Artist News Releases

Former REM drummer Bill Berry’s new band The Bad Ends announce debut album

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 16 November 2022

The Bad Ends – featuring Mike Mantione of Five Eight and former REM drummer Bill Berry – have announced that they will release their debut album, ‘The Power And The Glory’, early next year. It’s the first LP recorded by Berry since leaving REM in 1997.

Songs for the record were initially written for a Mantione solo album, but a chance meeting with Berry in Athens, Georgia – REM’s home town – led to a jam session, which in turn resulted in The Bad Ends being formed.

“In very early 2017, a chance pedestrian encounter in downtown Athens found me face to face with one Mike Mantione”, says Berry. “At that point it had been over two decades since I’d involved myself with the record making process and here was a man [who REM guitarist] Peter Buck recently described as ‘the unsung hero of Athens rock and roll’ offering [me] an opportunity to play in the game again”.

“It was energising to once again play with top notch musicians”, he goes on. “This record is unique for me in that it was the only one with which I was involved that was written, rehearsed, recorded, produced and mastered in Athens!”

Speaking about the the time of his life that inspired him to begin writing the songs that form the new album, Mantione says: “It was one of the happiest times, but I found myself tuning into the suffering around me and wanting to help family through their hardest times”.

“One afternoon”, he adds, “a close friend committed suicide. He left two sons fatherless. He was there for me years before, and he’d helped so many other people who wondered what happened. I doubled down on getting my life together and started writing and making music with a vengeance”.

‘The Power And The Glory’ is set for release on 20 Jan. Watch the video for new single ‘Thanksgiving 1915’ here: