Mass appeal

>> Arcade Fire get to the church on time

SPECIAL AND NICE: Arcade Fire

by LORRAINE CARPENTER

They’re a band that needs little introduction, especially in their hometown, where they’re very nearly household names, and where frostbite-baiting fans will line up overnight for concert tickets, as recently witnessed outside l’Oblique during the depths of winter. This weekend, Arcade Fire are back for a pair of sold-out arena shows, now that everyone’s had time to digest their latest album, Neon Bible. And I mean everyone—the album debuted at #1 on the charts in Canada and #2 in the U.S., where they were beaten to the top by the unstoppable posthumous power of the Notorious BIG.

But success is unlikely to spoil a band that never set its sights on fame, that has turned down scores of lucrative offers from record labels and ad firms, and continues to live out their career in as low-key a fashion as possible. And to those who are suspicious of the seemingly incessant buzz around the band, as anyone who’s seen them live will agree, believe the hype.

Three days into their five-night stand at Ukrainian Federation back in February, the Mirror spoke to Arcade Fire drummer/keyboardist Jeremy Gara about brushing up against greatness, being best friends forever and burning false prophets with their own holy water.

Mirror: What’s the story behind the church you guys bought in Farnham?

Jeremy Gara: It was a church up until about 75 years ago, then it was abandoned for 30 years, then it was a Masonic temple, and when we got it, it was a community arts centre and a couple of artists lived there. So it was already comfortable and lived-in, but we had to give it a pretty massive overhaul to make it studio-ready.

M: Did it come about by chance, or had you planned to record in a church?

JG: Even when I first met Win [Butler] and Régine [Chassagne], they had the idea. There are so many abandoned churches in Quebec and it’s the perfect environment to play music because we’re a big group, so it feels really comfortable and warm.

M: I guess that feeling extends to playing all these warm-up shows in churches [in London and New York as well as Montreal].

JG: It sounds really hippie-dippy, but it’s supposed to be a special place, an environment for people to really come together and connect on some unspoken level. We’re not a bar band, so we hope that by trying to do something special in a special place, it’ll be that much more of an experience.

M: There’s some serious irony there though, because some of the lyrics on this album are extremely critical of organized religion, particularly in the States, where evangelicals are so prominent on the political scene.

JG: Yeah, there are observations on culture and politics and religion, and where those things meet, for better or for worse.

M: In Neon Bible, the novella by John Kennedy Toole, the protagonist actually kills the town preacher. How strong is the connection to the book?

JG: Win actually had that phrase in his head for a long time, and then minimal research showed that there was a book by that name. He ended up reading A Confederacy of Dunces [by the same author], which he really, really liked. I don’t think he loved Neon Bible but it inspired him in a way because the author was only 16, and just the idea of a kid writing a book is baffling in this day and age. Win really got attached to that idea, and then [the title] just seemed appropriate with the way the lyrics were headed.

M: It’s obviously been a crazy couple of years for you guys. What’s the wildest experience that comes to mind?

JG: Playing behind David Byrne and David Bowie was really amazing, but things were happening so fast at the time that it doesn’t even hit you until a month later, then you’re like, “Oh my God, who am I to be doing this?!” When we’re on tour, it’s a whirlwind, and I can’t believe that I’m lucky enough to be doing this. And even when we’re not on tour, we hang out every single day. We’re all as good of friends as we were when this all began, and that, to me—it’s totally lame to admit it, but that makes me happy all the time. It’s just like, “Holy shit, we’re all having dinner together, again. This is really special and nice.”

with st. vincent at the Maurice Richard
Arena on May 12 and May 13, 8 p.m., sold out