River Phoenix

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Michael Stipe : "We don't want fame, we want money, we want a vital, creative band".

Rem 's ninth album, Monster, to Record The Most difficult and polarizing, which released The Band ever.

When it came in the year 1994, The Band at the peak of their popularity, thanks to the acoustic beauty and gentle humanity of their two data sets: Out of Time and Automatic for the People.

But The Group was restless. "We wanted to get away, who we were," said guitarist Peter Buck . And so torpedoed their old sound with an Arsenal of guitars and effects pedals; so one of the strangest mainstream rock albums of the 1990s.

Shrouded in a murky sludge, distortion, Monster found-singer Michael Stipe , in writing, of characters, the menacing, obsessive, and desperate. "I need a chance, a Second Chance , a third chance, a fourth chance," he sang in foreign currencies, are trying desperately to convince someone you were in love with him.

recording sessions were marred by inter-band strife, the front man of feeling withdrawn and distant, while the deaths of his friends River Phoenix and Kurt Cobain inevitably cast a pall over The Music .

But if Rem new abrasiveness surprised the fans who had discovered, through the well-kept melodies of Losing My Religion and Everybody Hurts, it's not you - discourage first, at least.

Monster debuted at Number One in the UK and the USA, selling More Than six million copies. But it was quickly told to be a staple of charity shops and bargain bins, with a writer, his.

In recent years, though, The Album has enjoyed a critical renaissance, and producer Scott Litt has returned to the original master tapes, for the manufacture of new mixes of the Record , the election of a new vocal takes and turn away (some of) the clutter, to Shine a new light on The Band 's most misunderstood masterpiece.

With a deluxe edition of The Album to the shelves, Michael Stipe and bassist Mike Mills sat down with the BBC to the power of (a) Monster.

Peter Buck said she wanted a "different band"-Monster. Why was this so?

Mike Mills : The primary impetus was The Tour . We knew we were going on tour for the First Time in five years, and we wanted to make a Record that would be fun and relatively easy to play live. We just wanted to make a lot of noise.

When you look back on 25 years later, has reached The Album , your goals?

Michael Stipe : I like it. You know, I'd changes a few. There are two songs that I think are too long, but it's a pretty brazen attempt to reinvent who we were, and to Do Something , was loud and brash and punk-rock. I'm happy with it.

demos on the deluxe edition are cleaner and more direct than the mixes. When did you decide to scuzz-up?

Mike Mills : We had said an ethics, for a couple of sets, if we wrote a song that sounded too much like Rem , was out of it. Some of these demos sounded too much like Rem songs, and that is why you don't make the Record .

" the meeting Was a hard decision to make? I bet the Record company wanted to release these songs.

Mike Mills : Well, even More Than that, to make you hate a good song to go. And I knew they were good songs. On The Other hand, with these songs Our Own purposes thwarted had used, so we left them.

Michael Stipe : We did not want to be the dancing monkeys. This was not at all on our agenda. We don't want fame, we want money, we want a vital, creative band, and informs all the decisions.

Rem in 1994 (clockwise from top left): Michael Stipe , Mike Mills , Peter Buck and Bill Berry , How did you get the new sound effect on the text?

Michael Stipe : I've always answered what gave the boys to me and tried to set The Bar higher. If you gave me something that was really fruity and stupid, I would write, or. If you gave me something that was really gloomy and sad, I would write, So I tried to respond to The Music .

at The same time I was very much of U2 and Nirvana, to tell you The Truth . You were looking in the rock music and the idea of rock music. Instead of in The Middle , you were back a step and looking at it from a different place. We all felt like this was a good place to go to for Rem .

The texts are still proud of today?

Michael Stipe : The Most of them. I will never speak about the songs I don't like, because it could be someone's Wedding Song . But I would have been with a bit more back into this and made it stronger.

Mike Mills : I doubt that anyone ' wedding s song.

Michael Stipe : I hope not [laughs].

she wrote from a woman's perspective on the tongue. How was that?

Michael Stipe : I was really stretching me. I had written that the view-point before, and it was not easy at all. And it was a very sad character, in a very trapped, sad position.

, the line "Here I Am , your last ditch lay," is especially brutal.

Michael Stipe : It is rough. And yet, I think all of us realize likely to be, or have been there place.

many of the songs were not finished at The Last minute. Was that a tense time?

Michael Stipe : It is the same as always. The boys presented me with much more material than I write ever could. The texts are really hard. Singing is simple, the melody is no problem for Mike and I both. But to write the lyrics and come up with an overarching story is a lot of work. I didn't want to loose.

When The Monster arrived in 1994, Newsweek magazine, asked what it would take to break for Rem , and Mike said "".

Mike Mills : Did I say that? Well, some shots are easier to make than others.

to Make an album is great fun and it is exciting and it is exciting and gratifying, but it is a lot of work, and within a band, not everyone has the same vision. Plus you try to Do Something very difficult, which is to be better than they were. This is all draining and we had to pass a few things during the making of this Record , that it is very difficult for the people.

you are not a joyful spirit can, while you make a recording and dealing with the mortality of their friends. So there were a lot of stumbles on the way, but, you know, we used these feelings and you were a part of the Record .

Kurt Cobain Close Friends with Michael Stipe in The Years before his death, Me, you've been called a Eulogy for Kurt Cobain , is The Most obvious example. On The Album , The Guitar is fierce and cathartic, but in the course of The Years , In Concert , The Song became quieter and thoughtful. Was that reflective of your grieving process?

Michael Stipe : Absolutely. This was a devastating, catastrophic time for all. But The Song and the way it is absorbed, reacts, exactly the time and how it feels to have someone close to us is his own life. It was horrible.

Before he died, they had planned to make music together, is that right?

Michael Stipe : Yes and no. I presented a project, to try him, drag him from the hell he was. I knew that he admired me and Rem a lot, and I came up with an idea for a project. I wrote him a letter, I sent him a plane ticket, I sent a car to his house to pick him up, bring him to The Airport . We have everything that we could to try to pull him out of the mental state that he was, but the level of anxiety was untouchable.

Scott Litt , said he wanted a remix of Monster, because the energy of The Album and was buried, "because of the way it was layered". Do you agree?

Mike Mills : I think, Looking Back on it, his point is valid. I don't know that it would have a better Record had we not done it that way. It would have been different. I like most of his remixes, not all of them, but that's not The Point . You were not there to Make Me happy.

Michael Stipe : We were to do, what music and art can at best: We have responded to The Times . The production of this Record is exactly who we were at that moment In Time . I Am glad that Scott made the Remix. It is fascinating to me, the songs that are raw, but I don't think served it would be a Rem at the time.

your voice is much more prominent in the new versions.

Michael Stipe : It is much louder and there is much less reverb, but I'm good at that. I like My Voice very much.

The second disc of the deluxe edition is mostly instrumental tracks were used as demos for Monster but. Have you ever thought that someone could Come Along and use this as the basis for new songs?

Mike Mills : you are certainly welcome, because we got a writing credit. But if you do, make sure it is a Hit !

The Band played stadiums for the First Time on The Monster -world tour-I don't know, a new Rem tour still on the cards, but you have solo material out at. Will you play live?

music

Source of news: bbc.com