Christmas In LA

Album: Single Release Only (2013)
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Songfacts®:

  • This was released on December 1, 2013 as The Killers' annual festive track, which has been a yearly ritual for the band since 2006 in support of World AIDS Day. The song is about a struggling actor in Los Angeles missing a traditional Christmas.
  • The band cast Hollywood actor Owen Wilson in the accompanying music clip. "We got Owen Wilson to do the video, and there are cameos from Harry Dean Stanton and an animated Warren Zevon, which is bad-ass. I'm so excited about it - talk about the stars aligning," frontman Brandon Flowers told UK newspaper The Metro.

    He continued: "You'll never see us smile or let our hair down as much as when we do the Christmas stuff. It always turns out to be a lot of work but it's really refreshing. What's nice is that it happens to coincide with World AIDS Day, which is December 1, so it made sense to write Christmas songs to raise money for Red Project.

    "This is our eighth year without doing any covers and we've done all types of Christmas songs," Flowers added, "from love stories to 'The Cowboys' Christmas Ball', and a Santa that's out to getcha."
  • Flowers wrote the song with Killers bassist Mark Stoermer and Taylor Goldsmith from Dawes. Irving Berlin also has a writing credit due to it featuring lyrics from "White Christmas."
  • The music video was directed by Kelly Loosi, who has worked for both DreamWorks Feature Animation and Buena Vista Motion Pictures, the live-action division of Walt Disney. The clip was filmed and animated by students and alumni from Brigham Young University. Owen Wilson portrays a struggling actor in Los Angeles at Christmastime who asks fellow actor, Harry Dean Stanton, for a little advice on how to break into the business.

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