So, what have you guys been up to?

Well, we were just in London. We were playing a bunch of festivals. Then we mixed—we finished mixing the album, almost, in London.  Now we're here. 

Let's go back to when the album started. I guess it was when you started working with Stuart Price on music that ended up on Sawdust…

He had done stuff, he had done remixes with us before but we had never met him until he was doing "Sweet Talk".  And, you know, we did that Christmas thing with him, so that was good.  We just liked him right away. I don't wanna fucking go get Eno right now.  Not that we didn't attempt to in that past. [laughs].  But you know, you want that hunger that he must have had 30 years ago.  And I feel like Stuart's that man.  

What's Stuart like? Is he a nut?

He's kind of a weirdo.

In a good way, I presume. 

Yeah.  But he's quick, he's quick with ideas, and with our ideas, and it just made it a lot more fun.  He's not afraid to say, you know, "that sucks," or "let's try something else," so it really kept it—kept it rolling.

So when did you write all this stuff?

It started on the road for Sam's Town, so, it's been goin' on for a couple years.

So hotel rooms, and that kind of shit.

Yeah. Doin' it on computers. And then we'd send it right to him, and pre-production would be going right away.  So he's been going—he got more than he bargained for with this album. It's been going on for a while.

So at what point did you guys decide Stuart was your man?

Pretty early on.

Like, a year ago?

Yeah. When we met him, we were just having dinner with him in London about what he was doing for us at Sawdust, helping us with Sawdust. So I just said, "What are you doing after dinner?" He said he was free, and we went to his house -- he has a studio there -- and we recorded "Human." We just knew that it just sounded so good—it was only a couple hours we spent, and it wasn't much different that it is now. 

So why didn't "Human" end up going on Sawdust?

It was too good. 

So, if Sam's Town is about Vegas, what is this one about?

For me it's definitely a continuation. On this one I was thinking more universal. Like, when Morrissey was singing about Manchester, I thought, "I got it." [laughs].  I don't know. Maybe I didn't. I feel like that's the duty, I guess. You're supposed to represent where you're from, and—I'm trying to figure out what that is— I don't know how to do it.  I don't know.

Is it about spending so much time away from home?

Yeah, I said it's like looking at Sam's Town from Mars. It still always goes back to Vegas but it's, yeah, it's definitely maybe, maybe from an outsiders perspective…

Of missing your home town?

Yeah…that's always in there. I have a romantic notion of what America, and Nevada and the Wild West— about what it is.  And, I'm tryin' to hold on.

Generally, how have you been doing the last couple of years? You have a new family.

Yeah, it's crazy. The boy's walking around. It happens quick.  It's exciting, you know.  I've always been around kids; I have 19 nieces and nephews. 

Okay!

Nineteen.  So it's always. I love him more than my nieces and nephews—not that I don't love them, you know, but it's cool.  But I felt like I was more accustomed to kids than my wife. She comes from a small family, but she's doing fantastic. 

Do they travel with you?

They travel, yeah. It's hard, though. The baby's got more stuff than I have. So it's hard loading it in and out everyday.

And your fellow Killers… Everything is good? You guys are getting along?

Yeah. I thought we got along really well on Sam's Town, better than we did on Hot Fuss, so.  Hopefully we're going in the right direction.  Maybe it's—we have a little bit more space, now, with the luxury of having success, I guess.  With Hot Fuss you're sharing bedrooms, and…so there's a little more space.  We don't have our own busses yet or anything, but it's nice.  It's been good.

So, you meet up with Stuart Price, at his studio at home after dinner, and you do "Human." Then what?

Then we just start sending him ideas, from all over the place. So we sent him "Spaceman" from Panama, and then some stuff was from Australia, so it was cool—just being able to send it over. And he'd work on it right away.  He's just—like I said, he's just got that drive.

You're sending him digital files?

Yeah, like Logic, or Garage Band. It's almost like Pro Tools or something.  I mean it wasn't the best sounds, but you would get the gist of it. And then by the time we got home Ronnie had learned how to use Logic, and so did Mark, and so they were doing stuff and then sending it to him from their house. It's a really weird way to work.  Wasn't that we didn't want to be around each other, it's just that we were home, and Ronnie, say, would have an idea, send it to Stuart, Stuart would shine it up, send it to me, and I'd sing at it, at my house, and send it back. It was a little weird.

So, and what is Stuart doing to it? He's just shining it up?

Yeah, and he's—he's not afraid to put out ideas, and you know at first that was hard to get used to.  But I mean some of them we kept, and you know, we almost treated him like a fifth member. 

So, for instance, on "Human," what did he add to that?  Obviously it has kind of a Euro-pop feel to it. 

The landscapes —that would be more Stuart.  We'd do the meat and potatoes, and he adds the galaxy. 

Right.  So when you hear what he's done with " Human," are you like, "Wow this is incredible," or are you hesitant?

I was really excited.  That one took a little coaxing for the other guys. Everybody's got their fingerprints on it now, but at first it sounded a little maybe too dance. 

What's "Human" about?

I think we were at a weird festival in Germany. I was just trying to have it be a simple tune, with classic chord changes. The way I described it to Stuart was -- I remember saying this to him at dinner --  "I got this thing, it's like Johnny Cash meets the Pet Shop Boys. Let's go record it."

And you guys have a new studio in Vegas?

Yeah, we just got it. It's really close to the Palms, actually [where the Killers recorded Sam's Town].

Thank god! You gotta be close to the Palms!

[Laughs] 

It's about three minutes. It's basically right there in the hotel area.  It's been a studio for years but we didn't even know about it. It was kinda--people would use it for like productions stuff. Hotels would use it for like plays or whatever that was going on—Cirque de Soleil.



Like live recordings?

I don't know. That's all we know. And so its, uh—Its got a great live room. And, it's big. It's a pretty big place. It doesn't look like much on the outside but when you go in its pretty cool. We were really happy to find it.

And you guys were rehearsing for a couple months and then Stuart comes in and you guys just knock it out?



Yeah. We had 19 that we were gonna record. And then there's quite a bit that we threw away. Yeah, so…fuck. It's hard to finish the lyrics and then you gotta worry about "iTunes wants bonus songs" and "Japan gets an extra song." By the time you're done its like two albums. I'm still not done with a lyric. I've still got one song that needs lyrics for the album.

Right. So, what should we say about the other Killers stepping up on this record? I heard five songs and it's definitely the best shit you've ever done.


Yeah I feel like it is. I think it was like that freedom that Stuart gives you to just--If you want to try something—to nobody was afraid to try it. We brought in a sax player. Tommy, he's our buddy. He's probably going to come on the road with us. And Ronnie brought in his buddy—this Cuban guy, that's a percussionist. We all just kind of said, you know, fuck it. You know, people laugh at sax solos. We just said, fuck it.


I live for sax solos.

There's a couple on this album. It was just like… we just went with it.

Right. So the saxophonist is your friend Tommy. 

Tommy Max. He's a Vegas character.

Who did all the strings? Are you playing all the strings on synth?



Yeah. Me and Stuart did all the strings. We were gonna have—we planned to get together an orchestra and do it later, but it sounds so good that we just left it alone.

And what's the other sax song?



There's one called "Joy Ride" that's got nice sax moment.

Another solo?

Yeah!

Sweet. And you got steel drums? Who did that?

The steel drums are fake.  



What about this song "Dustland Fairytale?" Can you tell me about that?

It started off just kind of ripping off "Waiting for the Man." I guess it's the most like Sam's Town on the album.

What's your favorite song on the record right now?

That one. It goes between that one and "I Can't Stay." But you gotta hear "Joy Ride." We just finished it a couple of days ago. 

Why's the album called Day & Age?

I don't know. You wait for moments. I just wait for it come, and I knew that that was right when I had it. 



Is that lyric in a song?



Yeah, it's in two songs.

 It's in "Neon Tiger" and "The World We Live In." 

So how many songs are on the record?



Ten. When does the Kings of Leon record come out?



I don't know. End of September?



That single is good.



 "Sex on Fire" -- yeah.

The verses are so good.


What else are you listening to?

Lou Reed. We were listening to Berlin a lot, me and Mark., when we were making the record. What else? E.L.O. wouldn't go away.

Can you tell me like about writing some of these songs. Are you writing in the middle of the night after shows?

Yeah that's where it started—after shows. And then about half of it was done at home. So it's kind of all over the place. Some were at the piano at home. Some were jams. Some were on the road.



When you were writing these songs were you homesick, or depressed?



No. (laughs)

Not that they sound depressed, but I was just curious.

No, it's cool. I always feel like there's something wrong with me because I don't have some dire some sort of awful outlook on life. It seams like you're not allowed to—like it must not be real or it must not be good if you are happy to be here. And I'm very happy to be here. I love having a body that's fully functioning. I love traveling and getting this opportunity.

Are any of these songs about kind of specific things in your life? Are any of these songs about your baby boy or your wife?

Yeah, I mean there's a couple lines in there. There's one in "I Can't Stay." But yeah, the one that I just—specifically about my mom and dad is "The Dustland Fairtytale."

Nice. What's the touring plan?


We're going to go out October, November, December, just do TV and a couple of gigs here and there. We're going to come to New York on October 26th, I think. And then January will really kick off though the touring.

And so, are there going to be six people on stage now?

 

Six. Tommy and Ray. Ray is the new Ted, who went off to do his own thing. So Ray, played with Louis XIV. He was their Ted. And uh, he quit with them and he's with us now. We didn't steal him or anything. No bad blood.
 

Good. And he's playing keyboards and the occasional guitar?



Keyboards and guitar. So we'll have him and Tommy.



And everyone involved is psyched about Day & Age?

So far it's been a pretty good response. Yeah, Ronnie says if we never make another album, he's happy. I don't know how to take that.