There’s a good reason the Killers took a five-year break before releasing their latest album, “Wonderful, Wonderful.” Make that plenty of reasons: writer’s block, personal upheaval, internal discord. So while the Las Vegas band is back and ready to headline the BottleRock Napa Valley festival alongside Bruno Mars and Muse, it now operates as a core duo made up of singer Brandon Flowers and drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. (Bassist Mark Stoermer and guitarist Dave Keuning retired from touring last year.) Checking in from his home in Park City, Utah, where his family moved after his wife was diagnosed with an extreme form of post-traumatic stress disorder, Flowers says the band is feeling re-energized as it revisits material going all the way back to the Killers’ breakthrough debut, 2004’s “Hot Fuss.”

Q: Are your festival sets different from the regular sets?

A: It is a little different. We take into consideration that not everybody is there for us. We also don’t get as much time allotted to us as we would at our own show. We’re not there to give people a test or anything like that. We’re people-pleasers in that respect.

Q: You have so many hit songs now. Is it difficult fitting them all into your set?

A: A lot of the songs find companions over the years that pair nicely with them. You also want to represent the new album. We’re trying to cover all those bases, and it just keeps getting more and more fun. Even if a song is 15 years old now, which some of them are, people are experiencing them live for the first time. I’m still thriving on that excitement.

Q: The lineup of the band changed before you released your last album. Does the chemistry feel different?

A: It took some getting used to it, being onstage with different people. But the chemistry of touring is better. Those guys didn’t want to tour anymore. You could sense those feelings toward the end of the last album cycle. It made for some uncomfortable moments, so some of that stuff is gone and it’s a little breezier now.

Q: What keeps you interested in being on the road?

A: I see it as part of my identity now to perform. In the beginning it was more about the songwriting, and I didn’t know if there was a performer in me yet. Now I see it as 50/50. I love being in the studio and going to work every day and waiting for lightning to strike. But I also love celebrating it and the ritual of getting ready for a performance. There’s a theater about that I like that I didn’t know that I would.

Q: Do the hits and stadium tours disappear when you’re dropping your kids off at school?

A: Yeah. Yesterday I got home from Australia and today I went to school. I’m finding it easier and easier to just kind of slide into each role.

Q: Having been through it all, have you grown more confident in your skin?

A: I think so. It took me a long time to give me permission to be who I am, or to be this creative person or performer. I’m such a huge fan and now I have the same job as the people whose posters I had on my wall and paid to go see perform and who held my hand through my life. It took me a long time for me to get used to that. It gets easier over the years. I’m 36 now. I’m looking forward to 40. I hope I’ll be even more comfortable.

Aidin Vaziri is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop music critic. Email: avaziri@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @MusicSF

The Killers at BottleRock Napa Valley: Saturday, May 26. Doors open at 11:30 a.m. Last act ends at 10 p.m. $349-$3,900. Napa Valley Expo, 575 Third St., Napa. www.bottlerocknapavalley.com

Watch the Killers’ “Run for Cover”: https://youtu.be/

XO7JGfqPB0s