Speaker 1: Welcome to five hundred Greatest Songs, a podcast based on
Speaker 1: Rolling Stones hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversialist. I'm Britney Spanos.
Speaker 2: And I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to shed light on
Speaker 2: the greatest songs ever made and discover what makes them
Speaker 2: so great. This week, we're diving into an absolute classic,
Speaker 2: Mister Bright's side by The Killers. What a song, so good.
Speaker 1: It comes in at number three seventy eight on the
Speaker 1: five hundred Greatest Songs of All Time list. I love
Speaker 1: this song, I love this Another album, pop Us was
Speaker 1: the first album I ever bought. It is a favorite.
Speaker 1: I just absolutely adore The Killers.
Speaker 2: The first album you ever bought, YEP, and it was.
Speaker 1: I've still listened to it all the time. It's a
Speaker 1: perfect album.
Speaker 2: Actually, it's a perfect album. It's really one of the
Speaker 2: perfect albums from that era.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean just kind of that like New Waves shund.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think especially this time, I was listening
Speaker 1: to so much emo and pop punk and it just
Speaker 1: felt so, I know, so much cooler.
Speaker 2: Yeah, really amazing. The first single comes out, somebody told
Speaker 2: me just phenomenal song. It's funny now to think that
Speaker 2: that was the lead single from an album where mister
Speaker 2: Bright's eide was just sitting there, but somebody told me
Speaker 2: was the first time I guess anybody heard The Killers,
Speaker 2: And that song was such a statement of purpose. It
Speaker 2: had like you said, it had that emo sound, but
Speaker 2: this whole level of disco gloss. It was really the
Speaker 2: quintessential example of two great tastes that taste great together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like i'd heard Maps, of course, and like it
Speaker 1: hadn't heard like the Strokes really and like a lot
Speaker 1: of the other bands from that New York era and
Speaker 1: like that sort of post punk. So I kind of
Speaker 1: like didn't have so much of that knowledge of this
Speaker 1: like other scene that was happening, and so I was
Speaker 1: just like the Killers are, like they just like invented something.
Speaker 2: It's funny how the Killers, being from Las Vegas very
Speaker 2: much so, were embraced as a New York band at
Speaker 2: the time. They were big in New York before they
Speaker 2: were big anywhere else. They were playing clubs and bars
Speaker 2: and they were absolutely so amazing as a live band,
Speaker 2: and so they were thought of as honorary locals even
Speaker 2: though they weren't even from here. They really epitomize that
Speaker 2: sort of rare because that kind of soundcraft, like the
Speaker 2: Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Strokes, they figured out how
Speaker 2: to do that with the disco beat and completely invented
Speaker 2: something new.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they felt so much in between those two
Speaker 1: sort of popular rock scenes of that time, which was
Speaker 1: that sort of post punk sound with like the emo
Speaker 1: pop punk that was also emerging, you know, thinking of
Speaker 1: just like the presentation of the Killers in a lot
Speaker 1: of ways and that sort of coming up from with
Speaker 1: another Vegas bandpack of the disco they always just felt
Speaker 1: so like intertwined with that presentation of this kind of
Speaker 1: guyliner sort of glam essence of them. It just felt
Speaker 1: so like kind of a part of They felt sort
Speaker 1: of in between those two worlds almost.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they really did. They were a combination of so
Speaker 2: many different things. And it's while the out Hot Fuss, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean, an album filled with bangers, an album filled
Speaker 2: with potential hits. Every song that wasn't a hit on
Speaker 2: that album still feels like it should have been. Yeah,
Speaker 2: somebody told me it was such a great song in itself.
Speaker 2: Mister Bright's side, on a totally different level, it totally
Speaker 2: makes sense that that's the one that's that's become the
Speaker 2: mega canonical killer song.
Speaker 1: Absolutely perfect song, like great sing along song, had an
Speaker 1: amazing video. I mean, I think sort of the early
Speaker 1: two thousand songs we talked about are so intertwined with
Speaker 1: their videos because it was so such off the time
Speaker 1: and such of the way that so many people were
Speaker 1: hearing these songs for the first time, or the way
Speaker 1: they were blowing up. But I mean, just that kind
Speaker 1: of like weird kind of Marie Antoinette Sophia Coppola style
Speaker 1: one of the thirty videos, and Eric Roberts in it
Speaker 1: as a as an antagonist in it. You know, it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like a great sort of visual presentation
Speaker 1: of them that was so unique and so different from
Speaker 1: what a lot of other bands were doing at the time.
Speaker 1: On top of it, this like incredibly kind of like
Speaker 1: sparkly synth with like this like perfect kind of sing
Speaker 1: along scream along chorus and also verse that was also
Speaker 1: scream alonga bale and just yeah, everything about that song
Speaker 1: is just immediately stuck in your head for the rest
Speaker 1: of your life and you can never get rid of it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's forever coming out of that cage. That song
Speaker 2: has never been in its cage mister Brightside such an
Speaker 2: audacious pop song. Yea from the beginning the quote of
Speaker 2: David Bowie not derivative, but very clear and very witty
Speaker 2: in itself, and of course works even if you aren't
Speaker 2: a big fan of that particular David Bowie era. Queen
Speaker 2: Bitch is the song that was the kind of thing
Speaker 2: where hearing mister bright'siye for the first time, I was
Speaker 2: laughing out loud that how blatant that quote was and
Speaker 2: yet used so beautifully. The you know, calling a cab
Speaker 2: and everything about that song. It's so filled with individual details,
Speaker 2: and it's funny that it's, as you said, ultimate sing
Speaker 2: a long song, but it really is filled with so
Speaker 2: many tiny details that become just absolute permanent part in
Speaker 2: the memory.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, one of the most iconic opening lines
Speaker 1: coming out in my cage and I've been doing just fine.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like that's like just like from It's incredible,
Speaker 1: like how immediately sort of ingrained into culture. Every part
Speaker 1: of this song would be. Like it's almost strange because
Speaker 1: I don't think like I could have ever imagined that
Speaker 1: I would be hearing the song at like sports games,
Speaker 1: you know, for the rest of my life. Or like
Speaker 1: any like other sort of random places like it just
Speaker 1: felt so of that time, and I'm sure the band
Speaker 1: obviously is very like can't believe all the places the
Speaker 1: song has gone, but yeah, I mean it's just like
Speaker 1: one of the most immediately kind of catchy rock moments
Speaker 1: of this era, and just like that sort of like perfect, perfect,
Speaker 1: perfect chorus that exists on there. And Brandon Flowers very
Speaker 1: like Britishism, sort of like delivery of everything.
Speaker 2: Of everything, of everything, best English accent in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: And does he does David Bowie on this one, and
Speaker 1: Sam Sound is his Bruce album and he kind of
Speaker 1: was like sort of testing out the waters on I'm
Speaker 1: kind of those evoking those heroes.
Speaker 2: Of his the Mister Brightside, very Bowie song, a very
Speaker 2: Deuranduran song, that kind of aesthetic, but particularly the idea
Speaker 2: of it being a rock song, a rock band song
Speaker 2: that would also work on a total pop level, and
Speaker 2: so much of that is just that perfect sort of
Speaker 2: disco propulsion that it has. It was really a song
Speaker 2: designed to make rock girls dance, which at the time
Speaker 2: before The Killers was something that had been neglected a
Speaker 2: bit in rock the rock bands of the early two
Speaker 2: thousands were not concerned so much with making girls dance,
Speaker 2: whereas mister Bright's side was that from the beginning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean just like the sort of like
Speaker 1: bodily reaction you could still have is still experience people
Speaker 1: having whenever the song comes on anywhere, I mean, any
Speaker 1: sort of wedding that you're at, It's like the song
Speaker 1: will likely play by the end of the night, especially
Speaker 1: any millennial wedding you're at, the song will definitely play
Speaker 1: by the end of the night. And sort of the
Speaker 1: reaction that everyone has is just like one of my
Speaker 1: favorite things that this is just like an immediate kind
Speaker 1: of excitement and thrill.
Speaker 2: I always have to hang around for it was only
Speaker 2: a kiss. It was only a kiss. That second, it
Speaker 2: was only a kiss. Such a brilliant, brilliant move, so
Speaker 2: many brilliant details in this song.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean, just like the way that the
Speaker 1: Killers have developed since then, I mean, with the Bruce
Speaker 1: mentioned that I had brought up earlier with Sam's sound,
Speaker 1: kind of seen the way that they sort of developed
Speaker 1: their music, Like, what is your sort of take on
Speaker 1: how how the Killers have moved since mister Bryce sie
Speaker 1: what they did in the album's following Hot Fuss and
Speaker 1: sort of changed their own kind of musical development over that.
Speaker 2: Hot Fuss is so perfect. Also, Day and Age is
Speaker 2: also a perfect album, but those two really loom large. Yeah,
Speaker 2: Hot Fuss for a debut album. I remember when we
Speaker 2: did the list of Rolling Stone five hundred albums of
Speaker 2: all Time. Yeah, that Hot Fuss was high on your
Speaker 2: list as an all time album, and it really is
Speaker 2: in terms of a debut album that really has a
Speaker 2: fully developed sound and a fully developed esthetic. It's well,
Speaker 2: that a bit of a one off for that, but
Speaker 2: that's an album where every single song I think my favorite,
Speaker 2: My favorite has always been all these things that I've done.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that one is very very high on my Killer's
Speaker 1: song ranking list. I'm a big fan of that one,
Speaker 1: and believe me, Natalie is another favorite from that album.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable. Yeah, well it's will that one of my favorite
Speaker 2: songs from the Killers from that era didn't even make
Speaker 2: the album is very scandalous when the Hot Fuss came out,
Speaker 2: that it didn't have glamorous indie rock and roll, which
Speaker 2: was such a highlight of their live show at that point.
Speaker 2: A song that is the Killers that they're at their
Speaker 2: most brilliant. Yeah, take my twist with a shout might
Speaker 2: be my favorite lyric in any of their songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like you mentioned, kind of this album does feel
Speaker 1: like so much of a wane off, But I feel
Speaker 1: like that like discoe post punk dance sound that they've
Speaker 1: sort of really i mean perfected on this album. Kind
Speaker 1: of when they've returned to it over the years, you
Speaker 1: can kind of see the way that they It's like
Speaker 1: it's sort of hard for them to shake in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways. I feel like it's like on Day
Speaker 1: and Age especially and later songs, like it's still such
Speaker 1: an ingrained part of who they are and still my
Speaker 1: favorite thing they'd done in terms of how they've seen
Speaker 1: themselves as a band or like been fully realized as
Speaker 1: a band.
Speaker 2: There's sort of that tension between their Anglo side and
Speaker 2: their American side. The Anglo side really takes over on
Speaker 2: Hot Fuss for sure, as well as Day and Age,
Speaker 2: which is that's a whole journey in itself. But it's
Speaker 2: amazing also that Hot Fuss, despite very much being a
Speaker 2: band from the deepest, most iconic of American Western areas,
Speaker 2: being very much like an album of its place. It
Speaker 2: was so huge in the UK. Heard it constantly in
Speaker 2: Ireland that summer for something that was so plainly an
Speaker 2: American band coming on, very very English. Yeah, and the
Speaker 2: Killers very much part of that just by doing it
Speaker 2: so well.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean it almost feels like it's kind of
Speaker 1: the Wonderwall Mister Brightside exchange, you know, like I feel
Speaker 1: like Wonderwall I hear constantly here of course, And like
Speaker 1: the amount of times I heard mister Brightside in London
Speaker 1: was like obscene. It's just like hearing it everywhere, just
Speaker 1: like every like pub, every single place. I was just
Speaker 1: like hearing mister Bryceide Costa in the last like two years,
Speaker 1: you know, in the same way that I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, there's always someone covering Wonderwall or playing Wonderwall
Speaker 1: here somewhere.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it must have been wild for you, as a
Speaker 2: lifelong fan of that song to have it pop up
Speaker 2: in public places all the time, which it does. What
Speaker 2: do you think it is about mister Brightside that makes
Speaker 2: it a song? It's always going to pop up in
Speaker 2: public places, whether in the US or in the UK.
Speaker 1: That opening kind of like sparkly synth sound is like
Speaker 1: almost like a siren, like it's like immediately the minute
Speaker 1: you hear it is like a Pavlovian effect that it
Speaker 1: has on everyone's brains, and even just the way, like
Speaker 1: I feel like that very specific way that Brandon Flowers
Speaker 1: sings everything, that very kind of like British sort of
Speaker 1: like new wave delivery of the song, which is in
Speaker 1: retrospect over like the course of their career, very unusual
Speaker 1: for him, and like the sort of intonation of it
Speaker 1: where he's almost like like talk singing it is just
Speaker 1: like so easily imitatable, Like it's like something that you
Speaker 1: like want to sort of imitate and try out and
Speaker 1: do for yourself. And I feel like that sort of
Speaker 1: made that song so big in the moment, and obviously
Speaker 1: all the lyrics and kind of just like the simplicity
Speaker 1: of it just kind of became just so woven into
Speaker 1: our own pop music consciousness. But yeah, I mean, it's
Speaker 1: just like there are some songs that are just so
Speaker 1: perfect for screaming along in a crowded place, and this
Speaker 1: was immediately one of them. And it's crazy like just
Speaker 1: from this era, the number of songs that became that
Speaker 1: way or that just were written maybe not even with
Speaker 1: that in mind, but just have become that part of
Speaker 1: culture examination Army and hey A we had talked about
Speaker 1: in the Beyonce episode, But just like this sort of
Speaker 1: like two thousand and three sort of blockbuster Ye're just
Speaker 1: leading up to this. It's wild to think of those
Speaker 1: songs that are so unique and so weird, even just
Speaker 1: not even just for those artists, but just in the
Speaker 1: context of pop music at that time. Mister Brightside being
Speaker 1: like that, and just the way that they became such
Speaker 1: like those groups sing along songs in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: is so fascinating. It's so weird to me. But I
Speaker 1: think it's because those songs were so so strange, both
Speaker 1: for the artists and for those eras. I think is
Speaker 1: what kind of allowed them to become bigger than the
Speaker 1: year they were released. And mister Bright's Side is so
Speaker 1: much bigger than the year that was released. It it
Speaker 1: feels very two thousand and four, but it's also not,
Speaker 1: which is like so strange, Like I think it's kind
Speaker 1: of crazy twenty years on to I feel like maybe
Speaker 1: ten years ago I would have been like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is such a two thousand and four song, and now
Speaker 1: I'm like, actually no, It just kind of feels like
Speaker 1: a timeless like it's not just like this timeless classic
Speaker 1: and it's become so much bigger than that era or
Speaker 1: that nostalgia that's around it.
Speaker 2: Really brilliant point about that era and how many universal
Speaker 2: songs that never feel old came out of that moment. Yeah,
Speaker 2: another one like obviously like Toxic from two thousand and four,
Speaker 2: the Britney song that I guess it was on an
Speaker 2: album in two thousand and three, but it was very
Speaker 2: early two thousand and four when it was a hit,
Speaker 2: And it seems like that was a song that you
Speaker 2: knew instantly liked these songs that you've mentioned that these
Speaker 2: were permanent songs.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and all of them have really iconic opening, Like
Speaker 1: I'm responding to it faster than I'm realizing when I
Speaker 1: hear that like opening since so.
Speaker 2: It really is, like you said, Pavlovian. Yeah, another band
Speaker 2: from this era that I think of his so linked
Speaker 2: to the Killers in so many ways. Franz Ferdinand, who
Speaker 2: had their perfect debut album, not their last perfect album.
Speaker 2: Franz Ferdinand made three perfect albums in the two thousands.
Speaker 2: But take Me Out another song, Yeah, that is universal,
Speaker 2: another song designed to make rock girls dance and another
Speaker 2: song with a very intense opening that power strung.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like that like era of like dance
Speaker 1: rock music was just so perfect, Like it was just
Speaker 1: so much fun, just like really really kind of lighthearted
Speaker 1: and weird, and like I was listening to the song
Speaker 1: do You Want To from their second album, and that
Speaker 1: was a song that I just like forgot how immediately catchy.
Speaker 1: It was, again not even like the big hit by them,
Speaker 1: but also still kind of just like super catchy from
Speaker 1: this era of just like this like super light hearted
Speaker 1: kind of dance rock music that I really love. And
Speaker 1: obviously the Killers kind of being sort of the forefront
Speaker 1: of that and of that sort of movement in pop music,
Speaker 1: I think allowed a lot of weirder rock bands to
Speaker 1: have a.
Speaker 2: Moment absolutely to be fun and like you said, to
Speaker 2: be very dance oriented after a time when that was
Speaker 2: really lacking in popular rock music. It's funny that the
Speaker 2: Killers from Las Vegas Franz Ferdinand from Scotland were both
Speaker 2: so tied in with this New York rock explosion and
Speaker 2: Meet Me in the Bathroom Lucy Goodman's History of that era.
Speaker 2: Those are both very prominent bands, even though neither one
Speaker 2: was from New York, but they were both responding really
Speaker 2: directly to what was coming out of New York with
Speaker 2: the Strokes in the aas.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and made it even more pop, made it even
Speaker 1: more you know again for the girls who want to dance. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean everything about Hot Fuss like it is so dancing.
Speaker 1: I think a part of what appealed to me too,
Speaker 1: just like that kind of darkness to the entire album too,
Speaker 1: that like New Wavy kind of joy division order type
Speaker 1: of like influence that is, you know, so big on
Speaker 1: Brandon Flowers and not on the Killers at this time. Of course,
Speaker 1: they have a great cover of Transmission that I was
Speaker 1: really really obsessed with, and you know there is that
Speaker 1: sort of that bright kind of danciness and still that
Speaker 1: sort of like underlying kind of post punk New Wavy
Speaker 1: like post wave kind of darkness that they lean into
Speaker 1: on parts of the album.
Speaker 2: Definitely there's that combination obviously, like you said, emo influencers,
Speaker 2: I guess.
Speaker 1: Like mister Bryceiye is an emo song that was like
Speaker 1: a very very emo song about jealousy, and you know
Speaker 1: it's the very again sort of that feeling of them
Speaker 1: being in between these two rock scenes that were blowing
Speaker 1: up at the same time and both. You know, I
Speaker 1: feel like the emo and pop punk was very much
Speaker 1: for sort of the teenagers at the time, and you know,
Speaker 1: the kind of like post punk movement was for a
Speaker 1: little bit of like an older sort of listener, And like,
Speaker 1: I think that they were sort of like in between
Speaker 1: where they can kind of appeal to both sides of
Speaker 1: that and in a lot of ways totally.
Speaker 2: I read about The Killers that summer in Rolling Stone.
Speaker 2: It was their first America an interview. Yeah, and I
Speaker 2: love something Brandon said that it was great to look
Speaker 2: out at a crowd and see people dancing instead of
Speaker 2: elbowing each other. It's funny that they think of late
Speaker 2: nineties early two thousands rock, especially with the emphasis on
Speaker 2: metal type stuff, that it was very much designed for
Speaker 2: elbowing each other and you know, crowding in for room.
Speaker 2: The change was really kind of amazing to see.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like it feels so intertwined to me
Speaker 1: because that Panka Diisco album came out two thousand and five,
Speaker 1: so it was around the same time. Obviously, you know,
Speaker 1: a couple of their singles were already blowing up, and
Speaker 1: the Vegas connection. I feel like esthetically they were so similar,
Speaker 1: so they always felt like so obviously not in that scene,
Speaker 1: Like they weren't a fuel by ram and band. They
Speaker 1: weren't like, you know, performing with these bands. But because
Speaker 1: of the lyrical nature of the song and a lot
Speaker 1: of the presentation that was so similar to a lot
Speaker 1: of the emo bands at that.
Speaker 2: Time, Clearly Hot Fuss is an album made by band
Speaker 2: that really wants arenas. Yeah, which is funny because that
Speaker 2: was they were come out of a scene where that
Speaker 2: wasn't something a band was even supposed to admit that
Speaker 2: they were even curious about. Yeah, this was at the
Speaker 2: time when the Strokes were still refusing to do encores.
Speaker 2: It's part of it because it was two show biz.
Speaker 2: It was a time when the resistance to show biz,
Speaker 2: even with very crowd pleasing, very outreach, very pop oriented bands. Yeah,
Speaker 2: And it was so wild to hear a song like
Speaker 2: all these things that I've done and has the moment
Speaker 2: where it stops and it's I got sold, but I'm
Speaker 2: not a soldier. And it was wild to hear them
Speaker 2: play that song in a bar but very different thing.
Speaker 2: You hear it on the album and you think this
Speaker 2: is so designed for Arenas. This band wants the Arenas.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I mean, listening to it now, it's kind
Speaker 1: of amazing to realize how ambitious the entire record is.
Speaker 1: This was their debut album. I think it was so
Speaker 1: much that kind of like charisma of Brandon, just like
Speaker 1: the way it was just like, you know, just like
Speaker 1: the weirdness of the song, the delivery, the kind of
Speaker 1: you know, it was retro, but it wasn't. Just that
Speaker 1: kind of combination of things was like, this is the
Speaker 1: only band that could pull that off.
Speaker 2: Absolutely so true. You're so right, and it's so well
Speaker 2: that so many bands tried that. When The Killers came
Speaker 2: out and they had really cracked the code of how
Speaker 2: to do this very dance oriented rock music, that we
Speaker 2: were flooded, although I would choose to say blessed with
Speaker 2: so many bands that wanted to be The Killers, well
Speaker 2: that they spawned rock imitators, like a band I happened
Speaker 2: to love, The Bravery. Yeah, they sounded so much like
Speaker 2: a Killer's tribute band with an honest mistake, which I
Speaker 2: totally love a song about post nine to eleven panic
Speaker 2: terror sex as it was called at the time. But
Speaker 2: it's wild that you know, they had this really a
Speaker 2: few that turned very very nasty, very fast.
Speaker 1: I didn't even realize they had a feud. Yeah, No,
Speaker 1: I think there's definitely like a direct line from the
Speaker 1: Killers and like Brandon Flowers as like rock heart Throb
Speaker 1: to sort of like that Tumbler era that would come
Speaker 1: like a few years later of like very steeped in
Speaker 1: like eighties new wave, like a deep deep joy division
Speaker 1: sort of like nostalgia and like kind of like that
Speaker 1: that would happen that were like it was like goth light,
Speaker 1: you know, and like new wave light of all that.
Speaker 1: Like I feel like The Killers were very influential on
Speaker 1: a lot of that because I think that that opened
Speaker 1: up a lot of doors for a lot of young
Speaker 1: listeners who would later get on Tumblr and you know,
Speaker 1: post a bunch of pictures of like David Bowie and
Speaker 1: like just like a bunch of you know, like eighties
Speaker 1: new wave boys and stuff.
Speaker 2: When I read about them in Rolling Stone and that summer,
Speaker 2: and Brandon said something that he wanted it to be
Speaker 2: a real life Ziggy Stardust, like the band Ziggy Startist
Speaker 2: and the Spiders from Mars, not the band that made
Speaker 2: the album, but the band that Bowie is singing about
Speaker 2: the fictional band on that album. Oh wow, that they
Speaker 2: wanted to be a real life version of that. Yeah,
Speaker 2: which makes so much sense.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that makes like that makes the picture of
Speaker 1: hop Us even clearer to me. Up next we have
Speaker 1: mister Brightsize's engineer and mixer, Mark Needham. We are joined
Speaker 1: now by engineer and mixer Mark Needham. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us today, talk about mister bright Side.
Speaker 3: Thanks sure, thanks for having me out A legend, legend,
Speaker 3: thank you so legend in my own mind.
Speaker 1: So you were just coming from working on with Fleetwood
Speaker 1: Mac when you got.
Speaker 3: The call to I was in the middle of a
Speaker 3: couple of different fleet I was on about two or
Speaker 3: three Fleetwood Mac things. But yeah, my partner, I was
Speaker 3: my attorney in San Francisco, and I had we had
Speaker 3: a studio. We developed a few artists. We wanted to
Speaker 3: find three bands, make demos or album for all of them,
Speaker 3: and shop them and sign them.
Speaker 2: It was fun.
Speaker 3: We got we found the three bands that we loved
Speaker 3: and got all of them signed.
Speaker 1: And what was your first impression of the Killers?
Speaker 3: We'd flown out to see them live. They were playing
Speaker 3: it a little. They played a little club in a
Speaker 3: strip mall in Las Vegas. So, you know, I love
Speaker 3: the band. They were super cool guys. They were they
Speaker 3: were so young. I mean, I look back at the
Speaker 3: pictures now, they were so young and so kind of
Speaker 3: shy and and all, you know, just so happy and
Speaker 3: thrilled to be in the recording studio. So it was
Speaker 3: it was fun. On mister Bright's side, it was you know,
Speaker 3: it was two or three takes. I just did some
Speaker 3: editing and I kicked the band out for a little
Speaker 3: bit and just kind of made that distorted intro and
Speaker 3: did a really quick mix, and that's what ended up
Speaker 3: being put out. I tried. I actually tried to remix
Speaker 3: the song at least five times, but you know I
Speaker 3: usually do. Really I've worked really fast and sometimes you
Speaker 3: just get the vibe just sounds right.
Speaker 2: You know, as we were talking about, it's a ubiquitous song.
Speaker 2: It's a song that you hear everywhere, a wedding standard.
Speaker 3: That's yeah, that's why I was. I was so amazed,
Speaker 3: like that wouldn't be the song I'd picked to play
Speaker 3: at my wedding, but you.
Speaker 2: Know, in such a distinctive sound that it had a
Speaker 2: real rock presence, but also a real dance propulsion.
Speaker 3: That whole album is pretty sparse. There's not like a
Speaker 3: ton of tracks on a couple of the songs that
Speaker 3: have where we added the choir on the stuff that
Speaker 3: are filled out more, but a lot of them are
Speaker 3: pretty minimalistic. But it's just the drums and bass are
Speaker 3: so busy, and then there's sort of the floaty guitar
Speaker 3: and then the keyboard line that comes in now and
Speaker 3: then you know, But other than that, there's not really
Speaker 3: a lot on there. But it allows the drums and
Speaker 3: bass to be so present. That's what I think adds that,
Speaker 3: that dancy and the bass, especially with that it there's
Speaker 3: a lot of distortion on the bass, so that kind
Speaker 3: of makes it feel a little bit like that rock
Speaker 3: guitar thing going. But the rhythm section is so big.
Speaker 3: I think that's what adds that, that dancy feel.
Speaker 2: Wow. And when they played it live, sort of when
Speaker 2: you were first hearing it, did you have a sense
Speaker 2: that that was already there?
Speaker 3: I mean not in the way the record blew up.
Speaker 3: I mean the first time we saw them, there was
Speaker 3: a they played it that it was just a little club.
Speaker 3: It held maybe two or three hundred people. It was
Speaker 3: in a little strip mall right across from the hard
Speaker 3: Rock Hotel. After we finished the album, we shopped it
Speaker 3: in the US for at least a year, and to
Speaker 3: respond from all the labels like, yeah, no, this isn't
Speaker 3: this is not really good, this is not happening where.
Speaker 3: But until that always makes you kind of you start
Speaker 3: to doubt, you know, you start to doubt the validity
Speaker 3: of the of your choices a little bit. But in
Speaker 3: the end it worked out the way it was supposed to.
Speaker 3: You know, it's started in the UK and then came back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you brought up something earlier about the distorted
Speaker 1: intro that's on the song, and Rob and I were
Speaker 1: kind of talking about all the elements of the song
Speaker 1: that sort of stick out to us but also may
Speaker 1: have been part of what made the song so iconic
Speaker 1: and so memorable and so ingrained in all of our
Speaker 1: musical memories. And that intro for me, is something that like,
Speaker 1: the minute I hear it, I'm like immediately, oh, probably good.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I'm curious if there are any other moments in a
Speaker 1: song that like are maybe little maybe easter eggs of
Speaker 1: how you mix the song that you that really stand
Speaker 1: out to you.
Speaker 3: I work really fast, and I don't really think. I
Speaker 3: don't like to think about, well, I mean I should
Speaker 3: use this compressor, if you know, I do what I hear.
Speaker 3: And on that I said, well, let's start with the drum.
Speaker 3: I think I had the drums panned hard to the
Speaker 3: side and distorted the bottom cut out, and well, let's
Speaker 3: do that. It just felt like the thing to do.
Speaker 3: And I mean I literally came together in maybe thirty
Speaker 3: minutes or the whole thing, and well, you know, we
Speaker 3: came up with that that slap delay sound, which was
Speaker 3: I didn't really have any outboard gear when I mixed that,
Speaker 3: and it was just the basic set of plugins that
Speaker 3: come with pro tools, so we used that. There was
Speaker 3: the green echo farm when you first open it up,
Speaker 3: that the very first delay had kind of distorted, it
Speaker 3: had distortion that's built in on it, and just added
Speaker 3: like eighty with an eighty six millisecond slap and it's like, oh,
Speaker 3: let's sounds pretty good. I guess that that sounds like
Speaker 3: the vocal show. You know. Things were just kind of
Speaker 3: fell together really quickly for me on that song. And
Speaker 3: I had a weird digital limitter that I is Drammer
Speaker 3: Digital Limited. That's the only time I've ever actually used
Speaker 3: that thing. I retired after I did that song, but
Speaker 3: it had like a crush distortion feature on the holding.
Speaker 3: You could kind of really kick the level really loud
Speaker 3: and kind of crush the whole mix. And I definitely
Speaker 3: had it for a month or so and I started
Speaker 3: experimenting with kind of overdriving the whole thing and found
Speaker 3: a sweet spot for that. And literally after that record
Speaker 3: came out and that was starting to be popular, I
Speaker 3: just took that thing out of my rack and retired.
Speaker 3: And I did it. I did that at one time.
Speaker 3: That's it going to do it again.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned how it was taking some time to
Speaker 1: shop around the Killers and chop around this album, and
Speaker 1: I mean, given the way that the song blew up,
Speaker 1: I mean the entire album blew up, do you feel
Speaker 1: shocking that so many people like were able to finally
Speaker 1: gravitate towards this band after working so hard to even
Speaker 1: get a label to sign.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, I mean again, after the the year of
Speaker 3: us kicking it around and everybody turned it down. You know,
Speaker 3: literally the only label we could find in the world
Speaker 3: that would sign it was just a Little Lizard King,
Speaker 3: which was a really small label in London. You know,
Speaker 3: at that point when that was the only thing that happened,
Speaker 3: we're just kind of like, well, this is going to
Speaker 3: be like a little indie release and the underground thing.
Speaker 3: But Jane and Lowe really picked Radio One became a
Speaker 3: was he became a huge fan, like overnight on this
Speaker 3: song and just played the heck out of it, and
Speaker 3: you know it, literally a month or so later it's
Speaker 3: number one in the UK, and then that changed the
Speaker 3: whole the whole scope of everything for the U. For
Speaker 3: the international release, everybody.
Speaker 2: No, no, we'd love that.
Speaker 3: BRK, you idiot. That was you know, that was kind
Speaker 3: of you know, everybody was interested in the band and
Speaker 3: loved it at that point.
Speaker 2: So it's hard to imagine people hearing the album and
Speaker 2: passing on it. It's so funny that there was a
Speaker 2: year of that that seems really.
Speaker 3: It was pretty much to finished album. We started taking
Speaker 3: it out. There was one an R guy in the
Speaker 3: US that actually made an offer on it. He made
Speaker 3: an offer. I was going to give him all three
Speaker 3: bands with the album's done for eighty thousand dollars and
Speaker 3: his boss turned it down. Well, so we didn't get
Speaker 3: one offer in the US well from one A and
Speaker 3: R guy that the hand of the label shot that
Speaker 3: down too. It also could have been they were right
Speaker 3: and the band played some clubs in the UK and
Speaker 3: that was yet. But it's a hard choices to make,
Speaker 3: so I don't fallow people for not liking it. Everybody's
Speaker 3: opinion changed once they saw how kids reacted to it,
Speaker 3: you know, then they were able to get on board,
Speaker 3: and having a major label be part of it was
Speaker 3: able to take it make it a worldwide phenomena.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you brought an original of Mister Brightside or
Speaker 1: is it? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, this is the very first, the very first single
Speaker 3: that was released on Lizard King. It's a little it
Speaker 3: was a little white vinyl. Yeah, it just went from
Speaker 3: here to it just went diamond.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean with the album turning twenty this year,
Speaker 1: I know the Killers are going on tour to celebrate that.
Speaker 1: I mean, this album's longevity and Mister Brightside's longevity has
Speaker 1: you know, surpassagably anything that you could have imagined that
Speaker 1: the band could have imagined that Robin I, as early
Speaker 1: fans of the band could have imagined.
Speaker 3: I mean, being on the charts. I mean it's in
Speaker 3: the UK the longest it you know, just been on
Speaker 3: the charts longer than any other song in history. It's
Speaker 3: like really like longer than the Beatles.
Speaker 2: Come on.
Speaker 3: That's but I'm so proud of the band that that's
Speaker 3: the case. I mean, it's it's hard to believe when
Speaker 3: you think of all the great songs that have come
Speaker 3: out of the UK. Yeah, it's hard to believe it's
Speaker 3: twenty years.
Speaker 1: Well, it's been an excellent twenty years, made better by
Speaker 1: mister Brekeside for sure.
Speaker 2: Absolutely hard to imagine the last twenty years.
Speaker 3: Make sure ll lies a little break right.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Thank you, Yeah, thanks so much,
Speaker 2: my pleasure.
Speaker 1: Yeah cool. Thanks so much for listening to Rolling Stone's
Speaker 1: five hundred Greatest Songs. This podcast is brought to you
Speaker 1: by Rolling Stone and iHeartMedia. Written hosted by me Britney.
Speaker 2: Spanos and Rob Sheffield.
Speaker 1: Executive produced by Jason Fine, Alex Dale and Christian Horde,
Speaker 1: and produced by Jesse Cannon, with music supervision by Eric Zeiler.
Speaker 1: Thanks for watching and thanks for listening.