Speaking from a tour stop in Dallas, guitarist David Keuning is unsure that a buzz is surrounding his band, The Killers [ tickets ], and its '80s influenced Island Records debut "Hot Fuss."

"We obviously hoped for the best and thought it would be OK. You just never know. Everything's that's happened has been one surprise after another. We just count our blessings," Keuning said.

"People ask us, 'How do you feel about this success?' I say, 'What are you talking about?' It hasn't really, like, sank in yet. We just keep playing shows, and those keep getting better. It's hard to feel like you're doing well."

The Las Vegas-based group which also includes vocalist/keyboardist Brandon Flowers, bassist Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci--slayed radio in mid-summer with their hit "Somebody Told Me." As a testament to their talent, The Killers are nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize for Artists Achievement in Music. Ten finalists will be announced on Sept. 20, and the winner will be chosen during a Nov. 11 concert at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater.

On Dec. 2, The Killers will take advantage of a relatively new vehicle for promoting music: a spot on the Fox nighttime soap "The O.C."

Keuning talked to liveDaily.com about his group's songwriting process, the music scene in Las Vegas and the band's influences.

liveDaily: Describe the songwriting process with The Killers.

David Keuning: Every song is different. The credits on the album give you a general idea of who did what. But some songs--like "Believe Me Natalie," for instance--Ronnie wrote a lot of that. Brandon wrote most of the music. [After that,] it took, like, a month of just the four of us in the garage hashing it out. We tried so many different parts-I'm sure we all wrote different parts at one time or another that we were throwing away. That one took a month.

Whereas, for "Smile Like You Mean It," we took a break--actually, from "Natalie"--and said, "Let's just try something else." That took us eight minutes to write the whole song. They're all different and they're all different mounds of input. For "Everything Will Be Alright," Brandon wrote that one completely, and we actually recorded it in my old apartment. I love it. We put a little guitar down, some weird noises, and we had the thing done. We never really could recreate the magic of what we did in the apartment. We tried in a fancier studio to redo that one, but it just sounded like crap. It sounded too slick. You'd think it would be easier, but there was some kind of weird magic. It was a 16-track recorder. Nothing professional, but good enough.

How long ago did you record your album?

We did it in parts of last year. The last bit of recording we finished up in November of last year.

Your album has shades of different artists ranging from the 1970s to 2000s. That gives your music a timeless feel. Would you say that you're inspired by a variety of artists?

That's very, very true to say. We are influenced by a lot of music. I take that as a big compliment. It's nice because we're trying to be timeless in a way. We hope to stand the test of time. Hopefully this album will be good five years from now.

Who were some of the bands you were listening to growing up?

Growing up I listened to a lot of different stuff--everything from Michael Jackson, Aerosmith, to Billy Joel, to U2 and Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, and stuff like that.

Do you get a lot of comparisons to Duran Duran?

Sometimes. ... It's not a totally bad thing. I love them. The only thing that's irritating about it is sometimes it's the only band. We listen to so much other music.

What is the music scene like in Vegas?

Not a very good one. The problem with Vegas is there aren't a whole lot of good bands. It's not even the bands' fault. There's not very many places to play. It does seem like it's really hard to meet other musicians that are really good and original, and a lot of them just end up working in casinos doing casino band work--even though the only people who would ever watch you are six people getting drinks and playing the slot machines. It actually pays better than 200 people you worked really hard to get out to a bar. You don't get paid squat for that. It's kind of discouraging in a way.

How did you manage to get record company's interest?

Part of it was we just stuck out like a sore thumb. It's so bad in Vegas and our music was so different than everybody else's. Our manager was looking for bands. He wanted to hear more and more, and thankfully he believed in us.

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