Will Butler on Will Butler's Foreign Policy

Photo courtesy of Will Butler

When you’re a member of the band that's the biggest thing to happen in indie rock over the past decade, some people might think it would be hard to venture out on your own and release a solo album. But that doesn’t usually happen to members of Arcade Fire. Last year, Richard Reed Parry made a pretty smooth transition to neo-classical music, composing an album that featured the use of stethoscopes, and his work was glowingly received. Now his bandmate Will Butler is ready to have his time in the spotlight. Over a Skype conversation, Butler doesn’t appear to be stressed out whatsoever by the idea of leaving the comforts of Arcade Fire and learning to fly on his own. But the 32-year-old multi-instrumentalist’s music is a whole other beast, and, like Parry's effort did, it should find fans outside of the massive Arcade Fire fan base.

With his debut album, Policy, Butler has made what he describes as “American music—in the tradition of the Violent Femmes, the Breeders, the Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, the Magnetic Fields, Ghostface Killah. And John Lennon (I know, but it counts).” And that Lennon mention is important, because much like how he argues Lennon could be considered American, Butler could be—and often is—considered Canadian. Seeing as he has spent the last decade living in Montreal with Arcade Fire, I was curious to find out what he feels is the difference between American and Canadian music, why the music on his album all sounds so different, how he feels about sleeping on floors again, and what he makes of his big brother’s DJing skills.

Noisey: How has the dropping Canadian dollar affected you?
Will Butler: To be honest, I hadn’t been paying attention to it. And now I have to start writing checks in U.S. cash again. In the past it was amazing because when I first came to Montreal it was like 20 percent off everything. But now I have to make sure I get 20 percent off and not 20 percent on everything.

In the press release it says that Policy is an “American album.” What exactly does that mean?
It’s more just establishing that I am American and not Canadian. My heritage is American, and my heritage is American history. People will ask me, “What kind of music do you play?” And I say, “I play rock’n’roll music.” “What genre?” “Rock’n’roll!” I always really hated the term indie rock, or any smaller subgenre of rock’n’roll always bothered me.

Aside from where an artist is born, what is the difference between American and Canadian music?
A lot of the music being made in the world today is American music. Or at least has its roots in American music. And then it goes off from there. There is music with a Canadian identity. And music with a Quebec identity. And music with a Montreal identity. It definitely blurs a bit.

I was pretty surprised at the diversity of Policy. Were you trying to defy expectations of the listener?
Yes, it’s always my artistic goal, essentially. I studied poetry and creative writing in college. I think a really successful poem, every single line of it, the emotion is surprising. It’s making a connection that you didn’t see coming. It’s just mounting surprises. I kind of do that, too, but it’s a rawer form than Keats or Yeats. I do like the element of surprise, but I play it a little for jokes on this album. I wanted it to be surprising.

To me Policy sounds like Will Butler making a mixtape of music made by Will Butler. Am I close?
It kind of is. I think that for people interested in music, the main occupation for the last 20 years, has been making mixtapes, in various forms. And at a certain point I tried to pull it back. And I played it for some people and they’d say, “I love it. But it may be too diverse for some people. And it’s your first thing, so you might want to let them get a handle on it.” And I’d say, “I should do that!” Then I’d try and make it one style, and my brain would no longer function that way.

The first two songs you released were very different from one another. Was that intentional?
I was definitely playing that the last thing my name was attached to was a really delicate piano score for a really beautiful film.

Any concern over how Arcade Fire fans will feel about the album?
Yes, but I’m pretty good at not having any expectations. I was more interested in seeing the demographics after the fact, not expecting a demographic and then seeing what the response would be. Like, I wonder what percentage of the people who like this album like Arcade Fire albums, versus how of them like it actually hate Arcade Fire. I am interested to see how that plays out.

There are a lot of people who just like whatever comes out on Merge.
What suckers they are!

Was it at all daunting for you to go solo?
Part of why I did it when I did is that I’m actually quite confident that Arcade Fire will be a happy, healthy unit for years to come. But I might as well do it while everything is on great terms. So that it’s not, “Oh shit! This is a vast wasteland in front of me. I’ve lost my artistic buddies, and now I am gonna go out on my own and figure it out.” I just thought maybe I should do it on my own without cutting all ties to the past. On an emotional level!

When did you begin working on Policy?
I’m trying to remember when I booked the sessions, but I recorded it in May of 2014, and may have booked the sessions in January. Three or four of the songs were 80 percent done, as things that had been floating around in my brain already. When I decided to record an album, I finished them and tried to make something diverse but coherent that would fit around it.

Did you write much on tour?
Not a ton on tour. Though there is kind of a finite amount of time to work on it. I would try and work on it at home. Arcade Fire tours month on, month off, so I would use my months off to be productive.

Does the fact that other Arcade Fire members do solo work help you at all?
Well, yeah, every time we’ve toured, even the people who are touring members, like on Neon Bible we had Kelly Pratt and Colin Stetson, who are both amazing people who can do all sorts of things. Kelly was in Beirut at the time and now music directs for David Byrne as well as all these other things. And Colin, obviously, has his own amazing career. There have always been a ton of people with other projects. And this last time out Richard [Reed Parry] was working on his classical album, and Sarah [Neufeld] has her solo work. There is definitely a sense of people engaged in the arts. And while we’re on tour it’s just weird little art projects anyway. It just felt like one more. It’s like decorating an arena is not that different from writing a song. Decorating an arena doesn’t feel like writing an Arcade Fire song.

What made you decide to bring in Jeremy Gara to drum on the album?
I mean, I’ve been playing with him for ten years, so I knew we could bang it out, particularly in a situation where there’s limited time. And we’ve been playing a lot of covers on tour, we have a cover band, and we’re a pretty good rhythm section, so I just said, “Let’s bang it out.” Because we’ve just been playing together for so long. Whenever I get any distance from what he is as a drummer I just think, “Holy shit, you are as good as any drummer from any band, ever.” So I was really excited to play with him.

The video for “Anna” was very minimal. Did you shoot this on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere or what?
It’s out in the Arizona desert, at a place called Cochise Stronghold. I was on vacation, and I had a camera, and the house had floodlights. So I thought I might as well shoot something. It was literally just me, a tripod, and a Canon 6D I bought off Craigslist.

Since Arcade Fire plays arenas now, your solo shows will feel a lot more intimate by comparison. Does that excite you?
Yeah, it’s great. I’ve already played a few. I just love playing music nobody knows or has heard. I just listened to Mark Maron’s interview with Louis C.K. from a few years ago, where he talks about how he works on a stand-up routine, does it for a year then just totally scraps it and does a whole different hour. And it’s so exciting to be in a room where you see people’s faces and see how they react to something new musically. The music I’m playing isn’t by definition super complex. It isn’t primarily a gut-level music, it’s primarily folk music, so you can play it in a room and see people understanding it. I think it’s just very lively. I imagine going out on the road will also be pretty different from Arcade Fire.

Do you think it will be a tough adjustment?
I don’t think it will be, but it will be. Like, all right, sleeping on floors is not that comfortable. I didn’t do enough of that with the early Arcade Fire, but I still find it romantic. Whereas Tim [Kingsbury] might be like, “I’ve done enough van touring in my life.”

Obviously with an Oscar nomination and all the score you and Owen Pallett wrote for Her was a huge success. Do you see the two of you working in that capacity again at some point?
The soundtrack was the whole band and Owen. We just got the nomination. The actual film credit is Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett. Though Owen and I did kinda take her home, as they say. I love working with Owen, and we’ll definitely do Arcade Fire stuff with him forever, but doing film stuff is really hard having so many creative minds involved. Because it’s already hard having the director say, “This is what the music should sound like.” So when you add in other personalities it gets even harder. I think it resulted in something better, but it’s very draining. And also we were doing it as we were finishing Reflektor, so it’d have to be its own project.

Your brother Win also has his own side project DJing as DJ Windows 98. What do you think of his skills?
It’s too late for me! No, I enjoy it. They’re a little drunk by that point in the evening, and there’s a madness vibe that is pretty special. But when James Murphy comes to town I say, “Let’s have tea in the afternoon because I don’t want to go out. I will not go out and listen to the music you play. Instead let’s just have tea and I’ll go to bed at 8:30.”

Cam Lindsay is a writer living in Toronto.