It might be one of the biggest songs of the century, but Killers frontman Brandon Flowers says that when he and his fellow band members first pitched Mr Brightside to the big record companies when they were trying to get signed, no one was particularly taken with it.
Reflecting on the 2003 song’s beginnings and legacy with BBC Radio 2’s Vernon Kay, Flowers says that it was only after the Killers had been signed to indie label Lizard King in the UK and Mr Brightside became a hit that the majors came knocking. What’s more, they were convinced that something had changed since they first heard it.
“I don’t know if people think it’s just like ‘lore’, or like something that I’m spinning along the way, but every single major label had said no,” says Flowers. “They said no, and then we started getting this attention over here [in the UK], and they literally would say, ‘When did you record this song again? What producer did you bring in?’ And it’s like, ‘No, that’s the same song. It’s exactly the same recording that you heard before.”
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Flowers says that the Killers always knew that they had something with Mr Brightside. In fact, it was the only song of the ones they’d written that they didn’t ditch when they heard the Strokes’ 2001 debut album Is This It and realised that they needed to significantly up their game.
“It’s a powerful thing to me,” says Flowers. “I have a real gratitude towards them for the powerhouse that that record is – and the first few records. So good. They just raised the bar so much higher than it was at that moment, and it just changed. It changed everything.”
With Mr Brightside, though, the Killers had a song that they believed could compete in this new musical landscape.
“It was funny because it was in the same vein,” says Flowers. “You know, I knew something was happening. It was like, what? Who is this person that must have some of these same influences that I do? And I felt like that song, it just was reminiscent of some of the things that were starting to happen, and it just felt good. It felt right.”
Of course, Mr Brightside has gone on to eclipse anything that The Strokes have created in terms of its place in the wider public’s affections, but when they were working on it, all the Killers knew was that it was the best thing they’d come up with up to that point.
“We didn’t know it was going to become what it’s become,” says Flowers. “How can you know that? But I remember the hairs on my arm standing up when we were performing it early on, and so something was different about that one.”
As for the song’s enduring popularity – it appears to have taken up permanent residence in Spotify’s Top 50 Global chart – Flowers is happy to accept that he and co-writer Dave Keuning (Killers guitarist) no longer claim any real ownership of it.
“It’s not ours anymore. You know, I’d heard people say that, you know, in interviews… maybe it was like Sting talking about Roxanne or something like that. But now I understand it. It’s almost like it doesn’t matter who wrote it – I don’t feel like ‘Oh I wrote that’. It just exists.”
Brandon Flowers new solo album, Thrasher, is out now.
