Arcade Fire are officially at work on the follow-up to their Grammy-winning third album, “The Suburbs.” In an interview with Ottawa radio station CKCU, drummer Jeremy Gara confirmed that the Canadian alt-rock stars are in the studio working on their fourth album, hinting that the album could be released by the end of 2013 but saying that the band has “no deadlines” in mind.
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“We are just working like we always have,” says Gara. “We took a couple months off and we’ve been writing songs. Now we’re in the studio pretty much full-time just doing what we do. And we kind of shut the door. We haven’t really gone out and done anything in over a year now. We haven’t done photos or interviews or anything. We’re just working on music and growing beards and living at home a lot and going out to dinner together.”
And when can that new music be unveiled, along with, of course, the beards? “I can’t make a promise, but definitely next year,” says Gara. “The goal is to work through Christmas and get something finished around springtime, and then who knows how long it takes to get something out. But I’d say later next year, if I can ballpark.”
If that timing holds true, Arcade Fire’s fourth LP would arrive a little over three years after “The Suburbs,” which was released in August 2010 and served as a mainstream breakout for the band. “The Suburbs” debuted atop the Billboard 200 chart, led to headlining sets at Coachella and Bonnaroo, gave way to a “Saturday Night Live” performance, and most shockingly, trumped albums by Eminem, Lady Gaga and Katy Perry to win Album of the Year at the 2011 Grammy Awards.
The band stayed relatively quiet in 2012, releasing the sound “Safe and Sound” on the “Hunger Games” soundtrack and popping up again on “SNL” when Mick Jagger hosted the season finale last May. And while a new album with a tentative release date is in the works, Gara says that the band is in no particular hurry.
“We’re not that far into a record, but we’ve been working for a few months now,” he says. “We are under no pressure from record labels or management or whatever to do anything on any sort of schedule. We’re just working. We have no deadlines. It’s kind of coming along.”