R.E.M. guitarist Peter Buck has spoken recently about why the band split up 5 years ago. In 2011 the band said in their own words that they were “calling it a day as a band.”
Buck has recently spoken about what happened at the time and the reasons behind their split. Buck wrote a list of all the things he hated about the music business which in his words was about “five pages long.”
Speaking in an interview with Rolling Stone recently, he spoke about what exactly was on the list. The R.E.M. guitarist said “Everything except writing songs, playing songs and recording them. It was the money, the politics, having to meet new people 24 hours a day, not being in charge of my own decisions.”
Buck was also critical of modern recording saying “It was once Pro Tools was invented,” adding “that was no fun. We made a couple of albums where I thought, ‘I don’t even know if this is a record’ It’s just some sounds we put together.”
“I hate the business,” Buck declared emphatically, adding that “I didn’t want to have anything to do with it.” Despite this however, he did speak quite fondly about the legacy of R.E.M.
“I’m really proud of the fact that we ended in 2011 with the ideals we started with in 1980. I’m really proud of the body of work. There are a couple of records that aren’t great. But there’s a couple of Bob Dylan records that aren’t great”
Photo Credit: Shawn Anderson
