The album was co-produced by the band, Shawn Everett, and Jonathan Rado (of Foxygen), all of whom worked together on The Killers’ critically-acclaimed album Imploding The Mirage, released last year.
When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the promotional run and worldwide tour for The Killers’ majestic, critically-acclaimed 2020 album Imploding the Mirage, “everything came to this grinding halt,” says frontman Brandon Flowers. “And it was the first time in a long time for me that I was faced with silence. And out of that silence this record began to bloom, full of songs that would have otherwise been too quiet and drowned out by the noise of typical Killers records.” Indeed, for the first time since 2004, the relentless momentum and pressures of being in a globally-renowned, stadium-shaking band stopped. Enter Pressure Machine: a view into the everyday realities of a small American town with a stark, tough beauty, and The Killers’ most restrained and resonant album yet.
A video from Brandon about Pressure Machine can be seen now via Apple Music. Click HERE to watch it.
A quieter, character-study-driven album, Pressure Machine lives squarely in Flowers’ hometown of Nephi, Utah, a close-knit community of 5300 people with no traffic lights, a rubber plant, wheat fields, and the West Hills. Nephi is the place Flowers spent his formative years (10-16), saying “had it not been for advancements in the automotive industry, Nephi in the 90s could have been the 1950s.” The album’s songs are based on the memories and stories of people that impacted him growing up, interspersed with commentary from current Nephi locals about their town. “We were discussing [Brandon] moving to Nephi as a kid and being stuck in the middle of nowhere,” says the band’s drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. “And during Covid-19, it started to feel like we were all in the middle of nowhere.” Concurs Flowers, “I discovered this grief that I hadn’t dealt with,” he says, “many memories of my time in Nephi are tender. But the ones tied to fear or great sadness were emotionally charged. I’ve got more understanding now than when we started the band, and hopefully I was able to do justice to these stories and these lives in this little town that I grew up in.”
The resulting record is an aural document of growing up – and living – in the American Southwest, told from a myriad of perspectives. For the first time in his life, Flowers had complete lyrics before a note of music was put to tape. No stranger to inhabiting different characters in songs, on Pressure Machine he steps into the shoes of some of the people whose lives he watched unfold as a teen. The album weaves the threads of Flowers’ signature lyricism throughout his career into a perfect whole culminating in the most elegant album The Killers have ever made.
Through its characters and also its title, the album squares up to the unbending pressure of the American dream compounded by religious disenchantment. A born optimist, moments of beauty inevitably shine out of the grief of Flowers’s songs: the healing arrival of summer, the first crop of hay, sweeter skies. Pressure Machine’s stories detail the real life personal battles, overwhelming regrets, local tragedies, and the opioid epidemic that hit Flowers’ hometown, as well as every hometown in America. Flowers sings about the choices people make, for better and for worse, and the consequences of those choices; the ones who were left behind, and the ones that can’t be forgotten.
Pressure Machine’s album cover image was shot on the highway just outside Nephi, taken as photographer Wes Johnson passed a roadside inspirational display set up by a local Baptist church. Johnson took dozens of incredible images of Flowers’ hometown throughout the early part of 2021, many of which are featured in the album’s packaging for the physical edition.
The Killers will be heading back to the road to celebrate both Pressure Machine and Imploding The Mirage, along with their much-loved catalogue of global hits, in 2022. Tickets for these shows go on sale on Friday, July 23rd, at 10 am local time via the band’s website.
Click HERE to pre-order Pressure Machine
Imploding The Mirage 2022 Tour Dates
Fri August 19, 2022 Vancouver BC Rogers Arena
Sat August 20, 2022 Seattle WA Climate Pledge Arena
Sun August 21, 2022 Portland OR Moda Center
Tues August 23, 2022 San Francisco CA Chase Center
Wed August 24, 2022 San Diego CA Pechanga Arena
Fri August 26, 2022 Las Vegas NV T-Mobile Arena
Sat August 27, 2022 Los Angeles CA Banc of California Stadium
Tues August 30, 2022 Salt Lake City UT Vivint Arena
Wed August 31, 2022 Denver CO Ball Arena
Thurs September 8, 2022 Houston TX Toyota Center
Fri September 9, 2022 Austin TX Moody Center
Sat September 10, 2022 Fort Worth TX Dickies Arena
Tues September 13, 2022 Miami FL FTX Arena
Wed September 14, 2022 Orlando FL Amway Center
Fri September 16, 2022 Atlanta GA State Farm Arena
Sat September 17, 2022 Nashville TN Bridgestone Arena
Sun September 18, 2022 St. Louis MO Chaifetz Arena
Tues September 20, 2022 St. Paul MN Xcel Energy Center
Wed September 21, 2022 Chicago IL United Center
Fri September 23, 2022 Toronto ON Scotiabank Arena
Sat September 24, 2022 Montreal QC Bell Centre
Sun September 25, 2022 Verona NY Turning Stone Event Center
Thurs September 29, 2022 Washington DC Capital One Arena
Fri September 30, 2022 New York NY Madison Square Garden
Sat October 1, 2022 New York NY Madison Square Garden
Mon October 3, 2022 Boston MA TD Garden
Tues October 4, 2022 University Park PA Bryce Jordan Center
Thurs October 6, 2022 Pittsburgh PA Petersen Events Center
Fri October 7, 2022 Cleveland OH Wolstein Center
Sat October 8, 2022 Detroit MI Little Caesars Arena
For complete tour dates, visit https://www.thekillersmusic.com/tour