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Neil Peart, Geddy Lee & Alex Lifeson

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New interview with Alex Lifeson at Gibson.com

Fri, Feb 18, 2011@7:36AM | comments removed/disabled

[The Gibson Interview: Alex Lifeson]

UPDATE - 2/20@8:50AM: Gibson also posted this extra excerpt from their chat with Alex Lifeson where Alex remarks on the recent passing of legendary guitarist Gary Moore:

... in the early ’80s, he came on tour with us. And I think… I want to say we probably did two runs together. And my recollection of him is that he was a very sweet, gentle guy – quick to smile and really a lot of fun to be with, but so absolutely passionate about the instrument and about playing. "And it's really sad to see somebody like him go at a young age – it really is a young age. You know, he was the type of guy that [you thought] would be around forever and ever, playing like Les Paul, for example. You would always be able to go see Gary play in some little club or something, you know, in downtown New York or London, Soho... Ronnie [Scott's] or something like that. It's really a shame."

----- snip -----

Gibson.com just posted their complete interview with Alex Lifeson online earlier this morning. They had posted a short excerpt from it earlier this week where Alex picked his top guitar riffs. In the full interview Alex touches on a number of subjects including the band's upcoming Clockwork Angels album:

... we had six songs written. [Caravan, BU2B] were the two we decided to record just prior to the tour start, around this time last year. Since then, Geddy and I have been writing. We’ve been writing for the last couple of weeks and I think we’ve got the makings of another song. Pretty close. Some other snippets of ideas. Once we get back into the writing full-steam in the next week or so, with all those bits and pieces, I’m sure we’ll be able to get at least another song or maybe two. In which case, I think we’re looking at eight or nine songs as the magic number. ... We finished the last tour and there was such a movement to keep us out there. (laughs) And we gave in to that. You know, our intention was to get into the studio and record as soon as that brief tour ended, but that didn’t quite happen. So we’re back from this tour in July. We’ll take a short break in the summer, start recording in September and hopefully have the new album out for the start of the next tour, which would be in the spring of 2012. ...

It's nice to hear Alex already talking about a 2012 tour! He also discusses their reasoning behind keeping the setlist the same for the 2011 tour:

... it was kind of important that we continue the set just as it is — particularly in Europe and the U.K., ’cause they’re kind of expecting what Time Machine was over here. So we’ve been tempted to change out a few songs, but we decided that we would keep everything intact. And we’re really not hitting a lot of the markets that we’ve already played on the last tour. We’re really picking up a lot of other places and certainly that whole month that we’re spending in Europe is new. ...

Alex then provides some more background on the Vapor Trails remix, speaking about how special that album is to the band and how they came to the decision to remix it:

... we’ve been toying with that idea for quite a few years now. And there was initially no interest from the record company in rereleasing it. ... That album’s almost ten years old. It’s a very, very important record for us. There’s a lot of emotion on that. We were coming back after a very difficult period in the band’s history and certainly in Neil’s life. So for us, there’s a great deal invested in that record and it’s very, very special. And in a lot of ways, I wouldn’t want to change anything, because it was recorded in such a way that we captured the very essence of what we were doing at that time. You know, you could say that that album is sixty percent demos, because really that’s kind of what it was. Most of that record was what we wrote. We didn’t rerecord it. It was the most basic essence of the idea. And that’s what was really special. But sometimes when you do that, you’re not really aware or conscious of production merits, sounds, spending time creating sounds and, you know, developing that end of it. So consequently, the record suffered a little bit from production or lack of production. And when it went to mastering, it was mastered very hot and all we hear is the little bits of distortion here and there, and these compromises that were made on production.

It’s always bothered us, so we thought [we would consider it after hearing] a couple of songs that Rich Chycki remixed. They were really a lot closer to the way we always would have liked to have heard that record, you know? And we talked about it and so we decided, “Let’s just — you know what, if it’s just for the three of us — let’s just remix the record so we’re happy with it. At least we know that we’ve done it, that we’ve got that out of our system. We’ll pay for it. It’s no big deal. Let’s just do it.”

You could say that of any record. Go back and remix Caress of Steel or something, but I don’t know. Something about Vapor Trails… We just don’t feel like we serviced the record properly and we want to give it another breath. And I know it upsets a lot of fans. It goes both ways: I hear from a lot of fans who think it’s just a great a idea and they can’t wait to hear it, and others who say, “Why are you touching this record? You should not touch this record.” ...

You can read the entire interview at this link. Thanks to Eric at Power Windows for the heads up.

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