AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION

Rip It Up, Issue 183, 1 October 1992, Page 16

AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION

The weight of their own history must hang heavy on the members of REM. Perenial favourites of the American college crowd, and lately mass-market megastars, REM were responsible for some of the most crucial albums of the eighties. In an age of red leather trousers and new wave synthesizer doodlings, their debut album Murmur reintroduced the jangly guitar to the youth of America. Although steeped in Southern rock traditions and Byrdsian influences, they never the less forged their own distinctive sound, found a remarkable voice in Michael Stipe, and set about blazing a trail through the

decade.

The big leap forward came with a major label switch to Warner Music and the release in 1988 of Green. A world tour followed in 1989 — sales for Green rocketed and suddenly they were playing to stadium-sized crowds. The follow up album in 1991, Out Of Time, consolidated that success with 9 million sales worldwide. But With its occasionally syrupy string arrangements and some throwaway singles, the first whisperings of sellout could be heard.

So, where to from there? Time, perhaps, for the difficult eighth album. Bass and keyboard player Mike Mills was on the line, late August, from the Warner Music office in New York to discuss dumb pop songs, talk superstardom in Athens and background the new album.

"Automatic For The People is the slogan for a soul food restaurant in Athens, so we picked that as a title. Parts of it were done in six different studios. The John Keane studio in Athens, which is where we do a lot of our demo work. We actually ended up keeping a couple of things we did there. We did a little bit at Kingsway Studios in New Orleans, which is Daniel Lanois' place. We did the bulk of the recording at Bearsville in New York and at Criteria in Miami. Then we mixed it at Bad Animals studio in Seattle."

Obviously 'New Orleans Instrumental No. 1' is from the sessions at Kingsway Studios. "Right, that and 'Drive'."

Those are the tracks which I thought had a particularly live

feel to them — they both had an audible 1-2-3-4 count at the front. Were these initially perceived as demos?

"Well, we had no idea that 'New Orleans Instrumental' was even going on the record. That was just one of those two o'clock in the morning kinda fun things. 'Drive' was a demo. The basic tracks for 'Find the River', 'Star Me Kitten' and 'Sweetness Follows' were all demo tracks that we thought were really good — and we ended up keeping 'em. As opposed to Out Of Time, the album sounds very much like the four of you playing as a band — no spots for guest vocalists and the like.

"Right. Yeah, the only other people on this record are people who played things that we

couldn't play. There's a cello player named Knox Chandler who plays with the Psychedelic Furs. He plays the cello on 'Sweetness Follows'. And there's actually a cello on 'Monty Got A Raw Deal'. It doesn't sound like a cello, but it is. The Atlanta Symphony Strings played on the four cuts that have strings. The only other outside musician is [producer] Scott Litt, who plays clavinet and harmonica on 'lgnoreland'." Automatic For The People is at once a continuation and a departure for REM. There is an undeniable rawness setting it apart from much of Out Of Time, yet simultaneously much of the material explores musical territory investigated by the likes of 'Low' and 'Country Feedback'. More than

that, this stark and stripped-back affair often delves headlong into some pretty depressing subject matter.

"Once we recorded the songs and started listening to them and doing overdubs, we found that they were going to be best served by being kinda spare with the overdubs. So we tried to take away everything that didn't really need to be there. As far as the subject matter — it's a very introspective record in a lot of ways, but ultimately I think it should be slightly uplifting. Even though some of the songs are about death, or looking back at life, or any of those things, I think the ultimate feeling at the end of the song is one of hope."

So, for instance, a song such as 'Everybody Hurts' seems to be saying "sure you feel bad, but we've all been there", so maybe people can get some kind of strength out of that. "Absolutely. 'Find the River' is like you're either looking back at your life or you're looking ahead at your life. It sounds a little wistful, but ultimately it's a hopeful song." Previous REM albums have touched on this area, but they've also included their share of 'Shiny Happy People' and 'Stand's. With the exceptions of 'Man on the Moon' and 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight', it seems the approach to this album has been more difficult and less 'poppy'. Are you worried that this may alienate any fans who came to you through the likes of 'Shiny Happy People' or 'Stand'? "Well, if that happens, that's just too bad, 'cause we do all kinds of music and one kind is dumb pop songs — but that is certainly not the majority of our music. And if those people don't like the rest of it, then that's fine. We're not here to appeal to everyone in the world. 'Man on the Moon' to me is not a dumb pop song in the vein of 'Stand' or 'Shiny Happy People', whereas 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight' is a dumb pop song. That to me follows in the line of 'Shiny Happy People'. But as you say, that's the minority of our work, If that's the kind that people like, then maybe they won't like this record so much. But that's OK." Strings, hammond organ and

piano have featured prominently in the recent REM sound. The alternative guitar pop of Life's Rich Pageant and Document has given way to the new moods created by differing instrumentation and a willingness to experiment with a winning formula. A re-evaluation of the guitar band tag of years gone by seems in order. "It is on this record, but that's the way the songs are. To me, you build your record around what kind of songs you’ve got. And if your songs are a lot of acoustic things that maybe need organ or piano, then I'll be glad to play it, 'cause I love to play. Hopefully, and I say this and could be proved totally wrong, the next record will be more guitar-oriented. Faster stuff — I think it'll probably still have organ on it, because it's fun to play fast organ too. I think we're gonna try to get with a little more guitar." Around Out Of Time's release you were saying that you were going to try to do on the next album what you've just described for the next album down the line. Obviously it didn't pan out that way. "That's right. You can only try to nudge the creative process in a general direction. You can't tell it what to do. Your subconscious comes up with these songs and they may not be the ones you wanted to write — but there they are." When you're eight albums deep into a musical career, there must be a constant danger of caricaturing your own sound. 1 ask if

REM ever find themselves in a situation where they're thinking "this sounds too much like someone else trying to sound like REM" He chuckles knowingly. "Yeah, we started discovering that back in 1988, when we were writing for Green. We wrote this song and we actually called it 'The Last REM Song' because it sounded like something we could have turned out in our sleep. That's when we started making a conscious effort to get away from that. It's easy to sit down and write these semi-fast 4/4 guitaroriented rock songs. We found that they were starting to kinda run together, so we started as long as four years ago to move away from that."

Green definitely had an identity of it's own, and with the baroquefeel of Out Of Time the same is true. Are you now taking a more thematic approach to your albums, or do they remain as a collection of songs that fall into place around recording time? More laughter.

"You know, it's funny again that you would say that, because whereas Out Of Time and Green were slightly thematic — I mean Out Of Time was basically love songs, so there was certainly a theme of love and time and memory — this record does not have that. When we were trying to find the title, we tried to find one that tied everything up in a package, or that identified a common thread that runs through the songs. But there is none. That's why we picked a title that, basi-

cally, is a cool title, but it doesn't have anything to do with the record." How are REM now viewed in Athens — are you seen as regular guys, or do people think of you as some sort of musical gods? "Oh, I doubt they think of us as that. All our friends that we've known for ten or twelve years — they don't care. We see them and they ask us how we're doing. It's not any big deal. Maybe some of the college kids that just got there, they might be a little bit surprised. But once you see us walking down the street for three of four days in a row it just becomes much less of a big deal.”

With Out Of Time you adopted a very low-key touring approach — an MTV Unplugged appearance and a few secret gigs under pseudonyms such as Bingo Hand Job. Are there any plans for a more full-scale tour in support of the new album?

"Nope — not for this one. We've decided we're not quite ready yet to tackle that. We're gonna try to put one more out and then go out after that. We'll be rested and we'll be well away from the Green tour. That'll be out of our minds. There won't be any problem with duplicating that or having to live up to that, or down to that, or whatever. Also we'll have a whole new catalogue of music that we've never toured with, so instead of being a continuation it'll be like starting over as far as touring goes." The Green tour spanned eleven gruelling months, and Mills approaches the prospect of touring again with some trepidation. "I dare say we'll never do one that long again — certainly not without breaking it up considerably more. You want to go out each and every night and give your best, and ultimately that's gonna take its toll." Certainly, if the exceptional standards of the Green show in Auckland were anything to go by, there would be a lot to live up to. "Yeah, see? You need to be fresh to come out again. That was a great trip for us. We had the best time seeing Australia and New Zealand. I had just a marvellous time in Christchurch. I went paddling up that river that runs through town — that little creek where you can take the boats..." The Avon "Yeah, exactly. We just had a wonderful time — fell in love with the country." Great, so we can safely assume that another world tour would include New Zealand? "We'd fight very,very hard for it."

MARTIN BELL