Arcade Fire will release their new album WE on Friday, May 6th, following pre-singles The Lightning I, II and Unconditional I (Lookout Kid). It is the Montreal/New Orleans band’s sixth studio album and their first in five years, following the release of EVERYTHING NOW in 2017.
To mark this release, we interviewed Arcade Fires Win Butler. It was about the Ukraine war, a Russian writer, the departure of multi-instrumentalist Will Butler, Win’s brother, guest star Peter Gabriel, Arcade Fire’s influences and the future of our children. You can read our detailed text about Arcade Fire and the background to their new album WE as the title story in the Musikexpress issue 6/2022, which will be available from May 12th at the kiosk of your choice.
We also specifically asked Butler about the immediate future of his band. Butler answered – and both hinted at anniversary campaigns, a remix by or for New Order (“We might be working on a remix with New Order soon, which would be very cool”) and, drum roll, confirmed a planned German tour. An official announcement or even concrete dates and locations are still pending, but let’s just start with a daring speculation: At the Lollapalooza Festival in Berlin, a headliner slot is still vacant and indie rock is rather underrepresented in the current line-up.
Here is a relevant excerpt from our interview:
Musikexpress: Are there any celebrations planned for the anniversary of FUNERAL (2004-2024)? Or ten years REFLEKTOR? Or 20 years of Arcade Fire?
Win Butler: With balloons? Birthday cake? In fact, we should just throw a big birthday party, that would be the most fun! We’ve played full-length FUNERAL a couple of times already. I once saw Stevie Wonder playing SONGS IN THE KEY OF LIFE in New Orleans. Like I said, if you make a real record, people are going to want to hear it for a long time. It’s something special to listen to a band on an album. We’ve always tried to create a universe around our albums. So would be cool to do something in those contexts.
Musikexpress: Whatever that means. Is a Germany tour planned?
Win Butler: Fuck yeah! just wait It’s happening. And if the first new shows in New York were a yardstick for the ones to come, then it’s going to be wild!
In anticipation, read our concert report about Arcade Fire’s acclaimed performance in July 2017 in Berlin’s Wuhlheide.