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In the current issue of Rolling Stone , Contributing Editor Gavin Edwards files an excellent profile of Canadian rockers Arcade Fire. The piece, "The Magnificent Seven," explores how a small Montreal-based band became indie rock leaders and recorded one of the best albums of the year, Neon Bible.
But Arcade Fire is a big band. And a magazine profile can only do so much, so we've assembled mini-profiles of all seven members. Delve into violinist Sarah Neufeld's dark history with the law, find out why Win Butler relates to Mariah Carey and let Richard Reed Parry tell you all about the super-cool cutting board he picked up on tour. And if you need more, don't miss our complete Arcade Fire artist page on RollingStone.com.
- Win Butler
- Regine Chassagne
- Richard Reed Parry
- William Butler
- Tim Kingsbury
- Sarah Neufeld
- Jeremy Gara
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WIN BUTLER
Age: 26
Plays: guitar, bass, keys, sings
Attended: Phillips Exeter Academy, studied
photography and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence, graduated from
McGill University where he studied philosophy
Did You Know? Win calls George Orwell and
Doestoevsky his favorite writers, wanted to be a filmmaker when he
was in high school, is super passionate about basketball, and
thinks he overuses the phrase "split the difference"
Win Speaks: When we asked Win -- a notoriously
reserved anti-showman off stage -- to name the most rock star-ish
thing about himself, he told us he relates to Mariah Carey.
"Especially when you live in hotels, it's like this is my home, and
I wouldn't necessarily choose for all these fucking hotels as my
home but if I'm making my coffee at home I can have it the
temperature I want...It's very easy to see how Mariah Carrey ends
up in this bubble where she's in the wrong place and destroying her
hotel room."
Check out profiles for all seven members of the Arcade Fire.
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REGINE CHASSAGNE
Age: 30
Plays: keys, drums, hurdy gurdy, sings
Other Bands: Les Jongleurs de la Mandragore,
Az?car
Attended: Concordia University, where she earned a
B.A. in communication studies in 1998 before going on to study jazz
voice at McGill University
Did You Know? Regine is the only member of the
band who is from Quebec. "When I'm tired I get really bad at
English," the native French speaker says
Regine Speaks: Chassagne's father found out she
was actually making it as a professional musician via Google. "He
[her father] sends me this email one day and he says: 'Regine, I
put your name in Google and I don't know how many thousand things
came up! What' going on?!' I said, 'dad, I'm telling you, I'm
playing music with this guy I met named Win.' It was really
funny."
Check out profiles for all seven members of the Arcade Fire.
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RICHARD REED PARRY
Age: 28
Plays: bass, guitar
Other Bands: Bell Orchestre, New International
Standards, The Unicorns, Islands
Attended: Canterbury High School in Ottawa,
Ontario, Concordia University in Montreal where he learned about
electroacoustics and contemporary dance
Did You Know? Richard was recently detained at the
border for possessing the band's gold records. "Richard went down
for a day to go to Boston and go to the New Balance outlet,"
William tells us. "He came back and was crossing the border and
they stopped him and were searching his car and they were like,
'what are these?' He had our gold records from Funeral in
the back. He [border patrol officer] asked 'what's a gold record?'
And he [Richard] is like, 'it's a trophy type thing for selling
records.' And he [the border patrol officer] is like, 'like
platinum record?' And he [Richard] is like 'yeah, but just less
records.' "
Richard Speaks: When asked what the best thing
he's ever purchased on tour is, Richard tells us about his favorite
cutting board. "It was like, a definite mental signifier of like, I
am going home soon a and having a home life. It's this long,
skinny, really lovely cutting board. It was really exciting at the
time."
Check out profiles for all seven members of the Arcade Fire.
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WILLIAM BUTLER
Age: 24
Plays: keys, percussion, guitar, and sings
Attended: Phillips Exeter Academy and Northwestern
University
Did You Know? Will was a "sickly" child who had "a
lot of bronchiole infections"
Will Speaks: The younger Butler graduated from
college with a degree in poetry writing and a minor in Slavic
studies. "My senior thesis was a group of poems loosely based upon
the sea," the multi-instrumentalist tells us.
Check out profiles for all seven members of the Arcade Fire.
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TIM KINGSBURY
Age: 30
Plays: bass, guitar
Other Bands: New International Standards, Wolf
Parade, Clark
Did You Know? Tim is the most ear-splitting member
of the band. "Tim is so loud that you have to wear earplugs when he
screams. He's as loud as an ape when he's full on," Regine tells
us.
Tim Speaks: Kingsbury is scarred for life by the
memory of missing Hulk Hogan vs. Macho Man Randy Savage at a WWF
appearance. "I was eleven and I told a lie," he recalls. "I don't
even remember about what, but my parents were like, 'you're not
going' and they stuck to it. I was totally devastated. I had front
row tickets!"
Check out profiles for all seven members of the Arcade Fire.
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SARAH NEUFELD
Age: 27
Plays: Violin
Other Bands: Bell Orchestre
Did You Know? One title Sarah has considered for
her autobiography is "I Can't Believe I Ate the Whole Thing"
Sarah Speaks: Neufeld was once arrested as a
teenager for shoplifting girl stuff. "They thought we were part of
a crime ring but we were all ballerinas," she recalls. "We were all
straight from our ballet performance and we had our hair in buns.
They totally cuffed us and took us down to the station. There'd
been a bigger problem in town and they thought that we were the
pawns for this liquor store robbery or something. Come on, we were
ballerinas!"
Check out profiles for all seven members of the Arcade Fire.
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JEREMY GARA
Age: 28
Plays: drums, percussion
Other Bands: New International Standards, Lessons,
Kepler, Weights and Measures
Did You Know? Jeremy is still "occasionally"
self-conscious about his status in the band. "We started recording
[Neon Bible] and I was like, 'oh yeah, I'm part of this band, these
are my good friends, I'm actually part of this thing"
Jeremy Speaks: Jeremy has a love/hate relationship
with his own messiness. "Every time I do it I'm like 'I did it
again!' Last night I came back to the hotel, really ready for bed,
like 'this is gonna rule,' but then all my stuff is all over my bed
and I'm like 'what was the reasoning behind this again?'"
Check out profiles for all seven members of the Arcade Fire.