Arcade Fire surprised by Grammy win
Arcade Fireís Will Butler says the Montreal indie rockers celebrated their surprise best-album Grammy Award on a Hollywood hotel rooftop on Sunday night.
The bandís third CD, The Suburbs, beat out such higher-profile and better-selling releases as Eminemís Recovery, Lady Antebellumís Need You Now, Lady Gagaís Fame Monster and Katy Perryís Teenage Dream.
ìWe partied just at our hotel ó it was very convenient. Then we could just go downstairs and fall into bed,î the 28-year-old multi-instrumentalist said Monday night in a telephone interview with QMI Agency from LAX, where the group was about to jet to London to attend Tuesday nightís BRIT Awards.
Arcade Fire is up for two trophies at the Brits and is slated to perform Ready To Start. (MuchMusic will air the Brits a day later, on Wednesday at 8 p.m EST.)
What was like on the hotel roof?
ìIt was pretty small, but they had a nice rooftop pool. Thatís all you need, you just need a patio. It was mostly band and family and friends and a few folks from L.A. we knew. It was a pretty good party. Slightly bigger than if we had lost.î
Butler said the septet opted out of attending any after-Grammy label parties because so many people attend them.
ìWe roll a little deep to go to most parties. ëOh, can we bring 30 people, including my parents?î he said, joking.
Arcade Fire, which is fronted by Butlerís older brother Win and Winís wife RÈgine Chassagne, performed Month Of May near the end of the Grammys, and they were still under the stage when their best-album win was announced by Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.
ìAnd then we won ó ha, ha, ha,î Butler said. ìYeah, it was surprising.î
Win, who is a Texas native along with brother Will, briefly dropped to his knees and crawled on the stage before accepting the trophy. Arcade Fire then performed a second song, Ready to Start, after they picked up the trophy, to close out the broadcast.
ìIt was being gobsmacked,î said Butler of his brother dropping to his knees. ìWe thought we were longshots. But I thought our chances were increasing throughout the night as I saw the winners. I was like, ëOh, we could win.í I think we were really happy to play a song after we won, ícause it felt really appropriate to play some music in celebration. We were very happy. After Ready to Start was the celebration, that was when we really ran through the audience hugging people.î
One of the fallouts from Arcade Fireís surprise win has been such celebrities as Rosie Oí Donnell and Dog The Bounty Hunter tweeting about not knowing who they are.
ìIt goes to our shock at winning, as well,î said Butler with a laugh. ìI think itís funny to read the tweets and all that. We were shocked just to be nominated. We sold less than a third probably of any other nominee and then for us to win, is pretty crazy. We have aspirations to be like Radiohead and U2, in that their music is really far-reaching. But we donít have a lot of success aspirations. We do want the music to be heard and we want to make good music. Probably the next album is the most important aspiration we have at the moment.î
Butler even said he doesnít expect them to be hometown heroes when they return to Montreal after attending The Brits and then the Berlin Film Festival the next night where they have a Spike Jonze directed short in the lineup.
ìOne nice thing about Montreal is it doesnít give a damn,î he said. ìIf thereís one place we could go home to, if we lived in L.A., if we lived in New York, someone in a bar might be like, ëHey, didnít you win a Grammy? But in Montreal, itíll just be like, ë$1.50 (for the beer),í ícause weíre locals, so weíre friends with a lot of people and Iím sure weíll get a coffee out of it. But in general, itís pretty low-key. Weíll see, we havenít gone home yet. Maybe Iím totally wrong.î
Arcade Fire will have a break once they return from Europe, leading up to the March 27 Juno Awards in Toronto ó where they are up for five trophies. Then they begin a North American tour.
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