, less on the music itself. The Killers didn’t play into the mainstream music and change their sound or focus in order to keep their fame. Instead, they stuck to their original sound, allowing for their music to evolve and grow with them as they moved through life, with their songs reflecting their identity as well as their changing focuses and priorities.
While The Killers’ music itself is primarily about personal struggles and social issues like the drug and homelessness epidemic, a song to note from one of their more recent albums Wonderful Wonderful (2017) is Run for Cover, which marked their first explicitly political song, centering around Trump and his ideas for America. While the members of the band all have differing political views, Flowers has shown his support in the past for progressive reforms and American democratic politicians like Barack Obama (former U.S. president) and Jacky Rosen (former U.S. senator) in past elections. There is almost a positive correlation between Trump gaining popularity and The Killers’ release of political sound.
It might intriguing to some that there has been an emergence of political messages embedded in their music, but those that have followed their music from the beginning are able to see that their music never changed, but instead evolved from discussing personal struggles and those closest to them to using it to protect their loved ones and what they believe should be fought for, most of which is discussed in the beginning of their discography. Their unification against Trump also reflects a key part of their major fan base—while a lot of them have differing worldly views, the majority of The Killers’ fan base is more progressive in their perspectives, especially when discussing current American events and Trump.
Diving more into their music evolution, though, something that’s interesting to note are their preferred genres. If you have an extra 10 minutes, or while you’re finishing the rest of this, I would like for you to queue up two songs from The Killers back-to-back: Somebody Told Me and Terrible Thing. Listen well, or I guess you don’t have to, they sound like completely different bands; the only way to tell that they’re the same band is Flowers’ iconic voice. The evolution from one to the other is something that can be studied but should just be written off as the most iconic and rawest music forms to exist. Starting their music with a very heavy synth-rock and post-disco sound was a way for them to make a name for themselves at a time when a lot of artists were doing the same mainstream thing. It was also a way for them to say “screw you” to society or what they viewed as what it wanted from them at that time, as most rock bands do, but a lot of rock bands don’t go that far because they don’t have such clashing backgrounds, versus The Killers’ with their religious heavy upbringings and small Western town roots moving into the spotlight relatively quickly.
As they grew more into their music and their fame, they did not stick with what they knew to be successful but instead allowed their music to change with them. It’s interesting that their most recent album was an acoustic one, but that’s meaningful and especially powerful in itself for two reasons—with their shift towards political messages there’s a sense of irony attached with every song, because most fans of the more Americana or America country/folk are more conservative with their views; it’s also a callout against their hometowns, with them feeling comfortable and separated enough from that section of their past to use its influences more obviously, but also authentically.
With popular bands, most times they have two types of fans: those who listen to the scream-able and more mainstream songs and those who focus on their music’s lyrics; the Killers are no different. Make no mistake, struggles, can scream most of their songs, i.e. Mr. Brightside or This River is Wild, if you listen closely you’ll realize that Mr. Brightside is about a girlfriend cheating on a man and the struggles he undergoes to try to make sense of what happened and how to move on, while This River is Wild is about the feelings of restlessness and angst regarding the feeling of being stuck in your hometown and your life. They sound like relatively positive songs, but The Killers are masters of their art, including hidden meanings and contradictory music.
As for me? My favorites of their discography are most of their earlier work being my top ten. I’m obsessed with the clashing genres and synth-heavy rock, not pop. Their albums ranked from best to worst (for me personally) are as follows: Hot Fuss, Sam’s Town, Wonderful Wonderful, Imploding The Mirage, Pressure Machine, Battle Born, Day and Age. I love their angsty songs like Uncle Jonny, The Man, and Andy, You’re A Star, they’re absolutely perfect for locking into a working session or for background pump-up music; their more emotional songs like Everything Will Be Alright, Read My Mind, All These Things That I’ve Done are all amazing for a rainy day or good emotional session. Their discography can truly cover all of the bases, which is the thing I appreciate the most since I mainly choose my music based on what mood I’m in or what I’m doing that day—and I seriously have a Killers’ song for everything you can possibly imagine.
Their art is constantly evolving and changing form, but what will never change is the way you can feel in your bones the emotion of what they want to convey in each of their songs. What is meant to make you energetic makes you amped. What is meant to make you emotional makes you cry. What is meant to make you feel happy makes you laugh. What is meant to make you think, makes you question. And what is meant to make you feel the highs and lows of the world, makes you scream their lyrics at the top of your lungs. I know you’ve done it to one of their songs at least once, and I hope you listen to that song now.
Written by: @trin.gary
Edited by: @Arriv3r
Insight.
