From Los Angeles to London, The Killers have sent shockwaves through the global music community. Simply, there’s no new band on any continent that’s hotter than this four-piece from Las Vegas. High fashion and high profile but with a down-to-earth attitude, drummer Ronnie Vannucci is one of the nicest men in indie rock.

Roland’s UK affiliate PowerOn chatted with him during The Killers’ headlining slot on the NME tour.

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How did The Killers get together?

About three years ago, Dave [Keuning, guitarist] put out an ad in a local newspaper and Brandon [Flowers, singer] answered it. I was actually studying at the University of Las Vegas at the time and wasn’t really interested in joining a band. But I was standing in for someone at a gig, and Brandon and Dave were there and we struck up a friendship. We kept in touch and ended up getting together and practicing. Not long after, we realized we needed another guy in the band. Mark [Stoermer, bassist] and I had previously played a gig together, so he was the natural choice. The Killers had begun.

Where did you get the name The Killers from?

We’re fans of New Order, and got the name from the video to their song “Crystal .” In the video, there was a fictitious band called The Killers, whose name was written on the bass drum; you could barely see it. We just thought it was like the perfect band name. We looked into it, bought the rights to the title and have been The Killers ever since.

Your music has been classified as British. Do you take this as a compliment or an insult?

It wasn’t a conscious decision. One journalist started this landslide and now everyone is saying it. I’m not denying it, because we do have a lot of British influences in our music. We all grew up listening to British bands; it was the musical direction we were heading in. You know, you grow up listening to music all your life and you come across an album like The Smiths and you know that it’s really yours. It runs deep that way, a natural influence. It may not be the only influence, but it will definitely be a strong one.

British music fans always seem to be switching their allegiances from guitar music to dance music and back again. Do you think the guitar will remain dominant for the foreseeable future?

I don’t think that the guitar is going anywhere. I believe that people’s appreciation of music is always going to change. At least I hope it will. When it comes down to it, it’s all about writing a good song — whether that song happens to be pop or rock and roll is immaterial. At the end of the day, a good song is a good song.

What do you think of cover songs?

I think that some covers are great. The Futureheads do a cool version of “Hounds Of Love.” They do it so well in fact that it almost sounds like a whole new song; they really make it their own. Not everyone should do covers and you should definitely choose them wisely, but I guess that it’s kind of good to pay homage to a very good song.

Have you heard the club mix of “Somebody Told Me”? If so, what do you think of it?

I think that there are some brilliant people who can take a song, turn it around, totally flip it on its side and make it beautiful in a whole new way. They just have a really cool way of looking at it.

What Roland products do you use?

I was using an old the Roland MS-1 phrase sampler, which goes way back. I like the old Roland gear, especially the drum machines. With the MS-1, the good thing about it was that I could record any sounds I wanted and then manipulate the sound in other ways.

Now I use the Roland SPD-S, which is much more advanced, as it has nine big pads that you can strike. It’s a whole lot easier to use and allows me to create my own samples. I’m able to take the samples or even plug in my guitar and actually play into it, truncate the wave, and spit it out onstage. It sounds like we have six guys playing on stage, you know? It’s the icing on the cake.

The preset samples on the SPD-S are interesting too because they’re taken from the original source, just like real samples of an 808. This is really cool, as you can manipulate your samples with the onboard effects processor. You can also take the outs from the back and plug in a PD-8 or PD-85 drum pad, which is great for live sets. If that doesn’t work for you, you can get a TMC-6, which allows you to have multiple sources.

How about the other guys?

Mark and Dave both use BOSS guitar effects, and the TU-2 tuner. We love BOSS distortion and EQ pedals. Dave also uses a real old chorus pedal, the CE-1, and it still sounds awesome.

What do you enjoy more, playing live or in the studio?

There’s a joy in every aspect of music. It’s great being in a rehearsal space , but then being onstage celebrates that. Getting on tape is like, “Wow, we really nailed that one,” and then when you play live it’s a release. It’s great when people appreciate what you’ve done; it gets you high for a couple of hours. Every aspect is great in its own way.

Of all your gigs, which is the most memorable?

I suppose Glastonbury stands out most. Once, we played a gig in this tiny little bar in Kansas City. We had to lug our own gear around and we had people coming up and saying stuff like, “How long ya been together?” Even though it was horribly sweaty it was just as cool. You know, a gig is making a connection with an audience. As long as that happens, then it’s memorable.

What’s your advice to budding musicians out there?

There’s a degree of talent involved, but talent can be developed. I used to think that either you play the guitar well or you’re a car salesman. Now I realize that’s not the case at all. When I went to study music there would be people who would look terrible behind a drum kit or a keyboard and then, by semester’s end, after practicing every day, they would be awesome. Persistence in practice and technical methods is the key. There are also the inexplicable instances when a kid’s born with it — a natural thing.

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Keep track of the Killers at www.islandrecords.com/thekillers.