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Not long ago, Brandon Flowers told his Killers bandmates that he was pushing ahead with his first solo album, titled Flamingo. "I said, 'This isn't about getting attention or proving something, it's just what I'm accustomed to doing,' " he explains. "Also, there's a bit of a fear of mine to not perform for a long time. For seven years I've been cultivating this — really working on trying to be comfortable onstage."

Most of the songs for Flamingo, due in September, were written on the road while supporting the Killers' most recent disc, Day & Age. "These songs have an isolation to them that Killers records don't have. It's a little less keyboard, and a little more acoustic, so I started thinking about other people we could bring in," says Flowers. "So I shot for the stars, and we got Daniel Lanois."

Soon, Lanois joined Stuart Price (who produced Day & Age) at work on the disc. "It was strange at first," says Flowers. "There was a bit of a clash between Daniel and Stuart — which was actually pretty awesome to watch happen — and by the end of it, they were hugging each other." Their standout collaboration is "Playing With Fire," the haunting track in which Flowers, who grew up Mormon, sings, "Because I pray at a church with no steeple, doesn't mean I can't walk with God." He explains, "That song is about my journey. My parents let me live home [in Utah] when I was 15 to go to Las Vegas to find whatever it was I was looking for. And at that time I hadn't been going to church. But I don't think that just because you don't go to church you forfeit the right of having any guidance or help from God."

Flamingo is heavy with tales of desolate landscapes and personal redemption. "As I get older, I have this desire to represent Las Vegas," he says. "When the Killers first came out, a lot of people thought we were English, and it touched a chord in me, because my roots are very American." The album's title is derived from Flamingo Road, a prominent Vegas thoroughfare, far away from the neon lights of the Strip. Sam's Town casino — the namesake of the Killers' second album — sits on the road, Flowers' first job was at the nearby Wynn Country Club, and after work he'd spend his money at Tower Records on Flamingo and Maryland Parkway. "Then it turned into a vintage store and that's where I met my wife." It's not all a lovefest, though. On the track "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" Flowers peels back the sheets to reveal Vegas' underbelly. "There's the hookers, the drugs, people losing their retirements, all under the façade of these neon lights. It's kind of a heartbreaker."

Another highlight is "From Nogales to Magdalena," which Flowers says was inspired by a a documentary about a pilgrimage. "People walk 60 miles with a prayer or wish in their heart, every year on October 4th," he says. "I'm thinking about doing it." A session with producer Brendan O'Brien yielded the album's first single, the acoustic-driven "Crossfire." "That's my son Ammon's favorite," says Flowers, smiling. "Kids can always pick the hits."

- RollingStone 

The Killers frontman Brandon Flowers has finally spoken about his debut solo album.

The singer who revealed the project last month gave his first interview regarding Flamingo and stated one of his collaborators will be Rilo Kiley's singer Jenny Lewis.

"Jenny's helped me out on a couple of songs, and we also got to duet on a song called 'Hard Enough,' which turned out great," he said. "She's always popped into my mind whenever I think about getting a female vocalist involved because she's a fellow child of Las Vegas, too."

Aside from Lewis, Flowers revealed he has recruited a few famous producers for his solo effort. Flamingo will feature production work from Stuart Price (The Killers, Madonna), Daniel Lanois (U2, Neil Young) and Brendan O'Brien (Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen). The frontman also added that most of the material for his solo release was intended to be used on the next Killersrecord.

"To be honest, I personally would prefer it if this was a Killers record," said Flowers. "I certainly never sat around dreaming of going out on my own, but singing songs and writing songs, it's kind of what I do, you know? And I just don't want to stop right now."

As for The Killers current status, Flowers said he thinks his solo attempt will make the group stronger.

"I feel like I'm getting something out of my system with this album, but I want the next Killers album to be a wonderful collaboration between four guys who are ready to make the best record that they possibly can."

- Ultimate-Guitar 

The Killers' Brandon Flowers has confirmed he is set to release his debut solo album and it will be called 'Flamingo'.

The news comes after a mystery countdown clock appeared on their website - TheKillersMusic.com, which had left fans speculating since earlier in the week.

As previously reported, Flowers had denied he was leaving the group to go solo, but the Las Vegas band have confirmed they are now on 'hiatus'.

More information on Flowers' debut solo album is expected to be announced shortly.

Meanwhile, The Killers' drummer Ronnie Vannucci is set to release an album with members of Mumford and Sons, Keane and Noah And The Whale, under the name Mt Desolation

Jean Flowers, mother of Killers frontman Brandon Flowers, passed away last Thursday in Nevada after a two-year battle with brain cancer. She was 64.

The Killers had canceled several recent tour dates in Australia and Asia "due to the severity of the illness of a close family member," but the exact situation had remained undisclosed until late last week. An obituary in the Las Vegas Review-Journal (via Spinner), posted on February 13, confirmed the sad news.

Memorial services were held earlier this week in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, and Mrs. Flowers' body was laid to rest yesterday. She's survived by her husband, Terry, six children, 20 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

Despite Mrs. Flowers' illness, the Killers had planned to perform this coming weekend at Australia's Good Vibrations festival, and those tour dates still appear on the band's website, which was last updated February 15.

In the midst of the nixed gigs, a planned hiatus after their current run of concerts, and reports in 2009 that the band was "sick of the sight of each other," rumors of the band's demise began to circulate. However, the official line from the Killers camp remains firm: "[T]here are no plans for an indefinite hiatus."

- NME

The Killers had hoped that the Australian leg of their current tour would be completed as planned, but due to the severity of the illness of a close family member, they regretfully announce the cancellation of their Sydney Enmore show as well as their shows at Good Vibrations Festival Sydney and Good Vibrations Festival Perth this weekend. The band apologizes to their Australian fans and asks for their understanding. The Killers still intend to perform at the Good Vibrations Festival’s Gold Coast and Melbourne shows next weekend. The Killers would also like to take this opportunity to assure their fans that any concerns about the future of the band are unfounded. They are all looking forward to some time off at the end of this tour as they have been on the road for a long time, but there are no plans for an indefinite hiatus.

- thekillersmusic.com 

The mass hysteria that broke out in January after alternative rock band The Killers canceled their sold-out gig in Singapore summed it up: Singapore is officially a hotbed for indie music. 2010 definitely started off with a bang. In January alone, York hipster fave Yeah Yeah Yeahs descended upon our shores, followed closely by singer/songwriter Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall). Punk legends Green Day and acclaimed musicians Patrick Watson and Andrew Bird came next. 

The next two months are going to be just as satisfying with acts like Florence and The Machine, Kings of Convenience and Imogen Heap arriving.

But this growing interest in indie music certainly didn't happen overnight. Concert promoter Greenhorn Productions, set up in 2003, organized their first gig with folk singer Amy Wadge, and was pleasantly surprised when it sold out. The start of Mosaic Music Festival in 2005 expanded the scene further by bringing in bands such as Tortoise and Yo La Tengo over the last few years.

"Mosaic Music Festival may have begun with primarily jazz and world music performances but it’s always had the intent to introduce a range of quality sounds to our audiences," says Amy Ho, producer of Esplanade Theatres. "The indie acts have done somewhat better in terms of attracting our younger audiences. We get more and more people wiling to come and listen to new sounds and indie acts that we present each year.”

Sylvia Choy-Dhillion, director of Greenhorn Productions, which has also brought in Death Cab for Cutie and Aimee Mann agrees. "A large part of our success is due to the increasingly eclectic, sophisticated and discerning tastes of Singapore music fans. Patrick Watson’s recent show at the Esplanade Recital Studio was sold out and the band was pleasantly surprised that they were playing to a largely Singaporean audience that was as lively and uninhibited as they come.” 

All these point to one thing: We’re a building a music-loving reputation that’ll attract more bands and musicians to stop over. Ho reveals the quality of the acts performing at The Esplanade has helped convince others to come here and that Singaporeans are definitely eager for more. Greenhorn Productions also enthuses that they receive plenty of requests from over 4,000 of their Facebook group fans and they’re working to stay ahead of the curve in meeting audiences’ demand.

Indie music lovers will rejoice with that news. Next up, a music festival like Glastonbury, perhaps?

- cnngo

A press release has been issued from Live Nation

“It is with great regret that The Killers have been forced to cancel their upcoming appearances in Singapore, Beijing, Hong Kong, Manila, Tokyo and Seoul due to unforeseen circumstances.

The band deeply apologizes to their fans and hopes to reschedule their shows in these cities soon.”

In the meantime full refunds will be available from SISTIC via point of purchase.

Refunds will be administered at the SISTIC Box Office from 27 January – 7 February 2010. The refund hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 12 noon to 8pm and Sunday, 1pm to 7pm.

Refunds will be made in full, inclusive of the $3 SISTIC booking fees, through the original mode of payment.

For purchases made through Credit Card, refunds will be automatically credited to the same card.

For purchases made through CASH or NETS, please present the physical tickets and your NRIC/passport/FIN card at the SISTIC Box Office at Singapore Indoor Stadium. SISTIC reserves the right not to process your refund if these two items are not in order.

If you had purchased tickets from SISTIC’s overseas Authorised Agents, please contact them directly for further details.

For more information, call the SISTIC Hotline at (65) 6348 5555.

Ahead of The Killers’ hugely anticipated gig this month, we get to know their much-talked about frontman a little better.

Your three albums have seen a lot of changes; as time goes on, do you find that everything you’re experiencing feeds back into your music?

Yeah, and I think that’s the case with every album, too. I hope that one day people realise how honest we are. We haven’t gone back and said, "Oh, this worked, let’s do it again." We’re absorbing what’s happening to us and taking in new influences everywhere we go. The music that we listen to has slightly changed as we’ve gotten older and it starts to feed into the new songs. I would look forward to see where we’ll go when we get together next. Hopefully it will keep evolving like that.

Do you have any ideas of what we can expect next? There’s been a lot of talk about you doing a covers album.

No, I don’t know if that’ll be the next piece of material you’ll get from The Killers, but it’s definitely going to happen one day. I get the feeling that it’s going to be a little heavier when we come around again. That excites me.

Certain topics always seem to come up when people talk to you: your faith, the feuds you’ve had with other bands, the moustache era, the syntax in Human, the feathers on your jacket. What’s your take on it all?

They were all things that I wasn’t prepared for, that I didn’t think were going to cause any kind of great commotion. It’s kind of shocking when it does happen and so much attention is drawn to it. The sad thing about all of it is that it takes away from the music, but it’s fi ne. We’re coming out with our head above water. We’ve had so many great shows on this tour, the crowds keep getting better and we’re getting better as a live band. It doesn’t seem like it’s turning people off whether or not I’m wearing feathers or a moustache, or if I’m a Mormon. But I get why, you know, the blog generation, it gives them something to talk about.

Can you ever predict these things? Perhaps when you were writing Human, you thought, "Yeah, that’ll get them going!"

No, that’s the thing, it’s like all of it, I just… I was excited I could grow a moustache so I grew it. I didn’t think it was going to stir anything up. The feathers? When I put on my jacket every night I feel like Superman. I had no idea that it was going to upset anyone or that it looked silly to people. And Human I thought was genius. I had no idea that it was going to, you know, I had no idea. It reminded me of Bowie more than anything. If he did it, he’d be getting a Grammy.

Why not for you then?

Erm, I don’t know. All I know is that we’re not going to be critically acclaimed. I picked up on it right away. It’s not going to be until the end of our career that we’re given a chance.

When you first burst on the scene in 2004, it seemed like you’d triumphed at the first attempt. Was there a time of frustration and failure?

Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was thinking about this recently because people keep talking about their albums of the decade and I always say Is This It [by The Strokes] is an obvious choice for me. We had about 15 songs and I thought we were ready to make an album, and then Is This It came out. Me and Dave [Keuning, The Killers’ guitarist] bought it the day it came out. We drove around Las Vegas listening to it – and it just devastated me, it was so good. I really went into a depression, almost, for weeks and weeks. We threw away every song except for Mr Brightside and basically started over. So we definitely had our learning period, and we still feel like we’re learning.

Saxophones – talk us through the thinking behind bringing them back.

We didn’t think about it. It was just the right instrument at the right time. I say it’s the 'moustache' of this album. But it gave us a greasiness that we didn’t have before. I don’t know if it’s only going to be on this album or if it’s going to come back again. Roxy Music, The Psychedelic Furs, those are bands we listen to that use it well, and hopefully we did it a little justice.

You’ve been accused of being too confident. Do you ever have any doubts?

I think if you asked people what they think of me, especially people that aren’t fans of The Killers, for the most part it doesn’t seem to be very favourable. I’m definitely not as cocky as I was made out to be in the beginning. I’m not that way at all. I think that I’m quite likeable[laughs]. A lot of it was, you know, we just had a chip on our shoulder and were going against so much at the time – I tended to get a little bit mouthy. It was just my shield. We didn’t know what was going to happen. But I definitely have my doubts. Sometimes I feel like King Kong and sometimes I feel very inadequate.

Do you still have a dream? What keeps you going?

I still want to become a better writer. Lyrically – that’s where I feel most inferior. I’m getting better at writing songs…but I’d like to really resonate more. It’s a dream, that’s what keeps you going, but things that John Lennon wrote…I would like to get to that level [laughs].

What about your lyrics now?

A lot of people focus on All These Things That I’ve Done – "I’ve got soul, but I’m not a soldier". They don’t listen to the rest of the song. And if you listen to Human, they focus on "Are we human/Or are we dancer?". Nobody’s ever mentioned: "Pay my respects to grace and virtue/Send my condolences to good/Give my regards to soul and romance/They always did the best they could". Nobody gives me any credit for the verses that are beautiful, and they explain the chorus. And so it’s frustrating sometimes. Hopefully people will come around one day.

 - TimeOutSingapore

The Killers are taking a long break once they've wrapped-up their current tour of Australia.

The exhausted Las Vegas rockers have barely had two minutes to relax, having toured the world repeatedly in the last six years - so now plan to take a well-earned rest for the rest of the year.

Guitarist Dave Keuning explains: "I'm not sure if people are aware of it but this is probably our last shows for a while. Unless some surprise thing comes up but most likely these are our last shows for a while. We're having a break."

Keuning told the AAP from Las Vegas on Wednesday (January 13): "We haven't had a break in quite a while. It's just been touring and making records and on and on and on. It's been like six years just kind of connected together.

"There hasn't been much time where we haven't been either touring or taking time to make another record. It's like people just expect us to do that non-stop till we die, but we just want a little bit of time off, just to be myself and do what I want to do for a little bit."

Thanks for the report to Angryape.com.