The coronavirus lockdown period proved to be fruitful for Arcade Fire frontman Win Butler. The alt-rock hero has revealed that he’s been steadily chipping away on “two or three” albums worth of material.
Butler recently sat down with producer Rick Rubin for his Broken Record podcast, where he revealed that Arcade Fire were busy plotting their “surprising” sixth album. Which the band will return to Texas to record.
“We’re planning on going back to Texas to make the next record, during the election – so that’ll be fun,” he shared.
Whilst most of our brains have turned into microwaved lettuce after all the hours we’ve spent binge-watching Grand Designs into oblivion, the extra lockdown downtime has proved to be creatively beneficial for Butler.
“[It] feels like being 18, sitting by the piano for five days in a row working on a melody for a verse. It’s been pretty amazing actually,” Butler explained.
“This time around we’ve been in lockdown, [Arcade Fire] have a studio, have every keyboard, drum machine, piano – everything I could want – and fucking time. The one piece that’s been missing [on previous albums] is the time, and now the time is there.
“In a way, it feels like a more extreme version of what we would’ve done anyway.”
Love Classic Rock?
Get the latest Classic Rock news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Elsewhere in the interview Butler asked Rick Ruben what he hoped the new Arcade Fire album would bring. The producer said he wanted to “be surprised”, the frontman replied: “I think you’ll be surprised.”
Back in April, Win Butler confirmed that the band were in the studio, cooking up new music. In a series of three posts, Butler addressed the coronavirus pandemic, the impacts it will have on the music industry — both positive and negative.
“Though this crisis may ultimately change or destroy aspects of the music industry, I believe it will only strengthen music as an art form,” he wrote. It has never felt more essential, spiritual and irreplaceable…a church that lives in the air between the source and your ears.”
The forthcoming sixth Arcade Fire album will mark their first new material since 2017’s Everything Now.
Check out ‘Everything Now’ by Arcade Fire:
