Brandon Flowers has opened up about how Alice Deejay’s 1999 dance track ‘Better Off Alone’ inspired The Killers’ hit ‘Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine’.
On a new video posted to social media, The Killers frontman spoke about the inspiration behind the track, which opened the band’s debut album, ‘Hot Fuss.‘ Flowers was talking about the track he said, in the “countdown to the release of ‘Rebel Diamonds’” – a compilation album The Killers are releasing next month that is comprised of songs from across their 20 year career.
The forthcoming album will include classics such as ‘Mr Brightside‘, ‘When You Were Young’ and ‘Human’ to more recent standalone hits such as ‘Boy‘ and ‘Your Side Of Town‘. The Las Vegas band have also included one new song on the album called ‘Spirit’. ‘Rebel Diamonds’ will be released on December 8 via EMI. You can pre-order the album here.
Speaking about ‘Jenny Was A Friend Of Mine’ and his memory of writing it, Flowers said: “It was a really exciting time. We were really dedicated and we were going into Ronnie’s Garage most nights and working this stuff out. And I had just purchased this keyboard, this synthesiser, a Nord Lead Two, and it was a thousand bucks. And that was a lot of money for me. And it was a very big purchase and I figured I better learn how to use this thing and apply it to this band that I was in.
“…Everybody was so capable of their instruments and everybody had their parts and it came down to the end of the song and I felt like I wanted to have something that was really identifiable that I could play. And so I was hearkening back to music that I was hearing in the clubs on the [Las Vegas] Strip.
“I was thinking about something like…this huge song, this Alice DJ song” Flowers continued before playing the song’s chorus.
20 songs for 20 years.#RebelDiamonds pic.twitter.com/zYk5VoY62f
— The Killers (@thekillers) November 19, 2023
He continued: “[It was] this big beautiful, dramatic thing that whenever it was played in the club, everybody was very excited. And that’s where this came from. So the time came for me to come up with something and I was definitely thinking of those big lines that I was hearing when this came on,” he explained, before playing the piano some more.
In their career, The Killers have released several albums including their seminal debut, ‘Hot Fuss‘ (2004), ‘Sam’s Town’ (2006), ‘Day and Age‘ (2008) ‘Battle Born‘ (2012), ‘Don’t Waste Your Wishes‘ (2016), ‘Wonderful Wonderful‘ (2017), ‘Imploding The Mirage‘ (2020) and their most recent effort, ‘Pressure Machine‘ (2021).
In a trailer for the upcoming compilation album, Flowers can be heard saying: “See it’s been said that what’s remembered lives, and we’ve racked up stadiums full of memories the past twenty years, enough to fill lifetimes. Twenty songs for twenty years – Rebel Diamonds.”
The website also stated that pre-ordering the album before 5pm GMT, November 27, would unlock an “exclusive ticket pre-sale code” for the “forthcoming and yet to be announced 2024 tour”.
The announcement follows from the news that Flowers reportedly scrapped an entire Killers album after previously promising new music: “Halfway through recording I realised, ‘I can’t do this,’” Flowers said, adding: “This isn’t the kind of record… I think this will be the… I don’t think you’ll see us making this type of music any more.”
He added: “This is the crisis I’m in. The Killers are my identity and our songs fill the seats, but I’m more fulfilled making music like [2021 album] ‘Pressure Machine’.
In other recent news, ‘Mr Brightside’ was the UK’s most streamed song in Spotify history. The indie-rock anthem beat out Arctic Monkey‘s ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ and Vance Joy‘s ‘Riptide’ to top the chart.