Arcade Fire at SXSW: ‘We might debut new songs at Hyde Park gigs’

Will Butler also talks about film collaboration with Spike Jonze

Arcade Fire‘s Will Butler has told NME that the band have started work on their next album, and may play new material at their London Hyde Park gig on June 30.

He was speaking at the South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, where he was promoting the band’s new short film Scenes From The Suburbs.

“For the last couple months we’ve been practising, playing around and doing demos,” he said. “Nothing formal, but we have been having a kind of creative session.”

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Speaking about the June London show, he added: “It is a lot harder to play new stuff because the person at the back doesn’t get gripped when they hear it. “So if we’re not at that space at the [Hyde Park] show then it won’t go that way, but we are definitely considering it.”

Asked when he wants the band’s new album to be released, Butler referenced the long gaps Arcade Fire have taken between releasing previous records.

“We’re not setting plans because it tends to stress us out a bit,” he said. “But the only vague desire is to have the new album not come out three years from now – it would be nice to get out it a little snappier than that this time.”

Scenes From The Suburbs’, Arcade Fire‘s new film collaboration with Spike Jonze, was shown at SXSW.

“We’ve wanted to work with Spike Jonze forever,” Butler said. “For me personally, it was since the [Beastie Boys‘] ‘Sabotage’ video! We basically wanted to work with him because he was the best.”

Butler added that he and Arcade Fire frontman Win, his brother, took a prime role during the filming process of the 30-minute movie, which is loosely based on their album ‘The Suburbs’.

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“About a week before filming me and Win came down to Austin and we rewrote the script and planned it out, did the final casting and stuff. And then we filmed the next two weeks,” he said.

He added: “I was on set the whole time. I ended up being the script supervisor, who basically is the guy who makes sure the drink is always in the right hand and doesn’t shift to the left hand on camera. It was basically being assistant to everyone. So I’d be wiping the bumper of the car to make it look better on camera, but also telling the kid acting, ‘Don’t say that line that way, do it like this!’. It was a lot of fun, but a lot of hard work too.”

A wider released for the film is planned for the next few months. Watch the trailer by clicking below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X65PcHj6EaU

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