Five years on, one wonders if they ever look back on how far they’ve come when they walk onstage at the Reading or Leeds festivals as headliners in front of 40,000 fans. “Sometimes I feel like maybe we didn’t work hard enough to get where we are,” Flowers acknowledges. “That’s not to say we’re not hard workers. We were all raised to work hard. But it’s heartbreaking when I think of how many people have the same kind of passion that we do for music that don’t get the spoils that we’re getting. And it happened very quickly for us and we definitely appreciate it. I mean we moved our own gear and played bars and all that in the beginning but we’ve been really lucky.”
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Perhaps it explains why the band seems hell-bent on avoiding the pitfalls of fame and success in an effort to stay grounded. “I don’t think we want to be affected by it all,” Keuning insists. “I think we’re all still ourselves.”
“My wife has no problem keeping me down,” Flowers jokes.
But Keuning quickly turns serious on the subject. “Our lives and careers have evolved really quickly. That’s the biggest adjustment. You know, during Hot Fuss-which we wrote for a year-and-a-half after work-seemed like we had a lot more time to just play guitar, or just do nothing if I wanted. Now, as fathers with such busy schedules, our free time is pretty much gone. It’s been a whirlwind and it’s been great, but it definitely comes at a price.”
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