Last month, I wrote about Brandon Flowers’ new solo album, his first studio album in years (and no, The Killers haven’t broken up, they’re just on an indefinite hiatus). Flowers has been hustling for the album too, and it’s actually been pretty charming. He’s not, like, a look-at-me Justin Timberlake type. Flowers just seems like a quiet dude who is adapting to the changing landscape of pop-rock music. He’s pretty good at social media, his interviews are interesting, with just enough shade-throwing, and of course it doesn’t hurt that he’s still incredibly beautiful. I’m generally not into “pretty” men, but I can sit back and appreciate Flowers’ sexiness. He’s got something special. Anyway, Flowers has been promoting the album (The Desired Effect) in Britain for a few weeks, and he has a new interview with The Independent – you can read the full piece here. Brandon described a really weird habit: he apparently collects all of his facial hair clippings. Eh?

“So I grew a beard for Sam’s Town…” begins The Killers singer. His band’s second album (2006) heralded the moment when the Las Vegas foursome ditched the British synth-pop colours of their acclaimed 2004 debut, Hot Fuss, and embraced Springsteen-style Americana. And they tried on the boots, waistcoats and facial hair to match.

Neil Tennant – then, as now, a keen and pithy dissector of music culture – observed Flowers’ growth and expressed concern. To the Pet Shop Boy, it suggested that the Anglophile Nevadan who grew up loving The Smiths, Oasis and Tennant’s band was suddenly forswearing pop music in favour of something rather more, well, beardy. Flowers – then, as now, in awe of Tennant – decided to heed the Brit’s warning. When he removed the beard for The Killers’ third album, Day & Age (2008), he says, “I started keeping the shavings in a bag. And I still do it,” he grins. “I have a Ziploc bag full of hair. I’ll grow five or six days growth, make sure that the sink is dry, use an electric razor, catch it in the sink, and then I’m able to just scoop it into the bag!”

Flowers yuk-yuks his odd, gulping laugh. And, yes, he’s been doing this for seven years. But, no, his wife, Tana, isn’t bothered by this bathroom peccadillo. “It’s a lot of hair!” he says. “But it’s compacted. And it doesn’t smell. It’s all black but about half way up you start to see some greys. I don’t know what to do with it yet. It means something.”

What exactly?

“Well, Neil was dead-on with his observation,” replies this lean, fidgety singer who habitually (and nervily) cracks his knuckles. “And putting the hair in the bag has sort of become a ritual, I guess. It makes me think about where I stand. There’s always gonna be a part of me that is pop. And I shouldn’t forget that. That’s important. Because there’s nothing wrong with pop. So I keep this bag in a drawer by my sink in the bathroom.”

[From The Independent]

So… he collects his facial hair clippings in a ziploc baggie and has done so for seven years. Charmingly weird or creepy & disturbing? If you’re reading it in context, like he’s telling an amusing anecdote, maybe it doesn’t seem so weird. Maybe it just comes off as quirky. I shave my legs to the knee every time I shower. Is that more or less weird than what Flowers does? I think it’s less weird, because I’m not KEEPING MY CLIPPINGS IN A ZIPLOC.

Photos courtesy of Brandon’s social media, WENN.