NATURAL BORN KILLERS

Though they hail from America's Sin City, The Killers are no Vegas lounge act. Jim Carroll finds out what all the (hot) fuss is about

Not surprisingly, The Killers feel right at home in this state-of-the-art Dublin pad. Singing Killer Brandon Flowers and bass-playing Killer Mark Stoermer make appreciative noises as they take in the space-age bubble-chair and other boxfresh furniture scattered around the plush Liffeyside penthouse apartment hired for today's press and promotional stampede. "This is quite cool," sighs Flowers as he plonks himself in the chair. There's a little piece of Las Vegas in Dublin after all.

Both Killers look a little weather-beaten and disorientated, only natural after spending a year travelling the globe flogging nearly one million copies of your first album. Hot Fuss is a highly promising opening line, the most Anglophile US album you will hear in 2004, full of premium songs like Somebody Told Me and Mr Brightside - tunes in thrall to classic British pop but robust enough to stand on their own.

Given where The Killers draw their inspiration from, it's perhaps inevitable that it was a small British independent label, Lizard King, who first clicked with what they were producing. "They weren't just the first ones to come to us, they were the only ones who wanted to talk to us," says Flowers. "We tried to get signed to an American label, but no one was interested. No one cared about what we were doing."

The situation has now been rectified in the US, where they are signed to Island Records. But it made more sense to start things rolling on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. "A lot of bands that we like were European or British or Irish," says Stoermer, "so it stood to reason that it might work better over here."

"We had seen how the buzz around The White Stripes and The Strokes had started over here," adds Flowers, "so it seemed like a good idea to try Europe first. There was no guarantee that it would happen, but it seemed more likely that there would be a bigger welcome for us in Europe rather than America."

They certainly weren't going to get by playing in Las Vegas alone. According to Flowers, no other band in the city sounded like The Killers. "There are other bands, but none like us. Competition can be good, but it turned out to be really good for us that there was no one else in the city like us. There's a club scene but it's not as good as in other US cities because it has to compete with the whole casino and nightlife scene."

Strangely, in spite of the glitz and neon, Sin City's musical heritage largely centres on imports. There was the Rat Pack doing their thing at the Sands Hotel, there were the Elvis years and there are still big shows from Elton John and Celine Dion to distract punters from the fact they're losing all their dough on roulette and blackjack.

As for the local scene, Stoermer mentions a hair-metal band from the city called Slaughter who had a few hits in the 1980s and 1990s ("the two of us went to the same high school as Mark Slaughter," Flowers says). What you heard is the sound of the bottom of the Vegas rock 'n' roll barrel being scraped.

Because three of the four Killers are Las Vegas natives, Flowers says the strangest thing this year has been to hear people's impressions of their home town. "We didn't realise there was such a fascination with the city until we started touring. It kind of blows people away, especially in Europe, that we grew up there and that we call it home. I think a lot of people think it's just wall-to-wall casinos and drive-in chapels and neon streets. Of course, that's all there but, in other ways, it's very ordinary, very normal."

Because of how the year has panned out, little time has been spent at home. "We have to keep touring because this album is still a baby. We're just kicking off in America and we have a long way to go there yet," says Flowers. "But I'm just happy that people are talking about the album or even want to talk to us. We knew what a long shot it was going to be getting into this, and we've been amazingly lucky."

As with their musical cues, The Killers are also taking pointers from their musical influences. "I suppose what we've learned most this year is that you are always trying to prove yourself," says Flowers. "If you look at all the artists we admire, they are the same: they work hard at what they do to get where they're at. You do have to burn brightly to shine."

In the midst of days filled with soundchecks and interviews, there are still some bright notes.

"One good thing like David Bowie coming to your show can make up for 30 bad days in a row," says Flowers. "It takes your mind off all the stuff that you have to do that you really don't want to do. I mean, you just don't know when you start off. You sign a record deal and you want to play your songs at a show, but no one tells you about the other stuff.

"So, when you hear what someone like Bowie or Bono has said about the band, you just spend the next few days happily talking about that."

Hot Fuss is out now on Lizard King Records