R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe is currently recording his first solo album due out in 2023. Coming on the heels of his two solo singles, Stipe told Departures.com, “I’m collaborating with a bunch of different musicians, and each of those songs, if I get my way — which I think I will because I’m paying for it — will be very different. I have no management. I have no label. For the first time in my adult life, I don’t have a contract with anyone except myself. So I get to do whatever I want. . . There will be a visual representation for each of the songs. . . I’m hoping to build slowly.”
Stipe, who has keep a low profile since R.E.M.'s 2011 split, explained being slow to come back around to music: “When the band disbanded, I couldn’t imagine continuing with music, and it took five years before I could come back to the idea of it.”
When asked if he felt vulnerable upon first making music outside the confines of R.E.M., he admitted: “Extremely vulnerable. But that’s my superpower. I fall on my face very well. And then sometimes it’s quite beautiful. Also, the idea of vulnerability, humanness, humanity. That’s something that people, including myself, usually respond to.”