Arcade Fire guitarists Richard Parry, left, Will Butler, second left, and lead singer Win Butler, third left, are pictured performing in Montreal. The band's third album celebrates the suburban experience. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

Members of Montreal indie band Arcade Fire say their third full-length album, The Suburbs, is the most focused one they've done so far.

"The songs kind of had time to know each other in a way that wasn't the case with the last record [Neon Bible ]," explained band member Richard Reed Perry in a special interview in Montreal with Jian Ghomeshi on CBC Radio's Q.

Lead singer Win Butler, a former Texas resident, and his wife and bandmate, Régine Chassagne, say their third effort — which drops across North America on Tuesday — wasn't about mocking the suburbs, but celebrating the experience.

"There are people who dream in the suburbs, people who love in the suburbs," noted Chassagne. "They have their first love there. The emotion doesn't have to do with the beauty of the space."

Butler, who grew up in the suburbs of Houston, says the album is an attempt to recapture his formative years in the Texas city.

"Lyrically, it was trying to capture that feeling."

'We're trying to control our destiny'

Butler says the band has struggled to keep it together since its successful sophomore album Neon Bible, which was awarded the 2008 Juno for alternative album of the year. Like the band's debut album, Funeral, it was also nominated for the best alternative music Grammy Award.

The albums shot them to fame and the seven-member multi-instrumental ensemble fought outside pressures to sell their songs to the advertising world.

"This album is exactly done the way we wanted it," insists Butler. "We made it in our studio and if we had no money, we'd still be trying to make this music. We're trying to control our destiny."

Chassagne says the band wanted to create songs that "connect with something present [and] genuine."

As for the future of the band, she says she has about 50 more songs she would like to record.

In the meantime, the band is preparing for its big online live-streaming concert in New York City's Madison Square Garden this Thursday to be directed by Terry Gilliam, who made Brazil, 12 Monkeys and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.

The concert, with special guests including David Byrne, begins at 10 p.m. and will be streamed over YouTube's music service, Vevo.