The Killers have thrown fans “a curveball” with their new album.
The ‘Mr. Brightside’ hitmakers were keen to experiment with a new sound on ‘Pressure Machine’, which is radically different to last year’s ‘Imploding The Mirage’ as frontman Brandon Flowers explained they don’t want their identity to be too “limiting”.
He said: “On this album we are experimenting with more roots-driven Americana music.
“We realised early on some people were committing to one road in their identity as a band — and that is limiting.
“There are bands that pull it off but we have so many different influences and as we get older and absorb more, I actually like the music my dad liked and that’s a part of me too.”
The record tells the story of characters in the small town of Nephi, Utah, where the singer grew up because lockdown made him reflect on his “isolated” upbringing.
He told The Sun newspaper: “I was in a town and felt isolated, like I did in lockdown. I started thinking about the people who were misfits and outliers in that town.
“Having lived a moral life with more experience, I now have a renewed understanding of those characters I would’ve painted with a mean brush or been quick to judge. I have more empathy for them now so I went back into my memory and tried to work them out through songs.”
And the ideas mean the band introduced new instruments into their music which fans won’t have heard from them before.
Brandon said: “There’s harmonica, fiddle and pedal steel. They really help you immerse. I feel like the listener in the town.
“We wanted it to feel authentic and that’s because of the instrumentation.”
Phoebe Bridgers features on the song ‘Runaway Horses’ after the group discovered she was as much of a fan of theirs as they were of her.
Brandon said: “I was a fan of hers and I knew she was a fan of The Killers.
“It was just a nice surprise. She had made a beautiful rendition of ‘Read My Mind’ — it’s beautiful — and then she covered our song ‘Human’ one time.
“She also has rodeo people in her family, so it was kind of a perfect song for her.”