R.E.M.
R.E.M.'S RICH PAGEANT
Alt-Rock Elders Reveal Their Next Progression
After two decades together, most bands are either treading water or furiously backstroking toward the shore that holds past successes. But to their credit, the three remaining members of R.E.M. are still cruising comfortably forward, challenging themselves and their fans. On Reveal, their second album without retired comrade Bill Berry, the band takes off on some heady journeys, emphasizing psychedelic swirl over shiny, happy pop or chugging rock. Like the band itself, the sound is simultaneously more mature and more playful than it was in the jangle-laden late '80s or the dour, pensive early '90s. Guitarist Peter Buck took a break from a family trip to Disneyland -- where he steered clear of those scary roller coasters -- to expose Barnes & Noble.com's David Sprague to some of the secrets behind Reveal.
Barnes & Noble.com: Did this record come together in a manner much different than Up?
Peter Buck: On the last record, Bill announced he was leaving on the day we began recording, so that obviously changed things for us. All the songs on Up were basically pieced together, and a lot of the work was done without us even seeing each other. I'm proud of it, but some of that give-and-take is missing. This time, we went into studios with people we'd worked with, and I think that comes out in the music.
B&N.com: Some of R.E.M.'s albums are very thematic -- like Automatic for the People -- and others are basically collections of songs. Where on that spectrum would you place Reveal?
PB: I think it covers a lot of ground, but I can see a thread, if not a precise theme. There's quite a bit of outer-space stuff, like on "Saturn" and "Imitation," and Michael [Stipe] came up with some lyrics that seem to relate to each other. You tend, when you finish up 20 or so songs, to see if you want focus, or more of a sampler. I think we've done really good records in both modes.
B&N.com: Of all the things the band has done, which do you wish got more respect?
PB: Sometimes I think New Adventures in Hi-Fi is pretty amazing, and it definitely was not perceived as such. As an 11-song record, that would have really blown people away, but we let it drag on a little too long. If I could go back, I'd sculpt the slower stuff a little more, change the sequencing a little...
B&N.com: For Reveal, You wrote a fair amount of the songs on piano, which is not your first instrument. Do you see yourself as moving away from the guitar, maybe a bit bored with it?
PB: Oh, I don't know. I still can't really play the piano, since I've only played probably 100 hours in my entire life. You can come up with different chords on the piano, six- or seven-note chords that you literally can't play on guitar. I'm never going to be great at it, and I'm never going to be "great" on guitar, either, but I can be pretty good on just about anything. I can pick up a cello and come up with something I can play in some context.
B&N.com: Despite the fact that the band has gone in a lot of different directions, some people still have your sound frozen in time at a certain point.
PB: Sure. People think of R.E.M. as being the way we sounded in, like, 1986 through 1989 -- ringing acoustic guitars, Hammond organ. And that's obviously not where we're at, although we'll still do some of that when we play. We can still do that. We could do an album that sounded exactly like Document.
B&N.com: Could you talk a little bit about the Reveal songs that move as far from that sound as possible -- like "Saturn Return," for one?
PB: For that, I came up with this very simple idea on piano. I sat down and said, We're only going to do this once, so just play whatever comes into your head. I told everyone not even to worry about what key they were in. So we recorded this wash of sound, cut out some parts, and looped them. There's not a note there that wasn't totally improvised.
B&N.com: How about "Summer Turns to High"?
PB: That's the real Frankenstein's monster -- it's made up of little bits and pieces of just about every other song on the record. Mike [Mills] put down this one-note synthesizer part, and Pat [McCarthy] took the really crazy synth part. The drums are actually tapes of Joey [Waronker] in rehearsal.
B&N.com: "All the Way to Reno," on the other hand, is a little more straightforward.
PB: It has -- and I know I've said this before -- that "Jimmy Webb on Mars" feel to it. It sounds very conventional in a way, but there's an undercurrent of melancholy, of something being a little bit off. I mean, if you're going to Reno in order to become famous, something is obviously wrong.
B&N.com: Would you still be doing this if you hadn't become famous?
PB: I'd still be doing something, but I'm not so naïve that I'd say...see, when I was first getting into music, one of my favorite songs was "Let's Live for Today" by the Grass Roots. I thought that was the perfect attitude -- no plans, nothing like that. But when I think about all the schmucks who did that, they're janitors with long, gray ponytails who still look at smoking pot as their favorite recreation.
B&N.com: But can you still get excited about music, outside R.E.M.'s realm, that is, after all this time?
PB: You have to look a little harder, that's all. Ultimately, it's always your teenage years you come back to, and I feel lucky that nothing I was into back then is terribly embarrassing to me now. I mean, I'm not saying that I still believe Jack Kerouac was the greatest writer of all time, but reading On the Road when you're 14 or 15 isn't the worst foundation in the world, right?
May 15, 2001
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