Arcade Fire: A Profile of Indie Rock's Biggest and Brightest Band

The parliamentary procedure can be obscure: Violinist Sarah Neufeld and bassist Tim Kingsbury were never told they were members of the band. "I just read it in an article somewhere," Kingsbury says. "Once it's in The New York Times, I think it's official."

"Sometimes I Google myself for my status," Neufeld adds.

Kingsbury laughs, then, slightly alarmed, says, "Not really?"

"No, that was a joke," Neufeld reassures him.

Asked what the group disagrees over, Will says, "It varies -- 'I don't think we should play four nights in Phoenix.' 'I don't think we should have the saxophone in that part of the song.' 'I want to watch The Magnificent Seven.' 'I want to watch Alien vs. Predator.'" One of the longest-running Arcade Fire arguments concerns whether they should do any publicity at all. Every time they have an interview request, it seems, they debate the issue from first principles. Multi-instrumentalist Richard Reed Parry explains, "We're trying to navigate a culture where people manufacture a lot of garbage. The goal is not to sell the most records or be the most famous. I think everybody in our band thinks we're trying to do something that's real and has some lasting value to it."

This would all feel painfully earnest if the Arcade Fire didn't back it up with their work. Their songs, dense in both lyrics and sound, anthemic yet sorrowful, have made them one of the finest young rock bands around. If their ambition occasionally exceeds their ability, that's a tribute to the scope of their ambition.

Win's a big believer in community. "Boarding school, the army or church are the only places where people are forced to be in a community with people they wouldn't choose to be," he says. (He attended the elite Phillips Exeter prep school.) "I think it's valuable to be in a community with people you have nothing in common with."

For the recording of Neon Bible, the Arcade Fire incorporated elements from boarding school, the army and church. They bought a nineteenth-century church in Montreal and put beds in the basement for barracks-style living during the year it took to record the album. "It's not the takes," says Neufeld of the extended recording process. "It's the overdubs."

The resulting music sounds like a particularly vivid nightmare: It's lush and orchestrated, but still hard-edged. At various points, it evokes Brian Eno, Big Country and the E Street Band. "I may have the same influences as he does," Win says of the Bruce Springsteen comparison. "Two of my biggest influences are Roy Orbison and Bob Dylan."

So is having a large band an effort to orchestrate some anthemic sound, or is it an attempt at creating a community? "The band definitely is a community," Win says. "The bands that last are the ones that realize that and put that priority first. But it's the same principle with a two-piece band. In a large band, there's just more relationships to maintain."

>>For more on the Arcade Fire, check out our primer on key 'Neon Bible' tracks and exclusive online profiles of all seven band members.

>> This is an excerpt from the new issue of Rolling Stone, on stands until June 1st.