Arcade Fire have written ABBA-sounding songs – but they are yet to release them.
The American rockers aren’t afraid to admit they are fans of the Swedish pop superstars – who won ‘Eurovision’ in 1974 – and have revealed they recorded some Europop disco anthems while making their 2004 LP ‘Funeral’.
The ‘Ready to Start’ group’s extremely talented multi-instrumentalist, Richard Reed Parry, says he wishes he wrote ABBA’s biggest hit ‘Dancing Queen’.
Speaking about recording ‘Funeral’, Richard recalled: "The thing is, we’ve always tried to write songs that sound like ABBA but none ever made it out alive and onto our records.
"When we were working on ‘Funeral’, we kicked around song ideas that sounded a lot like ABBA.
"It’s not like we chose a new influence. We’ve always loved ABBA and ‘Dancing Queen’ is the greatest jam of all time. We’ve always wanted to write a song like that."
The band are also massively influenced by late music legends Davie Bowie and Prince, and wrote the track ‘Electric Blue’ from the latest record ‘Everything Now’ about their idols’ deaths.
‘Starman’ hitmaker Bowie was also a fan of Arcade Fire and supplied backing vocals for their 2013 single ‘Reflektor’.
Bowie and Prince also dabbled in the disco sound and the track is reminiscent of that, though Will Butler of the group says they wouldn’t have felt confident enough to perform ‘Electric Blue’ a decade ago.
He told The Sun newspaper: "That song [‘Electric Blue’] had a lot to do with David Bowie and Prince dying, looking at their legacies and the music they loved and created. The losses of both were important events in our lives.
"We’ve always loved that music but have never been technically competent to play it.
"We couldn’t play a song like ‘Electric Blue’ 10 years ago but we’ve become better musicians."
Arcade Fire have ABBA-sounding songs stored away
