Mitchell Blake Easter (born November 15, 1954) is a musician, songwriter, and record producer. Frequently associated with the jangle pop style of guitar music, he is known as producer of R.E.M.'s early albums from 1981 through 1984, and as frontman of the 1980s band Let's Active. Early life Easter was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and became deeply involved in music from an early age. He attended the University of North Carolina from 1974 until his graduation in 1978. He played in a number of school bands, some of them with his childhood friend Chris Stamey (later of The dB's). Career Record production and engineering In 1980, Easter started the Drive-In Studio, a professional recording studio located in what was originally his parents' garage. One of his earliest recording sessions was the debut single by R.E.M., "Radio Free Europe". Drive-In Studio became an integral part of the local indie-rock scene of Winston-Salem, recording a number of bands at low "knock-down" rates. Easter closed the Drive-In Studio in 1994, and moved from Winston-Salem to Kernersville, North Carolina, where he opened his current recording studio, Fidelitorium Recordings. As a record producer, Easter is probably best known for his work with R.E.M. from 1981 through 1984. Since 1981, he has produced, engineered, and often made musical contributions to albums from many other recording artists, including Donna the Buffalo, Mary Prankster, Ex Hex, Ben Folds Five, Pylon, Helium, Pavement, Suzanne Vega, Richard Barone, Game Theory, The Loud Family, Marshall Crenshaw, The Connells, Velvet Crush, Ken Stringfellow (of The Posies), and Birds of Avalon. Asked in 1999 about his favorite projects as a producer, Easter cited R.E.M.'s Chronic Town and Game Theory's records – Real Nighttime (1984), The Big Shot Chronicles (1985), Lolita Nation (1987), and Two Steps from the Middle Ages (1988) – which Easter called "a lot of fun, because of the variety in the way they approached recording". Performing and songwriting Rittenhouse Square and the Sneakers (1970–1981) At the age of 15, in 1970, Easter joined the band Rittenhouse Square which included friends Chris Stamey, Peter Holsapple, and Bobby Locke. Membership in the band changed frequently. The group released an independent album in 1972 but broke up in 1973, after its various members went off to college. In 1978, Easter joined Stamey's Sneakers, a band that Easter characterized as "pre-punk transitional". Prior to Easter, the Sneakers released a self-titled 7-inch EP (with