{"id":3459,"date":"2011-08-18T23:27:02","date_gmt":"2011-08-19T06:27:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3459"},"modified":"2011-08-18T23:27:02","modified_gmt":"2011-08-19T06:27:02","slug":"r-e-m-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/r-e-m-2\/","title":{"rendered":"R.E.M."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

R.E.M.<\/h1>\n

After three decades, still showing the kids how it\u2019s done<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s sing and rhyme, let\u2019s give it one more time,\u201d sings R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe in \u201cAll the Best,\u201d a song from the group\u2019s 15th and newest album, Collapse Into Now<\/em>. \u201cLet\u2019s show the kids how to do it.\u201d Especially coming from a lyricist known for his obtuse wordplay, it\u2019s a loud-and-clear statement for a band in the midst of an artistic renaissance. Following the departure of drummer Bill Berry in 1997 the group struggled to adapt to life as a three-piece, reaching a creative low point with 2004\u2019s much-panned Around the Sun<\/em>. But the veteran outfit came roaring back to life with 2008\u2019s blistering Accelerate<\/em>, and Collapse Into Now<\/em> even more compellingly recaptures R.E.M.\u2019s classic sound. \u201cThe last two records have been a redefinition of ourselves,\u201d acknowledges\u00a0bass player Mike Mills.<\/p>\n

Mills, Stipe and guitarist Peter Buck, who formed R.E.M. in Athens, Ga., in 1980, recorded Collapse<\/em> with Accelerate<\/em> producer Garret \u201cJacknife\u201d Lee in several very different environs: New Orleans\u2019 Music Shed, Nashville\u2019s Blackbird Studios and Berlin\u2019s legendary Hansa Tonstudio. \u201cThe sound really doesn\u2019t change that much when you shift from studio to studio,\u201d Mills says, \u201cbecause we\u2019re basically using the same equipment, same engineers and same musicians.\u201d Those musicians included multi-instrumentalist Scott McCaughey and drummer Bill Rieflin, as well as guests like Patti Smith (who contributes a spoken-word segment to \u201cBlue\u201d), her longtime guitarist Lenny Kaye and Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder. We spoke with Mills about writing, revelations and R.E.M.\u2019s latest rebirth.<\/p>\n

Where did the title come from?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s actually the last lyric that Michael sings in the last song, \u201cBlue.\u201d Patti Smith suggested it, and we gave it some thought and decided that was a pretty good idea.<\/p>\n

What does it mean to you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m a person who believes in living in the moment, and what the title is saying to me is that there\u2019s no more important time in your life than right now.<\/p>\n

How did you approach this album differently from Accelerate<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With Accelerate<\/em> we were going for short, fast, loud songs. With this record we had no rules about what kind of songs we wanted. So we just took the songs we thought were best from every one we wrote, and as is often the case with a good R.E.M. record, there\u2019s a nice diversity of songwriting styles.<\/p>\n

Why record in different cities?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s just more fun for us. It\u2019s more inspiring to be in a city we like. In the case of New Orleans, it\u2019s a city we\u2019ve loved for many years for many reasons. Berlin is a city we\u2019ve always wanted to spend time in but never had the chance. So it\u2019s purely the fact that we draw inspiration from the towns that we\u2019re in, and hopefully that carries\u00a0over into the record.<\/p>\n

Did you do a lot of takes?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most every song is a first or second take. That\u2019s the way we like to work it. Jacknife and his engineering team [Tom McFall and Sam Bell] have it set up so that even when you\u2019re in there just messing around you get that on tape, and that\u2019s often what you keep.<\/p>\n

How did you pick your guests?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We knew we wanted Patti on the record in one capacity or another. Lenny plays in such a different style than Peter that we knew it would add a nice dimension to the record. Pearl Jam happened to be playing in Berlin when we were there, so we invited the guys over to hear the record. While they were there we said, \u201cHey, Eddie, you want to wail on this song?\u201d He said sure, went in and did his thing\u2014and it\u00a0turned out beautifully.<\/p>\n

Is this a political record?<\/strong><\/p>\n

We never wanted to be known as a political band, but occasionally politics are in your life and they\u2019ll find their way into your songs. But it\u2019s something we don\u2019t seek out. With this record, Bush is out of office, we\u2019re happier with our president and politics matter a bit less in terms of songwriting.<\/p>\n

R.E.M. has always shared songwriting credits equally. Why?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Peter made the suggestion at the very beginning of R.E.M. that we should credit all the songs to everybody, because what breaks bands up as much as anything else is a principal songwriter getting all the money. We also knew that it would be all of us contributing. By the time\u00a0Bill Berry got through with a song, or by the time I added my parts, it was definitely cooperative songwriting, even if one guy\u00a0had the basic idea.<\/p>\n

Do fans read things into R.E.M.\u2019s songs that you didn\u2019t intend?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I would hope that fans would read things into the songs that we don\u2019t think about. I\u2019ve had people suggest things that are often more interesting than what we think the songs are about. The great thing about Michael\u2019s lyrics is that they\u2019re often very nonlinear and leave room for the listeners to interject themselves, which enables you to personalize the song.<\/p>\n

Did you ever consider splitting?<\/strong><\/p>\n

With any relationship or business venture or combination thereof you\u2019re going to have your nadirs. We have had moments when we sat down and talked to each other and said, \u201cDo we want to continue or do we not?\u201d That\u2019s healthy for any relationship. It\u2019s good to clarify where you stand and what your motivations are. We\u2019ve had two or three of those over 30 years.<\/p>\n

Name R.E.M.\u2019s most underrated album.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Reveal<\/em> [2001] is clearly our most underrated record. It\u2019s a beautiful record, and if that had been some band\u2019s first or second album I think it would have been hailed as a masterpiece. We set the bar so high that it\u2019s hard for a record to\u00a0be heard objectively.<\/p>\n

Which is your least favorite?<\/strong><\/p>\n

People think Around the Sun<\/em> is our weakest and I would agree, but not because of the songs. The songs are good. What happened was we tried to do too much. We stopped and did a greatest-hits record [2003\u2019s\u00a0In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003<\/em>], we did a tour and then tried to finish the record. That was a disservice to the songs, because it made it hard for us to focus.<\/p>\n

What do the older records sound like to you now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard for me to listen to our records for pleasure, because I end up analyzing them and dissecting them. I can\u2019t objectively sit and listen. But if I\u2019m talking to friends and they mention something and I want to hear what they\u2019re talking about, I will give a listen. I marvel at a lot of it. We\u2019ve put together an amazing body of work over 30 years. It\u2019s both enjoyable\u00a0and a bit embarrassing.<\/p>\n

\u2013Jeff Tamarkin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

R.E.M. After three decades, still showing the kids how it\u2019s done \u201cLet\u2019s sing and rhyme, let\u2019s give it one more time,\u201d sings R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe in \u201cAll the Best,\u201d a song from the group\u2019s 15th and newest album, Collapse Into Now. \u201cLet\u2019s show the kids how to do it.\u201d Especially coming from a lyricist […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1807,970,2120],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3459"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3461,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3459\/revisions\/3461"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}