All language subtitles for Song Exploder 2020 S2E02

I just remember this song being a
turning point for us.

We were making up stories about murder
and nightclubs and girlfriends that look

like a boyfriend, and this all of a
sudden felt deeply personal and was just

kind of like, whoa.

As confident as we felt going into it,
you still know there's a chance.

The first album was a fluke, and this
was the moment when I knew that we'd be

okay.

The Killers are a multi -platinum,
Grammy -winning band from Las Vegas.

They started making their second album,
Sam's Town, after their first album

skyrocketed them to fame.

With that extraordinary success, there
was extraordinary pressure to do it

again.

In 2006, Sam's Town came out with the
song When You Were Young as the first

single.

The song and the album both ended up
going platinum.

I'm Rishi Kesh, your way.

This is Song Exploder.

Let me hear those beautiful voices!

Our first record, Hopless.

It was wildly successful.

Go, we wrote these songs, and it's big.

But it was strange because it just felt
so natural to us.

Thank you all very much for listening to
us and accepting us.

We're very proud to be playing here
tonight.

It was so exciting.

It was the first time any of us had a
passport.

And we went everywhere.

We play, I guess, 400 or 500 shows.

It was a grueling tour, but we were all
excited because everything was new, and

we were just happy to be able to do this
for a living.

We knew that we had an opportunity. You
know, we're from working -class

families. We know how rare this thing
is.

But we were confident enough to try a
new thing.

It was one of the last tours of Hot
Fuzz.

We'd been writing songs during sound
checks.

There was so much need on our part to
get another record going.

There were some chords that were
floating around from months before.

A lot of ideas are created off just a
chord progression that you try and do

something with, and it evolves from
there.

That one was almost accidental. Towards
the end of a practice, like towards the

end of the night, Mark was playing
around with a bass line.

Dave suggested we go up. He added a
note. A three -note riff became a four

riff because of something he suggested.

He was messing around with these three
chords.

I was like, oh, go add these two and
then go back to it.

It was those first three chords that
were just, you know, awakened us.

To have four people be so in tune and be
able to tap into the universe for

a second is magic.

And we're really lucky, I think, to have
had that happen at all. Yeah. It was

just nice to know that you had something
good that you could get behind with the

labor team.

At that time, some people even thought
we were a British band. I think when we

were out touring, we really realized
that we were from a different place.

And I think we were all anxious to get
back to that.

A lot of people think Vegas is so crazy
because they watch The Hangover or

something and think that's what Vegas is
like.

But our interpretation of Vegas is
entirely different, knowing where to get

cheapest Chinese food.

It's just like a local thing.

I think it makes it easier to draw upon
experiences.

You're driving down the street that
you're familiar with, memories that you

have.

I think that that probably seeped in,
you know, all over the record.

But like that guitar line, that sounds
like the desert.

Wasn't that originally a keyboard part
you played? It was a keyboard part

I just remember the song needed some
touchstone or something.

And you thought it was too sweet because
I would play it on the keyboard and you

didn't like it.

You put it on guitar. But when we played
it on the guitar.

There we go. You know, that sounds like
here.

The desert is mysterious.

It made us realize how much a part of
this place we are.

And we wanted to hone in on that on the
record.

When you're making a record, there's
usually a reason why people want to come

you for a shift. And as a producer,
you've got to be able to sort of see

they've come from and where they want to
go to.

We all come from different... But those
two had worked on records that we all

loved.

Picking a producer is tough.

I don't think you really know what
they're going to contribute until after

you've done the record. They did some
records that we liked, like Violator,

example, a Depeche Mode. Well, it seemed
to work out great there.

We both like pop music, and they're very
pop.

But the Killers also wanted to be the
biggest band in the world and wanted to

try different things out.

We wanted to impress them and, you know,
and show them that we were the real

thing, you know. And I think it helped
us.

Brandon is brilliant. You throw, he's
there like this.

There's a picture outside of Flood and
Lou Reed and Brandon.

And it sums Brandon up because there's
Flood and Lou Reed talking in the

background. Brandon's going worried,
scratching his chin. So he just thinks

about these things.

At what point do you start coming up
with lyrics?

This is another one of those strange
moments where I have a lot come to me

away.

He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but
he talks like a gentleman like you

imagined when you were young. That was
first day.

He doesn't look a thing like Jesus, but
he talks like a gentleman like you

imagined when you were young.

So it made it a lot easier to write
around because I had something

there.

It helped, I think, direct me for the
rest of the record too.

Your ears are pricked by the word Jesus,
and then you get the delivery of the

guitar riff. It sort of fulfills a lot
of different emotions.

It's not an obvious.

No, and that's what makes the track
brilliant.

No, we can make it if we take it slow.

That's taking easy, easy now. Watch it
go.

I knew there was some kind of redemption
was going to be a thread.

I think it had to do with things that I
was going through.

Excess and debauchery in rock and roll
had been sort of

glorified and glamorized for so long.

We sort of got thrust into it.

And I realized right away that that
wasn't for me.

I think I was 24 when we wrote this. I
was, you know, just trying to figure it

out.

So that's a string sound on your
synthesizer, but there are real strings

there as well, right?

Yeah, we combined.

It's a mix, right?

Yeah, we combined them, yeah.

At what point did that idea come in? In
Vegas. Yeah, was it two girls from UNLV?

Wasn't it Mark's girlfriend at the time?

No, maybe she became his girlfriend
later. I don't remember.

Not from that.

One was my ex -girlfriend.

It kind of kept in the family at the
time, and everyone's from Vegas, and not

hiring someone from the L .A. Symphony
or something.

We made some money, and we had all the
studio time, and it was like, what can

do? It was also the first time we ever
got to really record in a real recording

studio.

We wanted to play in a stadium.

I remember at the time, It was not cool
to want to have that kind of size.

You're like kicking against the ambition
almost. Yeah. One of the great things

we learned from Flood and Molder was
about the song developing.

And you hear a new part that comes in on
the second verse.

Can we climb this mountain? I don't...

Me and Marv were making that into a
microphone and then we ran it through

Putney machine that Vlad brought.

The Putney is a very, very peculiar
synthesizer. It's one of the earliest

I love it because there's no keyboard on
it at all, so you have to use your

ears. There is, however, what a lot of
people think is a battleships game, but

it's actually the place where you...

map everything inputs and outputs and if
i just wanted to add reverb and then go

like this take my original sound out

i never really

know what's going to come out so in
order to even mark the fact that brandon

part of this mark singing with him and
then stick him through the putney

It just adds a different sort of timbre
that makes you go, well, I sort of know

what that is.

So that then you can place it further
back. Adds loads more reverb onto it,

it could go right into the distance.

So tell me about the next step then in
the process.

Up till then, we always toyed with the
idea of having this song that was just

one part, like almost like more punk
rock. But Branham had this idea that

Basically in halftime.

When you were young.

It's that part where the building is
imploding, where the bear is coming at

and you have to be bigger than you are,
so your arms are up.

Sometimes when you go to halftime, the
part seems bigger, fatter, larger.

Was the song totally done by the time
you got into the studio?

We had everything but the bridge, I
think. I think everything was there but

bridge.

In this instance, the bridge was sort of
used to evoke more of the sincere or

sensitive side to the song without being
too abrasive or

ham -fisted.

When I saw where the vibe was going, I
thought this would be cool if we

that world of Springsteen and Depeche
Mode.

There's like the descending scale.

It's an obvious little bit of a tip of
the hat to Born to Run.

I was hoping that we're doing something
new, though, by combining those two

things in a new way than the classic
rock Americana.

And that descending line into the bridge
is definitely the most proofy thing in

the whole song, really.

They say the devil's water, it ain't so
sweet You don't have to drink right

now But you can tip your feet Every

once in a little while

I love coming out of the bridge. That's
my favorite part when it's just a little

while. And then I play the slow guitar
thing.

It's a strange note to start the solo
on.

It's seventh.

And then it starts on the ninth.

I think that's what makes it, you know,
unique.

We're into jazz.

It's just not what you would normally do
and go for.

One of the things that I also got in the
stem is a piece of the song that I

don't think is in the song, this part.

Yeah.

There's another.

Okay, we took acid that night.

This is again where Flood and Molder
were crucial. You know, you need people

tell you no.

There we go.

Saved it from loitering in the bargain
bin.

Thank heavens I didn't make it on to the
final mix.

Yeah, I'd forgotten about it until just
now.

Yeah.

How did I get this into you?

Why do you have that?

Take his laptop now.

What about the title of the album, Sam's
Town?

How do I explain that to people?

You know, you've got your casinos on the
strip, and then they have these...

Outliers. Yeah, these... neighborhood
casinos yeah that they call locals

and i just grew up with it it was just
like sort of a weird pillar of my life

i can't explain it like we would go
there on christmas for breakfast on our

way to go sledding at the mountains
where ronnie lives now at mount

and again that having left las vegas for
the first time for so long as a band

it made us Think about home more.

And it became symbolic. Yeah.

His mom was a cocktail waitress for 40
years. We all have uncles and parents

that worked in them, and it's natural to
us.

It's literally the place that me and
Brandon actually have the most

to.

And even though it's not the literal
Samstown, but it's our Samstown.

Can you explain the meaning of that last
line?

That a savior could come in different
forms.

And, I mean, we all have those
experiences with people in our lives, I

Do you imagine that this song is
autobiographical?

Most of the time I feel like that, yeah.

And it's about the man that I wanted to
become.

It's just sort of me as a 24 -year -old
knowing that he ain't here yet.

But I hope, you know, that I get to
where I'm supposed to get.

And how about now? Do you think that
you've gotten closer to that?

I feel like I have. My wife thinks I
have.

We're getting there.

It's a process.

It was a very mature song at the time.

And it's possibly connected to more now.

Now we're actually becoming that person
that it could be about.

It was that moment where I think we grew
a little bit taller.

And I felt like we were going into
something more serious and more

It kind of united us and solidified us
in a way, I think.

Yeah, you're right.

Here's When You Were Young by The
Killers in its entirety.

to save you from your old ways. You play
forgiveness.

Watch it now. Here he comes. He doesn't
love the thing like Jesus, but he talks

like a gentleman like you imagined when
you were young.

We take it slow.

That's making it easy. Easy now. Watch
it go.

We're burning.

oh boy they

say

the devil's water it ain't so sweet you
don't have to drink right

But you can tip your feet every once in
a little

while.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.