Michael Stipe has no problem looking back a bit every now and then. His band REM broke up in 2011, and since then he has been working on many other projects and is still working on his solo debut, but he enjoys the anniversary editions of the old albums.
Last up was “Up”, REM’s eleventh album. The “25th Anniversary Edition” comes in a new color and includes a bonus appearance by the band on the 1999 television series “Party Of Five”.
A song from “Up” that they didn’t play there and rarely played live at all is “Hope”. The singer likes the piece very much – but he also admits that it was completely right that, after thinking about it for a while, they gave Leonard Cohen a co-writing credit. He even has to laugh when he thinks back to the fact that for a moment he thought no one would notice that the piece wasn’t entirely original: “I totally stole it! I knew it. However, I love the rhythm of ‘Suzanne’ so much, I couldn’t help it. ‘Hope’ is of course a completely different song, but I had to ask Leonard for his permission.”
No copyright concerns
Basically, Stipe deals with the copyright issue in a very relaxed manner – he has no problem when other people’s songs remind him of his own work: “Pop music is a very limited field, so of course things are repeated, and one thing sounds like that others on. People steal stuff, consciously or unconsciously. I’ve always felt honored when I think of a song by other bands: They obviously listened to a lot of REM… That makes me happy.”
At the Party Of Five gig, REM sound surprisingly cheerful, Stipe jokes around a lot, and there’s no sign that the band has just had a tough time in the studio. How did the singer prepare for performances on bad days? How do you still go on stage even if you feel bad?
Stipe laughs again: “Well, you get over yourself! You’re there as an entertainer, as a performer, that’s expected. Maybe you’re even some kind of role model, a public figure, whatever. In any case, you not only represent yourself, but are part of a whole. So you have to put your ego aside and say to yourself: This is my job and I’m doing it as well as I can. Even if I don’t feel great right now, even if I have a cold or had a bad dream. I am going to do this work. And then it works.”
You can read more from the interviews with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills in the December issue of ROLLING STONE.