Arcade Fire’s new documentary, The Reflektor Tapes, doesn’t overshare the world tour for their 2013 double album, the Haitian rhythms-meets-disco inspired release Reflektor.

That’s because acclaimed hip-hop video director Kahlil Joseph (FKA twigs, Flying Lotus, Kendrick Lamar) decided to go the more experimental, non-linear route with his first feature about the Montreal indie-rock group's Reflektor trek.

“We assumed it would be more of a concert film,” admitted band member Will Butler, seated beside bandmate Richard Reed Parry.

“But he was like, ‘Give me everything!’ And then he made the film he wanted to make and we were like, ‘Okay.’ Kahlil had heard our songs before but he didn’t know our band. He didn’t really know our albums. And so this was his first impression as an artist of the art we were making... And that’s partly why the making of the album is in there (too) because it was really fascinating to him. ‘Oh, what’s this album? Who are you people? What’s going on?’”

Added Parry: “I see it like this montage that is partially documentary and partially live film and partially just kind of impressionist, interpretive fly on the wall remix really... That’s what’s kind of a first for us. This is really someone else’s dragonfly lens on a big, sprawling process of the band and time period. This reflects little to none of my personal experience on the tour.”

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We caught up with Butler and Parry in Toronto recently, where the duo attended the TIFF premiere of the film along with the rest of the band before its release in theatres this Wednesday and an encore showing on Monday, Sept. 28.

This would appear to be the end of Reflektor’s cycle. So does that mean you’re working on new music?

Richard: We’re playing for the first time in a while. We’ve all been taking time away. We are getting together and playing music as we do.

Will: We’re always demo-ing. And demos always end up on the album. But we don’t think of it as making an album currently. Based on how our albums come out I’m going to guess that it comes out in February 2017. But it’ll probably be like a surprise midnight thing. But that’s literally my prediction. That’s how many beans I think are in the jelly jar. I’ll bet the album will come out in February 2017.

So why document this particular tour?

Will: We knew it would be slightly bigger as a tour and probably worth documenting. We never fully and properly documented any process. I don’t think this is fully and properly documented either but it is more so.

Richard : The scale of the production was bigger and it had other people doing things, other than the band.

How did you choose your director?

Will: Jeremy (Gara), our drummer, sent around a clip of the stuff he did with Flying Lotus like, ‘Just flagging this. I know we’re not touring yet but let’s see if this guy will do things ‘cause he’s amazing.’

How soon did Kahlil get involved?

Will: Before we did any shows I think. Cause I think Kahlil came to the very first shows at the Salsathèque (in Montreal), which were kind of pre-warmup shows.

So where did the footage from recording sessions in Jamaica and Montreal come from?

Will: We shot some ourselves and some our engineer shot. At a certain point we had a video guy, sort of our house film man, came in towards the end of the process. But there was just a lot of (shooting) ourselves and Korey, our engineer (shooting us).

Did the cameras ever get annoying?

Richard: At first it was only Korey like during the intimate part of it. But once you’re on tour and playing shows, it’s a zoo anyway.

Will: Though having Kahlil with a giant steadicam in a tiny venue for 200 people made a difference.

Twitter:@JaneCStevenson

jane.stevenson@sunmedia.ca