R.E.M.’s groundbreaking 1991 album Out of Time turned 25 years old earlier this year and to mark the occasion they’ve released an expansive reissue, which just came out on Concord Bicycle. As part of a promotional run, Michael Stipe and Mike Mills sat down for an interview with Sunday TODAY and opened up about their very early days as a band surviving off $1 knishes, dealing with sudden fame (the band used to call Stipe “face” because he couldn’t go anywhere without being recognized), the meaning behind their breakout hit ‘Losing My Religion,” and Stipe’s lyric writing process.
“I don’t hear music, I see it. And my job as a lyricist is to close my eyes and hear the peaks and the valleys and see the landscape – the vista that the band has created sonically, musically. I then have to find a story that fits into that landscape. And that’s what I did all those years.”
Watch the full segment below.
