R.E.M.: remembering ‘Monster’ 25 years on

Michael Stipe and Mike Mills came to the

Esquire Townhouse to mark the 25th anniversary reissue of R.E.M.’s classic album Monster, first released in a massive year for music and which saw the band at the height of its powers — and fame — as the singer and bassist remembered while in conversation with DJ Matt Everitt

Michael Stipe: We wanted to tour and had just released our two most famous records (Out of Time and Automatic for the People) and were on a different level now. But they were really quiet records. So we needed a record that was loud and raw and had swagger, some chutzpah. And what we wound up doing is going back to our love of glam rock — Slade, Bowie, New York Dolls, The Velvet Underground, The Stooges, T Rex and Marc Bolan. Mike Mills: A lot of the things that we did on this record and on the tour were kind of a wink and a nod to our fans about, “Well, yes, we’re huge, but it’s kind of silly and we all know that”. So I said, “I’m going to wear the most outrageous suits.” And that’s perfect for this.

MS: I had gone from being recognisable on the street to people that were around our age and loved music, to being recognised by everyone. Every granny. Every old guy in a cab. But I was in my thirties so I was ready for it. MM: When you have four people in the band, you will often have two who believe one thing and two who believe in another. Our producer Scott Litt was strong enough and smart enough for us to trust him in all those situations in the studio. So when he asked if he could have another shot at it [Greg Calbi also remastered the album for the anniversary box set] we listened. MS: From 1989 to 1994, there were seismic shifts happening culturally, politically, socially, and certainly in music and in pop culture. Suddenly, we were insanely famous. So we were trying to address all these things, without losing the respect of ourselves first, but also without losing the respect of all those people, like Nirvana, who had spoken about how much they loved R.E.M. MM: The song “Let Me In” [about the death of Kurt Cobain] has enormous importance to us. And a lot of other people. He was a friend of ours, but he was an icon to millions of people.

MS: As long as there are teenagers who feel alienated and alone and pissed off about the world, then Kurt’s going to represent something very profound. MS: I used the phrase, “What’s the frequency, Kenneth?” as a symbol of confusion and chaos, which is where this guy finds himself. I’m not a great fiction writer, but I think I’m a good, and sometimes great, fiction writer of short pop lyrics. I’m able to flesh out an entire arc of a narrative. Ask any question you want about any of those characters within the canon of the 31 years that we wrote and I’ll tell you the backstory.

MS: I decided for the promotion of the record to publicly announce my sexuality, which slotted very nicely. And so we had a new look: Mike had his suits, I was queer as fuck and the whole world knew it. Those who hadn’t figured it out yet — I’m sorry. But there it was, and away we went. And we had a great year on tour.

The Monster 25th Anniversary box set is out now at remhq.com