REM performs at the Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony

It’s every Georgian music fan’s dream to see Athenian rock icons REM on stage performing their incredible songs again.

The band broke up in 2011 and the four original members have not performed together publicly since 2007.

The guys have been spotted hanging out over the past year at tribute events for the 40th anniversary of their 1982 EP. Chronicle City and first album, Murmur (1983).

But on Thursday night, drummer Bill Berry, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and singer Michael Stipe finally did it: inside New York’s Marriott Marquis, during their induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, REM delivered a soulful acoustic version of his 1991 Grammy Award-winning album “Losing My Religion,” leaving fans around the world breathless with anticipation for more yearning melodies and powerful guitar chords tied together by Stipe’s poetic lyrics on the human condition and political and social ideals.

Talk together about CBS MorningsREM has made it clear that the group has no plans to reform permanently and that each member is busy with their own path, including a new photo book and solo album on the horizon for Stipe and a tour in July with Mills and Buck in their supergroup. , the Baseball Project.

On stage after receiving the award at the songwriters’ ceremony from a delighted Jason Isbell, who had just performed REM’s prophetic 1987 tongue twister, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It know (and feel good),” Michael Stipe said: “Writing songs and having a catalog of work that we’re all proud of, that will be available around the world for the rest of time, is definitely the aspect the most important thing we did as a group. Secondly, we managed to do it all these decades and remain friends. And not just friends, but dear friends. Friends for life.”

GPB’s Kristi York Wooten sat down with bassist and REM co-founder Mike Mills ahead of the Songwriters Hall of Fame event to talk about what the band’s songs mean to its musical legacy.

Kristi York Wooten: It’s great talking with you. First of all, congratulations on this honor. REM is recognized, along with several other really cool artists, in the Songwriters Hall of Fame class of 2024. Glory.

Mike Mills: THANKS. It’s pretty special.

Kristi York Wooten: So with REM we have Hilary Lindsay, Timbaland, Dean Pitchford and Steely Dan (in the class). Can you tell me a little about why this recognition is important for REM?

Mike Mills: Well, from the beginning, Peter and I both agreed – and Bill and Michael agreed, of course, with this – that one of the things that really sets a great band apart is ‘a good band is songwriting. It’s also one of the hardest things to do. You know, many people have talent for singing and acting. Many people are born with it. Many people can develop this. Songwriting is definitely a lot of work. Some people are born with a gift, but it also takes a lot of honing of the craft. So for us to be recognized for something that we have always considered very important in what we do is a great vindication and recognition.

Kristi York Wooten: The Songwriters Hall of Fame has many ties to Georgia, not only with others who have been inducted in previous classes (including Little Richard, Dallas Austin, Jermaine Dupri, Alan Jackson), but the Hall of Fame has was actually created in the 1960s by Savannah, Georgia songwriter and lyricist Johnny Mercer. So that connection is fun. And of course he won Oscars for film songs, you know, he collaborated with Henry Mancini on “Moon River,” from the 1961 film. Breakfast at Tiffany’s) for example, and his song collections and writings, I guess you would call them, are housed at Georgia State University. I did not know. So there are some pretty interesting connections between Georgia and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Mike Mills: Yes, my father was a big fan of Johnny Mercer. So, I listened to a lot of Johnny’s stuff when I was a kid, because my dad loved him so much.

Kristi York Wooten: So, REM was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, but the Songwriters Hall of Fame is a little different. Like you said, it’s kind of about being recognized by your peers and honing your craft. But REM is one of the only, you know, “greatest rock bands in the world,” or among the bands in that category, you’re one of the few whose members all share publishing and recording credits. songwriting. Can you talk a little about how that shaped a certain solidity within the band, or how you share that writing? Do you have any idea about this?

Mike Mills: Oh, absolutely. This is essential, at least in our case. Peter, you know, from the beginning, was a bit of a rock and roll historian. He is a voracious reader and consumer of music. And he already knew that one of the things that breaks a group fastest is the unequal distribution of money. And since so much of a band’s money comes from its publications, he said early on, “I think we all have to share equally in songwriting.” I said, ‘Why? It’s not that I want more money. I just want people to know if I wrote the song. He responds: “Yeah, I understand. » But if we want this band to really succeed, we have to share the songwriting.

And it turned out to be the right thing to do for a number of reasons, not least because we all had a hand in writing the songs. Everyone wrote songs, wrote their parts, helped others with their parts. It was a really legitimate decision to make and one that I think contributed a lot to our longevity.

Kristi York Wooten: So the Songwriters Hall of Fame tends to list key songs that they find important to a band or artist’s catalog, which helps them make their decision about who to induct into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. So for REM, the songs they list are “Losing My Religion”, “Everybody Hurts”, “It’s the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)”, “Radio Free Europe”, and “The One I Love.” .” Is this the list of five songs you would have chosen if it were up to you, or maybe it was up to you? (Laughs)

Mike Mills: (Laughs) No, I was not consulted on that. (Laughs.) You know, it’s — certainly, when you have a song that touches as many people as “Losing My Religion” and “Everybody Hurts” and “End of the World,” I mean, it’s the mark — very often, not always, but very often — of a great song. “Everybody Hurts” has a kind of universality to it, which is that you can’t really strive for it, but it’s definitely like touching oil. You have to be lucky to get it. On “Losing My Religion,” you know, it was one of those things that “Who knew?” It’s a five minute song with no chorus. And the main instrument is a mandolin.

Why was it a success? No one really knows. Except it just worked as a song and as a recording. Give (producer) Scott Litt a lot of credit for that. Also. So, would I choose these five songs? I’m good with these five songs. There’s a few more that, you know, I could have chosen, but if you could only choose five, I’d be happy with that.

Kristi York Wooten: Of those that have been listed, can you tell us a little about the songwriting process? You mentioned “Losing My Religion,” but, you know, on the REM songwriting difficulty scale, which of those was maybe the easiest or the hardest to write?

Mike Mills: GOOD. Let’s see. Most of them, let’s see, we had “End of the World” and “One I Love”….

Kristi York Wooten: “Radio Free Europe”.

Mike Mills: “Radio Free Europe”, and what else?

Kristi York Wooten: “Everyone is suffering.”

Mike Mills: “Everyone is suffering.” Well, Bill wrote most of “Everybody Hurts” and we just filled in the rest. I wrote most of “Radio Free Europe” and Peter wrote the chorus and the bridge. And the other three were stuff that Peter, songs that Peter had brought, were mostly formed. There wasn’t as much collaboration as on other songs. Each of us just had to come up with our own part. But it’s also, you know, essential. You can’t, you know, we didn’t want to have songs without drums and bass. And so, you know, you have to find good roles for that. This is also why songwriting is so collaborative, even though we don’t write the actual chords for the song.

So they’ve all been relatively easy, in the sense that we’ve put in as much work as you would think it would take to make them. Some songs got really difficult. Some songs took a long time. Sometimes it takes as long to write them as it does to perform them. If you go back to “Little America” from the second record, it literally took us five minutes to write it. So, you know, you never know. And the amount of work you put into it doesn’t always make it one of the best songs, but sometimes it does.

Kristi York Wooten: It’s true. So you are a multi-instrumentalist. You play a lot of things. You are the bassist for REM, you sing a lot of great harmonies and backups as well as lead vocals. But what is your favorite REM tune, if you have one? Or the one you are proud of?

Mike Mills: Well, as far as my contribution, one of my favorite parts, it was one of my favorite moments in our entire recording career, we were recording in Miami, doing “Try Not to Breathe.” And I knew the chorus needed some really cool background vocals. And I was trying to channel John Lennon, and I threw everyone away, and it was just me in the studio and Scott Litt in the control room, and I was trying all these different parts, and when I hit the one that worked, we both made eye contact and looked at each other very wide-eyed and said, “That’s it.” This is the one!” So ​​sometimes you just know, and when you hit exactly the right thing at the right time, it’s one of those revelations that you live for.

This story comes to Rough Draft Atlanta through a reporting partnership with GPB News, a nonprofit newsroom covering the state of Georgia.