Jonathan Rado

Lou Barlow on the zombies, that's 59 and 60.

Foxygen's Jonathan Rado on Todd Rundgren.

That's 37 and 40.

Anthony Fantano on The Velvet Underground.

And she's like, I think that too.

And I asked him, I was like, who did you do that with? Did you do it with Jonathan Rado? And he was like, no, I just feel like I love that kind of music and budgets aren't what they used to be.

We don't get budgets to make records anymore.

So I just felt like I should figure it out so that kind of music won't die.

Lou Barlow on the zombies, that's 59 and 60.

Foxygen's Jonathan Rado on Todd Rundgren, that's 37 and 40.

Anthony Fantano on the Velvet Underground, that's 32 and 33.

Bob Forrest on the band, that's 25 and 27.

Lou Barlow on the zombies, that's 59 and 60.

Foxygen's Jonathan Rado on Todd Rundgren, that's 37 and 40.

Anthony Fantano on The Velvet Underground, that's 32 and 33.

Bob Forrest on The Band, that's 25 and 27.

Sharing his creative process with us for episode 322 is an Ivor Novello winning American singer and songwriter, best known as the dynamic frontman of world conquering Las Vegas combo, The Killers.

We sat down with him at Universal's offices in London recently to get the lowdown on his new country flavored solo album, Thrasher, recorded in Nashville with a whole host of Music City's finest, and produced by frequent collaborators Shawn Everett and Jonathan Rado.

We're very happy to welcome the excellent Brandon Flowers to the show.

Brandon was born in 1981 in Henderson, Nevada.

Like, we would start the day with story time, [laughs] you know? It didn't matter.

We just got so much done in three weeks.

And we know Jonathan Rado through his work with bands like The Lemon Twigs-

Yeah

The songs were written years ago, but never finished, and there were false starts making them work this time around.

But she found a great collaborator in Jonathan Rado.

You'll hear her refer to Rado a bunch of times in this chat.

And finally broke through to a stunning set of mellow, downcast songs.

You'll hear the influence of Aimee Mann, Tom Petty, Elliott Smith.

You said that this was, like, a hard record to make.

Yes.

The part of me and Rado making the recordings was so fun and not hard.

And I think it just sits on the record so well.

And again, you're working with Rado and Sean Everett, who produced the last couple of records.

So what was it about those guys that felt like they were right for this album?

They're sort of my brothers in music now.

They have a yin and yang situation.

Sean is just like a childlike enthusiasm about music that he should be jaded by now, and he's just not.

And then he sometimes can let that get out of control, but then Rado reels it back in, and Rado, I call him the purist, and they're just sort of perfect together as a team, yeah.

There's a trust there that has to be...