The Strokes were once the bastion for The Killers, but it seems like Vampire Weekend is the band’s new muse according to Brandon Flowers.
Imploding The Mirage, the latest album from The Killers, sees the band exploring new musical territory while still retaining that distinct pop sound they’re best known for.
Having said that though, The Killers’ frontman Brandon Flowers says the band’s new record was more inspired by Vampire Weekend than their previous creative benchmark, The Strokes.
Chatting to NME about the inspiration behind Imploding The Mirage, Flowers said how The Killers were in a deep creative hole for their latest album and were only able to dig their way out after listening to Vampire Weekend’s 2019 album, Father Of The Bride.
“That really helped to propel us into the right direction and realise that we couldn’t just phone in The Killers’ record,” recalls Flowers. “We had to do better. I told Ezra [Koenig, Vampire Weekend’s frontman] that. I’m grateful for people like him.”
When asked if this helped fuel a sense of healthy competition between The Killers and Vampire Weekend, Flowers responded with an enthusiastic “Yeah!” and said how it was similar to when The Strokes released their seminal album, Is This It, in 2001.
Flashing back to 2016, Flowers recalled how he felt “depressed” after listening to Is This It. “We threw away everything [we were working on] and the only song that made the cut and remained was ‘Mr. Brightside.’” he tells NME.
Love Indie?
Get the latest Indie news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
For what it’s worth, The Strokes also saw The Killers as some sort of creative rival back in the day. In Lizzy Goodman’s book about the rise of indie rock in New York City during the 2000s, Meet Me In The Bathroom, The Strokes’ guitarist Nick Valensi revealed how the band “had conversations that went along the lines of ‘Gosh, I think our songs are better than ‘Mr. Brightside’ by The Killers” but was baffled people were listening to The Killers instead of them.
Given the creative impact Vampire Weekend and The Strokes have had on The Killers, perhaps we’ll see these two contrasting bands be combined together in the band’s purported new album that’s penciled in for 2021.
Check out ‘Dying Breed’ by The Killers:
