Photo credit: Danny Clinch

The Killers will release their seventh studio album, entitled Pressure Machine, on Island Records on August 13, 2021. The album was co-produced by the band, Shawn Everett, and Jonathan Rado (of Foxygen), all of whom worked together on The Killers’ critically-acclaimed album Imploding The Mirage, released last year.  

When the Covid-19 pandemic shut down the promotional run and worldwide tour for The Killers’ majestic, critically-acclaimed 2020 album Imploding the Mirage, “everything came to this grinding halt,” says frontman Brandon Flowers. “And it was the first time in a long time for me that I was faced with silence. And out of that silence this record began to bloom, full of songs that would have otherwise been too quiet and drowned out by the noise of typical Killers records.”  Indeed, for the first time since 2004, the relentless momentum and pressures of being in a globally-renowned, stadium-shaking band stopped. Enter Pressure Machine: a view into the everyday realities of a small American town with a stark, tough beauty, and The Killers’ most restrained and resonant album yet. A video from Brandon about Pressure Machine can be seen now via Apple Music.  Click HERE to watch it.  

A quieter, character-study-driven album, Pressure Machine lives squarely in Flowers’ hometown of Nephi, Utah, a close-knit community of 5300 people with no traffic lights, a rubber plant, wheat fields, and the West Hills. Nephi is the place Flowers spent his formative years (10-16), saying “had it not been for advancements in the automotive industry, Nephi in the 90s could have been the 1950s.” The album’s songs are based on the memories and stories of people that impacted him growing up, interspersed with commentary from current Nephi locals about their town. “We were discussing [Brandon] moving to Nephi as a kid and being stuck in the middle of nowhere,” says the band’s drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. “And during Covid-19, it started to feel like we were all in the middle of nowhere.”  Concurs Flowers, “I discovered this grief that I hadn’t dealt with,” he says, “many memories of my time in Nephi are tender. But the ones tied to fear or great sadness were emotionally charged. I’ve got more understanding now than when we started the band, and hopefully I was able to do justice to these stories and these lives in this little town that I grew up in.”

The resulting record is an aural document of growing up - and living - in the American Southwest, told from a myriad of perspectives. For the first time in his life, Flowers had complete lyrics before a note of music was put to tape. No stranger to inhabiting different characters in songs, on Pressure Machine he steps into the shoes of some of the people whose lives he watched unfold as a teen. The album weaves the threads of Flowers’ signature lyricism throughout his career into a perfect whole culminating in the most elegant album The Killers have ever made. 

Through its characters and also its title, the album squares up to the unbending pressure of the American dream compounded by religious disenchantment. A born optimist, moments of beauty inevitably shine out of the grief of Flowers's songs: the healing arrival of summer, the first crop of hay, sweeter skies.  Pressure Machine’s stories detail the real life personal battles, overwhelming regrets, local tragedies, and the opioid epidemic that hit Flowers’ hometown, as well as every hometown in America. Flowers sings about the choices people make, for better and for worse, and the consequences of those choices; the ones who were left behind, and the ones that can’t be forgotten.  

Pressure Machine’s album cover image was shot on the highway just outside Nephi, taken as photographer Wes Johnson passed a roadside inspirational display set up by a local Baptist church. Johnson took dozens of incredible images of Flowers’ hometown throughout the early part of 2021, many of which are featured in the album’s packaging for the physical edition.  

The Killers will be heading back to the road to celebrate both Pressure Machine and Imploding The Mirage, along with their much-loved catalogue of global hits, in 2022. Tickets for these shows go on sale on Friday, July 23rd, at 10 am local time via the band’s website.  

Tour dates:

• Date                                       City                            Venue

• Fri August 19, 2022               Vancouver BC           Rogers Arena

• Sat August 20, 2022              Seattle WA                Climate Pledge Arena

• Sun August 21, 2022             Portland OR              Moda Center

• Tues August 23, 2022           San Francisco CA     Chase Center

• Wed August 24, 2022            San Diego CA           Pechanga Arena

• Fri August 26, 2022               Las Vegas NV           T-Mobile Arena

• Sat August 27, 2022              Los Angeles CA        Banc of California Stadium

• Tues August 30, 2022           Salt Lake City UT      Vivint Arena

• Wed August 31, 2022            Denver CO                Ball Arena

• Thurs September 8, 2022     Houston TX                Toyota Center

• Fri September 9, 2022           Austin TX                  Moody Center

• Sat September 10, 2022       Fort Worth TX            Dickies Arena

• Tues September 13, 2022     Miami FL                   FTX Arena

• Wed September 14, 2022     Orlando FL                Amway Center

• Fri September 16, 2022         Atlanta GA State       Farm Arena

• Sat September 17, 2022       Nashville TN              Bridgestone Arena

• Sun September 18, 2022      St. Louis MO              Chaifetz Arena

• Tues September 20, 2022     St. Paul MN               Xcel Energy Center

• Wed September 21, 2022     Chicago IL                 United Center

• Fri September 23, 2022         Toronto ON               Scotiabank Arena

• Sat September 24, 2022       Montreal QC              Bell Centre

• Sun September 25, 2022      Verona NY                 Turning Stone Event Center

• Thurs September 29, 2022   Washington DC          Capital One Arena

• Fri September 30, 2022         New York NY             Madison Square Garden

• Sat October 1, 2022              New York NY              Madison Square Garden

• Mon October 3, 2022             Boston MA                 TD Garden

• Tues October 4, 2022            University Park PA     Bryce Jordan Center

• Thurs October 6, 2022          Pittsburgh PA              Petersen Events Center

• Fri October 7, 2022               Cleveland OH             Wolstein Center

• Sat October 8, 2022   Detroit MI              Little Caesars Arena

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