"The Killers"

J.B., you gonna get on the golf course today?

Today is not a golf course day. Today is a work day, actually.

Today's a work day, so no golf for you, Sean.

Yeah, no, I'm going out. Yeah, I'm going out.

By the way, I got new clubs.

Oh, nice.

Good for you. I just got them today. I just got the new... I got the same ones that you got.

The beautiful Titleist irons.

The Titleist. I should...

Titleist. Now, you should get yourself into some G4 apparel, and really, you know, make yourself complete.

Okay. I mean, I would, but I wear the Foot Joy. I love the Foot Joy. You like the G4..

Yes, and the Titleist clubs.

The Titleist clubs.

If you were ever to fly to a tournament, how would you like to get there?

By the way, I don't even know if we can use the cold open, but I just got a 5-wood.

Look, you got a whole setup in your green room.

It's nice. I know. I've got... Believe me. It's pretty great.

It's nice.

Wait a second. I'm seeing two surprise guest windows.

Yeah.

Oh, Listener. Oh, we got a... Listener always knows before the us two other idiots. Everybody knows, except me and Sean right now.

Everybody knows, except for the two dummies that week.

I feel pretty dumb today. I don't...

Why do you feel dumb?

No, no.

I just don't feel like I'm going to be great at listening or talking today.

Well, Jay, do you want a couple of jokes to lighten you up?

If you have new... Here we go, Sean. Okay. My favorite is still, what did the chicken say? What did the chicken...

What did the chicken...

No. What did the... No.

Do you see, guys? It's not going to be good today. What did the chicken say? What?

No. What does...

See?

I forget too. What does poultry say to a bowl of lettuce? Or, no. What does poultry call a bowl of lettuce? Right.

That's so good.

That's a good one. I have two more. I have two more. So, a skeleton walks into a bar and orders a bar... A skeleton walks into a bar and orders a beer and a mop.

Yep.

Okay? And the other one is, hey, Jason, have you heard about the new movie... Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Can we do a punchline on the first one? About the skeleton?

There is. There is already.

No, he doesn't get it.

What happened?

A skeleton walks into a bar and orders a beer and a mop.

Okay.

Because when he drinks the beer, it goes...

Yeah, that's not even funny, though.

Okay.

Well, that's different.

All right, so here's the other one. Hey, Jason, have you heard about the new movie Constipation?

No.

It never came out.

I don't like either one of them. I liked your... All right.

Fuck, this is... This is... It's like. people are joining us at rehearsal.

This is... We clearly don't rehearse. We do. I apologize already to our guests.

You know what I was saying? You know, Jason, I was thinking about you the other day. It occurred to me, like, you know, you see people have, like, fancy houses where they talk about, like, oh, I went to this fancy place, and you think about some billionaire and they have this fancy thing. And I said, yeah, you know, that's impressive. And if you feel like less than because you see them, just imagine that, no matter where they went, they had to take a shit.

Yeah, that's pretty much all they did.

Their beautiful mansion,

and it was just them in the smallest room in that house, with the door closed, looking for the fan, and they're taking a shit.

Yeah, what's the name of that? There's a book called that, right? Everybody, Poops?

Everybody Poops. Yeah.

All right, this is going on too long. It's too insane. I feel like Regis and Kathy Lee. Let's go.

I know. It's true. Now, listen, I do want to get to our guests, because you know how I get when I get really excited about a guest. And you know how I get when we get to talk about music with guests. I get very excited.

I was just talking about them the other day.

Good morning.

How cool is this?

Look at that.

How great is this? Hi, guys. You guys look very much alive, not killers at all.

You guys are very much on tour right now.

Yeah, they're both in hotel rooms.

Yeah, that's right.

You just literally rolled out of bed.

We've just disrupted your... You probably have, like, a really good system in place, and we've ruined it.

We have a... I definitely have a routine that is being disturbed right now.

Where are you on the planet?

We're in Austin.

Okay.

Tennessee. That's a great state.

JB, no, no, no. JB. Boys, we're so excited to have you on this show. I mean, I've had the good fortune of meeting you guys and talking to you a few times, which was a thrill then, and it's a thrill now. And I'm such a fan.

We played earlier than that.

So I saw you the second time?

Yeah, probably. If Sam's Town was our second record, we would have done, yeah. Wow, okay. But I remember meeting you, and I think that was maybe after our third time.

Was it really?

Can I tell the story of the after party?

Yeah, please do.

So they always have an after party on the sketch show, and Will's there, and he's got a hockey player with him, another fellow citizen of Canada.

Shanny, probably. Brendan Shanahan.

And so I, I guess, quintessentially what all Americans do, I say, my tour manager is from Toronto. I know you're from Toronto.

They all know each other.

Yeah, so his buddy rolls his eyes, and he's like, Americans think we all know each other. I go and I grab my tour manager, and he's like, oh, what area of Toronto are you from? Oh, what street were you on? Farnham Avenue. They both lived on the same street.

Oh, get out.

Wait, Brendan, I can't believe you remember Farnham Avenue.

Well, our tour manager is still with us.

But he doesn't still live on Farnham.

He doesn't still live on Farnham. I think his parents might still live on Farnham.

My sister still lives on Farnham.

He still lives on Farnham.

Wait, his parents still live on Farnham?

Still there.

Wait, my buddy Paul lives on Farnham as well, and my sister does.

The listener has probably pulled over their car, because they're so fascinated right now. They don't want to miss a minute of it.

The gist is, you all know each other.

We all know each other. I remember that moment too, that was so crazy. And what I'm going to propose now for you and Ronnie right now is maybe we do a special live, like just a small event concert on the street in Farnham. Me introducing you guys, and we just do it for the people of Farnham. Just think about it, don't give me an answer now.

Ronnie, can you keep it down? So listen, I have a question for you guys. When you first performed on there, where were you in your careers, and was that a pinnacle of like, oh my god, I think I made it, and what did that feel like?

I think it's been a steady incline of just like, sort of like, how did we get here? And we've just been sort of enjoying the ride ever since the very first one. It just keeps, you know, something keeps happening. We keep busy. We know what a.

But you guys came, but your first record, though, you guys came out with a bang, and it's kind of been,

Yeah, I mean, I think our goal has always, there's this constant evolution, and you watch, not every step that we've taken has been right, but you can see us really trying to find what the core is, and what we're going to represent, and you see this evolution within each album, and I think people have just, we've been lucky enough that we've been able to take people along with us, where they've been going through that same experience.

I always wonder about that. with musicians, because you have probably, well, you certainly have more autonomy than anyone in TV or movies, in that, you know, there's a script that comes before the actor does their thing, or the director does their thing, or with musicians, with groups, you can do whatever you want, make the album about whatever you want, make it sound, and you've got to hope that the audience that has been with you thus far, it will be appealing to them as well. So how much do you factor in what you think they want, how much do you let that affect your creative process? I'm sure some bands a little bit, and then some not at all, where do you guys sit on that?

I think we have to like it first. Anything that comes out, we have tons of cutting room floor stuff, for whatever reason, they're lost dogs, or orphans, orphan songs, or ideas.

But if it sounds good to you, no matter whether it's got a country vibe, or an acid rock vibe, or a jazz vibe, I'm sure your musical taste will evolve over years, and you guys have to stay in sync with one another, but then also try to stay in sync with that other band member, which is the audience, yeah?

Yeah, it's a balancing act. I think we used to just throw all sorts of songs on a single album, and we've just sort of been lucky that they've had some sort of congruent line between all of them. And now I think we're getting more into the body of work sort of idea where it has a focus,

and... And you've created a bank with your audience that, even though it might sound a little bit different, or a little bit more challenging to tap your toe to, don't worry about it, we got you, and we've proved... I don't think you guys.

ever run the risk of having a song that you can't tap your toe to, I will say that much, but you guys, but I was gonna say, JB, JB, you're right, that when you talk about the other member of the band is the audience, there's some story that I heard about you guys a long time ago, and maybe you can talk about this, that when you guys were maybe writing hot fuss, or something, that you wrote a record and you threw it out, is that true? Do you talk about it as much as you're comfortable talking about that? Is that a true story?

That's our most recent endeavor. Oh, it was your.

most recent record? Your most recent

record you tossed in the trash.

Wait, you finished it and then just threw it out?

We began down a road that was a more synth-heavy road,

to do it either.

As opposed to the instrumental.

stuff? No, just didn't want to fully commit to a whole synth-pop record.

I would have bought that in a second. But what would be the opposite?

of that? You're talking to an idiot here.

Okay, so the opposite would be maybe more a rock and roll record.

But what is that process? You're working on your fourth song, you're in the studio, you're rehearsing, you look at each other and just go, what the fuck are we doing, man?

Yeah, and everybody else just breathes, thank God you said it, because I didn't.

want to say it. Oh, that's got to be horrible.

It's complex, because there's this place in our hearts for this music. We were influenced by it, but we are getting older, and we also know what it feels like to write a great rock and roll song. And so we thought maybe that you could make a faster album, maybe while you're on the road, because you're dealing with computers, more with synth music, and keyboards, and then it just wasn't. we weren't getting the gratification out of it that we would get when you're writing great.

Right, I was in a synth-pop band in college, and I played the keyboard.

I do have to see a picture.

Sean, by the way, play for these guys, if you can find it, play that song you played us before. Before we end today.

I'll have Bennett and Rob dig it up. There's actually three hit songs.

You guys might want to put it on the synths.

We'll rip those off, too.

You're not good. You might take that back.

I used to play the keyboards in this band called Sounds from the Stairs. The keyboards!

Hey, did you ever play keytar, Sean?

No, almost, though.

Sean, I've seen you play. You play beautifully. I saw the Netflix special and I was so surprised. I did not know you had that in your pocket.

It's incredible.

I sat down and played for Jason Bateman.

Sean, do you want to join our band?

I knew where this was going. That's what I'm telling you. I'll join your band.

I can't believe you're getting in the killers before me. I can't do anything, but I'm still mad about it.

I'm going to turn you guys into synth pop.

You were the missing link. The record could have come out.

I know what you mean about playing. I would play the keyboards and try to really be into it. A drummer can really be into it, naturally because your body's moving anyway to the music. But when you play keyboards, you kind of have to watch exactly the keys you're playing, so you can't really move your body to rock out during the music. You just have to kind of stay stiff and play while the craziness is happening.

A lot of what?

A lot of neck pops.

Right.

You can't do that. You can't bang-da-da-bang. At the end of all these things that I've done, we're like bang-da-da-bang.

So this move from Synth back to rock and roll, now you're talking to the old grandpa and me too. Listen, I'm a big Radiohead fan. They kind of went to Synth a while ago and I kind of went with it, and I guess I'm still with it because they know better than me what good music is, so I get with it.

You like them, despite what they're doing? Yeah. Despite what your ears tell you. Just listen. I love those too, by the way.

I listen to all this music that my kids listen to, and no one is playing guitar anymore. There's no drums anymore. I know I sound like the old man on the lawn, but do you see it starting to go back to... I get nostalgic about a band as young as the White Stripes or the Black Keys or these rock and roll bands. I'm not even going back to ACDC or Led Zeppelin, but where are the instruments?

We've only been around 20 years and from when we started, rock radio was a completely different animal. There are fewer and fewer stations, and this homogenization started to happen where, all of a sudden, you started hearing beats and things that were influenced by maybe more hip-hop, and now it's almost unrecognizable as rock anymore.

Ronnie, speak to it a little bit. As a drummer, what's it like living in a world where so many beats are created on a computer? Here's the drummer in our band and he's standing by a MacBook.

I think there's a careful, maybe a classy, balancing act. At least for me, I've seen people who are so good at their instruments, at drums, that they actually sound like they've been manipulated on a computer.

Is that where you guys got to? Was that part of the decision? When you were saying you were an Indie, was it literally that? We're not feeling connected to the music?

Partly. There's an amazing thing that I'm now reflecting on, the magic moments that we've shared. I'm responding to the way that Ronnie plays, and part of it is how loud it is and how it's powerful and it's physical. It forces me...

Ronnie, did you just say sorry?

If we're in a room, I've got to sing a certain way. I can't be timid. You're not going to hear me.

Can I tell you something, Brandon? The beat's bigger than you.

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And now, back to the show.

It's interesting you bring that up, Brandon, because the way you guys, First of all, your arrangements on all your studio albums are amazing, and I've seen you live as well. It's just amazing. But the mix, the way you guys do it, and it's a testament to your voice, because I know that no matter what you do and playing with how you're hearing yourself, it's really tough. Ronnie, you should be sorry. You're very loud.

Yeah, it was so wild.

The other thing, with bands needing to tour a lot more now as a way in which to monetize what you guys do. since album sales changed a long time ago and now touring is a huge, huge part of what you guys do. I would imagine that switching back to a more instrumental thing as opposed to a synthesized thing makes playing stuff live easier, more exciting for the audience, since you're not just hitting a button for the drum sounds. You actually need a drummer and drum kit out there. Yes, it just makes for a better experience if the music is not synthesized, right?

Oh yeah. Even songs that don't have a lot of synth-y bits we've sort of tailored for live. We sort of have this dichotomy between being a live band and.

Do you ever speed stuff up just to get out of there sooner?

I like that.

You guys missed Sean. He was on Broadway this year. He won a Tony, by the way. Hold for applause.

Thank God.

We'll add the applause.

His was spelled T-O-N-I-E, though. It was different.

It wasn't what you think of, the Tony Awards.

And the cast would be like, was that like, because it's usually like eight, nine minutes. They're like, was that four minutes? I was like, yeah, I'm tired. I want to go home.

What do you do when you get out there in front of thousands and thousands of people and you're just not feeling it? Do you just kind of wait until you do, because you've got other bandmates that can maybe carry the water for a song or two?

It's rare. I don't know about Ronnie, but it's rare that I'm not excited, that the juices don't just start flowing and I still get the butterflies before, and so it's almost up to the audience. There will be moments where you come out and you think you're just so ready and they aren't meeting your expectations, and that's when it can be, those are the times. it's a struggle, but I never feel like, oh, another gig. I never feel like that.

Don't you, because every audience takes on a collective kind of energy and sometimes, like you're saying, it's a less than energy. and don't you just get really pissed off at them and want to take it out on them, and you can't?

I'm going to say they don't. I bet they don't.

Yeah, we can't take it out on them. We've got to be professional.

When's the last time you guys, do you guys see a lot of live music yourself? Do you guys go to concerts and kind of experience what it's like as an audience too, and kind of let that inform your performances?

Oh, yeah. And, you know, especially on tour, if we're touring with somebody, it's always helpful to get out there and just, you know, it helps get the blood moving a little bit. Oh, we're going to be doing that in an hour.

In an hour?

No, I mean, you know, watching somebody before you play or something.

Who are you guys touring with right now? Like, who in the last year? I don't want to put you on the spot.

It's okay. We did a ton of shows with Johnny Marr.

from the Smiths.

Oh, my God, I love Johnny Marr.

I love the Smiths.

Get your hand off your pearls, Will. One of the top three guitarists.

of all time. One of the top three guitarists of all time.

Do you like the Smiths? I love the Smiths.

You know what we did? We did one or two Smiths songs we would do every night.

No way.

I just saw a video of you guys.

Shut the fuck up, Sean. What songs did you guys do?

We did This Charming Man with him.

I love it.

And then we did

It's the greatest song ever.

How deep do you go with the Smiths?

I go very.

We did What She Said.

Oh, my God.

You almost put two hands on your pearls just then.

Like, fully punk rock Smiths, What She Said. We did. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before.

Oh, stop me.

You know, as Wild, they broke up before they toured that. That's on the last album.

Hang on, is that not louder than Bombs?

No, Stop Me is on Strange Ways.

Oh, Strange Ways, here we come.

So we're up there and we're about to play it, and he tells me, I've never played this with a singer.

No way.

So I was like, this is so amazing. That's weird. Yeah, you're up there singing Stop Me with him, and it's the first time he's done it, because it was meant to be with Morrissey.

That's crazy.

Who are your big influences? I've always wanted to know, because you guys have...

Definitely the Smiths.

Now that you say that, I guess I can hear some of it.

Last night we were singing some early Depeche Mode. Oh, here they come.

Oh, get me started.

Brandon and I sort of, we melt. We like that band.

Yeah, they're incredible.

What other bands? I want to hear what other bands. I just want to hear what other bands they liked.

It was New Order and the Smiths and the Cars.

Guys, I mean, it's like we're family. Sean, go change. You're saying everything I love.

Were you guys influenced at all by any sort of 90s indie bands too? Yeah.

I'm a little bit younger, and so when that stuff was happening, a lot of it was a little bit heavy for me. My brother was older than me and he had passed on this other stuff to me, but I think Ronnie was definitely...

How about Echo and the Bunnymen?

Well, that's earlier, but yes, for sure. But, Ronnie, I'm like a pavement built to spill guy.

Sure, yeah. All those guys, Dinosaur Jr., Sebado, you know, all those guys.

Oasis came around for me.

Did Oasis take a minute for you, Brendan, or were you right into it?

It took me a minute and then I sort of became obsessed. I was considered an Oasis tattoo when I was really young. Did you really? I'm so thankful I didn't do that.

You went with Soft Cell, I heard, just on the small of your back.

I did the same thing with Oasis, where I was like, at first. at Oasis, I was like, I don't know, and then became obsessed with them too. They were so rad. Sorry, Jason, I cut you off 50 times because I'm geeking out.

No, it's Sean. Go ahead, Sean.

Oh, I have a thousand questions, if I may. First of all, we're talking about live shows. I always ask, whenever musicians come on, what's your best, worst live show experience story? Like, the thing that went wrong the most.

Well, there's the opposite situation, where there were two things that really happened at this. We did a stadium run last year in the UK, and we were in Manchester, and two things happened. A girl made a sign.

He's like 80 years old.

As he gets closer, you see that there's this old fella just riding the wave, and he.

fell.

What the fuck is going on? They dropped him.

He drops. Brandon stops the show because it looks like you just saw feet and then you didn't see the guy anymore, so we stopped. Brandon, checked on him to see if he was okay, and he popped up in a fit of joy.

And he hugged me. I went down and hugged him.

What did he say to you?

I go, what are you doing? And he said, I'm enjoying meself.

The next day. in the papers, all the headlines read crowd surfing pensioner.

That's hysterical.

I love that. that would become a thing at Killers concert, that old dudes would just crowd surf. That becomes a thing that happens.

I once did some stage diving in Vancouver. I did some, yeah. In Vancouver? The stage is only a couple of feet tall, but I did, I actually had to jump up to get onto the people's hands.

And was Andrew originally scared? Did he see you?

Which is a huge wham. Listen, they get me fired up. They get me fired up. Sorry, Sean, you were going to say?

Were you wearing your shorts right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, what was left of them? Please, go ahead, Sean.

You fell out of the cage, you were dancing.

Yeah, they left it unlocked. It wasn't smart. Sean, you were saying?

Alright,

Go ahead, Sean.

To that point, I used to work in the entertainment committee in college and we would get, there was like seven people.

Coming out of the shocker department.

President of the entertainment committee, Sean Hayes, calling.

No, I was in the entertainment committee in college and there was like seven of us and we were in charge.

of which bands.

Yeah, we're past it.

Of which bands were coming to the college. Illinois State University, one of the best universities in the world. And we got like the B-52s, and I remember NXS came and people were like, what's Inks? Like they didn't know the names. And then it was like, and who else?

I'm entertainment committee, not security committee!

Yeah, and I had my little badge on. Hold it! God, did you not have a badge? My question is, how did you guys meet?

He's the best. He's the best, guys. Is he not? Award winning interviewer, Sean Hayes.

By the way, Ronnie and Brendan, you guys probably don't know this. Sean was once nominated for best host.

of a podcast. It's co-hosted by three people. They singled him out and wanted to give him a singular award because his questions are so damn good.

How'd you meet?

And then what's a funny story that happened live?

Hey, but we all enjoy the best stories.

How did you meet?

We actually met in a...

We gotta go fast, because it looks like Ronnie has a business meeting.

Me and our guitar player met through the Classified ads in Las Vegas.

No way. Is that true?

Probably the last band to form that way.

Scotty met in the back of the paper.

Yeah, Craigslist.

So you met in the Classifieds and then...

We had a different drummer and a different bass player for a while, who they were not.

into it.

Not the right fit.

Yeah, they weren't the right fit.

Oh, Anne's band.

Anne Murray?

Anne Murray's band. Ronnie was filling in for this girl and he happened to see us, and Ronnie has a way of just cutting right to the chase and he just said, you know, you guys would be good if you had a real drummer or something like that. I love that.

A rhythm section needed him.

A rhythm section.

And so we instantly, just before we knew it, we were in his garage, and then we ended up...

I wasn't trying to shoehorn my way in. I recommended a couple drummers that just again weren't the right fit.

But did you recommend them, knowing that they were not going to be the right fit, so that they would have to go to you, Ronnie?

No, I was on this trajectory. I was like, I must finish school so I don't end up homeless. And I was just doing that, but the songs they had, even at the time songs we don't even play anymore were just like calling me. I was familiar with it already. I was just, you know, I knew where they were coming from.

So then, the first time that you guys played as a band, you were kind of looking around going like, oh, Ron.

Well, we were like,

let's try it out.

Jason's laughing because he knows I've done this bit for years. It's so stupid. Which is my impression of every bassist, right? Which is, when the singer makes eye contact with him.

so he's just on his own, he's like this.

So he's just like this, playing bass. And then the singer looks at him and he goes Yeah.

The knees stay together and he goes into a deep squat, super happy, Yeah.

He's so stoked.

And we will be right back.

And now, back to the show.

Now, wait, now, Ronnie, how crazy do you get with your set? You put like, because I see some guys, they'll put like a big fucking gong back there sometimes and they'll put some kettle drums and they'll put like some of the like xylophone that's hanging from, like Christmas ornaments. Yeah, those things. You get like real robust with your set up back there. or do you keep it simple?

We were doing like a a video. I have a gong. But we were doing this video where we were basically trying to do the Pink Floyd rip off. You know, when they're in the.

Pompeii?

Pompeii, the Pompeii video. And Nick Mason's got this awesome drum set with the gong. It just looks great in the desert. We were making this video for Human in the desert.

You guys make awesome videos, by the way, just as an aside.

Thanks.

use it. You have like one of those big, funny mallets?

Yeah, big ass, you know, mallet the size of a baby's head.

No?

No chime wipes?

Oh, I was going to bring some tenderness. Some tenderness, to this interview. You know that, do you remember? you emailed me about Dustland, Will? You might not remember this, but I think this is how we first talked.

connected. I think you're right.

And those moments are few and far between where somebody will actually take the time to do that, and I appreciate it still.

Yeah, I do remember that, man. Yeah, listen, I love music and I've always been a fan of you guys and I find you guys it's funny, you're talking about kind of circling back to, talking about getting into sort of electronic music, etc. What I've always loved about you guys, I find a lot of your music is very anthemic. There's always a big feel to it. You guys are kind of big feel, guys.

Will, are you crying right now? I'm always.

crying. I'm always crying. Just know that. And I do remember reaching out to you and of course we emailed a couple times and I just, I don't know, man. I just really appreciate it.

Uh oh.

This is one of my tunes. This is one of my tunes.

Here's the neck pops.

This is your band? Here we go.

and.

someone else is sad.

Look at the way he pops the neck.

Someone's angry, someone's sad.

That sure stopped my tears.

It's so bad.

Is that you singing or no?

Yeah, that's me singing.

You're doing, Andy Bell.

A thousand percent.

Andy Bell sings his ass off.

It's unbelievable.

He's sort of underrated.

Andy Bell is the lead singer of Erasure.

Man.

Yeah, I was like 19,. 20..

I don't know how old I was.

That sounded good.

What's the time stamp on? Is it about 3.40 in the morning?

August 5th, 2009..

Does it start with you up?

Hey, man, you up?

You up?

No, it says Hey man, just wanted to drop you a line and say I love Duskline Fairytale. I can't stop listening to it. Hypnotic.

And then a dick pic.

Anyway, going to sleep now.

Call me. I'm putting my phone on TTYL.

It's just it. all sort of just started to roll. We had garage recordings that were just us playing in my garage with two microphones and a CD recorder. Wow. And we got to the point where we were everybody's amps and the drums, and everything sounded like it was being mixed, but it was just.

each song. You guys paid for the studio time yourself? We did a spec.

deal with this guy. He says, I'm gonna record this for free. I'm gonna have Mark Needham. He's a famous mix engineer. He's done Chris Isaac and Fleetwood Mac and countless others.

That was the first time I had Thai food in Berkeley.

Really? Sean wants to know if you've ever tried chin chin.

Yeah, we do the chin chin.

Sean, do you enjoy Thai food? I love.

Thai food, yeah. I love the different sauces.

You know, in Vegas we have a place, Lotus of Siam. If you guys ever go to Vegas. And it's the best. You got Night Market Song is amazing in LA, but Vegas has this one. It's called Lotus of Siam and it's not on the strip, it's off the strip, but it is.

the greatest. I tell you what you need to try next time you're in Vegas is The Sphere. Why don't you guys go play The Sphere? That place is.

incredible. Oh, did you already go?

Yeah, I went to that U2 show. Unbelievable, that venue.

Man, just the pictures.

What do you guys think of Vegas? Like living there. You don't live there, Ronnie, but Brandon, you do, right?

I moved away too. Oh, you did? Yeah. Three of us were born.

there. You ever run into Kimmel? You ever see Kimmel over there when you're in Vegas? Ronnie went to the same.

high school as Jimmy. Really?

Jimmy's a lot, a lot older. He's a lot older.

He's a lot older. That was the end of his sentence. Jimmy's a lot.

And he is a lot. He is a lot. We can say this officially. Kimmel is a lot.

from? It wasn't until we left.

That's a great answer.

You realize how weird it is. Yeah, and so you're just accustomed to seeing ads for billboards, for strip clubs and there are slot machines when you go to 7-Eleven. My grandma's going to be playing slots while I'm getting my Slurpee. That's what life is like. Wow.

to other people. How did you end up in Northern California? For the record. Did you guys all kind of relocate there?

No, that's just where Saltzman's studio is.

Oh, gotcha.

Yeah, that's just where the studio, this guy just was high on building his brand new studio and was very eager to record somewhere.

So you guys have relocated out of Vegas. into where are you now? We're all over the place.

I'm in Texas right now.

I live in Utah. Oh, alright.

After a show is done and you played a show, do you guys have like a and you're feeling that adrenaline still, do you have a routine or some kind of something you do to calm down? Do you go out? Are you like, you know what? I'm done. I'm spent.

I devour food.

You do? Do you not eat before the show?

About four. I give four hours before the gig.

You don't want anything in your stomach for four hours before the gig because it might get a little growly?

You just feel heavy. I don't want to feel full and the acid reflux, all that kind of stuff. If it hits your cords.

Yeah, yeah. Jason?

When you say cords, you're talking about the pants?

The vocal cords.

Oh, yes!

Jesus.

Did you say you lived in Utah? I did.

From when I was four till I was seven, we lived in Salt Lake. I forget why my parents were there, but I learned how to ski Snowbird and Alta. Loved it. No, not at all. Beautiful state.

When I was a kid, I swear.

Come on. Maybe I was there skiing when I was a little bit older.

No, it was in Reno or Wendover. I can't remember. It could have been Reno. We were checking into someplace because there was a storm or something and we had to. I remember being like I was only eight or nine.

Jason was 25..

You were famous.

Barely. That's a kind word.

Brendan's got a very good memory, so let's keep going.

I was excited because I was like, that's him. My mom wasn't sure.

Was it 8 a.m. and it looked like you'd been up?

Yeah. Was I looking dejected from a blackjack table at the pepper mill? That was me.

Was he exchanging cash with the dude behind the 7-Eleven?

You had some friends with you, but you were running the show.

I remember. Yeah, I thought I was pretty hot shit.

Did he have a motorhome with some dirt bikes on it? Was he with Leif Garrett?

Yeah, I could have been with Leif Garrett on my way north.

He might have been with Leif Garrett. By the way, you know what's funny? You guys are from Vegas and then you moved all over the States and you've kind of lived everywhere. but my impression is that you guys, really, you're so huge in the UK. I talked about it before.

That first record we recorded in Berkeley was then put out by this small indie label. That's what became our first record, Hot Fuss.

All the major American labels said no. We went with this small label in England.

who believed in us. These guys believed in us. We went over there and

go to the love.

I think we did like four or five shows and the NME was covering it, and it was just like things were starting to sort of bloom a little bit. Then we got home two or three weeks later, and all the American labels were taking us out to dinner. We ate really well for a few nights. We were just broke. We all still had jobs.

As a photographer there. how was your chat to your subjects when you were shooting and you were really getting good shots? would you ever say stuff like dynamite! What was your go-to chat on that stuff? Write to me.

More leg.

More leg. Dynamite leg.

You're not going to regret this. Right.

Who's that? Who's that over there?

It was a good job.