

With the suburbs – I grew up in the suburbs – getting music around that is a little bit difficult, especially pre-internet era. I knew from a pretty early age that I wanted to get out of there as soon as it was conceivably possible. Hakeem Olajuwon, kind of my all time hero. You’re kind of by yourself, there were a lot of bike trails, and yeah… Houston Rockets won the championship when I was a kid, I was really into basketball. He bought up the whole area and he got his money from, he invented fracking. Yeah, the dude that founded my town, I learned this recently, he was a real estate guy. I actually made a record about it called The Suburbs. The Woodlands is like a weird suburban, I feel like it was one of the first planned communities in the ’70s.

I mean it’s, oil industry and then… it’s like many cities in one. Just like the heat and humidity hit me, and I kind of looked at my mom and I was like, “What the fuck? What is this? Why are we here? What is this?” It’s one of my really early memories, getting off the plane in Houston from northern California and the door of the plane opened and just the hot air. Yeah, all of Houston, it’s so spread out, I think it’s about the same population of Chicago but it’s maybe twice the area. What was your childhood like in Houston? Because it actually isn’t specifically Houston, it’s a suburb quite outside of Houston, right, the Woodlands? So I’ve been here, for maybe 15, 15 years now? Yeah, I guess I kind of self-identify as an American Montréaler. Well, I was born in northern California, I grew up in Houston, I moved to Montréal when I was 19 or 20. I think a lot of people kind of identify you with Montréal, but I guess, do you identify, now, with being a Montréaler? You’ve been here for how many years?

I have a little ticket, if anyone has any trouble, you just give them a little pass and you’re good. It’s not my city, but you guys are more than welcome to be here. You guys are kind of taking over my city for a little bit. Please welcome one of the brains behind one of the biggest bands in the world, Arcade Fire: Win Butler.
