Arcade Fire's Butler on New LP: "Things Are Coming Together"

Win Butler says the Arcade Fire have begun songwriting sessions for their next record, the NME reports in the issue on stands now. "Before Funeral, me and Régine had this big room to rehearse in... People would come by and work on a song," Butler tells the U.K. mag. "Now the guys are calling and wanting to come over. We're writing and allowing the arrangements to happen. It's exciting."

After wrapping up a tour for Neon Bible, the Arcade Fire went off the radar, save for a few scattered appearances — including the staff ball during President Obama's inauguration festivities earlier this year. It was part of a conscious decision the band made to take a hiatus, but Butler tells the NME that the band members simply found themselves playing together again over the last few months.

Butler was hesitant to confirm a timeline for the album's release, but he remains optimistic: "It could be that we'll play live [soon] and maybe we'll end up bashing [another album] out fast. We're in the middle of writing, things are coming together, it's a great feeling."

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

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