I saw Arcade Fire play live a few weeks ago. It was definitely one of the best shows of the year. The crowd was great, the band was electric, and the songs were, as always, amazing.

Pitchfork has a new interview up with Win and Will Butler where they talk about the the realities of touring, having a number one album, and how Taylor Swift should do a Magnetic Fields cover. You can read the whole thing over at Pitchfork here. Check out some excerpts below.

Win on grabbing the coveted number one Billboard album:

” The predictors weren’t counting indie stores. And the indie stores totally came through and pushed us just over the edge. . . We have the #1 record, but we’re still not that famous in the scheme of things. . . America’s a big country. There’re still way more people who’ve never heard of us.”

Will on touring as an indie band:

“We’ve always had to pay our own way. We split expenses with Merge, which is smart and fiscally conservative, but it’s harder. Every small business runs on debt, you know? Bands go into debt, and then they make it back over months of touring.”

Win on songwriting:

“I remember the songwriting that really connected with me, like Magnetic Fields and Neutral Milk Hotel and early Conor Oberst. So when we were thinking about labels, Merge was the one I was most interested in because their music was done cheaply, but it was really ambitious. Like, [Magnetic Fields’] 69 Love Songs is an ambitious album even though the production isn’t grandiose. To me, it was more about the intent rather than the sound, because I think a lot of Magnetic Fields or Neutral Milk Hotel or even some Superchunk songs would sound great sung by Taylor Swift with slick Nashville production. A song’s a song.”

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