6 Surprising Facts About The Killers’ Alt-Rock Masterpiece, ‘Hot Fuss’

The Killers made their debut in 2004 with Hot Fuss, and its success made them one of the biggest bands of the alt-rock boom of the early 2000s. The album was nominated for five Grammy Awards, including Best Rock Album, losing out to Green Day’s American Idiot. But without what went into it, it wouldn’t be the beloved work it is today.

Scrapped songs


After listening to The Strokes’ Is This It the day it came out, the band scrapped almost all the songs they had written. “That record just sounded so perfect,” frontman Brandon Flowers told NME in 2012. The only song they kept was “Mr. Brightside,” which proved to be a wise decision.

The Cover Photo

The band chose the album’s cover image from a catalog their label presented them, and they liked it because it worked well with their logo. The photo was taken by Matthias Clamer in a Beijing suburb in 2000, and the signs on the buildings read, “Construction, Material, Development.”

The Choir

The songs “All These Things That I’ve Done” and “Andy You’re A Star” feature a choir called The Sweet Inspirations, who had previously worked with Elvis Presley. Their credits also include working with Van Morrison, the Bee Gees, and Jimi Hendrix. They learned their part for “All These Things That I’ve Done” backstage at SXSW while The Killers were playing.

Demos


Most of the album came from the band’s demos, which they decided to keep. And while most of the recording took place in a studio in California, there was one exception. Closing track “Everything Will Be Alright” was recorded in guitarist Dave Keuning’s Las Vegas home, contributing to its raw sound.

The Vocal Tone

Flowers’ sound on the album comes from the default setting on Echo Farm, which was new at the time. The setting overdrives the vocal and creates an 84 ms delay. “It sort of became the default vocal tone on the whole record,” said Mark Needham, who mixed the album.

Sales


The album was a hit—it topped the UK charts and went to No. 7 in the US. By 2012, it had sold over seven million copies worldwide. Its singles were also hugely successful, especially “Mr. Brightside,” which spent 200 weeks on the UK Singles Chart, setting a new record. “Somebody Told Me” was also a hit.

Photo by Rob Verhorst/Redferns