Photo by JF Lalonde

Arcade Fire's Win Butler has revealed even more details about the band's new album Reflektor (out October 29 on Merge). Yesterday, in a preview for his interview with BBC Radio 1's Zane Lowe, Butler confirmed the double album has two distinct sides and several seven-minute-plus songs. He said the sound of the James Murphy-produced album will surprise people. And he described the record's mysterious buildup as a "weird art project."

Now the full interview has aired, which Butler gave over the phone from Montreal during rehearsals. Butler explained that their single "Reflektor" was inspired by the band's trip to Haiti two years ago, after The Suburbs came out. The band was preparing its setlist for a performance in rural Haiti, and found themselves considering what kind of music they should play for an audience "who had never heard the Beatles before," "stripped of context" with "no history of rock and roll to rely on." They realized people could connect to their music on a rhythmic level. According to Butler, they experienced something similar on a trip to Jamaica, where they recorded with producer Markus Dravs.

Butler said the band has been playing with Haitian congo players at home in Montreal, which has contributed to the underlying "voodoo rhythms" of their new music. Two Haitian percussionists will be touring with the band. "It does something really magical to the rhythm section," Butler said, "[these] deep African voodoo rhythms are the language in Haiti, [they're] basically how people communicate."

Butler ultimately described the sound as a "mash up of Studio 54 and Haitian voodoo." He commented on the increasing prevalence of genre-less taste today. "To me the joy of making music in 2013 is you're allowed to like Sex Pistols and ABBA and that's fine," he said. "It's such an explosion, anything that's good rises to the top, and we want music that respects that."

Watch the Anton Corbijn-directed video for the title track: