Fancy a job as the new drummer in R.E.M.? Well, forget it, because the Athens, Georgia band will not be seeking a replacement Bill Berry, who announced his departure last week. In an interview with MTV News, singer Michael Stipe said, "There will never be a fourth member of R.E.M. We just can't replace Bill, we have no desire to. That's that. R.E.M. is now a three-piece, but yeah, we'll bring people in. I mean we're not gonna get up there and do acoustic stuff. That's kinda boring." R.E.M. are currently working on their next album, the follow-up to last year's New Adventures In Hi-Fi, and Stipe revealed that the band have about 40 songs in various stages of development. The band will use a drummer on their next tour, sometime in 1999, but bassist Mike Mills was quick to warn skin-bashing hopefuls not to send tapes. Berry quit R.E.M. after 17 years with the band, saying that he wanted to "reflect, assess and move on to a different phase of my life."