Butler was born in Truckee, California and raised in The Woodlands, Texas, with a Mormon upbringing. He lived in Buenos Aires before his brother Will was born. His mother, Liza Rey, who also performed on the family television show, plays jazz harp and sings.
His father, Edwin Farnham Butler II, worked as a geologist for oil conglomerate Halliburton in Houston, Texas.
Phillips Exeter Academy. McGill University; Sarah Lawrence College.
They currently live on Mount Desert Island, Maine. At the age of 15, Butler started attending the Phillips Exeter Academy preparatory school in New Hampshire, where he lived in Abbot Hall. There he played varsity basketball and club softball, and performed with several student bands.
He also worked with the administration to establish "Winter Thaw," in which students got a long weekend"s worth of rest in the middle of typically cold, grueling New England winters.
After graduation he studied photography and creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College, but left after a year. Butler graduated from McGill in 2004 with a bachelor"s degree in religious studies.
Butler participated in the 2005 United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund benefit project, "Do They Know lieutenant"s Hallowe"en?," along with Chassagne. The two also collaborated on the music for the Richard Kelly film The Box.
On April 2, 2011, liquid crystal display Soundsystem played its final concert.
Arcade Fire performed on "North American Scum." During James Murphy"s stumbling introduction to this song, Butler shouted out "shut up and play the hits!" Murphy immediately responded, "ladies and gentlemen, for our live record entitled "Shut Up and Play the Hits"" and Butler"s cry later became the title of the well-received documentary of the concert. In September 2011, Butler played in a charity basketball tournament in Toronto, Ontario, Canada known as "Rock The Court." Several other celebrities and athletes participated, such as Matt Bonner of the San Antonio Spurs. Régine Chassagne gave birth to the couple"s first child, a son, on April 21, 2013.
On February 12, 2015, Win Butler participated in the National Basketball Association All-Star Celebrity Game and scored 8 points and had 12 rebounds.
He returned to the event a year later in his home country. In March 2015, Butler, along with wife and Arcade Fire band mate Régine Chassagne, attended the launch of music streaming service Tidal, and revealed themselves, along with other notable artists, as shareholders in the company.
