KILL THE LIGHTS - THE KILLERS

A strangely compelling miasma surrounds The Killers. They’ve always been one of the most perplexing acts to operate within the mainstream rock lexicon.  While, superficially, the band’s success and accessibility would seem to position the Las Vegas quartet as a lowest common denominator rock band lacking in both ambition and artistry, a more thorough investigation into the ensemble’s output and career trajectory over the past eight years of their existence reveals a portrait of a decidedly more ambiguous and intriguing outfit. 
The band’s work is awash with paradox and contradiction. Stylistically, the quartet have flitted from the New Wave and post-punk flirtations of breakthrough 2004 debut album Hot Fuss through to the stadium rock of 2006’s Sam’s Town and the shimmering electro rock of 2008’s Day & Age without ever successfully vanishing from the charts while the pop-friendly hooks of hit singles like Human and Mr Brightside belie the band’s reputation as an electrifying live act (as demonstrated by recent CD/DVD release Live From Royal Albert Hall).
“It doesn’t really make sense but – we’ve done stuff for TV before and, when someone says they’re taping something and it’ll go to air later in the week, I don’t get as nervous as when we have to just perform live to camera,” guitarist Dave Koening reflects on documenting the band’s live show. “I mean, it’s not like you can do anything about it, anyway. I’d rather just not know about it and those situations and usually it just turns out fine. I’d rather not do any homework like study my performance. I’d rather just go out there and do the best I can on the night.
“We picked the Royal Albert Hall because it looked great and we’d had a great show there before and then we just played a show and recorded it. We’d like to do another one someday. It was one of the easier processes related to being in a band, I suppose – much easier than working on an album. There was no heading to the studio everyday to work through everything with a fine tooth comb.”
The Killers’ penchant for memorable live performances and stylistic flexibility, meanwhile, are merely superficial manifestations of the band’s most defining and compelling dichotomy – an ongoing relationship between frivolous transience and artistic poignancy. One need only examine a lyric like the chorus to Human – “Are we human/or are we dancer?” – for evidence of the juxtaposition. While derided as nonsensical by the band’s detractors, the line in question confronted a philosophical malaise initially expressed metaphorically by legendary journalist Hunter S Thompson when he said “America is raising a generation of dancers”.
The group’s penchant for Christmas singles, furthermore, exemplifies their fundamental dichotomy more completely than any other facet of their creative output. An annual tradition for the band, The Killers have released a Christmas single every year since 2006 with last year’s Happy Birthday, Guadalupe being the most recent instalment.
“It is a bit weird,” Koening admits of the band’s tradition. “The songs have all been very different as well; some have been written by the band and some have been written entirely by Brandon [Flowers, vocalist]. I think, sometimes, we just like to write music and we just like to have an excuse to put something out. I sometimes think people take us too seriously – ‘what does this lyric mean?’ – sometimes those lyrics don’t mean anything. I think sometimes songs are just words and music.
“I’m drawing a blank for examples but, often, when I read articles, I discover everyone has a different opinion and has come to a particular revelation and have ‘figured out what The Killers are’,” Koening says dryly. “And, really, they haven’t. Not really. There’s really not as much to figure out as people seem to think. The four of us help to write the music and Brandon writes the lyrics and that’s mostly what we are. We don’t have some crazy agenda or plan or anything.”
Once one begins to understand The Killers’ underlying motives, one begins to appreciate the path the band have decided to temporarily embrace for the next segment of their career. An outfit who were forced to contend with global recognition almost from the outset of their recording career, The Killers have been growing and developing in the public eye since the release of 2004’s Hot Fuss. It would make sense, therefore, for the band to want to take a step back from the world and explore their identities in private – and, following their Australian tour, they will.
“There will not be a new Killers album that will come out in 2010, I promise you that,” Koening offers. “We’re going to play these four shows in Australia and then take a break. There may be some music released by members of the band that will not be Killers material but there won’t be a Killers record. I can’t tell you what everyone’s going to do right now, because they might change their mind by the time I get off the phone, but if anybody in the band wants to do anything else, now will be the time for them to do it – while we all take our time off.
“Eventually – we will come back and write and release a new Killers record. I can’t put a date on it but I do know it won’t be this year,” the guitarist reassures. “This is kind of something that I could feel brewing over the course of this tour. We’ve been touring for a year and a half and I think we all knew by the halfway point that, when we were done with this, we didn’t just want to jump back into the studio and jump back on the road. I don’t think there’ll be much harm in us going away for a bit. We’ll probably come back again with more energy.
“I mean – check out the break Weezer took between their second and third record.  When they came back – everybody loved them. Nobody even cared that they took a break. They came back and they were better than ever,” Koening enthuses. “We’re not dealing with the issue of breaking up because we haven’t even talked about that. All we’ve talked about is taking a break. It’s the only thing we’ve got planned right now.”

WHO:    THE KILLERS
WHAT:    LIVE FROM ROYAL ALBERT HALL THROUGH ISLAND/UNIVERSAL / PLAY ENMORE THEATRE / GOOD VIBRATIONS FESTIVAL
WHEN:    OUT NOW / FRIDAY 12 FEBRUARY / SATURDAY 13