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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

Thu, Mar 28, 2024

Alex Lifeson Planet Rock interview now online

Fri, Nov 18, 2011@10:55AM | comments removed/disabled

UPDATE - 11/30@11:08AM: The interview is also now up on SoundCloud (thanks RushFanForever).

Darren Redick of UK internet radio station Planet Rock spoke with Alex Lifeson via phone from Toronto earlier this morning where Rush is busily working on recording their upcoming Clockwork Angels album. The 10-minute interview is now available online at the Planet Rock website and you can also listen to it using the player below.

And if you don't feel like listening to the interview, reader Distant Early Warning listened in to the interview and was kind enough to give us a detailed, bullet-point rundown of all the key points:

* Currently in the studio in Toronto putting in long hours;
* They already had the 5 songs written of which 2 had been recorded so needed 5 or 6 more;
* After a slow first week, they got on a roll and after 4 weeks, all songs had been written;
* In response to a question about whether the direction of Clockwork Angels had changed, Alex said yes: BU2B and Caravan had set the tone, but last month some other pieces came together that were more melodic and had different arrangements and presentation than they were used to doing. However, the rest are heavy;
* 3 or 4 songs are over 7 minutes long and most of the rest are over 6 minutes - there's a lot of intense playing;
* Alex did not have much to do with the recent box sets - Neil does the design side of things;
* The ‘I Love You Man’ sketch was left off the concert DVD because of union issues (Screen Actors Guild) - it was difficult to get all the releases for it;
* They want to finish CA by Christmas but Alex was not confident about this. They have mixing booked for the New Year and he reckoned they would do a bit of recording and mixing at the same time, in time for a spring release;
* They hope to be out on tour in May or June, with Europe on the agenda but maybe not until 2013;
* On the subject of festivals, while they find it intriguing and potentially lucrative, they've never felt comfortable with it, as they would want more control over it (the time and the 'show' itself). However, if the right one came up where they had the control over the show, with a decent timeslot, they would consider it;
* Lastly, a big no to doing any small scale 'bar' gigs to 500 people.

Related Posts:
[Rush Clockwork Angels feature in latest issue of Rolling Stone]
[Clockwork Angels update: writing completed, recording underway]
[Alex Lifeson Humble and Fred podcast interview now online]
[Geddy Lee talks Clockwork Angels, 2012 tour in new Rolling Stone interview]
[Rush sound engineer Rich Chycki on Clockwork Angels recording, Sector box sets]
[Rush producer Nick Raskulinecz: Clockwork Angels in pre-production; start recording mid-October]
[Rush signs with Roadrunner Records]
[Excerpts from Classic Rock's Prog magazine Rush feature]
[Alex Lifeson interview from the Toledo Free Press]
[New Geddy Lee radio interview at the UK's 106.1 Rock Radio]
[Short Rush Clockwork Angels feature in March issue of Mojo]

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