They are one part cultural movement, one part art collective , one part Montreal ambassadors, but above all they are all parts musical maelstrom that seem to conflate all the best moments of pop music from the last 30 years and seamlessly blend them into one unique vision. Fresh off of a surprise Grammy Award for best album of the year, Arcade Fire is a seemingly unstoppable juggernaut who continue to redefine what it means to be a hugely successful rock band by following its own intransigent and independent minded creed. I chatted with Arcade Fire bassist, guitarist and vocalist Tim Kingsbury to discuss a classic Neil Young album, that despite its title, never gets old or rusty. Full audio interview is here or read the edited transcription below.
20110213 arcade fire_sounditresounds by thesounditresounds
Sound, It Resounds: Tim, thanks for taking time out from your guys' busy schedule to chat. So what is the album we're going to be talking about today.
Tim Kingsbury: The album is Live Rust by Neil Young. I guess I picked up a cassette copy of it when I was 14. I was in Florida and I was sent to a church camp there and we had a day off and I think we were at some mini-mall in Daytona and there was a record store there and I decided to go in. I wasn't particularly familiar with much rock music really but there was a kid in my class who was really into Neil Young and I became friends with this kid. Basically when I went into this store I spotted the cassette (of Live Rust) and I bought it. We had taken the bus to Florida and we were taking the bus back to Guelph, Ontario where I was living and that was like a 20 hour plus bus ride so for a good chunk of the ride I ended up listening to that tape over and over and over.
SIR: On your Walkman I guess?
TK: Yeah yeah on my Walkman, exactly. That was kinda like my soundtrack in high school for awhile. I still go back to that record quite a bit.
SIR: That's quite a soundtrack to carry with you on a 20 hour plus bus ride
TK: Well it's such a cool album with the way it's put together.
SIR: Yeah and your definitely listening to it in a great context; it kinda starts out quiet and evolves over time into the louder stuff.
TK: It's funny because I remember Much Music was playing 'Keep on Rockin' in the Free World' at the time and I went into the store actually looking for that song and I saw there was a huge stack of Neil Young records and I noticed that that album (Live Rust) wasn't one of them and I was like, what? How could that album not be here. I was pretty impressed he had so many albums.
SIR: As a musician and writer I was wondering if there are any moments on that album that inspired you to make music eventually.
TK: With that album, especially when I got it, there were certain songs I was obsessed with and then it kind of evolved over time and it was also around the same time I started playing guitar so that was a heavy influence on me. But I think there's still one song that I always pick up the guitar and play is 'Powderfinger,' just out of habit.
SIR: So I'd like to talk a bit about where things are at with Arcade Fire, but before we get into that I was thinking about the first time I heard Funeral. I was immediately struck by the album's reference points. You guys seem to bring such a disparate batch of influences that far extend 10 or 15 years of pop music history. Can you talk about those seemingly wide range of influences and how that enriches the music of Arcade Fire.
TK: If you look at everybody in the bands' background, it's a fairly diverse group of upbringings and family histories. I think that has a lot to do with it. Like Win and Will (Butler), their grandfather was a big band leader and their family is full of musicians. For me, I grew up in a little town in Guelph, Ontario and in high school I'd go to see punk rock shows. And then Regine grew up in a different situation to that. She picked up the piano really early and she would just figure anything out she heard. She had a very creative side from a very young age. And Rich's family has a whole other story with folk musicians. So I think all that kind of comes together, coming from different angles, and when the band is at its best, that is what's going on.
SIR: I wanted to talk a bit about reconciling the “big” with the “small.” You’ve chosen to stay on a comparatively small indie label, Merge Records, yet you’re a huge band in the psyche of the music buying public. You’re physically a large band with 8 or 9 members yet you give off a sense of intimacy and humility in an almost familial way. I’m wondering if trying to keep a sense of small in an overwhelming sea of big is important to the band to maintain and keep it grounded in some way.
TK: I think it's kind of impossible to function, on a personal level, as big all the time or any of the time for that matter.
SIR: Well I wonder if you guys ever pine for those days of being able to be more in touch with people on that smaller level.
TK: Well hopefully at some point I might have another opportunity to play in another band and play to a smaller group. When we started off , it would be like OK there's 20 friends here and that's awesome and we're gonna have fun and then maybe we'll go play soccer afterward or something. That's just not possible at this point. But I guess my priorities are different now too then when I was 22.
SIR: What are the next plans with Arcade Fire
TK: We toured for most of last year so we're taking a bit of quiet time off. But we're going to tour through the summer starting in April at least until the fall. We're also starting to do a bit of writing and working on some new stuff a bit.
SIR: Tim, thank you again for taking time out to chat. Best of luck with touring, with the band and yourself.
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