On Friday, Michael Stipe appeared on Jane Pratt’s SIRIUS show Jane Radio and discussed R.E.M.’s well-hidden decade-year struggle to communicate with each other. (Don’t fear, R.E.M. die-hards: Stipe also chatted about how the band’s March album is bringing them closer than ever). “It’s been a really tough ten years for us,” Stipe revealed. “We were trying to keep a real brave face publicly, and kind of hold through it. But I have to say I think we finally found a place of communication. We’re talking to each other, we’ve written a bunch of great songs … I’ve got another four songs to present to the guys next week when we go back in the studio and one of those is really going to surprise them. I can’t wait to see them.”
Stipe added that he’s using a high-tech songwriting trick he picked up from Bono. “I use the memo on my cell phone to [record lyrics and melodies]. … I love technology.” Not that the twenty-first century is all it was cracked up to be. “I thought we would all have jet packs, and clean energy, and the world would be a great place, and there would be no wars. That’s not really quite how it turned out,” he lamented. The singer also proclaimed himself an eternal optimist, praised Sean Penn’s film Into the Wild (for which Eddie Vedder provides the soundtrack), and said he was heading off to catch Interpol’s Madison Square Garden debut Friday night: “I love those guys so much.”
Share
Email
Stumble
AIM
Del.icio.us
DiggThis
Fark It!
- Portions of Album Content Provided by All Music Guide © 2008 All Media Guide, LLC.
Get RS Mobile
RSS
