The Killers Inside

Flowers grew up on New Wave and synth-pop bands — Duran Duran, the Cure, Depeche Mode, the Smiths — but as an adult, he's become more passionate about American roots rock, particularly Springsteen, Tom Petty and Tom Waits. "Hot Fuss [the band's 2004 debut] was synthetic," says Flowers, 27. "Even if it was heartfelt, it had a sheen on it, and I think it's kind of a mask that we put on — it's like how the Strokes were dirty rock & rollers coming from more well-to-do places. We came from the opposite end and put on suits. But when I hear Tom Waits or I hear 'Thunder Road,' you know, it makes me want to put boots on, play piano and drive a '57 Chevy."

In New York a week later, Flowers is less tongue-tied. Last time, he was agitated about rehearsals for their tour, but now they've successfully completed their first couple of shows. Flowers has spent the past few hours in his hotel room watching the 1984 Jeff Bridges flick Starman, which he deems "real touching." He brightens further when discussing his wife, Tana, and his 18-month-old son, Ammon. "I don't want to go more than a couple of weeks, maybe three weeks, without seein' 'em," he says. "Ammon's starting to get a personality now. It's hard. I cried like a baby when I left the airport yesterday."

Sitting in a Japanese restaurant, Flowers makes a case for the neglected genius of Oingo Boingo. "They're so underrated — it borders on insanity," he says, gesturing furiously. "People just don't understand. They only know 'Weird Science,' or maybe Dead Man's Party. They ride this line of, like, ska and punk and everything, but it's not ska and it's not punk. And it's crazy. Get Best of Boingo. I'm serious."

Flowers' mother is a housewife and his father worked in a grocery store; they raised him outside Las Vegas, and later in Nephi, Utah (he moved back to Vegas when he was 16). Flowers shares a hardscrabble background with Springsteen — his father was an alcoholic until he converted to Mormonism when Flowers was five. "My parents are my connection to, you know, my romantic America," says Flowers, who on the new song "A Dustland Fairytale" describes his father as "some kind of slick chrome American prince." "My dad always had old cars, and he taught me all about them." But unlike Bruce, or basically any rock star ever, Flowers is a practicing Mormon. He goes to church, and his wife, a schoolteacher and former manager of a Vegas Urban Outfitters, converted to the faith before they wed in 2005. They named Ammon after a missionary in the Book of Mormon.