michael stipe on canada, the war

[meggo]

i don't think anyone posted this.... from the globe & mail:

Stipe relishes time in Canada

Canadian Press

Toronto — With the U.S. election looming, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe has spent much of the last month playing shows in so-called battleground states, performing with artists like Bruce Springsteen and John Fogerty in an effort to oust President George W. Bush from office.

The soft-spoken pop singer says the time he spent in Vancouver while recording R.E.M.'s new album Around the Sun helped put the American political situation into focus.

"It gave me a great sense of perspective, I have to say, being so close to my own country, but in a country that is clearly more liberal-minded," Stipe said on the phone from Chicago in an exclusive interview with The Canadian Press.

"There's a feeling in Canada of supporting . . . the creative arts and supporting people speaking out and supporting progress and living in the 21st century."

R.E.M. will embark on a Canadian tour next month, and Stipe said he is more than happy to "suck up" to The Great White North, calling Vancouver a "city of the future" with "brilliant restaurants" and "incredibly creative people."

During his stay he became hooked on the Canadian news media and still seeks it out online.

But on the eve of an election that has galvanized musicians and actors, Stipe is clearly preoccupied with what's going on at home.

"I've certainly felt, and I think a lot of people in the U.S. have felt . . . following us going to Afghanistan after 9-11, a great sense of personal activism," he said.

"I know myself and my band, R.E.M., have done everything we can do — not only as people but also as a band — to try to encourage people to get to the polls to look at the candidates to make a smart choice."

Stipe is convinced that the Vote for Change concerts — which took place in "swing states" like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida — made a difference, adding that one Google keyword search on the tour returned six million hits.

"Beyond the rooms that we were playing in . . . I think people were recognizing that there is, within everyone, a feeling that this election has to be a real election and can't be fraudulent like the election in 2000," he said, referring to the recount-debacle of four years ago.

Although Stipe's efforts to send Democratic candidate John Kerry to the White House have pushed him into the spotlight recently, mixing pop and politics is nothing new for R.E.M.

In the late 1980s, the Georgia-based band invited activist organizations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International to solicit donations at its arena shows. And at the 1992 Grammys, where the band won three awards for its album Out of Time, Stipe came to the stage wearing a series of T-shirts emblazoned with political slogans.

But the music, Stipe said, stands alone.

"I maintain and I've said all along ever since I was naive, young, in a band and making political statements . . . that music and politics don't mix," he said.

"To this day, as politicized as I am onstage, I feel that the music is one thing, who I am as a citizen and my beliefs are another thing altogether."

In many ways that sentiment is reflected on Around the Sun, which has musical echoes of the R.E.M's 1992 album Automatic for the People and 1998's Up.

While tracks like The Final Straw and I Wanted to Be Wrong are nods to the U.S. political situation, they are hardly manifestos.

On the tour R.E.M. will play smaller Canadian markets for the first time since the band's days as underground darlings. The shows kick off Nov. 9 in London, Ont., then move to Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Thunder Bay, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver.

Animated and eloquent as he talks politics, it's clear that Stipe — like many other performers — sees Tuesday's vote as a watershed moment in history.

It's even got him reflecting on his childhood growing up as a U.S. army brat.

The singer said he's been struck by the number of hawkish Republicans who have never served in the military, and the number of Democrats who are former soldiers but now oppose the war in Iraq.

It's increased his respect for Kerry, a Vietnam vet who spoke out against that war once he returned from duty.

"I realized how much my own background plays in judging someone on their character and on their experience," said Stipe.

"Sadly, we are a country at war right now, I think we need someone who's been on the frontlines to pull us out of this quagmire that the current administration has gotten us into."

[TimmyB]

I can't wait to see Michael Stipe and company at the Hummingbird Centre in two weeks minus a day (on Wednesday November 10)!

I just hope everybody in R.E.M. are in a great mood because Kerry victorious and not in a bad mood due to a Bush victory.