Brandon Flowers Covers Paper Magazine

Brandon Flowers dons a bright blue blazer with feather detail in the October 2009 issue of Paper Magazine, on stands this week. Here’s what the 28-year-old frontman for The Killers told artist Elizabeth Peyton, who photographed and interviewed him:

On album Sam’s Town’s negative reviews (and positive influence): “You grow up and you know about Rolling Stone and Spin. My brother had NME and Spin on the wall with Morrissey on it. You can’t help but pay attention to [the press]. Spin gave Sam’s Town two stars. It was a shock ’cause we loved it, we thought it was so great. What it did, and what I’m grateful for, it lit a fire in us that we didn’t have during [our debut album] Hot Fuss. While touring Hot Fuss, we were trying to be cool and not trying to mess up, but for Sam’s Town we were playing for our lives, to show every journalist that was going to come that night that this album was good, and I started singing and pushing. We became a good live band.

On how the band’s fame influenced their latest album, Day & Age: “I try to stay away from that stuff — though I’m sure it’s made its way in there — ’cause a lot of people aren’t going to identify with that. I don’t want it to be about, specifically, being too successful or having any kind of fame. I still take out the trash and vacuum, I change my baby’s diapers. I think we’re pretty solid.

On whether his experience with music is similar to his experience with religion: “I think they’re very different, but I see how people can confuse the two. If you don’t have religion, I can see how music can take that place. I am not saying that God put me here to do this, but I believe in God, and I believe music is a gift.”

On critics’ puzzlement over the lyric “Are we human or are we dancer?” from Day & Age song “Human”: “It let me down a bit. I just thought it was good. It made sense to me, and I
understand that it’s different. When Bowie did something abstract, they didn’t question it.”

Check out PaperMag.com tonight for more scoop on Brandon!