Now that the cap is off of the band’s new single “Reflektor,” Arcade Fire has opened up more about their new album of the same name.
In an interview with Zane Lowe on BBC 1, co-founder Win Butler revealed that “Reflektor” is a double album, and that the band had written 50 or 60 songs for it.
“[It] made more sense to stretch it out to two records,” Butler said. “I never wanted to be in a band that could never play whatever music we wanted to.”
He also called “Reflektor” a “weird art project,” which explains a little bit about the Montreal-based rockers’ quixotic promotions behind it, which have included graffiti, eerie promotional pictures and the odd and very different music videos behind the title track. Butler said there will be several tracks on the set that are more than seven minutes long.
The full interview goes up on Lowe’s site at 2 p.m. EST today.
Arcade Fire also took to the stage for only 100 people on Monday night, under the name The Reflektors at a surprise show in Montreal, and required that the concert goers arrive in costume or in formal wear. A report from Stereogum said that the group played all new songs, all variant in sound, and were joined by Owen Pallett and longtime member Sarah Neufeld, who has been curiously absent from AF’s recent photos.
David Bowie has stepped up as another contributor, having “supplied a brief backing vocal” to the song “Reflektor,” according to his Facebook page. He also confirmed the song being James Murphy-produced. Watch the Anton Corbijn-directed video and experience the Google Chrome-based Vincent Morisset interactive video for “Reflektor” here. Can you hear Bowie a little after the 5:00 mark?
“Reflektor” has newly revealed, Greek-inspired artwork, as seen above. The band’s website says that a world tour is in the works in support of the album.
The set is due on Oct. 29 via Merge. As previously reported, Arcade Fire will take the stage on “Saturday Night Live” on Sept. 28.