In the meantime - we caught up with David in between buses and planes for a quick interview. Here’s a bit of what he had to say:

How did you get involved with R.E.M.?

My good friend since teenhood, Bob Whittaker (R.E.M. Tour Manager), introduced me to the band in 2001 as a photographer/waiter who could possibly work out as an assistant. I met the band in San Fransisco and worked with them for about 10 days and we hit it off great.

What is your relationship with R.E.M. fans?

I actually don’t know what my relationship is with the fans… I’m taking photographs all the time, and my days are so packed with the work that comes along with being an assistant that I don’t have much time outside of touring for relationships.

Although, I do think I understand what the true fans of R.E.M. love about the band. And that is what I try to put in focus when I’m shooting photographs. Currently I am connecting more with the fans on Chronicle R.E.M. blog, and the MySpace book page that I made. I’m pretty bad on cyber friendships I have to admit, but it’s an ADD thing, and I’m trying to be better at that connection.

What are some of the great things about being on tour with the band?

Travel for sure.

R.E.M. friends - family – office – the folks that handle all the publicity: so so so much fun to see in and out of touring. I have some of the best memories in my life from hanging out with the above jewels of people.

Being Michael’s assistant on tour: well, Michael is Awesome, his boyfriend is awesome, his family is awesome, and he’s a very inspiring, creative, hardworking force to be around… Oh, and he is Hilarious, and I love to make him laugh.

Can you tell us something about the R.E.M. band members that even super-fans may not know?

They run to pee in garbage cans before the encore: during the encore (break) I am in charge of finding and setting up an area up for them with towels, hairdryer, encore set-list, drinks, etc… 80% of the time there will be no bathroom in this area so I have to find medium garbage cans for them to quickly pee in (which is the first thing they all do). Two photos in my book are of either Michael or all three of R.E.M. peeing during encore —both shots are candid and they were always unaware of my taking them. And other shots in the book are in proper urinals at least. Talk about intimate… And somehow really funny to me. I love those shots.

Also, almost everyone on tour has had Peter Buck fill up their iPods from his collection. He loves to turn us on to genres we’re interested in and every iPod he fills is different and crazy good, always turning us onto stuff we had no idea existed before.

More from this chat to come…

Michael Hotel Rm. London

Virgin Radio, with Presenter Ben Jones

Royal Albert Hall, soundcheck & thank you shots

the beautiful Jo Whiley listening to “munich” live…

Michael, Scott, Peter & Millsey with Chris Belheimer rehearsing it once over…

I.C.A. REM Event in London, It was a very impressive photo & film exhibition that had famous photographs of the band from early on to present by Anton Corbjin, Rankin, Keith Carter, Jim McCay, Chris Steward (awesome shot), —-and 1 photograph taken by me (from 2005 on the world tour). I was so happy to see my photograph hung above the fireplace in the white room gallery! (as you can see by my big smile,,, thank you bob Whittaker for taking that quick shot, so happy).

Thankfully, Chronicle employees are pretty fun. We love games. In fact, right now we’re playing “Where In The World Is David Belisle?”

In the meantime, I asked a few folks around here what it was like to work on R.E.M.: HELLO with the book’s designer, Corianton Hale. Our Senior Designer Jake had this to say:

“As an art director, I was pleasantly overwhelmed with Corianton’s tremendous output. It’s sort of rare for someone to do that much, and it reflects people’s genuine love for the material and the band. It was a unique situation because Corianton is a friend of David’s, so even though everyone always wants to get paid, he was really in it for the love and excitement of the book. It’s David’s first book, and Corianton’s first full-length book as well, and that enthusiasm was reflected in every step of the design process. The result is that the book just feels so personal, like you’re really hanging out with R.E.M.

Corianton’s just really nice and went above and beyond on everything. In fact we could barely contain the energy he brought to the book. As we were in the process of working on the cover, instead of delivering two options, he would give us two dozen! And they were all great. After we landed the final cover design, Corianton sent a just-for-fun graphic of all the alternate covers tiled together. We happened to already be tossing around the idea of a limited edition poster to accompany the first 250 preorders, and we jumped at the chance to incorporate the book’s process. So that’s the poster: an alternate reality carnival of Corianton book covers.

I don’t know what else to say… Book designers don’t usually bring a bunch of drama like fashion designers. That’s why there’s not a reality show about us. Is that enough? Can I go back to work now?”

Yep, thanks Jake. And I’m back to my game. David, your move!

Also, be sure to check out R.E.M.’s under-the-radar appearance at the Apple Store on London’s Regent Street this Wednesday night. Lucky fans can score passes from XFM Radio (broadcasting the show) or the Evening Standard. Stuck stateside? Check out the ‘Live From London’ recorded performance when it hits iTunes soon.

Welcome to life on the road. Today kicks off the start of our behind-the-scenes tour blog with our book’s photographer, David. Except, well, he’s busy actually being behind the scenes in London. Just sent from his iPhone: “I’ve got some really great shots for the blog but right now I’m at a biggee show on this tour, at the Royal Albert Hall. I promise to post tomorrow and I’ll make it really good, okay? xo, D.”

Okay, David. But for today we’re treating fans to page 116 of the book, the only one that features the man himself - or what you can see of him from behind the flash. Just so you know he exists. And that he’s promised to be good!