In January 1980, Peter Buck met Michael Stipe in Wuxtry Records , the

In January 1980, Peter Buck met Michael Stipe in Wuxtry Records , the Athens record store where Buck worked. The pair discovered that they shared similar tastes in music, particularly in punk rock and proto-punk artists like Patti Smith , Television , and the Velvet Underground . Stipe said, “It turns out that I was buying all the records that [Buck] was saving for himself.” Through mutual friend Kathleen O’Brien, Stipe and Buck then met fellow University of Georgia students Bill Berry and Mike Mills , who had played music together since their high school days in Macon, Georgia . The quartet agreed to collaborate on several songs; Stipe later commented that “there was never any grand plan behind any of it”. The still-unnamed band spent a few months rehearsing in the deconsecrated St. Mary’s Episcopal Church on Oconee Street in Athens. “I remember our very first practice,” recalled Mills in 2024. “Bill and I had some stuff left over from our band in Macon. We showed it to Peter and Michael, and they took it to places—even that very first night—that I didn’t expect. I thought, ‘This works for me.’” He continued: “Bill and I had a bunch of songs from a band we were in in Macon, and we showed [Peter and Michael] those songs. Peter was playing arpeggiated stuff – nobody plays that. And Michael: the voice was there, and he did some fun things with the melodies. I thought, ‘These guys are bringing something to the game.’” They fleshed out their performances at their rehearsal space on Jackson Street in Athens.