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Since R.E.M.'s split in 2011, Michael Stipe has kept a low profile. Occasionally he would sing with Patti Smith and earlier this year he contributed to a series of David Bowie tribute concerts in New York City, now, Stipe said he would like to get back into music. "I’m not ready to go completely into pop stardom again, as a 56-year-old,” he told the New York Times. "I want to work in music again.” Stipe also produced the latest Fincherspooner album.

Save Ferris will release their first new music in 15 years in February with the New Sound EP.

Matt Berninger was interviewed by Conor Oberst for the TalkHouse Podcast and discussed the forthcoming National album and how his side project El Vy helps him find direction. "There's a part of my personality that I used to really try to force into The National, to prove that, no, we're not depressing, we're not dark -- we're happy people. I'm not a downer, I don't hate myself or life. I'm filled with joy and lightness. But now there's El Vy, I can kind of dig into that -- there's plenty of dark stuff there. But with the new National record, I'm like, I don't need to tell any jokes... I'm finding myself going right to some very, very direct emotionally dark areas and complicated areas. So I have a feeling doing this El Vy thing is going to make this new National record even more [dark]," he said.

In the same interview Oberst said that his latest album, Ruminations, was supposed to not come out and it was just demoed songs. "Honestly... Ruminations is basically, I mean they're just like demos, my demos, recorded very nicely at our nice studio. But I had every intention of making them into a record. And then the guy from the label... he was like, 'That's it, this is the way it should be' and I was like, 'Really?'... I guess it was just stopping the process before it was going to start," he said.

Nelly Furtado will release her new album, Ride, in March.

Bloc Party's Kele Okereke has told The Guardian that he is working a new solo album and said: "Over the years, with Bloc Party, I’ve been moving away from playing the guitar to exploring more electronic textures, but this record is the opposite of that. It’s something that is very intimate and it’s really for my dad. But it’s not finished yet, so I don’t want to talk about it too much.”