Back in March Arcade Fire's Will Butler announced that he had left the band. "I left at the end of last year, after the new record was complete," Will Butler wrote on Twitter. "There was no acute reason beyond that I’ve changed—and the band has changed—over the last almost 20 years. Time for new things."

He also confirmed that he was working on a new solo record, and has a "few other projects percolating."

In a new interview with Zane Lowe for Apple Music shared yesterday (3 May), Arcade Fire's Win Butler discussed his brother's departure for the first time.

Around the 31:25 mark, Win Butler told Lowe, "I mean, I love Will. I mean, he’s my brother. He’s my only brother and he’s always had interests that transcend music. I think that he sort of followed his big brother into this band. It was his first job. I can’t really speak for him but this pandemic was… He’s got three young children, and Regine and I are able to bring our child on the road. But I think that if I wasn’t, there’s things way more important than music, so I mean… my brother has his own path."

"He took a year out in the middle of… To go back to school and he’s sort of done his own thing the whole time," Win Butler continued. "I think that there’s things other than music that he has interest in. But I think fundamentally you only have one chance to raise your family and to kind of have a life with your family. I think it’s a very extremely understandable… It’s easy just to get… I’m proud of him for doing his own thing."

Butler added, "The whole band is my family and there’s family you’re born with, and family that you choose. I think sometimes the family you choose can be just as big a thing, because it’s love and life, all that shit, it’s not a straight line. I’m not really scared of any of it. I feel really grateful to be able to play still and to be able to do shows. It was really dark not having access to that for me. This band is my life so there’s no out for me fortunately."