Biography

On the 1994 album Monster: "We figured we had done the acoustic thing about as well as we were ever going to do it... we said, 'We have guitars, we have amplifiers, let's make a rock record.'"

As an alternative to the synthesizer-dominated electronic music that was being made, we were the most visible sign that something else was going on.

We were as on top of our game as we could be after 31 years, and we said walk away on our own terms.

Peter enjoys collaborating with people and I see him doing a lot more of that. I think Michael wants to work with visual media - sculpture and photography.

REM will continue to exist. It's like the past never goes away. There will be reissues, and we'll have to worry about extra content, so it's not like REM never existed. It'll still be something going forward, it just won't be a recording or touring entity.