R.E.M.: Discoverer

Michael Stipe and His Sister Lynda On Their Cinematic Collaboration For Collapse Into Now

Directed by Michael Stipe and his sister Lynda, today's premiere of the music video for R.E.M.’s "Discoverer" accompanies the first track off the group's 15th studio album, Collapse Into Now. Alongside the record, which has been hailed as their best in a decade, the band’s cerebral frontman commissioned a film for each of the 12 tracks from the likes of James Franco, Sam Taylor-Wood, Sophie Calle, and Albert Maysles. Stipe opted to direct "Discoverer" himself, citing a personal attachment to the tune, which posits New York as his muse. "It's autobiographic," he says. "I rarely insert myself this directly into a song." Lynda's inventive use of the computer program AutoCAD (a tool for architectural layouts) for projections during live performances with her experimental band, Flash to Bang Time, served as a jumping off point. "It's like the Velvet Underground circa 1969, with the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, when they were working alongside Andy Warhol in the Factory,” Stipe says of the color-drenched effect. NOWNESS asked the siblings to elaborate.