The Killers

One of Brandon Flowers' favorite songs on the new Killers record features a ripping tenor-sax solo, steel drums and a string section — not exactly instruments that would have fit on the band's New Wave-influenced first disc. But after getting some Springsteen-size ambitions out on 2006's Sam's Town, the band "just went for it" on its forthcoming third studio disc, Flowers says, smoking a cigarette in a New York hotel room. "Some people laugh at sax solos, but we just said,

Day & Age — an eclectic and ambitious party-starting record the group cut with British producer Stuart Price — began coming together two years ago, when Flowers started writing songs on the road. Price, who co-wrote and produced Madonna's Confessions on a Dance Floor, had worked on some Killers remixes, but the band (Flowers, drummer Ronnie Vanucci, guitarist David Keuning and bassist Mark Stoermer) had never met him.

They finally hooked up in 2007, when the Killers began working on Sawdust, that year's collection of outtakes, remixes and rarities. "We had dinner with him in London," says Flowers. "Afterward, we went to his house. He has a studio, and in two hours we recorded 'Human.' We just knew that it sounded so good." That tune, which is Day & Age's first single, has a glittery future-disco vibe, with Flowers singing, "Are we human, or are we dancer?" over Europop beats. "It's like Johnny Cash meets the Pet Shop Boys," Flowers says happily.

Throughout 2007, Flowers would e-mail song sketches to Price, who cleaned them up and added atmospheric touches. In Rio de Janeiro he sent the song "Spaceman" — and the band found its swing through Australia particularly productive. "We'd provide the meat and potatoes," says Flowers. "And Stuart would add, like, the landscapes and galaxy that surrounds it. We treated Stuart like the fifth member of the band. He's not afraid to say, you know, 'That sucks' or 'Let's try something else.' That kept everything rolling."

With much of the preproduction already out of the way, the band reconvened this past May in Las Vegas at the Killers' new studio — which is hidden in a strip mall just three minutes from the Palms hotel, where they recorded Sam's Town. While that album was a musical love letter to their hometown, Flowers is more vague on what the new record is all about. "It's like looking at Sam's Town from Mars," the singer says. "I have a romantic notion of what America, the Wild West and Nevada embodies — and I'm trying to hold on to that."