Three years since the split of REM, Michael Stipe has revealed that he “will sing again”. The band’s former frontman isn’t sure when or how he will return to the microphone, he said he still loves his voice and wishes he was on stage.
“I think I’ll sing again,” he told CBS This Morning on Saturday. “That’s maybe an exclusive? But I think I will sing again, yeah.”
In 2011, Stipe has dismissed the possibility of mounting a solo career in the aftermath of REM’s breakup. “It’s unfathomable to me right now,” he said. “Who says I have to be a songwriter? … What would it sound like? Watered-down REM?” The only music he has release since REM’s final album, Collapse Into Now, was an instrumental film score called The Cold Lands.
“I just needed to step away for a while,” Stipe explained to CBS. “[But] when I go to see bands perform live, that’s when it’s hard for me. I look up on the stage and I think: ‘I wish I was there.’” The 54-year-old only sings in the shower these days. “I’m not bad,” he said. “I think [my voice] actually got better as I got older.”
Whatever form this new singing takes, don’t expect it “soon”. And don’t expect Stipe to reform REM: he is still adamant that they will never reunite. “There’s no point,” he said. “I despise nostalgia. I’m not good at looking back.”
