RUSH Guitarist Talks Upcoming Album, Current Tour

August 25, 2010

Guitarist Alex Lifeson of Canadian rock legends RUSH has told Alan Sculley of The Morning Call that the band has six new songs for the next studio album pretty much ready to go and three others almost done. The group plans to write at least a couple of additional songs after the tour. At this point, RUSH's new CD is shaping up to be a musically varied work.

"There is the epic song, 'Clockwork Angels', which is really taking shape. It's a multi-parted piece, very dynamic," Lifeson says. "Then there's some stuff that's very melodic and on the softer side, on acoustic, with a strong melody. So there's great diversity there. Honestly, I can't wait until we start really working on these songs. We've sort of got them to the stage where Geddy [Lee, bass/vocals] and I were happy with the arrangements and then Neil kind of comes in and starts working on his drum arrangements, and they go from there. So they're sort of in that pre-drum stage right now, and it's great to see them come to life."

Regarding RUSH's current tour, on which the band is playing two sets of about three hours — including performing he classic "Moving Pictures" LP in its entirety during the second set — Lifeson says, "There are two new songs we're doing ['Caravan' and 'BU2B'], plus a bunch of stuff we haven't done in a while, like 'Presto' [the title track of RUSH's 1989 CD]. I'm not sure we've ever played 'Presto' live. So yeah, [there are] a couple of treats. 'Times Stand Still' [from the 1987 CD 'Hold Your Fire'] is back after taking a long rest. And the sets are very differently paced from each other, so I think there's quite a different feel between the two sets."

Of the current tour's light show, Lifeson says, "There's a large what we call spider over the stage that kind of spreads across the stage from above with articulating arms or legs, and it moves around and it's really quite dramatic. So there are really lots of great lighting effects. You know, it's a whole presentation with us. It's not just about the music."

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