20 replies to this topic

[bluemookie]

When the Baseball Project rolled through Ferndale, MI a few months ago, I was able to sit down with Mike Mills and get an interview out of him that I published here.  I asked Scott McCaughey if I could interview him at a later date, and he agreed.  So, I polled Murmurs.com for what questions I should ask and here's the result.  Enjoy!

You started playing with R.E.M. back in 1994, right?  How did that come about?

Peter said they were looking for a new "5th Man" to play various things on the upcoming Monster tour.  He felt o.k. about asking if I was interested since my band the Young Fresh Fellows was sort of winding down at the time and not doing much.  (We still don't do much, but enjoy doing it when we do!  There is no break-up announcement forthcoming...)  I flew down to L.A. (my first time ever in first class) and played a few songs with all the guys -- they auditioned five or six other people too -- and it was a lot of fun.  I was nervous of course.  I'd worked really hard learning the piano part for "World Leader Pretend" and then we didn't play it.  They threw "Kenneth" at me which I'd never heard as it was before Monster's release.  I think they wanted to see how fast I'd pick up on something that I didn't know at all.  Then they had me play bass on "Everybody Hurts" and I remember Bill really liked the way I played it.  So it must have gone well because soon enough I was in.  Never dreamed at the time it was an appointment that would last 17 years!

You wouldn’t happen to know the lyrics for the middle eight section of West Of The Fields, would you?  “The animals are strange…” line.  I asked Mike about it, but he couldn’t remember.   You wouldn’t have any official lyrics that you could send me, huh?  I mean, who better to ask?

I wouldn't venture to give an official account of any lyrics... especially the old ones.  Sometimes even Michael doesn't seem to be clear on all of them!  Ah, but that's the mystery, isn't it?

A popular question for you from Murmurs would be, what will you miss most about playing with R.E.M.?

Holy cheese tray, Batman, everything!  Mostly getting to spend time and have adventures with all my buddies in the band, and the crew, and of course the fans.  Honestly, I don't care that much about the nice hotels and all that.  But I'll miss the buzz of getting on stage and playing incredible songs in front of tons of people.  And the excitement of seeing new songs take shape in the studio.  I feel incredibly privileged to having been able to take part in all that.  


Is there any song from Collapse Into Now that you enjoyed playing most?

I love every song on the record.  Some of them we actually recorded a number of times.  And then "Blue", once only!  I can only imagine how much fun it would have been to play "Alligator...", "All The Best", "Mine Smell Like Honey", "That Someone Is You", etc. live every night in front of crazed crowds.  


What stuff have your recorded on R.E.M. albums that perhaps fans don’t know you played?  For example, when fans hear piano, most will just assume Mike played it.  Are there instruments or just certain guitar bits that you would like to clear up?  Did you play bass or any other instruments on the albums?

There are probably very few prominent piano bits I've done, because Mike is so much better at it than I am!  I played the piano on "So Fast So Numb", also organ, live on the same take (that was one of a number of New Adventures songs that we recorded the basic track at a sound check on the Monster tour).  I did some weird experimental piano bits on Collapse Into Now, you know, laying a bunch of pencils and drumsticks on the wires of the grand piano to get a unique sound.  That kind of stuff might only be noticeable on headphones, and probably wouldn't recognize what instrument it was when you hear it, which was sort of the point.
As I recall, off the top of my head, other songs I played some piano on: "Sad Professor", "Low Desert", "Electron Blue", "Falls To Climb", "Airportman", "The Lifting", and I played electric Wurlitzer piano on "Lotus", "Suspicion", "The Apologist".

Besides the work that you’re doing with Peter, are you aware of any other music projects involving Mike or Michael or in the near future?

Michael's got plenty of things going on in the world of art and photography.  I would be surprised if he didn't show up guesting or collaborating on tracks with friends too.  I know Mike has just done some singing on a Farmer Jason album (Jason of Jason & The Scorchers fame), and will be dragged into more Baseball Project appearances no doubt.  

What’s happening right now with The Baseball Project?  Are there any live shows that are being planned?  What about another album?  Oh yeah, and FANOFREM from murmurs.com says hello.

Besides our week in Todos Santos in January (as announced this week on remhq), the BBP will also be taking part in a show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in April.  We don't have any real tours planned for 2012 but it's likely there will be events that require our services through the season.  

Is there any news on another Robyn Hitchcock and the Venus 3 album?  How does that work?  Does he call you guys when he has a dozen songs written that he feels would fit best on a Venus 3 album as opposed to a solo album?  And then what?

You will definitely see Robyn & the V3 back together in 2012.  We have a few "international" appearances planned, starting with the Buckfest shows in Baja in January.  As for a record, no concrete discussions yet but I'd certainly be all for it.  Once we start playing together again, I'd be surprised if new recordings did NOT happen.

How about Minus 5 or Tired pony?

We are all very gung ho to do another Tired Pony record, but Snow Patrol has a great new album and probably a year of touring it ahead.  So the Pony will be chomping at the bit in the stable for a while.  I am definitely going to make a Minus 5 record in the next six months -- I just can't say where, how, who, or why at this point in time!  It will probably have a song on it called "Evil Doesn't Listen To Your Radio."
What are your thoughts on This One’s For The Fellows, the Young Fresh Fellows tribute album?  

Hey, just having a tribute album was amazing, and I was pretty amazed so many people went to the trouble of taking part.  Having recorded tons of tribute tracks myself over the years, with both the Fellows and the Minus 5, I know it's indeed a true labor of love, and it was pretty cool to be on the receiving end of that.

Are you going to be working with Chuck on another Young Fresh Fellows album or tour soon?
We have an album almost finished, that was basically arranged and recorded in two days in Kurt's basement earlier this year.  I imagine it will come out in Spain!  And then hopefully we'll go there for a week.  That's a "tour" for the YFF these days.  As for Chuck, I can only say I will be jamming on guitars with him in Tallahassee next summer.  We'll probably play "hits" from our earlier bands, Hannibal's Chorus Boys, Silver Creek, and the Sandbaggers.  It's always great on the rare occasions he jumps onstage with the Fellows.
Are there any anecdotal R.E.M. stories that you can tell me that, to the best of your knowledge, have not been revealed in interviews before?

If they haven't been revealed yet, they shouldn't be!!

Can you give some names of any R.E.M. songs that were recorded in the studio but were never released?  Like Starring Down The Barrel or Kick The Traces?  What else is out there that we don’t know about?

There are a few floating around...  Peter and I were just talking about this the other day.  We did a title song for the movie "Cool Dry Place" that I liked a lot, but it never got used.  That was done in the early Up sessions.  One that didn't make the cut for Collapse Into Now called "Bad Ass", that I really dug, but I think Michael was never quite happy with the ultimate coalescing of melody and lyric.  I think there's a few more that are slipping my mind right now.  And of course there are tons of instrumentals, some of which could stand on their own as great music in my mind.  Guess we'll all have to wait for the box set!

Any chance you want to reveal any spoilers about what the final R.E.M. fan club package will be?

Sorry, no idea on that one!  I am often the last to know these things.  Which I don't mind, I like being surprised!

Can you give me some insight into how an R.E.M. setlist is put together?  Do you practice 40 songs for a show or tour and just decide that day which will be played that night?

I think typically we shoot for having 70 or 75 songs for a tour.  Though we probably start with less and add some at sound checks as we go along.  The set lists get made each night maybe an hour or two before the show.  We usually fall into having certain songs that work in certain places, and then alternate different songs in and out of rotation to keep it fresh, for ourselves as much as the audience.  

When R.E.M. decided to bring out some deep cuts for the Live At The Olympia shows, I’m wondering what songs were attempted but didn’t make the cut.  Are there any songs that you ran through and thought that it just didn’t sound good enough and moved on to the next one?  If so, can you remember what songs?

I think we played every song we went over at the sound checks, whether they were ready or not!  I was blown away when I heard the live album -- I think it's amazingly good, one of my favorite R.E.M. releases, and we were really flying by the seat of our pants.  Must have been the Guinness!

What was the biggest change when you started playing with R.E.M. back in the mid-90’s, when they were playing their larges venues to date?  What was the best and worst part about being part of something that big?

I can't really think of any negatives.  I LOVE playing small clubs, and I'd always rather see a band in the more claustrophobic setting, as opposed to a large, often unmusical, arena.  But the crowds were so fantastic, and I know we always had exceptional front of house engineers, so I always felt the huge shows came across, and I loved playing them.  Performing with R.E.M., no matter how big the venue, always felt like a band, and never felt impersonal, it was always us together on stage, and us together with the crowd.  I like to think it felt the same way for the people watching and listening to us over the years.

Thanks for your time.  Speaking on behalf of the R.E.M. community, we really appreciate it.

[rosie]

thanks so much!  nice to hear scott refer to the box set

[Southern Gothic NC]

Very nice job and thanks!

[cjr67]

Great interview and great questions!

[Kimo]

Thanks a million Bluemookie! !! Very pleasant read !

[3am]

Great job. And great news about Robyn and the V3 and new MInus 5 record.   And love the reference to "Buckfest".  Only wish I could afford to go.

[gravity113]

Great job. Thanks for squeezing my question in there

[fanofrem]

great interview, and a big thank you to scott who give me a perfect answer about touring with baseball project etc.

[Mr Pompous]

A great interview! Also interesting to hear his part in Up, my favourite album (of any band). To be honest I've never really listened to the baseball project, just a few songs here and there.  At the risk of sounding ignorant, what sort of music do they play? I can't imagine it would be bad, considering Peter and Scott are involved, but I've just never really followed them...?

[Driver Nate]

Mr Pompous, on 16 November 2011 - 03:19 PM, said:

A great interview! Also interesting to hear his part in Up, my favourite album (of any band). To be honest I've never really listened to the baseball project, just a few songs here and there.  At the risk of sounding ignorant, what sort of music do they play? I can't imagine it would be bad, considering Peter and Scott are involved, but I've just never really followed them...?

If you like some of the other bands Buck and McCaughey have played in such as the Minus Five, chances are, you'll also like The Baseball Project. That's not to say those two bands are identical by any means but it's pretty much rock n' roll. I'm not even a fan of baseball and I love them. Still need to pick up that latest record though. To get some idea of what they sound like, you can check out this section of The Baseball Project website that has some audio and video clips.

[Mr Pompous]

Driver Nate, on 16 November 2011 - 03:28 PM, said:

If you like some of the other bands Buck and McCaughey have played in such as the Minus Five, chances are, you'll also like The Baseball Project. That's not to say those two bands are identical by any means but it's pretty much rock n' roll. I'm not even a fan of baseball and I love them. Still need to pick up that latest record though. To get some idea of what they sound like, you can check out this section of The Baseball Project website that has some audio and video clips.

Thanks a lot, that's very helpful! Being English, I don't know the first thing about baseball, but they sound very good indeed!  And it would be nice to perhaps see Peter live once again - I only saw them once (unfortunately-but I was fairly young) on the Accelerate tour, but he does seem to really live for music.  Thanks for the link, I'll definitely check them out!

[slinky1]

Mr Pompous, on 16 November 2011 - 03:34 PM, said:

Thanks a lot, that's very helpful! Being English, I don't know the first thing about baseball, but they sound very good indeed!  And it would be nice to perhaps see Peter live once again - I only saw them once (unfortunately-but I was fairly young) on the Accelerate tour, but he does seem to really live for music.  Thanks for the link, I'll definitely check them out!

some of the songs are very distinctly Scott inspired some are Steve Wynn

[Preston]

Mr Pompous, on 16 November 2011 - 03:34 PM, said:

Thanks a lot, that's very helpful! Being English, I don't know the first thing about baseball, but they sound very good indeed!  And it would be nice to perhaps see Peter live once again - I only saw them once (unfortunately-but I was fairly young) on the Accelerate tour, but he does seem to really live for music.  Thanks for the link, I'll definitely check them out!

I took two friends, one English, one Danish, to see The Baseball Project, and they loved the show.  Heck, I'm no sports fan myself, but the songs are great, populated with interesting real life characters.

[LST 390]

Thank you so much!

[charky]

Great job bluemookie! THNX! especially for that "lost songs" Q.
scotty is great...

[Sweden]

Great interview! Good job.
Nice to hear the stuff about his keyboard work.

[fanfan]

Great questions and answers. Scott is awesome.

[Lori]

Great interview.  Thanks Scott and bluemookie!

[falls to climb]

Great

[cjr67]

charky, on 17 November 2011 - 12:26 AM, said:

Great job bluemookie! THNX! especially for that "lost songs" Q.
scotty is great...

Indeed!  Nice to have a couple more song names to keep an eye out for on the ("will hopefully come to fruition someday") boxest.