Arcade Fire: 'The cliched rock life never seemed that cool to us'

They don't buy into the rock'n'roll lifestyle, their songs deal with big ideas, and their live shows – which now take place inside huge arenas – favour exuberance over irony and aloofness. And yet Arcade Fire, who emerged from Montreal's indie scene in 2004, are somehow the hottest band on the planet. Sean O'Hagan meets them on their world tour and asks whether they can keep evolving as they get bigger.

In a concrete room backstage at the Palau Sant Jordi arena in Barcelona, I am midway though a post-show interview with Arcade Fire's unfeasibly tall, quietly charismatic lead singer, Win Butler, when the door opens and his bandmate, Richard Reed Parry, enters. He roots around in a cupboard for a few moments, then exits again, having found what he was looking for – a yoga mat.

Arcade Fire - The Suburs

Arcade Fire Interview

After sinus surgery forced Win Butler, frontman for Canadian indie-juggernaut the Arcade Fire, to cancel a handful of European shows, the still-recovering singer spoke to Pitchfork about his lack of control over the writing process, major labels, and Bruce Springsteen.

Pitchfork: Sorry to hear you've been so sick.

Win Butler: I'm feeling a lot better. Not 100% yet, but I'm worlds better than I was a couple of weeks ago. I got sick around New Years. When we were rehearsing for the first shows, the secret shows and the warm-up shows, I couldn't really sing in rehearsal because I was so sick.

Pitchfork: How has the tour been going so far? Do you think the songs from the new record are more challenging to play live?

WB: Last time, we played a bunch of the songs live, while we were recording-- a lot of small shows just as stuff started to take off. So I felt like we had time to figure out how the songs wanted to be played. We tried to do that this time by playing some warm-up shows. I think we're starting to figure out how to play the songs.

Pitchfork: It's funny that you call the Judson [Memorial Church, in New York City] shows warm-up shows, because those were hugely anticipated dates. It seems like things came together really fast.

WB: It's a sink or swim thing. I think we work better when we jump in, get in over our heads. And it's like, OK, we've got to figure this out right now.

Pitchfork: Do you do anything in particular to prepare for a tour?

WB: We had such little time this time around, it was about the bare essentials. "OK, how are we going to make this pipe organ sound? What instruments do we need to bring?" Just trying to work out arrangements and stuff. With so many people, it's a logistical nightmare.

Pitchfork: The Arcade Fire seems drawn to churches, both as performance spaces and as inspiration. Can you talk a little bit about the churches in your life?

Arcade Fire - Rebelion

Arcade Fire

Biography

Arcade Fire is an orchestral indie rock band which formed in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 2003. The band consists of Win Butler (vocals, guitar, piano), Régine Chassagne (vocals, accordion, keyboards, hurdy gurdy, drums), Richard Reed Parry (bass, guitar), William Butler (keyboards, guitar), Tim Kingsbury (bass), Sarah Neufeld (violin), and Jeremy Gara (drums). Howard Bilerman, who played drums on the album Funeral, has since moved on to other projects. Montreal percussionist Dane Mills performed on the EP and in early live shows. As of May 2005, the touring band includes horn player Pietro Amato (who is in Bell Orchestre and Torngat) and violinist Owen Pallett. Pallett has also opened for their shows, appearing as the one-man band Final Fantasy.

The band’s trademark fashion is the waistcoat, giving them an air of “frumpiness”. When asked about the rumour that the band’s name refers to a fire in an arcade, Win Butler replied: “It’s not a rumour, it’s based on a story that someone told me. It’s not an actual event, but one that I took to be real. I would say that it’s probably something that the kid made up, but at the time I believed him.” Win Butler and his brother Will grew up in Texas.