Appearing on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert last night, R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe performed a new song called "The Rest of Ever," taken from his long-anticipated solo debut that he swears is almost done, at least in terms of finishing the lyrics.

Watch the performance below:

Sitting down with Colbert for a short interview, he also revealed that one of the songs is “the sound of a tree hearing itself for the first time” and contains part of notorious sea shanty “Drunken Sailor,” adding:

“It’s this confusing situation. My friend recorded a tree in my backyard in Georgia and played it back to itself, and so it sounds like Daft Punk... The tree has not responded yet. We’re gonna let his people get back to my people and see what happens.” 

Watch the clip from Instagram below, including Stipe's explanation of how a misheard lyric to “Drunken Sailor” led him to write something “very special.”

Last month, Stipe explained to The Times that the delays behind the album were partly to do with feeling pressure for it to be as good as R.E.M. and finding it “near impossible.” 

He also shared a new song, “I Played the Fool”, written for the Steve Carell-starring HBO series Rooster and recorded with producer Andrew Watt plus Red Hot Chill Peppers' Josh Klinghoffer on piano and guitar and Blink-182's Travis Barker on drums.

Listen below: