Each day this week, Arcade Fire’s own Will Butler will write, record, and release a new song inspired by news headlines appearing in UK newspaper The Guardian. Thus far, we’ve him heard sing about the Greek financial crisis (“Clean Monday”), and reflect on anti-apartheid figure Moses Kotane and Ukrainian separatists (“Waving Flags”). Today’s installment, “You Must Be Kidding”, sees Butler tackling the subject of São Paulo, Brazil’s current water crisis.

With people storing water any way they can and the government proposing a two-days-on/four-days-off stopgap, the megacity is in dire straits. Butler recalled his first time in the city during Arcade Fire’s Funeral tour. “I think we spent a day and a half in town, most of it inside the hotel which was behind a high fence with razor wire and armed guards outside,” he said. “It was a weird, intense scene, that hotel.” Then he added, “I bet that hotel will figure out a way to get water no matter how low the supply gets.”



Read the story “You Must Be Kidding” is based on here, and listen to Butler’s song below.

Butler’s song-a-day project continues with another track on Thursday. Meanwhile, his highly-anticipated solo debut, Policy, arrives on March 10th via Merge. Find his recently announced tour dates here.