Brandon Flowers on His Creative Rivalry With Ezra Koenig

Brandon Flowers, frontman of The Killers, has again brought up his sense of rivalry with a peer songwriter — Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend — in a new interview with journalist Anthony Mason. Stereogum rounded up the comments on August 13, 2026. Even as the writer of a song as canonical as "Mr. Brightside," Flowers admits he still feels pushed by what his contemporaries put out.

What was said

In the interview, Flowers returns to a point he's made before: the quality of work from his peers directly shapes how hard he judges his own material. He doesn't shy away from the word "competition," framing it instead as fuel for his own songwriting rather than something negative.

The interview was conducted by Anthony Mason, with Stereogum quoting and contextualizing the remarks in its report.

The 2020 NME comments

The new remarks extend a story Flowers has told before. Speaking to NME in 2020, he said he felt genuinely grateful to Ezra Koenig, because Vampire Weekend's album Father of the Bride pushed The Killers in the right direction — making it clear to Flowers that they couldn't just phone in another Killers record.

Father of the Bride was Vampire Weekend's 2019 album, marking the band's return after a six-year gap between releases.