Brandon Flowers’ songwriting has always had ‘whispers’ of country music

If you grew up listening to the big, anthemic rock songs of The Killers, frontman Brandon Flowers’ latest sonic turn may come as a surprise.

His new solo album, THRASHER, is full of songs that might feel more at home in a Nashville honky-tonk. Flowers recorded the album in Nashville, at the historic RCA Studio A. Today, he joins World Cafe to talk about his turn toward country and Americana — and why that sound feels right for the more personal stories he wants to tell as he gets older.

You’ll hear snippets of new songs, plus Flowers performs a stripped down version of a new song, called “Miss America.”

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.