Brandon Flowers

American singer and songwriter Brandon Flowers is best known as the frontman of The Killers, who balanced his time in that hitmaking band with a solo career that dug into his own personal influences. One of the most popular singers of the early aughts new wave revival, he and his band helped popularize a genre that hadn't been fashionable for decades, drawing influence from a number of '80s synth pop bands -- including New Order, Echo & the Bunnymen, and the Psychedelic Furs -- while writing the songs that comprised their multi-platinum debut, Hot Fuss. Although the Killers retooled their sound with each album, the group rarely subscribed to convention -- and Flowers, who launched a solo career in 2010, seemed happy to be the most unconventional of them all. His 2010 debut Flamingo combined his synth and Americana sides, while 2015's The Desired Effect dug deeper into '80s dance. His third solo jaunt, 2026's Thrasher, focused on the country-western influences of his youth. Flowers grew up in the Southwest, spending his first eight years in the Las Vegas suburbs before moving to Utah with his parents. He returned to Las Vegas several years later, where he finished high school and landed a job working as a bellhop at the Gold Coast Hotel. He began spending his free time playing keyboards in a synth pop band, although he lost his position in the group when his bandmates all relocated to Los Angeles in 2001. Flowers remained in Las Vegas and began working with local guitarist Dave Keuning, with whom he pieced together a new band that relied on guitars as much as keyboards. The Killers' lineup was officially cemented in August 2002 with the arrival of bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci, and their glossy debut album -- released on both sides of the Atlantic in 2004 -- made the Killers one of the early 21st century's biggest American exports. With their open-armed embrace of synthesizers, icy atmospherics, and other trappings of the '80s, the Killers were placed into the same retro category as groups like Franz Ferdinand and the Rapture. For the band's second album, though, the guys shifted their focus to the heartland rock & roll of Bruce Springsteen. Released in October 2006, Sam's Town found Brandon Flowers modeling his performance after the Boss and Bono, and the album (although initially not as popular as Hot Fuss) went platinum across the globe. While on tour the following summer, Flowers had his first son with wife Tana Mundkowsky, whom he'd married two years prior. After releasing a rarities compilation, Sawdust, in late 2007, the Killers began working on a third album. Day & Age arrived in November 2008 and became another worldwide hit, with "Human" hitting the Top Ten in several countries. Flowers' second son was born while he was on the road in support of Day & Age, and his mother passed away in early 2010. Both experiences inspired him to keep writing, and he decided to launch a solo career later that year while the rest of the Killers enjoyed a short hiatus. Flamingo, his first album of solo material, was released that fall. Showcasing the synth-pop and country sides of his personality, the album yielded the singles "Crossfire" and "Only the Young." Flowers returned to the Killers for 2012's Battle Born, resuming his solo endeavors in 2015 with The Desired Effect, which was produced by Ariel Rechtshaid. Leaning into the electropop and soft rock of the '80s, the set featured the singles "Can't Deny My Love" and "I Can Change," which interpolated Bronski Beat's "Smalltown Boy." Back with the Killers, Flowers and the band issued three more albums -- 2017's Wonderful Wonderful, 2020's Imploding the Mirage, and 2021's Pressure Machine -- before he decided to write another solo album. Aligning with the rustic snapshots heard on selections from Flamingo and, overwhelmingly, on Pressure Machine, Thrasher stuck to the self-described "country-western" influences from his father during childhood. To keep in theme, Flowers decamped to Nashville and recruited an impressive roster of studio players like Charlie McCoy, David Rawlings, and Bruce Bouton. ~ Andrew Leahey & Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi