Once upon a time, back in the early 2000s, The Killers were a hot young band that owed a lot of their success to a combination of high quality indie rock songs and a lot of conversation about said engaging music. Now, it’s been thirteen years since their debut album Hot Fuss, and apparently that’s enough time for Brandon Flowers, who is 36 years old, to have turned into an old man yelling at a cloud. In a recent interview, he said that there have been no big rock bands lately because they’re just not good enough.
When asked if The Killers could achieve as much success as they did had they come along in the present day, Flowers answered:
“It could happen — but there hasn’t been anybody good enough. If there was a band like the Strokes, or Interpol, people would talk. [Points outside to Brooklyn] If there were some kids out there right now playing ‘Obstacle 1’ tonight, I would hear about it, you would hear about it. But there isn’t.”
Drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. added, “People are very quick to blame a changing of the times for a lot of things, when it’s really that they’re just not good enough yet.”
Flowers later backpedaled on his cynicism slightly, saying that while it usually takes bands at least a few records to really hit their stride, his group emerged from an era where a lot of groups happened to get it right on their first album, citing acts like The Strokes, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand, Razorlight, Kaiser Chiefs, and Kings Of Leon as examples.
In other news, I’m really looking forward to contemporary rock group The War On Drugs’ upcoming album A Deeper Understanding. Revisit our conversation with that band’s Adam Granduciel here.
