Brandon Flowers Talks Las Vegas, Previews New Solo Tracks

Becky Bain | August 19, 2010 12:27 pm

If you weren’t lucky enough to experience one of Brandon Flowers’ first-ever live solo sets this week, Spin is currently previewing six tracks from his debut solo album, Flamingo. And on first listen, the epic-sounding record appears to center around similar subject matter The Killers have tackled on each of their LPs—the dual nature of Las Vegas.

After the jump, the singer-songwriter explains how growing up in Sin City inspired his music, and performs “Crossfire” and “Hard Enough” acoustically for KROQ.

“It’s about the experiences I’ve had with Las Vegas,” the singer tells Spin about his debut solo album. “A lot of my life took place on Flamingo [Road]. It’s part of Vegas mythology, and now it’s part of my own mythology. My first job was at a golf course on Flamingo. Sam’s Town [a casino that inspired the title of The Killers’ 2006 album]… is on Flamingo. I met my wife at a clothing store on Flamingo. That’s my ‘hood.”

The album’s opener is the song, “Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas,” inspired by the sign tourists catch on their way headed into the city. (“Welcome to Las Vegas / Give us your dreamers, your harlots and your sin / Las Vegas / Didn’t nobody tell you the house will always win?” Flowers sings on the track.) “People would dodge cars to take a picture by it, so the city finally made a parking lot by it,” he tells Spin. “It’s that combination of being so happy while dumping all their money. It’s definitely not a perfect town, so that was the perfect place to jump from.”

One song not being previewed is “Jilted Lovers & Broken Hearts”, our favorite new track from Flowers that we heard played live during his set at the Troubadour in L.A. Taste the magic by watching him slam out this awesome number below:

“Jilted Lovers & Broken Hearts”