The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers discussed why he wants to see Radiohead play their hits like “Creep” and “Karma Police” at concerts in a new Drowned in Sound interview. Below is an excerpt, first of the band discussing changing their sound every album.
But as Flowers tells it, not making Hotter Fuss was a happy accident. “It was not intentional at the time, but the 180 of Sam’s Town was really smart. We talk about it now, but we genuinely didn’t think or recognise how different it was. We looked like a different band, and the songs and subject matter changed. I think we owe a lot of our longevity to what we did with Sam’s Town; people wondered what the hell was going on, and it gave us room to go to new places.”
Vannucci agrees. “I don’t think we realised how brave we were being, and how having realised you can be brave, how you can do stuff that people aren’t expecting. We’ve done that to an extent on every record, so we’ve maybe had a little more license than the next band to mess with things a little.”
Unsurprisingly for a band so established as arena-slaying behemoths, they lack some of their peers’ sniffy attitude to the hits that got them started. Anything to keep the juggernaut on the road, right? “You have to realise that people are taking time out of their lives to come to this event; it costs them money, people are finding babysitters, and for some people, it’s their first gig,” says Flowers. “It would be silly not to offer them what they want; it’s arrogant, and it’s rude. If I go see Tom Petty, I want to hear ‘American Girl’, I want to hear ‘Freefall’. If it’s Radiohead I want to hear ‘Karma Police’ and ‘Creep’. You do need to satisfy yourself, and there are things we want to do, but you have to be aware.”
