Arcade Fire is a Canadian rock band formed by duo Win Butler and Regine Chassin in 2003 in Montreal, Quebec, that performs experimental alternative rock with elements of art rock and post-punk. Using the accordion, harp, and strings in addition to traditional instruments, the band practices happening concerts in which they improvise, at times bringing crowds of thousands into the streets and parks.
Both of the band’s albums have been critically acclaimed. Their debut, Funeral (2004), reached number one on MTV2’s 50 Greatest Albums of the Year list and received two Grammy nominations. The second, Neon Bible (2007) topped the album lists in Canada and Ireland, climbed to No. 2 in the U.S. and the U.K. and reached No. 1 on Q Magazine’s Best Albums of 2007 list. In 2008, the album was nominated at the Brit Awards and won the Juno Awards for Best Alternative Album of the Year.
Win Butler was born on April 14, 1980, in California (his father worked for an oil company and his mother played harp in an orchestra) and spent his childhood years in Woodlands, a suburb of Houston, Texas. Along with his brother Will, he attended the prestigious Phillips Exeter Academy (where writers John Irving and Gore Vidal, among others, came from), where his favorite subjects were literature and photography. He studied the same at another equally reputable institution, Sarah Lawrence College, where (under the influence of early The Cure and Radiohead) he first began recording on 4-channel equipment.
With Regine Chassagne (b. August 18, 1977 in Quebec to a family of Haitian descent) he met at the opening of an art exhibition at Concordia University in 2002, where, as a student, she was performing jazz standards on stage. Quickly becoming inseparable, Win and Regina moved to Montreal’s Mile End neighborhood, setting up an impromptu recording studio on the top floor of the house. In 2003, Butler and Chassein were married: the ceremony took place in August on a country farm.
In the summer of 2003, Arcade Fire was formed: in addition to the founding duo, the lineup included Tim Kingsbury, Richard Reed Perry, and Brandon Reed (for a while Josh Dew and Kim Kyle played there: the latter now performs with Wild Light). Soon the lineup was reformed to include Will Butler, Sera Neufeld, and Jeremy Gara. With their own money, the band recorded the album Funeral, drawing the attention of Mac McCaughan (frontman of the indie punk band Superchunk) of Merge Records. The band insisted on meeting in person and traveled from Montreal to Northern California to play for Mac at The Cave club, where about fifty people gathered. In McCaughan’s words, they “just destroyed everything around them.”