The Watch - Back on the Road With Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci Jr. of the Killers (Ep. 187)

Episode Date: September 21, 2017

Chris Ryan and Andy Greenwald are joined by Killers bandmates Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vannucci Jr., who discuss getting the band back together for a new album, meeting your heroes, and the business of making music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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I need sports to have to clear the room. Stand up and walk now. Hello and welcome to the watch. My name is Andy Greenwald. Chris Ryan is on vacation. He is not here for this intro, but he was here for this interview that I'm helping to set up. So I'm very excited about that. Guys, very special show today. We have Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vanucci from the rock and roll band The Killers stop by to talk about their new album, Wonderful, Wonderful, which is out globally tomorrow on Island Records.

This was really fun for us because Chris and I are big fans of the killers. We wish more bands were like the killers in that they had great stadium-sized ambition and wrote great stadium-sized rock songs. I had a lot of fun talking to them again, personally, because I'd had Brandon on the podcast a few years ago. And sneaky sense of humor on that guy, sometimes maybe even too sneaky for a podcast, but hopefully you guys will pick up on it. It was fun talking to them both about the sometimes arduous process of recording this, I believe it's their fifth album, what it's like being a band after being a band for a long time. And some interesting stuff, actually, about their role in or opinions of our friend Lizzie Goodman's book, Meet Me in the Bathroom, which has dominated a lot of rock and roll conversation. over the last few weeks and months. One other note, we recorded this podcast a couple weeks ago.

At that time, we did not know that Brandon and Ronnie were actually the only members of the killers who would be performing on the world tour, which is kind of interesting. The other two dudes are taking hiatuses, hiatus eye? I don't really know what the word is, but obviously we would have talked about that with him had we known. We didn't. Instead, we just talked about obscure interviews they'd done in China and their opinions of other classes. classic rock bands like the time Ronnie approached. Well, I won't spoil the story, but stuff that happened to them in Vegas. Anyway, it is always fun for us to get a chance to talk

to musicians whom we like and admire. And I only wish we had video so you could see the boots they were wearing because that was very unbranded. Without further ado, let's get into it. This is the interview that Chris and I did with Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vanucci from The Killers. We are so excited to be joined by Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vanucci of the Killers. Thanks, guys. Hey, thanks for having us. Not just thank you for for coming in, but thank you for coming, what I believe is straight from the airport, right? Like, you guys were live on the strip yesterday, hours ago? Well, yeah, then we just got into a Ford expedition. Okay. And unmarked Ford Expedition? Unmarked and drove to L.A. and arrived around four in the

morning. That seems very trusting. Did you know who he's driving the car? My nephew, he was quiet, too, the whole time. It made me worry. We kept kind of prodding at him. sure he was okay. I can drive, Taylor. I got it. 14, 15-year-old nephew, or is he an illegal driving age? He's 21. That's nice.

Keep it in the family. We stopped in Barstow. We did a traditional pilgrimage to In-N-Out in Barstow. And... What time of morning was that? So they closed at one, and we made it just before they closed. It's weird, because you guys must... It's such a tradition to do the L.A. to Vegas drive.

But you guys are doing it the other way there. So do you actually like... That's the way we're used to it. Yeah, right. We're from Vegas. Yeah, I know. That's what I'm saying. So it's like, it must be sort of strange.

It's like everybody's just like kind of like you guys have the reverse cycle of everybody else. There's some good stops on it. You know, there's the Mad Greek in Baker. Yeah. And John Lennon, you know, ate at the Mad Greek in Baker. And got, they have their famous for their strawberry milkshakes. Oh, yeah. Tim Burton.

Also, it's a famous, it's a famous place. Do you guys see, doing the Vegas, too, LA drive, do you see the thirst for sin in people's eyes going to the opposite direction, like doing the animal fries, but just like an extra, extra little jump in their step. Oh, hell. So what happened last night, though? You played this, you played live on the strip. This is your hometown.

How was it? What is it like to be debuting these new songs in your hometown? It was great. It didn't kick in until a few songs in how unique and special and wild it was that we were playing where we were playing. We're playing right at the fountains where Evil Knievel jumped, and Ronnie's mom was a cocktail waitress in Caesar's Palace for 40 years. Wow. And it was just surreal.

It turned into storytellers real quick. Yeah. Well, it needed to as well. It was hotter than hell. I think it was like 107 or something, right? Yeah. When we left, it was 105 degrees out. And it was like, you know, 10 or 11.

The sun was down and it was that temperature? It stayed hot, yeah. That feels normal. have played some really cool gigs in Vegas over the years. Like you, did you, you open the T-Mobile place there, right? Didn't you? And, like, you guys have, like, kind of have, like, this really nice, like, house band, like, it's a residency, but you christened some places there.

It's our town. Yeah. I remember being with a, I was getting, I got picked up from a driver at the airport, taking me home, and they had just broken ground for the T-Mobile arena, and he had told me that Floyd Mayweather had already talked about how he was going to have a fight there. and I just remember feeling instantly like something that wasn't right

and I just call our manager right away and I was like whatever Floyd Mayweather's got going on like we should be playing this arena and it worked out I really respect that you're willing to go up against Floyd Meather and threaten things whatever you guys have a series of press conferences across the world announcing this with it

so Wonderful Wonderful is the fifth studio record coming out we're recording this for people listening, we're recording this in August. We're going to put it up closer to the release, September 22nd. Let's talk about this. It's been five years since Battleborn came out. At this stage in your career, I imagine you can flip the switch and turn on the band mechanism in a hurry if you want to, or leave it dormant. I mean, what does it take to get you to make a fifth record? What inspires you? What motivates you? How does this process get moving again?

It's always funny to hear the romantic idea of how just fluttering it. Right. Clipping a switch and just making it happen. Break my illusions. That's what we do on podcast. Yeah, it is more painstaking. Well, when it comes to playing live and just say we haven't played for a year. Right.

And Lollapalooza wants us to go play in Chile and we accept their offer. We can get back into a room and that's when it's like flipping a switch or riding a bike. And as long as I've done maybe my warm. up so maybe Ronnie's done, spend a couple hours at least, you know, getting ready. That comes back, it's fairly second nature now. But the other side of it, the creative side and the, and getting in as a band is, is just, there's no real, we don't really have the answers or there's no real handbook for that.

So what's day one like? You get in a studio or you get the practice space? Is it even called day one? Or is it like all of a sudden you're like, oh, wait, we're making a record. That's what we're doing. It's like that, yeah, we know, just getting back. Well, these, and nowadays, it's these days, it's, you know, people have houses in other states and you have to sort of, you know, put it in the calendar and plan for it.

People have lives. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, we've grown up nowadays. You're wearing boots? We're wearing boots, chaps. So it's a little bit more of us It's scheduling nightmare Whereas before we would

Just be like, okay Meet at my garage at 1130 And you know Bring French fries It was all right It was that easy before Mark Our bass player only worked two days a week

And it was only a few hours each on those days And Ron was going to school And then Dave did Were you at UNLV? Yeah Yeah. Dave didn't work many hours at Banana Republic or he had just lost his job or something, but it was like I got off of the Gold Coast at this time and it made it a lot. It was just that's when we met at Ronnie's and it was that easy, you know? So when you do get everybody together and the cackeys of Banana Republic are all folded.

Cheetos. Excuse me. You're using the wrong terminology. You get in the room. What is it? Obviously you guys are close and you spend all these years working together and knowing each other. But is it, I mean, do you know why they're? call them Chino's? I'm sorry, I just have it. I was just thinking of that. We learned this from Dave from him working at Banana Republic. This is great. This is important. So they got a shipment

in of these pants that were from China and somehow over the course of the journey the little line at the bottom of the A of China got rubbed out or camouflage by something and

it looked like Chino and they've called the pants that were inside at Chinos ever since. Or it's like the twill material or something like that. It was like the textiles made in charge. I wonder who's the they? Who's receiving this first ever possible package? Check out these chinos. It's crazy.

They all start dancing like the Gap commercial. Sorry. That was me remembering it from Dave telling me 15 years ago, but I think that's pretty close. Better answer than probably than I'm going to get for the question I have. Or that's the bar set now. You guys got to. We actually, not to get too off. topic, but if we're really going to share some Banana Republic anecdotes.

Are we? We had a buddy who used to work at Banana Republic. Where do he work? King of Prussia Mall outside of Philadelphia. And his deal would be to buy stuff on employee discount. And then, I was going to say have one of us, but it was usually me. Take it back? Take it back.

That was his side hustle. And I actually, I would actually like really like, because I've sort of felt morally complicated by this. So I would like put it. right. Put on a limp. He would get a limp in. And I'd just be like, you know, times are kind of tight for me.

So these are a gift from my grandmother, but what I really need is the money. And it was like not that complicated. Kaiser So Seek. He walks out of the Venetre Public, gets his full stature. It's like, let's see if TGIF will serve us. Let's go to Wetzel's pretzels now. It was pretty exciting times. Anyway.

So we all had a Venet Republic story in our past. Pretty cool, man. So what you're saying is this new album is mostly about activeware. but it can work for preppy's. No, okay, so day one, you guys are together. You have the juice, you have the mojo, you want to make a new record. Do you have conversations about what it will be, who you want to work with, what you want to do differently? Do you unveil a song that one of you has that might be the thing?

I mean, strip the romance out of my mind here. I'm curious if there's like a band meeting to determine it. It's like swinging in the dark. Yeah. It's what it's like. It's like just waiting to hit something. So what hit on this one? It took about my memory is right around five or six months of us sort of just in a room recording everything, every little sort of jam session and things like that.

What we do is we record it and then we go back. Jam and quotes by the way. Yeah. It's an audio meeting. We're jamming. And we go back and sort of listen or sift through these ideas. or remember, we'll be playing and one of us will sort of pipe up and tell root art, our engineer recording the whole thing to sort of mark it, you know, put little markers in there

so we could go back and see if there are any, like, kernels. But it wasn't until like five or six months in that we sort of arrived at the song Rutt, which was sort of, I like to call it Keystone song. We were both saying that was one of our favorite songs on the record. Yeah, that was the, I think, I think that was the one that we sort of realized that we've sort of arrived somewhere and that this might be a nice jumping off point. It felt the most solid. There were other seemingly good ideas, but nothing felt as concrete and as strong as that one.

Do you guys tend to record a lot of songs and then pare down, or do you, like, stop it 12 and say, like, that's it? Yeah, so everybody's got different. I always heard Martin Gore just will write 12 songs that year. there's your record. Yeah. And it's like, shit. His track record is strong for that. Yeah.

Yeah. And then you hear bands that say we wrote 60 songs. Yeah. And if I can crash that down a little bit, nobody writes 60 songs with full lyrics. It makes it sound like you're doing a lot more than you're doing. Yeah. We have a lot of ideas.

Maybe there's 80 kernels, you know, but I'm not fully writing verses and choruses. Yeah, right. You're not really, you know what I mean? If you're to the regular person out there that's not, you know, maybe as musical inclined, it sounds like, oh, these guys wrote 70 songs. Everybody says that when they make a record. And that's always, that's always the headline.

They wrote 70 and you're getting, you know, it's like, it's a BS. It's interesting. I'm thinking about Rutt just because that song feels so grounded. It feels like, it feels like a song that's been there that you sort of chipped away at. And it was like the underneath the marble in a way. And I think that there's something always fascinating to us who are not. in bands, when you find a song that this makes sense. This is a killer song in 2017 because there's a, I would imagine on some level,

it's kind of a daunting freedom, right? Because you are a band, you have fans, you have a catalog of amazing songs that you can go out and play in Chile at a moment's notice. But there's also a freedom to it. Like what does this band mean now? What do you want it to sound like? And so that it was a song like Rudd, I think, is interesting kind of telling. That was a conversation too.

It's, you know, a lot of us, you know, I'm 41 now. And we've had the conversation where nobody in this band wants to go and try and rewrite another, somebody told me. It's just, it's not where we are. It's people and it's not, I don't know, our age anymore. And we just care about different things now. Like there's other things on the radar. We grown up. I thought you were going to say you were time to have the conversation that you had to go live in a farm up state.

It's time for a younger drummer. It's interesting. We wanted to talk a little bit about just the length and breadth of the band because we've been fans of you guys for a long time and you've been making great records for a long time. But when I was thinking about it, and in a way, your career to me stands as an incredible thing because it bridges eras in music that you didn't even notice happening. I was thinking about when Hot Fuss came out, the hallmarks of that album's success seem like they're from the Jurassic Age now in that you had a hot video. you know, that a rock band crossed over onto pop radio, the record went platinum.

A couple of songs like Brightside has like a guitar riff. Yeah. That is like, you know what I mean? Which is not necessarily, I can't remember the last big hit single where I'm like, wow, I really know that by like the opening notes of the guitar. But also I remember thinking,

okay, this band that we really like has made it because you were on the cover of spin, you know, or you made magazine covers. These things are a long time ago. And yet these are the hallmarks that all of us grew up with, right? And what it meant to be successful. We kind of did it in a traditional manner.

And that is from a time, it seems, it does. It seems like a bygone thing or an antiquated thing now. It's strange to be part of it because it wasn't that long ago. No, that's what I mean. It is a real dividing line. It's also, I mean, because we've had, we've talked about this a lot in recent podcasts, just like the canonization of that or what's just like the beginning of the century, but it's like 10, 15 years ago.

and the idea that that music is now going to be in five or six or ten years like a kind of classic rock to a generation of people who were growing up. But you guys also had like, and I don't know how aware you guys are of what it might be for like for young bands now, but I was reading a little bit about like hot fussing around Samstown stuff and this idea of like, you know, you were working in concert with a record label that was helping you put together your career. It seemed like, you know, A and R and like having people identify singles and you guys work. working on things that you thought might appeal to like a mass audience while still staying true to yourself. Like, do you think that you guys could start the killers in 2017? No.

Could we start? If we were that age again? No, if you were kids now. Like, I mean, you were all the same age except right. Yeah. Except for me. I think we had a, we definitely had a tenacity and we had a drive. And we were cautious of the songs we were writing.

And I don't want to put down everything that I'm here right now. but I don't hear bands writing songs like we were writing, and like other bands were writing that were coming up at the same time. I think it was the last time that there were that group of bands that were really going for it and were really doing it. And I don't hear it. I haven't heard a, you know, I've heard some, I've heard some nuggets, but I haven't heard anything

that made me really want to look it up. There was also like the dialogue between those albums, like whether it was intentional or not. It was like pushing each other, like, oh, this, record came out. No, it was healthy. I remember just reading about the strokes or reading about Franz Ferdinand and seeing a picture. I saw a picture of Franz Ferdinand and I was pissed

because the way they looked. Yeah. And that was right while we were working on somebody who told me in Ronnie's garage. And it lit a fire, for sure. We've been talking a lot about the Meet Me in the bathroom book because I think we're all in it to some degree. You guys

more featured than others. But our friend Lizzie wrote it and you guys cooperated with the telling of it. And that aspect of it feels more noteworthy to me than anything else. You know, there are bands there that I love, bands in there that I remember. But it's that conviviality, like the community and the spirit of people actually connecting, meeting each other after shows, wanting to push each other that feels that that's what makes the book for me.

You know, I don't know if you felt that, obviously you felt it at the time, but when you agreed to talk to Lizzie for the project, if that was part of the appeal, because that was a memorable time. I talked to her. I talked to her for a little bit. It ended up being more a love letter to the, like, the strokes. I mean, let's, like, can you, have you talked about that yet? All right. I mean, that's what it is. It should just be called the strokes were amazing. The book. That's what it should be called. I disagree. I don't know. And I thought it was a little soon for a book like that. I didn't quite realize what I was getting interviewed about. Yeah. It seems like a book that should be written maybe in 10 more years or 20 more years. You know what I mean?

Well, I agree that I thought it was too. soon for a book to be written about the bands and that music. But I thought a book about like New York City and some energy of a record industry that no longer exists felt kind of right. That's okay, yeah. But that's interesting. That's interesting you felt that way. Did you see,

I don't know if you guys saw it, but there's another member of the interview class of that book who also agrees that you guys should have been in it more. Ryan Adams. I don't know if you. We heard about that. I don't know if you know. He deleted the tweets that he said out, but they were

pretty strong. It's funny. It was funny. It reminded me of Liam Gallagher or Noel Gallagher, the tweets. Yeah. And who I've always admired their wit. So I thought it was funny. I mean, he obviously just got upset.

It was weird that he got upset months later. Yeah, it was a little bit more than reaction. It was funny because it was like, and now ever since then, like he's just basically been tweeting about the Grateful Dead. So it's kind of like, were you in like just kind of like the Grateful Dead haze? And then you were like, holy shit, I just looked at it like this Google all over my name. I'm super pissed now. But you're talking about Liam and Noel, and those are important people to mention this,

because there's a swagger and there's an arrogance that is also part of the performance. And Brandon, when you're talking about hearing things in rock bands, but not quite hearing the same thing that you guys heard back then when you were coming up, do you think it is a simple as there's just not the same ambition, in terms of wanting to write songs that are good enough to be played in aren't in aren't as evident anymore? Yeah, I don't want it to come across that I'm just. just saying that nobody's good anymore. I'll say it. Okay.

I said that. It's just that they definitely don't have the opportunities that we had. Right. That's for sure. Yeah. And I think I would be more pessimistic you know, at starting a ban right now. It's not as there's not as much hope. We had quite a bit of hope, you know. We saw what bands were doing at the time and it seemed like it was possible

still. And we believed in what we were doing and there was a sincerity to what we're doing. I don't hear a lot of sincerity. Sincerity, sorry. I see a lot of, I hear a lot of tongue-in-cheek posturing. Yeah, I hear a lot. Yeah, there's a lot. There's, I don't know that these people really believe in the power, you know,

that they could harness. And we believed in it. Yeah. And do you think that sincerity had something to do with where you were from? Like not being in L.A. or New York or Chicago or something? In a way, we felt like we were on some weird island. I mean, we're in Vegas. We didn't have a scene like a New York or in L.A. or, you know, Seattle or wherever, you know.

We were largely by ourselves and had to go everywhere else to sort of prove it. I think we maybe had to even work harder because of that. We didn't have any immediate peers to sort of bounce things off of. So we just, you know. playing sports sports bars like we were in, you know, but pretending it was like Wembley Stadium. Yeah. And now you play Wembley Stadium. And now you play the Super Bowl.

Yeah, right. Money plays. I wanted to ask you, it's like making the rounds a couple of weeks ago is these incredible videos of you guys at Glastonbury, playing the John Peele 10. This is a surprise appearance, right? That's right. And it was like obviously like the people who were watching you guys, there's one part during Bright Side where it's like basically a premier league.

game breaks out and like everybody's singing back at you and a flare is going. I don't know why the flare is a emotional thing, but when that guy lit that flare, it was emotional. Yeah. It changed the tent changed a little bit. It was almost like, I don't know, it was like it felt like some kind of an emblem or something. It felt like it felt like some kind of votive. Yeah.

Well, it's definitely like in soccer matches, if that. happens, there is like a degree of intensity that comes along with it, I think, you know, like, or passion about, like, the events there are, I mean, I think they'll just let them off for whatever in some countries. But, yeah. Yeah. I wonder how they got the flare in there. We've gotten the seal of approval from our British family.

But that, for some reason, that would really solidified it, that guy that lit that flare. Watching the video footage of that performance was really exciting for a number of reasons. But one of the things that I love most about it, particularly in Brightside, is right before you start playing it. This is definitely someone just with an iPhone capturing it. But they're focused on you, Brandon, and there's a little smile on your face right before you go into it.

Can you talk about that feeling? Because I know there are some bands who are lucky enough to have hit songs that are like, oh God, 10 more years of this. You know, I'm going to play this song every night of my life that I'm in front of an audience. It felt like, and I don't know if you sometimes feel that way, but you're in this tent with these kids

and that feeling of knowing you're about to blow the backs of their heads off because you have this weapon in your arsenal. Yeah. I feel like it must be an exciting, pretty rare feeling. Yeah, it is. And I've never understood people that have huge songs that go, you know, for seasons or years sometimes without playing them. But we've, yeah, we've never played a gig where we didn't play Mr. Brightside, and I'm not tired of it.

Yeah. We're really honored to be a part of it, you know. We grew up having those types of songs had big impacts on us. And to be on the other side of it is incredible. It's not our song anymore. That's what I was going to ask about that. And it's just a reason to party. Here's a three-minute party song. Let's sing it together.

You guys also have like the, I don't know what the golden ratio must be for it, but like you have enough of those songs that it's like you can play around with like where you put them in the set. probably and like people have their favorites and but there are so many of them it's like i remember that's what happens when i go see j z it's like where i'm like oh yeah you have 40 really good songs you can choose from and like it's it's it's wild when you look at your set lists now because you have these multiple albums of songs that people are so attached to now no it's yeah it's gonna get harder and harder to figure out the sets i guess especially with this new record because

we're we're so excited about it but it's you guys have to have your dead phase it's weird though It's weird to have one as big as that one because it's sort of. We don't want people to forget about read my mind. Yeah. And when you're young and human and all these other ones, too. They won't forget. We're going to stop the interview there to take a quick word from our sponsor, and then we'll be right back with our interview with the killers.

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And now back to our interview with Brandon Flowers and Ronnie Vanucci from The Killers. Brandon, when we talked a couple years ago, I think we talked about how one shared experience, and I think it's probably for all of us. I know Chris and I had this too, of falling in love with music that came from another place. We talked about the bands from like Manchester or England in general, where you would get them at a certain point in your life pre-internet

and you just imagined a magical world that could create music like this. and what it must look like and feel like, and then you get to Manchester and you're like, oh, this is just a town like everywhere else. I know that you guys have been touring in lots of new markets in the world. I mean, you've been in Russia.

I know that Ronnie's been in China because I've seen the interview footage. South America, yeah. And I wonder if you have a feeling of being ambassadors for that kind of feeling now too because some of the crowds that you're playing to have probably not been to Las Vegas. They've not been to Manchester,

yet they're connecting with something otherworldly in your music. I think we're definitely conscious of that. And we've talked about, even since the beginning, we talked about bringing Las Vegas with us everywhere we go. And I think the performers, you know, that in us, that definitely comes from being from Las Vegas. And again, we didn't know that it was any different than anybody else until we went and left and saw that the interests and the way that. people were kind of like instantly changed and lit up when we mentioned that we're from there. If we didn't know it was weird.

I wonder if it would feel like, you know, you can read things in the, I was going to say the music press, but that barely exists anymore. But people saying, you know, rock isn't a bad place or rock isn't, you know, the language of young people anymore. But is it hard to remember that when you're playing in, you know, another country and you play runaways and it connects? Well, I still, I mean, I don't, regardless of the state of affairs with like, you know, pop music and radio and stuff like that, I don't think the ritual of going to a concert

and experiencing that exchange, you know, audience and performer, I don't think that'll ever go away. No. I mean, it's so real. And we've been doing that for, in. some way for thousands of years, you know. So I think that's... Not you personally, because you're only 41.

I am 41. But in general, as a species. Yeah, yeah. So I don't think, you know, I don't think that's going to go anywhere. I saw that, and correct me if I'm wrong about this, that I guess in the press materials for Wonderful, Wonderful, it said that Jack Knifeley who produced the record was recommended to by Bono. Is that accurate?

Yeah. Ryan doesn't like to talk about it. Is there a group text? I just want to know, like, is there a group text with Bono and, like, Elton John and, like, rock stars of a certain size? They're like, have you worked with Jack Knight? Yeah. Like, have you tried the Eclayers at this hotel? Like, what is the level of correspondents?

You guys seen this goddamn book? I was just like, you guys eat lasagna? That lasagna one is great. The lasagna one is perfect. I just want to talk about it all the time. Well, the great quote from Liam was that Jack White looked like Zorro on donuts. And so that's taking a page out of that book. Yeah, for sure.

Anyway, sorry. So the answer is no. There's no group text. No, I mean. No group text. I shouldn't have even brought up that. Now I'm bringing up old. Maybe.

I didn't say that. Liam said that. Liam will take the hits for everyone. It always works that way. It's like the nicest thing Liam's ever said. Liam's always cool to me. He's a, I've been lucky in that department. Do you keep the interactions?

Like, you're like, okay. Really minimal. Leave on a high note. Yeah, but he always is really nice to me. That's cool. I feel blessed. Like nice, like, buy me a logger mate? Or like that was a good song or good set?

Like when you were young is a tune, mate. Yeah. And let him say that and that's it. That is the highest praise. I know. Like, that's all I'm talking. And I don't say anything. I accept it.

Because he gets after like radio head stories. Like those Neds. I don't know what a NED is. And then it'll be like those guys just noodling around. He's already not talking to his brother, but now he's literally never talking to him because he collaborates. with Damon Albarn. Oh, yeah.

Like, that was the last shovelful of dirt on the coffin of that brotherly relationship. That's funny. That'll work out. Your brothers. Okay, but here's a different way to ask that question, especially because, you know, I know Brandon, you had that incredible song on the New Order record. You had Chrissy Hein singing with you. And when we talked a couple years ago, you had just performed Tony Bennett, I think, the

night before in New York. Should you meet your heroes? We've had pretty great experiences with it so far. It all depends on the context and when it happens. Because I also, you know, I met Morrissey when I was 18. And I, and I shouldn't have met him. But that was my fault. I was an idiot.

I was like, I was, I lost control of, of, of him. Did you just like wait outside for him to come out of him? I was, no. I mean, I was his bus, I was a bus boy at the restaurant. Oh, wow. And, um, I just lost my cool, you know. Was eating a steak dinner? No.

Was he just like bloat us cover? No, I can't blow that. No, it was mushroom pizza. Yeah. That's on brand. That's okay. Yeah. So it's, you know, so really I wasn't prepared to meet him.

And so it's all depends. But we've had really great experiences. That's true. I guess because if you walk into a room with someone, you know, and you can recognize each other, not that, you know, you would even say that you're on the same level of some of these people, but that you make music, right? And so you can talk about it from like a, this is our job. This is our craft point of you.

as opposed to the always complicated supplicant God relationship. I'm still careful. I try not to bother people. Yeah. I don't know. It's just a weird place to be in. I don't know what they've gone. You know, people are weird sometimes.

I wanted to ask. One time I, Stephen Stills, Chrysler's Stiller's and Nashville. This is, this feels like it's already starting on the wrong note if it's Stephen Stills. It was like, it was three in the morning. I was, yeah, I was like 20 years old. I used to drop a baggage off at hotels for the airlines would lose the luggage. I worked for a company that retrieved the luggage and delivered it. And I was pulling up in my van and full of luggage.

And I saw Stephen Stills get out of his Cadillac. It's like 3.30 in the morning. No one else is there. It's just me and him and I just knew him. What 20-year-old kid knows who Stephen Stills is at that time. So I thought he'd be impressed that I even knew him. You know? Like he's not on the radar.

Everybody's listening to like, you know, you know, current shit. Yeah. Everybody's a big Graham Nash head. They're not into Stills. Yes, Steve. And I just, I went up to him and I remember I was being, I wanted to make it very, you know, succinct. And just let him know that I, I'm a, I play music because of you. Thanks.

Thanks so much. And he was like, just had a cigarette. He was like, yeah. and then just fucking walked away. I was like, God damn. And that made me me just still, I was like,

I don't want to meet any of these people anymore. That sucks. Fucking rude. But you know what? But you know what? I love Manassas. He would just been like, I don't do shit. Yeah.

No, I said, man, I love your stuff. I grew up on your voice. And thanks for that. It's because of you that I'm a musician too. And he just took like the most sucking us drag off the cigarette, like right into the filter, flicked it and said, yeah, and then

walked away. And to be clear, this is the same cigarette. You can light another cigarette as you talked about menaces, smoked into the filter. No, we didn't talk about menace. But, yeah, that made me, you know, a little, you know, a little scared to me to other people.

I did want to ask, though, because, like, one of the cool things about the new record, and I like this about Desire to F-I mean, I love this about Desire to Fex, was like the way in which you guys pay tribute to your heroes with like sonically but like in this very like cool new way that where I feel like you know

then Mark Knopfler's on this record you know it's like but I was kind of wondering like as you guys get older does your relationship like did you guys think dire straits was cool when you were growing up or was dire straits were like was there ever a point where you were like Dire Straits man I'm into the Ramones like or what I remember hearing my dad was a big Dire Straits fan

and we had this kick out We had a 67 VW bus with like the stereo system in it was worth more than the bus itself. And my dad had put like home stereo speakers in it. That's the best. I put the tape in and just crank that thing in there and run the battery down as a kid and just listen to the drums and everything. It's fucking Vegas at 150 degrees inside this van. It was like having like those pey experiences and sweating it out listening to Dyer Straits. And I remember that was like an early, I just.

just remember just, you know, listening that record, especially the drums on that record, is incredible. But there's something that's constant, I think, and what Chris is getting at, I was interested in, too,

which is it's not that complicated, I feel like, on a certain level. I mean, maybe I say that because I don't actually have to write the songs or perform them. But I think that the reason why the killers make good records is you write good songs

and you perform them well, and it's fun to go see you live in concert. You know, you got Bruce Hornsby on your solo record because, God, he's really good. You know, Mark Knopfler is really good at guitar. There's a reason why he is. Like, you're not trying to, like, signal something about your coolness or your connection

to what's on the charts right now. And, you know, that has its benefits. And sometimes surprising things can happen when people do go chart chasing. But they're just good. And there's something foundational about that that is reliable and really pleasurable to continue to listen to it. The audience is smarter than people think. Yeah.

And they pick up on that stuff. They know if you're chasing a chart or if you're actually just doing it because it is good. and it's wholesome. Have you noticed that people have, you said audiences are smart and I agree with you, has the record industry, the business part of it, adapted a little bit to that as well? Because I believe, I don't know if this is correct,

so tell me if it is, but that, because you're on, this record is coming out on island? And is this a new contract with them? Because it wasn't the greatest hits the end of the first deal? No, we still have one. We've renegotiated at one point. We still owe them one more record. Because I'm wondering if there are people now,

because I don't know anyone who works there anymore, more, but I wonder if the people who work there are like, write killer songs, write a killer's album, or if there's still the, and you don't need to name names, but is there still the cliche of the record industry person being like, write a killer song, but the Calvin Harris remix will be the one that we put straight radio and blah, blah, blah. It's a business. By the way, I like Calvin Harris. Yeah, you know, it's a business.

And we realize that pretty early on how, you know, at the very beginning, no one would pay attention to us. And then we go and play five shows or four shows in England, come back. after a couple write-ups and everybody's like taking you out to dinner. Yeah.

So we get, we get that it's like, you know, it's called the music business. So there's a component to it, but there's also a lot of smart people, you know, that are still there

and people that genuinely love and appreciate music. And, you know, they might not get 100% of who we are, but we work together. I mean, how do you, that's just what you have to do. have to have some sort of working relationship.

You've done this now. This will be the fifth time you're out there with a studio record. I imagine you're going to be on tour for a while. Imagine there are places you're going to see again and a cycle to go through. You're going to have to sit down with dummums like us in front of microphones who ask you about boots and chinos. Boots and chinos. At this point in your career, are you still excited about it? Or is there a specific thing that you get excited about? Is it just playing the new songs on the road?

Is it spending time together? What is it about the job that you, is your job now? that still gets you going to do it. These new, yeah, the new, we're really excited about these new songs. And we love, you know, and we're going to honor what we've done before. But we really, we, in last October, we did, celebrated the 10 years of Samstown. And I had forgotten how theatrical the whole thing was. We found all the, we found the floors that we used to bring and the wood crates and the festoons and all these lights and stuff.

and we put it up and we had the big entrance with the screen, and it would fall after the intro played. And it was really theatrical, and I forgot how much I loved that. And so we're really going to try to apply that to what we're doing on this new record. And that's something that I'm really looking forward to doing. And another thing that's sort of, we're sort of spoiled now. You know, we've got the way we travel is, you know. You got your nephew in a forest.

I mean, you guys are really living the life. You know, it's nice. It's nice. In and out. And the days off can be, instead of, you know, we can sort of dictate where we're going to be on days off and go and have experiences that not a lot of bands get to have. You know, if there's a day off, we can route things to where we can go to the Alps and do a hike. And, you know, we take advantage of those things. Parlay vacation.

And that's, instead of just going downtown somewhere and looking for a Chili's or whatever it is, you can, we can, you know, we can have these experiences. and I totally understand that that we're spoiled, but that's what we do. You earned it. It took 15 years, but we can get a hike in. We have to, we'd be remiss if we didn't, because it's something that we generally talk about. We do an after show, and your publicist,

our friend Jen, just said that you guys were talking about it. We have to ask you about Thrones. Do you guys both watch Game of Thrones? I know, Brandon, you were talking to Jen about it. He's current. I'm not current. It's weird when the dragons eat Tyrion. That was a weird thing.

He said that because it's small. I just wanted to see his face in a dragon thing. So you know this last episode? Yeah. I was just, you know, where John Snow and, what's how do you say her name? Nairns. I hate to say. You're straight up spoiling the show in front of your band made.

Oh, he doesn't hear right. Before you go on tour, the guy's relationship is. So when she gives John Snow permission to mine the dragon glass. Yeah. Where they were standing, I was there three weeks ago in Spain. You've been to Dragonstone? It's Bass Country. We did the hike.

For real? Because we played in Bilbao, Spain. and we did this hike and you go, there's not a castle at the end of that hike. They put that there, yeah.

But there is a church. Yeah. And it's a beautiful, it's a beautiful kind of hike. And anyway, I was pretty excited to see them standing there because we were just there. And we were in the ocean,

we jumped in. But you didn't mind anything. I didn't bring back any dragon glass. Did you take, did you, did you bend the knee? For any reason? Or no?

No. Not as well. I did a Thrones walking tour in Dubrovnik. And, I mean, Debrunich's, beautiful, but I don't necessarily know if I'd recommend this throne store because they would take you, like it was where they did the shame walk. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And they would take you, like,

take it along. And but then it would, it would be like, you know, like a t-shirt stand. With the Sir Searcy's shame walk? And then they would be like, so as you could see here, they added that in post, and they added that in post. And they would just look at this photo of all the stuff that they put in and I was just like, so it's the show. But with like a street that we're looking at. So, yeah, I understand the disappearing castles that they have sometimes. Has the ability to binge watch seasons of television improve touring? Yeah, we talk about, like, docu-series and things a lot. Docky series?

Yeah. Like making a murder. The staircase? The staircase? Yeah. Incredible. And a pinch of salt. Yeah, the keepers is one that I was telling them about it.

Deadliest catch got me through a European tour on time. No, I love the Deadliest Catch. this catch. It's kind of amazing because we had Katie Crutchfield, who's in a band called Waxahatchee in here yesterday, and we were asking you the same thing, because we're sort of wondering because we talk about TV a lot, like if people are just powering through the greats, you know, like the Breaking Bad and the

wire and really talking about prestige television, but it seems like, and she said, no, we just listen to audiobooks about cults. It just seems like the monotony of tour lends it up to a certain kind of entertainment. Not that this is worse, but like a docu-series is a very different kind of relationship than watching seven seasons of 30 rock.

Or, you know, it does seem like there's something, Deadlease catches the vibe, basically, after five months of just living in buses with people. I think you're just, I think it's comforting to hear the American accent. Yeah. What's that narrator's name? The guy that does the dirty jobs, isn't it? Mike Rowe. Mike something, yeah.

I think I just feel comfortable hearing him speak. He's a real American voice. Yeah, it makes me feel good. You should watch Ozark next tour. It's like a very good TED app. Did you like it? I thought it was excellent. Yeah.

It's like really, really intense. I never saw Jason Bateman. in that sort of role before, which is just sort of a testament of how creative and actor he is. I want to do a TV interview podcast with Ronnie who hasn't caught up with Game of Thrones but has finished Ozark.

This is a unique career. I don't play games. I like laundering money and shit. I think we just got the knock because your public says don't want you talking about Ozark anymore. That is too hot. Brandon and Ronnie, thank you for taking the time to talk to us. Congratulations on the new record.

Thanks, man. And thanks for telling us about pants. We didn't know. You didn't know. Thanks, guys. Today's episode of the watch was brought to you by Universal Pictures, American Made. Tom Cruise has reunited with his Edge of Tomorrow director, Doug Lyman, in American Made. It's based on the outrageous true-life exploits of Barry Seal, a hustler and pilot recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history.

Remember, watch listeners, American Made is in theaters on September 29th. Thanks for listening to today's show. Be back to you on Monday.