It’s been a great 2019 so far for some of Nevada’s biggest music acts and music director and host at NV89 Gia DeSantis talked to KNPR's State of Nevada about those artists' new music.
Imagine Dragons are climbing the national charts again with their latest single "Bad Liar."
DeSantis said the song, which is currently number 19 on the Alternative Charts, has an interesting back story.
""Bad Liar" is about the dissolution of Dan Reynold's relationship with his wife Aja Volkman and they had announced their split last year, last April," DeSantis said, "They had co-written this song together before they separated. They've decided through all of this work and as they've played the song that it was time to really reconsider the relationship. They are now back together and they are working to rebuild their marriage. So "Bad Liar" has a really special connotation to it."
Another Nevada band, Panic at the Disco, has a song that is number two on the Alternative chart and number four on the Top 100 chart.
""High Hopes" is the biggest song of their 14-year career and one of the most streamed songs in Nevada," DeSantis said. "The song beat out Imagine Dragons at the I Heart Radio awards for Top Alternative Song and they won Rock Album of the Year for 2018 album "Pray for the Wicked.""
Meanwhile, The Killers released a rare political song and got Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Lee to direct the video.
"It is definitely a slower tempo for them," DeSantis said, "The new track "Land of the Free" really digs deep into the national political spotlight from the border wall to mass incarceration. Brandon Flowers said the idea for the song began after the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012. And in the years, and the mass shootings since, it's just too much to ignore for anybody and especially people who can write about it and get listened to."
The Killers’ guitarist, Dave Keuning, just put out his first solo album.
"He was finding himself doing a lot of writing on his own and the songs he was contributing to the band were kind of falling to the bottom of the stack," she said, "So, he recently released a debut solo album. It's titled "Prismism," came out in January. He decided to take a step back when The Killers went on the Wonderful, Wonderful tour in 2017 and 2018. He said he wanted to be home with his son and he couldn't commit to a long tour. He began writing songs. It was his first time writing lyrics. He worked with producer Brandon Donner who has also worked with this other Nevada band Imagine Dragons. He mostly recorded this album at his home."
Gia DeSantis, music director and host of NV89
