REM guitarist Peter Buck has confirmed the band are working on new material.
Guitarist Peter Buck and bassist Mike Mills have demoed 14 tracks for the follow-up to 2008's Accelerate.
Singer Michael Stipe has stayed out of the studio while Buck and Mills worked on the tracks with producer/engineer Tucker Martine in Portland. U2/Bloc Party producer Jacknife Lee is also involved.
Peter told Pitchfork: "Mike and I write all the time, and I had a bunch of songs we were going over during soundcheck on the last tour.
"We never do demos; we just go in and record" REM's Peter Buck
"We never do demos; we just go in and record. And I was like 'Well, I have a lot of equipment in Portland; we can do it there'. It just seemed like the right thing to do".
Buck adds: "This record, I want it to be broader; I think our singer Michael Stipe is into that. So there are some really pretty acoustic things, some really total noisy rock, and some kind of poppy stuff. It runs the gamut".
REM plan is to record the album later this year.
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