RUSH IS A BAND

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Triumph's Rik Emmett plays Rush's Red Barchetta for Sonic Reality's Sonic Elements prog rock project

UPDATE - 11/27@9:52AM: Here's a short interview with Rik Emmett at the Sonic Elements YouTube channel, (thanks chutch15) which includes a short bit at the end of Rik recording some of Red Barchetta. And here's yet more info on the future of the project from Dave Kerzner via via that Rush Forum (thanks John at Cygnus-X1.net). They'll be releasing the full version of Red Barchetta, along with YYZ and eventually a full album of Rush covers!

... If you're curious, here's the deal with this. We're going to be releasing the full version of the song soon along with a cover of YYZ done with ex-Yes multi-instrumentalist/producer Billy Sherwood as well as an original tune we wrote in a different style than Rush but with Neil's drum tracks from YYZ (kind of a trip). We put a little Yes/Genesis influence in there. If you're curious to hear a partial clip of that here you go: http://soundcloud.com/sonicelements/trifecta-pt-1-wip

Anyway, later on we'll release a whole album of Rush covers with various other musicians from bands you might like. John Wesley from Porcupine Tree, Mike Keneally, Nick D'Virgilio, Roger Manning and various other people including myself on keys (and I'm going to perform keyboard drums for the song "Losing It" playing Neil's sampled DW drum kit from our library). All of that to come. Follow the progress of that on our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/sonicelements -OR- we'll have our sonic elements web site up soon and you can check in there... and I'm also on here in case you have any questions about Neil Peart Drums or Sonic Reality or the Sonic Elements progressive rock project. It spans into other territories of classic rock like Floyd, Genesis, Yes, Bowie, Beatles, Supertramp... really unusual mix of elements involved as you can see! ...

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UPDATE - 11/25@12:21PM: Sonic Elements also has the Limelight outro up on SoundCloud, featuring Kerzner, John Wesley, Billy Sherwood and a Neil Peart drum track (thanks John at Cygnus-X1.net):

Sonic Elements: Limelight Outro by sonicelements

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Last year Sonic Reality released their Neil Peart series drum sample instrument library. It features drum samples from Neil Peart himself and was produced with the help of Rush producer Nick Raskulinecz. Sonic Reality CEO Dave Kerzner recently put together a unique progressive rock project called Sonic Elements, which features a revolving door of musicians from around the world playing classic rock covers and fresh originals that all make use of the various sound elements of yesterday and today with the latest music software instrument and recording technology. One track they recently recorded was Rush's Red Barchetta with Triumph's Rik Emmett on vocals and guitar and Neil Peart on drums via his sample library. Kerzner recently revealed several details about the recording via a post on the Progressive Ears forum including the fact that they'll be shooting a music video for the track:

... next week I am doing a session with Rik Emmett of Triumph and Neil Peart on drums (via his sample library that I co-produced with Nick Raskulinecz). We're doing Red Barchetta and Matt Dorsey is on bass, I'm on keys. Matt played with me in Simon Collins' band on album we did last year that's not released yet but it's a bit like Genesis meets Radiohead style-wise (Simon is Phil's son). I'm trying to get Simon to sing "Between the Wheels" but I don't know if he'll have time to do it.

So, if you like Triumph, this might be interesting and maybe we'll do something else down the road. I'm putting together a gig with Billy Sherwood for Sonic Elements where we'll have various guests join us and we'll do some of their tunes as well as the ones we've been doing (a whole album of original music Billy and I have been working on... some of which has Neil Peart Drums behind us). ...

... We're doing a music video of the tune and both Neil and Rik are in the video as well as me and Matt (lucky us! Fantasy Rock Band.... that is the whole idea of 'Sonic Elements' but sometimes we get to take it to an extreme like a music video or live performance). Now, no one is in the same ROOM. Neil's footage was in shot in LA before a tour, Rik's footage is being shot in a studio he records in Toronto and our footage will be shot in our respective studios... funny thing is on keys I'll be playing a lot of "one note wonders" which is kind of funny but I will probably embellish a little bit - not necessarily so there is more for me to do (even though that's an obvious benefit) but also to offer something to make it sound different than Rush. ...

You can listen to a 1-minute sample of the track on SoundCloud below or at this link.

Red Barchetta featuring Rik Emmett SE Teaser 1 by sonicelements

Red Barchetta featuring Rik Emmett SE Teaser 2 by sonicelements

Be sure to follow the Sonic Elements project on Facebook. A big thanks to chutch15 for the heads up.