Arcade Fire’s Will Butler is spending this week writing one song a day, all of them inspired by articles in the British newspaper The Guardian. He’s already tackled the Greek debt crisis on “Clean Monday” and a couple of stories from the former USSR on “Waving Flag.” The latest song in the exercise, which is arriving just a tad late because of last night’s Brit Awards, is called “You Must Be Kidding Me,” and it has just about the most obvious rock-song subject matter possible: A water shortage in São Paulo, Brazil! Butler has been to São Paulo a couple of times, and he drew on his own experiences to write the song. It’s a Springsteen-influenced romp with a genuinely catchy chorus and a ramshackle drum-machine beat. Below, listen to it and read Butler’s story about the connections he made to write the song.

Butler writes:

On this latest Arcade Fire tour I got to spend a couple of days in São Paulo. It was my first quality time spent in the city, and I loved it. Musician friends of friends showed us around. There’s a bonkers energy and, like most cities I love, a mind-bending blend of cultures. It was exhausting, mostly in a good way. I can’t wait to go back.

The first time I went to São Paulo I was jet-lagged and relatively inexperienced with traveling. It was on the Funeral tour. I think we spent a day and a half in town, most of it inside the hotel which was behind a high fence with razor wire and armed guards outside. It was a weird, intense scene, that hotel.

I bet that hotel will figure out a way to get water no matter how low the supply gets.

(via The Guardian)

Butler’s solo album Policy is out 3/10 on Merge.