Policy (Will Butler album)
Policy is the debut solo album by Will Butler, best known for his work in Canadian indie rock band Arcade Fire. The album was released on March 10, 2015 by Merge Records.
Concept
Butler set out to make an album akin to what he calls "American Music". Butler has stated that "Policy is American music—in the tradition of the Violent Femmes, The Breeders, The Modern Lovers, Bob Dylan, Smokey Robinson, The Magnetic Fields, Ghostface Killah, and John Lennon (I know, but it counts)." He has called this type of music "Music where the holy fool runs afoul of the casual world".
Recording and release
Policy was recorded in a week in Jimi Hendrix's old living room, which is now Studio C at Electric Lady Studios. Butler recorded it during a short break on Arcade Fire's Reflektor tour. All songs were recorded there, with the exception of "Something's Coming", which was recorded in Aaron Dessner's home recording studio, the recording place of The National. Additional work for the song was done in the basement of drummer Jeremy Gara. Most of the instrumentation had been done by Butler, with the exception of drums that were done by Gara, also of Arcade Fire. He also "Had a couple of friends come in to do clarinet, saxophone and backing vocals".