The Killers

The Killers are a Rock band formed in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2001, comprising vocalist Brandon Flowers, guitarist Dave Keuning, bassist Mark Stoermer, and drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. One of the most successful and beloved rock bands of the 2000s and 2010s, they combined the anthemic scale of U2 and Bruce Springsteen with the synth-pop textures of New Order and The Cure to create a distinctly American arena rock sound of enormous emotional reach. Having come together in Las Vegas and recorded demos that generated significant label interest, their debut *Hot Fuss* (2004) was a phenomenon — a near-perfect album of synth-driven Indie Rock that contained 'Mr. Brightside' (one of the most-streamed rock songs in Spotify history, spending a record number of weeks on the UK charts), 'Somebody Told Me,' 'All These Things That I've Done,' and 'Smile Like You Mean It.' The album's combination of British post-punk influences with American ambition made it one of the decade's defining debut records, selling over 7 million copies. *Sam's Town* (2006) was more explicitly American in reference — Springsteen and heartland rock replacing the British influences — and 'When You Were Young' and 'Read My Mind' were career highlights. *Day & Age* (2008) pushed further into disco and synth-pop, producing the euphoric 'Human' and 'Spaceman.' *Battle Born* (2012) returned to a more straightforward rock sound. *Wonderful Wonderful* (2017) and *Imploding The Mirage* (2020, with collaborators including Weyes Blood and k.d. lang) demonstrated creative renewal, and *Pressure Machine* (2021) — a concept album about small-town American life in Nephi, Utah — was widely regarded as their finest and most personal work. Flowers' Mormon faith and its tensions with his artistic life have been a consistent undercurrent in the band's music and his public persona.