Brandon Flowers' Priceless Quotes- 2004 [Blast from the past]

He has so many, and we all know the usual Twinkie quotes that are everywhere, but there are some gems from the way way past. And what a shame if they got forgotten forever. I will add to this list over time-

[ETA- I compiled literally a bazillion of Brandon's quotes '04-'10 HERE.

2004
(Spin)

"I had a brother (Shane) who was 12 years older than me, and he was into the Cars, the Beatles, Morrissey, and The Cure. He was always watching U2's Rattle and Hum and Morrissey videos.I would sneak into his room when he was at school. He had the coolest posters. Like The Cure from The Head On the Door. Where their faces are painted. When my great-grandmother died, he didnt go to the funeral. We were all in the car waiting for Shane and he never showed up. My mom went in the house and ripped every single poster on the wall in half because she knew that was the worst thing she could do to him."


"I could get shot for this, but I don't think having a museum in your town makes you better than anyone else. I'm really sick of that attitude. Maybe that's me being ignorant. But we did fine without it. I mean, you can watch movies and read books, and there is music, you've just got to find it. We did it all on our own."
-- On living in the less sophisticated Nephi, Utah and Henderson, Nevada


"It was really weird because other kids were buying Tool and Nirvana and I was buying the Cars and Psychedelic Furs. I was pretty alienated as a kid.
--listening to different music than most kids when he was 12 in Utah


"My dad was a produce man. He worked in grocery stores for 35 years. My mom just babysat kids and raised us."

"I learned the difference between good girls and bad girls. I can tell the second I meet someone."

--growing up with four sisters

"I remember hearing girls behind me in english class talking about turning 18 and being old enough to strip. It wasn't weird at the time."

--bad girls in Las Vegas

"I was really torn when I was eight because I had one sister who loved, like, New Edition. She was trying to put me in rayon shirts, while my brother made me listen to The Cars."

"The White Stripes would be on it. The strokes, Franz Fedinand, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Kings of Leon. Those are my favorites."

-- '04 faves for a mix tape (sigh, those were the days in music)

"You could throw Interpol on it. I don't like The Stills" (LOL)

--When the interviewer suggests Interpol and the Stills

"It's very important. I mean, It's important in everybody's life. Basic relegion is the reason we have morals. I am actually a mormon, not an ex-mormon. I occasionally drink and smoke, but i'm trying-I'm human."

--religion was just as important to him back then, apparently

"None of us is really a party animal."

"(stammers) I don't know if I see drugs or slutty girls or something it just might be me who turns away. I don't know it it's just the way I am, saying "I'm going to bed now" or if it's from being raised Mormon."

-- On which situation would make it difficult to resist temptation

"It's true. The hotel held a lot of roackabilly conventions, and Morrisey's guitarist, Boz Boorer, would always come. I got to know him a bit. One time he asked me to store his bags while he went to have a drink. I shouldnt have done it, and I still feel bad, but I went through one of them. I just wanted to see what Boz was listening to. One of the CD's said "The Album" and it had all the tracks from You are the Quarry on it. I knew they were making a new record and I recognized the song titles. I called Ronnie and he was going to come and burn it because it wasnt out for months. But I put it on the CD Player at work, and it was only the music, not the vocals, so I called Ronnie back and told him not to bother.

--naughty bellhop

"It was always in me. My dad is a big dreamer, so I got that from him... But, yeah, making the transition has been weird. I always wanted this.

--going from awkward chubby preteen to heartthrob

(NME, March)

"It's really just a play on words. But it gets people confused. That's good."

"The androgyny means we appeal to boys and girls. That's really important to us."

--'Somebody Told Me,' already showing his calculating genius

"It's about a football player from my high school. Teachers favour the football players and wrestlers. It's made known: these guys are special. In fact, the teachers encouraged the hierarchy, as a lot of them were coaches too"...it's "a song for a loner".

--'Andy You're a Star' (oh yes)

"It's about a couple breaking up; all the boy cares about is keeping the whiskey they bought."

--'Leave the Bourbon on the Shelf,' part 1 of the murder trilogy

"It's OK making the decision to split up, but when somebody finds somebody else, it's terrible; it's the worst feeling in the world."

--still discussing the trilogy

"She found another boy. It was kinda ugly!"

-- How his last relationship ended

(Radio 1)

I think The Killers are going to be a little bit more organic on the next record."

--on next album after Hot Fuss

(Radio 1 Music Exposed) 

"Every band gives a thought to their image. Even the ones who don't appear to care, or look like they haven't bothered, have made a conscious decision specifically not to look like they've made an effort."

"The song is a cliché. But that's good because it makes it more memorable. And that's what you want songs to be." "'Somebody Told Me' could be 'Rio' - with chest hair. But I do think we have more of an edge than Duran Duran - we're more about rock and roll and bands like The Rolling Stones."

--'Somebody told Me'

"People over here (UK) aren't afraid to admit that they like something. If they hear a good song they're gonna clap and scream. In the US it's much harder to get people to appreciate you." 

(Creative Loafing, March)

"When we play that song over here, we get bottles thrown at us."

--On playing 'Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll' in the US as opposed to UK-

"It's shown them that, you know, it can be done -- even out here in the dirt."

-- The Killers' success encouraging younger LV bands

(LV Review Journal, April)

"Yeah, somebody's gotta do it. We love bands like the Strokes and things like that, but we want to take it -- not necessarily just mainstream -- but to a bigger level, even song-wise. I mean, the Strokes are great, but they don't have U2 quality, like stadium. And we're not really afraid to say, 'I wouldn't mind playing in a stadium with big songs.' "

"A lot of kids -- they want to be a little weird and things like that. And none of us are really like that. I love pop songs. You can give me some weird, ugly chord change, and I'll turn it into a pop song. I can't help it. I just really love that stuff, and we just try to write the best songs that we can."

--before the days of 'Tranquilize'

"At the time, I was really big into keyboard music. And they closed with 'Don't Look Back In Anger,' and it just shook me. That made me really want to get a guitar player. And that basically led me to find Dave, and just (tone down on the) keyboards."

-- Seeing Oasis at the Joint changed his band plans

"We haven't had any negative press, yet."

(The Independent, June)

"We are a great rock band - it's as simple as that. We're as good as The Strokes, Kings of Leon and The White Stripes." A smile plays on his lips. Sitting next to him, the bass player Mark Stoermer, looking deadly serious, nods in agreement. Not since Oasis first swaggered out of Manchester have a new band oozed quite so much blind self-assurance.

"Peter Hook's the man! With his jeans, leather jacket and hairy chest, he's a burly man in a tank top, yet he plays these beautiful bass lines."

-Peter Hook of New Order

"I liked the way Morrissey was, on stage. The way he performed and owned the audience - the way people wanted to touch him. That led me into his music." 

"I don't think great bands come out of great music scenes. I don't need some local person to inspire me."

"We're a real band with a great talent for writing catchy songs." 

"I can make myself miserable in minutes with what my mind can conjure up".

"He's bought our single - that's nuts!...Morrissey really was unbelievable. Everybody did want to touch him. If our fans felt that way about us, that would be awesome...[when they opened for him] Apparently he was tapping his foot," he gasps.

**~*~*~*~Flowers spots a group of girls he recognises and regains his composure. "Hey, look, it's our favourite fans," he says, affectionately. "We're the next Duran Duran because of them." Is he serious? Are they really on a journey to stadiums and yachts, platinum discs and beautiful women? The glint in his eyes says they are. "If you don't believe it, it won't happen."~**~*~*~*~

(SF Weekly)

"There's been this whole nü-metal and pop-punk thing, and it needed a change. Real songs, you know ... I mean, I don't think people are going to be looking back at, you know, Creed in 20 years and saying, 'Oh my gosh,' you know?" 

"Now it seems like there's more bands, like us, whoever it is, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and things like that, you know, we all put our own clothes on and write our own songs and we like great music. And it all comes across a lot more real to people, I think." 

"No, I don't really think of us like that. ... I actually kind of thought that had come and gone, that whole new-wave type of thing. ... I do like a lot of the '80s new-wave stuff, I do. But I just, I like David Bowie just as much, you know, from the early '70s. I like John Lennon."

"I watched the other [Vegas] bands worry so much about these small gigs that didn't mean anything. I mean, it meant something to play out, but they worried, you know, about other local bands. ... My head wasn't with the local scene, it was always above it." 

"I mean, if I made chairs, I would want people to buy my chairs, you know? So I don't care if it's a cool person, I don't care if it's somebody people think is an idiot, you still want them to buy it. I want as many people to hear it as possible. ... We all like the big bands, and we're not afraid to be one." 

(? UK Times, May)

When a radio disc jockey asks whether the Killers are the best band in the history of Las Vegas-

“No. We’re the best band in the history of the world.”

“The problem is not that we failed but that we were more ourselves. People who are on our side call it ‘coming out of yourself’, when really they want you to fake it...I think we need to find a middle ground... A half-fake.” 

“America’s the market that’s the hardest. We have the big dogs behind us, but there are so many bands that do. If you’re not Kid Rock, it’s going to be really hard.” 

“We’re an intelligent band and we have intelligent songs,, and these people who are interviewing us are used to these kids, which we’re really not. We have the mentality almost of an underground band, but they’re asking us mainstream questions. That’s where we’re colliding.” 

“He was just so gung-ho about us. In meetings, he would be like, ‘I’m going to burn this building down for the Killers.’”

--ex-Warner bros record company boss Lyor Cohen

(Metromix, Sept)

"I've always loved crime shows on TV, and I love horror films. "The Ring," "The Exorcist," "The Omen." The old man in "The Exorcist"--oh my gosh. He scares the hell out of me."

"It's fun to write about dark things."

"It was awful. I still love the cheap pizza --Little Ceasar's, Pizza Hut." 

-Chicago deep dish pizza


Interviewer mentions he was a bellhop-

"First of all, I was a bell-man." [lol]. And it wasn't as exciting as it's made out to be. It was usually just miserable. I'd make like $2 on the graveyard shift. It was Western-themed, and sometimes, when the rodeo was in town, I used to have to cart these really heavy brass sculptures into the cowboys' rooms, like an old man smoking a pipe, or a cowboy riding a bull. I don't know what was going on with that."

"He humped his leg at Coachella. Whatever. Isn't he in his 40s? Grow up, dude. It's OK to be young at heart, but humping someone's leg is ... well, a little too young."

-- Andy Dick and TK's lawyer

"Yeah, well, I don't want to really be influenced by someone right now. Maybe it's an ego thing. Everything today sucks ... Bands like The Stills bother me because they're all style and no substance. It's totally obvious that these kids don't love the classics like we love them. They're just in it for the now." [meeooww]

"Ah, I don't know. We put it out with a fire extinguisher, which wasn't very Hendrix at all. It was definitely not one of rock's greatest moments."

-- An amp caught on fire on stage, interviewer asks if it was a Hendrix moment

(LV Review Journal, Sept.)

"You know, I'll be honest, though. Our crowd has never been that great in Las Vegas. You know how the kids are there.... So a lot of [Vegas kids go to Killers shows] just to basically set their minds straight that we're not worth what's happening, you know? And you feel it. I feel it the second I walk out onto the stage, every time we're in Las Vegas. And it's not a positive feeling. And it's hard, because I love Las Vegas."

"This could be a really good thing for local bands. Without us, nobody would've ever thought of Las Vegas for a band. I mean, it's been a long time."

"That really hit us over the head. There was 15- to 20,000 people at our gigs, two nights in a row. And there's just so many people, you can't see the ground. And every person's fist is up in the air for `All These Things That I've Done' or `Mr. Brightside.' It feels great."

-- NME tour

"It's hectic. When we finished the album, we were all happy with the way it turned out. (But) we didn't know how busy it was gonna be."

"Every now and then, I'll notice a couple of people that follow us around for a couple of shows, and I feel almost embarrassed to do the same thing that I might have done the night before. But for the most part, it's all new people, so I've gotta get used to that."

(Cardiff Barfly, March)

"Yeah there's got to be some kind of continuity to our sound at the moment as people are just getting to know us. We want to do a great first album, then the second album will be a little bit different and the third will be a total change. People may think they know our sound but it changes constantly, each song is different. "

(Eagle, April)


"You want to hate them for it, but they write good songs. The decline of the starving artist is a little annoying. The only reason it would bother me is if they were pompous, and some of them are."
--An onslaught of successful bands like Interpol and The Strokes coming from affluent families


"[Vegas is] like a cheap L.A. The fake culture crap gets fed here a year later." 
--separate from LA and NY scenes


"I was a bellhop. I saw people get drunk and lose all their money, so it was a good example of what not to do."

--ooh he said bellhop


"The only one who hasn't lost a step is Morrissey. He's my hero."
-as opposed to other classics such as David Bowie and Iggy Pop


(Xpress, Oct)


"Yeah, I guess it's kind of annoying, but really I'm just happy people are talking about the album at all. We knew what a long shot it was going to be getting into this. We've been amazingly lucky." 
--on getting overhyped


"That's a funny thing. What's a guilty pleasure anyway? I guess it's something you like for its quality in spite of it being uncool at the time. People used to call Duran Duran a guilty pleasure. Michael Stipe was doing an interview recently and he was saying that he used to consider them his guilty pleasure even though he would insult them publicly. He regretted it, saying that today he believes that they were a strong band. So, I don't really mind the characterization so long as people eventually come around to appreciating what we're trying to do. I guess we're a little more clean-cut than The Strokes or The White Stripes and in a sense we still have to pay our dues, but that doesn't mean we can't write a good song." 


"No, they make awful music now. I just got the new album and it's laughable. If you want the model for a band that lasts, look at U2."
--Whether Duran Duran are still good


"I don't know what it is. You know what it is? U2 accept that they're getting older and they write songs about being 40-year-old dads. Duran Duran still write about being young and glamorous. I think it's about maturing with your songs instead of trying to maintain this artificial image."


(Q, Dec)
"We've got a Rome and a Paris and even an England in Vegas." 

"I knew she was screwing someone else. I guess I should have done something but I'm not a violent person. But it really affected me. I would physically throw up... jealousy is a terrible, terrible experience...I wouldn't be here if we hadn't written Mr Brightside. I have no regrets. And they've split up now, so I hear. She knows she fucked up." 

--ex-gf and inspiration for Mr. B

"I grew up thinking that people were watching me. I know that makes me weird but it's who I am. I like people watching me." 

"Bands want to pick fights with us. We're not New York cool, we are proud to have a pop element to us." 

"But he did mention us onstage, which he never usually does. We cling to that nugget."

--Morrissey never said hello

Meanwhile Flowers puffs on a Davidoff with queenly daintiness and relates how his father once caught him dancing in his bedroom to Erasure. "He just said, Ya like that kinda music huh, son? and walked out," he says, face falling into his hands. 

--One of my favorite Brandon quotes evar

"I'm not gay. I can't even be bothered to start some kind of intrigue about it. Bowie could nurture that sort of mystique, but this is an age where everyone knows everything about you in 10 seconds." 

"It's just too easy for people to think, Oh, they're from Vegas so they must be shallow and fake. But I would say the opposite. We formed a band and did things in the face of everything around us. There was no one like us in Vegas or even in America. We gambled and that's the only thing that comes from our hometown."

(Nat'l Post, July)

"It slips and slides…it goes up and down. I mean, I got up at four this morning, so I’m tired. But tomorrow I’m playing with Morrissey. So, I mean, it’s just like that."

"We're definitely not afraid of pop -- I love pop music. I understand a lot of the indie thing, but you ask me what my favourite bands are, and I'd say the Beatles and U2 and bands that were not indie bands. They sold records and wanted people to hear their music, and that's what we want. So I'd say we're a rock band that has pop sensibilities." 

"I’ve been trying to figure out the answer to why it happens the way it does. And I think it’s because they want the new thing now. In America, we do want new things, but the way our radio system is, a song will be played on the radio for six months. And there, your singles are like every two months. And then on to the next one, and on to the next one after that. They just want to keep adding. So we’d released a second single there when Somebody Told Me had just come out in America. So it’s going to be going (in the U.S.) for a while, and we’re already onto our third one over there now. 

--Why UK is easier to break

"Yeah, things are definitely changing. Even if I wasn’t in a band, and I wasn’t part of it, I would be happy about the trend. I mean, it was hurting. Hip-hop dominates, and it still will, and I don’t think it ever will stop, really. But as for the rock… what people considered rock ‘n’ roll - it just wasn’t real. You’d see these guys in their videos and their photo shoots, and it was just obvious. They’d have on brand new clothes, and their hair just got perfectly highlighted. …the record labels would kick people out of bands if they didn’t look right…people were on diets…we’re getting away from that. I mean, I think that’s still gonna exist, but a lot of bands like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Strokes and the White Stripes and us and Franz Ferdinand – we’re all real, you know what I mean? We all dress ourselves and write our songs. 

"So that’s one good part of this new change, and another thing is the songs are better. More classic songs…even it sounds more ’80s, there’s great chord changes and great structures, and that’s what was missing."

"One thing that was just weird was that, if you look at the way songs were with Creed and things like that, what all kinda started it - which ended up not being anything like it at all - was Creep from Radiohead. You had this verse, and then the distortion kicks in, then the chorus, and that just fueled something, and it led all the way up…and I mean, you hear it in Creed. I mean, every single song. Matchbox 20, all those bands…I really think that had something to do with it. But it just ended up being contrived…I like the new stuff."

"I definitely am a people-watcher. I like both aspects of songs. I like the personal song, and I like whatever you want to call it - call it “fake” or whatever. That’s half the fun – that you can write about absolutely anything you want. So I do enjoy writing about things that I watch, or just things that I make up. There are a couple of songs that are personal songs…I think it makes for a good mix. "

"Mr. Brightside is a true story, man. It’s just a song about how dark and deep imagination can take you."

"I want people to wake up…it’s like when you’re young, and you just know songs – I want to have songs like that. And indie bands aren’t going to have those kinds of songs - they’re just not." 

 "We’re definitely not afraid of pop – I love pop music. I mean, that’s what I’d say the Beatles were. Even at their most experimental, they were a pop band."

"I love Las Vegas. I go to other cities and I just want to go home even more. ’Cause you have the city aspect of it, but it’s really wide open. You see the sky, and you can park your car and go places – it’s great. I love it. I love the desert, the mountains…"

"Yeah, sometimes. I’m not a big partier, though. But I still enjoy going shopping…buying CDs at Virgin in the Forum shops at Caesar’s – I love going there. And it’s beautiful at night – it’s such a pretty city at night."

--Whether he likes the 'good times' side of LV

"None of us are really…no good stories from us. We’re all pretty sober guys."

--TK as partiers

(LV Sun, Sept)

   

"This girl was waiting for me when I came out. And she was like, 'Why are you in Henderson?' She had no idea we were from Vegas or anything. It was funny." 

 -fan at movie theater

"I mean, I love Las Vegas. I don't think I'll ever leave. But whenever we play there, you see it in people's eyes, that they're just hoping you mess up or something." 

"He's one of my heroes, so that's just unreal. Things like that are still shocking." 

--Noel Gallagher choosing to play All These Things That I've Done on Radio 1

"The market is insane. It's dog-eat-dog. So we want to write better songs than everyone so we can keep going. Because as fast as this is happening, it will go away just as quickly if the second album sucks." 

(Oakland Press, Oct)

"I don't sing about wanting to kill myself, and there's not all this publicity about what a cokehead I am. People think there's no way we can be this good. Maybe if I was on heroin or talked about how difficult life is, it would help. But this is what we are, and I'm glad the people who come to the shows and buy the records seem to like it." 

"He grew up right in the time of U2 and the Smiths and everything. I remember him having NME covers on his wall, blasting the Cure and everything. So to have us be on the NME cover and have Morrissey and Duran Duran talking about us in interviews, he's just in shock. I love it." 

 -brother Shane

"Getting compared to anybody that's great, like that is wonderful. But to say that we're just an 1980s band, that bothers me 'cause we're not. If we took the keyboards out, nobody would say that, I don't think. 

"So far, we haven't been compared to anybody who makes us cringe - except for, like, Gary Numan. All I know is 'Cars,' so I don't know what part of him they're comparing us to. Everyone else has been OK, though."

(LV Sun, April)

"In England they look at you like you're an alien when you say that you're from Las Vegas. We've had people ask us what hotel we live in. It's funny, but it's actually also been a blessing, because it separates us from other bands out there." 

"One of my favorite bands is the Smiths, and I just read an interview Morrissey did where he was talking about how excited he was when 'This Charming Man' came out in the charts at No. 59. So it hit me like a ton of bricks when 'Somebody Told Me' was No. 19." 

"What's happening is people are picking the good stuff out of the '80s. It was taboo for a while, but that was just the hair metal or the stupid clothes, whatever they wanted to make fun of. But there were some awesome bands, and that's what's getting recognized again."

"All of a sudden (the Cure's) Robert Smith is like a god again. And Morrissey has a new album coming out and people are freaking out about it. Even Duran Duran is suddenly getting lifetime achievement awards." 

"It's nice for us to know, but I don't know if other people are going to realize that. They'll probably just assume that we jumped on."

--TK predate the 80's revival trend.

"Being in other places has made us all appreciate Las Vegas even more. People are a lot friendlier there, the food is great and it's cold everywhere else. We were in New York in January and it was sick. I don't know how people do it."

(Oakland Tribune, Aug)

"Rodney likes us. I'd heard that he did, but I wasn't sure. Very cool. Looks like we're gonna hit the big time after all."
 -After KROQ's illustrious DJ Rodney Bingenheimer praises the band in person

"Bands used to make albums like U2's, huge uplifting efforts that could change your life. But we don't hear those kinds of records being made anymore, so we decided to make one ourselves." 

"You know, outside of the strip it's pretty normal. But it is difficult staying normal in Vegas. You go to high school with girls who say 'Well, when I get outta high school, I may as well strip.' ... But there are good girls there. I got a good one. She's a manager at Urban Outfitters." 

--already repetition starts to show up, and early Tana mention

"I was propositioned quite a few times, but I declined. And a couple of times it was with a couple of women -I'd get the call at my bell desk ... But I never did it." 

--life as a cute bellhop

"Condoms. People would call down and ask me to bring condoms to the rooms, so I'd go to the gift shop and buy their condoms."

"My big thing when I started writing songs was, if I had an idea, I'd call Dave's phone and leave a message, from my phone at the bell desk. I used that bell phone to call in many ideas. I loved doing that, and I still do it sometimes -- ring up, leave melody, lyrics, everything." 

"At the hotel, I saw miserable people who'd come from L.A., and they were just pathetic. So I learned from watching them." 

--gamblers

"I love the desert. I always thought that I'd wanna live in England, because I had this fascination with Manchester, Oasis and New Order. But when I finally went to England on tour for a few weeks, all I kept thinking was 'I wanna go home.' I love my home."