EP: You actually say more by not saying... What was it like when you first met your bandmates?
BF: It was one at a time. First, it was me and Dave [Keuning], and yeah, it was exciting to meet anybody in Las Vegas that liked some of the same bands that I liked, 'cause there aren't a lot of opportunities for great music in Las Vegas. It was exciting to meet people who knew the Talking Heads and the Smiths. As crazy as that sounds, someone who liked those bands was a really different person in Las Vegas.
EP: I read that the first song you wrote together was "Mr. Brightside." When you first played that, did you guys all look at each other and go, "Oh my God, where did this come from?"
BF: Well, Dave had the guitar line, and we didn't have a drummer yet. I wanted to have this monotone driving thing over it, and I added a chorus to it, and I don't think I knew how exciting it was until we did it with a drummer. As soon as we stuck the BPM on it, it was really exciting. I felt really good about it.
EP: Based on the lyrics, "Mr. Brightside" seems to be about a girl who cheated on you, but it was good because that freed you to fulfill your destiny -- to be in a huge rock band. Did you know then how big you were going to be when you wrote that?
BF: No, it was so exciting to play in bars. We had big aspirations, but I knew I had a lot to learn.
EP: Were you happy as a young person?
BF: I was very happy.
EP: You seem so sweet and nice, but then when you sing it's just like an avalanche of every kind of emotion. There are so many songs like that. Sometimes it's really delicate and then you're, like, breathing fire. Do you get surprised by your voice?
BF: I remember when I first started to realize that it had a power about it, and it was after Hot Fuss, during the touring of [our second album] Sam's Town. What happened was that there was a huge backlash, there were awful reviews of the album and we had to go tour this thing.
EP: That's so unbelievable, it's an incredible record.
BF: You grow up and you know about Rolling Stone and Spin. My brother had NME and Spin on the wall with Morrissey on it. You can't help but pay attention to [the press]. Spin gave Sam's Town two stars. It was a shock 'cause we loved it, we thought it was so great. What it did, and what I'm grateful for, it lit a fire in us that we didn't have during Hot Fuss. While touring Hot Fuss, we were trying to be cool and not trying to mess up, but for Sam's Town we were playing for our lives, to show every journalist that was going to come that night that this album was good, and I started singing and pushing. We became a good live band.
EP: It's amazing that a band that sold seven million records is saying they really had to push themselves. Do you have to take care of your voice in any special way?
BF: Yeah, I stopped smoking. I always felt guilty about it, but I also knew it was hurting me, and quitting helped a lot. As soon as I stopped, I started taking voice lessons.
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