notes from the neighbourhood

by K. Vicious

Photos Courtesy of Hilary Leftick

Canada is massive for indie rock at the moment. Every few months it seems, you’ll hear of some awesome new band from Canada whose music is inspiring delirium among music geeks. Broken Social Scene, the Hidden Cameras, the Constantines, the Unicorns, the Weakerthans and Sloan are by now all familiar household names in our own absurd music universe – and maybe it helps too that Rufus Wainwright, easily one of the most talented contemporary songwriters, hails from Canada as well (or how about Avril Lavigne, if you dig the whole punk princess thing).

Then there is The Arcade Fire, the latest in a long line of indie hopefuls to shoot the lights out with their beguiling debut Funeral (Merge Records). As its title would suggest, it is a record that’s possessed by a formidable power of evocation, a sense of grandeur rarefied by memories of the dearly departed. The band members each lost several relatives during the recording of the album, around the same time lead singer/guitarist Win Butler and keyboardist Regine Chassagne got married (Win’s brother Will, Tim Kingsbury and Richard Parry are the other musicians in the band).

And so through the wedding and funerals are these spectacular songs that surge with sprawls of rock heroism and shine in Regine’s fluid keyboard/accordion colors. Make no mistake though – this is not a pallbearer’s record. Funeral has its wispy, frail moments (the French-pop lilt of “Haiti” and “Une Annee Sans Lumiere”) but mostly the band eases away from the mounds of sorrow, with “Wake Up” and “Rebellion (Lies)” rocking out like acts of defiance. Under the robes of frantic (The Cure-inspired) guitar theatrics and the surreal-rustic quilt (borrowed from Neutral Milk Hotel) is essentially this band of young southpaw musicians with exceptional songwriting abilities, leading their strange existence in a cold and bleak neighborhood in Montreal.

On the record, the neighborhood in question, fictionalized on four stellar songs on Funeral, is quite something else, something right out of Tim Burton’s gothic fabulism, an illustrated stageshow buried in snow, full of myths and unexplained episodes: a boy bitten by a vampire, grimy children jockeying for warmth in a frosty blackout, the morbid rust of time that is ‘killing old folks, wakin’ up babies”. And on the ringing opener “Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)”, the band plays with an emotional vigor that bristles with all the hope and desperation of lovers braving the winterlong to cling on to every last snippet of affection.

We have plenty of questions for the band of course. And not wanting to make Richard (who answered our questions on behalf of the band) sound aloof and impassive in the interview, we would like to point that we had caught the band at a really bad time. The Arcade Fire was just embarked on their most extensive tour across the States, while Richard found himself in a public library fighting with the local denizens for a few decent minutes on the PC to answer our questions. “I am in the library so will keep this brief although it pains me to do so,” explains Richard in his email.

Hi, Richard! I just want to say that your band's debut, Funeral, is such an amazing record. Could I start off by asking what the band had in mind when you first began recording the songs in late 2003? And how much of that changed over the course of a really difficult few months for the band members?

Richard: We didn't plan the record out in advance... We like records that move us and that we want to listen to again and again, so I suppose we tried to make something along those lines. It sort of grew song by song along the way... There were different approaches to each song without a hell of a lot of forethought. But once we had a collection of certain songs recorded, it became apparent that there were other specific songs that might work well with what we already had.

One thing that really stands out immediately from the album is the four 'neighborhood' songs. Is there like a common thread that ties these four songs together in some way?

Richard: The neighborhood idea came afterwards, realizing that a bunch of these seemingly unrelated songs had the same recurring ideas and words in them.

The Arcade Fire is the latest of many bands from Canada getting loads of attention for their music. How does the band feel about the so-called Canadian scene as a whole?

Richard: Canada is fine. The Unicorns are the best.

And how did you guys hook up with Merge Records?

Richard: We sent Merge a bunch of songs from the then unfinished record and they liked them, and me and Regine and Win went to North Carolina to meet them and it was very clear right away.

Win does seem to deal with the songwriting aspects on an autobiographical level, especially on songs like “Neighborhood #4 (7 Kettles)” or “Rebellion (Lies)”, and Regine does touch on her own experiences as well, on “Haiti” and elsewhere. Can you comment on how the band work out the songwriting, the writing styles Win and Regine adopt? In terms of influences, who had made an impression on the members of the Arcade Fire?

Richard: Hmmm… different every time. Different colors for different scenarios. Influences: The Pixies, Talking Heads, E dward Scissorhands , Debussy, Arvo Part, The Clash, Blade Runner, the Old Testament, Jacques Brel, the Second World War, George Bush….

There is a strong sense of uplift that shines through these songs. Is that something that the band is going for all along?

Richard: Yes. Hope is of the utmost importance right now, especially for everybody. This kid waiting for my computer at the library is about to kill me…

I understand your band will be touring the United States quite a bit in the next few months. What plans do you have in store for 2005?

Richard: Europe, learning how to surf, recording another album.