Skip to content
Premieres

Arcade Fire Open Up in 30-Minute Doc

110615-af-abraham.png

When he’s not fronting his hardcore punk act Fucked Up, frontman Damian Abraham moonlights as a host for the music show The Wedge, broadcast on Canadian station MuchMusic. The singer recently scored his biggest interview yet – Arcade Fire – for a 30-minute documentary that aired Tuesday. Abraham got brothers Will and Win Butler, along with pal Owen Pallett, to open up about their Grammy triumph, rumors that they’re actually nasty people, and working on their webcast with legendary director Terry Gilliam (Brazil). Check out the three-part doc below, plus some of the biggest revelations (via Consequence of Sound.

On their Grammy triumph and why it doesn’t matter:
“It’s more the feeling that it connects to people in a weird way,” says Win. “It means something to people for a weird reason. Dudes I play basketball with are like “You won a Grammy!” They’re not like “I love the beat of ‘Laika!’ The chords to ‘Rococo’ are really interesting!”

On rumors from musicians like Wayne Coyne that Arcade Fire are not nice people:
“I’m glad I’m not Lindsay Lohan,” says Will. “I’m glad that we haven’t done anything to get that kind of critique.” The band’s longtime friend Owen Pallett adds, “I almost have this detached feeling whenever I examine criticism because I just know whoever is criticizing them is in the wrong and it’s symptomatic of something else.”

On getting Terry Gilliam to direct an Arcade Fire concert webcast:
The band had long talked with the famed director about shooting a concert documentary, but only got the opportunity to work with him after his long-in-the-works adaptation of Don Quixote fell through. “For the hundredth time, Robert Duvall fell off a horse or something, or whatever the hell happened,” says Win of how the August webcast from New York’s Madison Square Garden came together.

On balancing charity work for Haiti with the band’s newfound celebrity:
“It’s a fine balance between the publicity side,” says Win. “But we’ve had this opportunity to connect on [a bigger] level and there’s a lot of important work that needs to be done.”

WATCH: Arcade Fire Documentary Part 1

WATCH: Arcade Fire Documentary Part 2

WATCH: Arcade Fire Documentary Part 3