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The National Midnight Star, Number 408
Tuesday, 17 December 1991
Today's Topics:
Gold Rush : Canadian Composer Article
Interview with Geddy, 19th August 1991
Neil Peart Interview from the Rochester Times Union, 10-24-91
----------------------------------------------------------
[ In this special edition I decided to put a few of the smaller articles
and reviews together to save the number of issues needed to get this
stuff out. All these reviews/interviews are from 1991, and so concentrate
on the current album. I have other, older stuff to come later...
:rush-mgr ]
Date: Thu, 22 Aug 91 15:44:23 CDT
From: JEFF FAUNCE <S71239FJ%ETSUACAD@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
Subject: Gold Rush : Canadian Composer Article
CANADIAN GOLD_RUSH
BY
RICHARD FLOHIL
One of the given facts of pop music success is that one can become
very, very rich. So it's no suprise that Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and
Neil Peart-the three members of Rush-are all millionaires, and, without
being ostentatious about it, live in a style that only great wealth can
bring. It is a suprise, however, that the three men are so _normal_ when
it comes to their daily work.
Right now, they spend each day in small recording studio outside
Toronto; this is pre-production time for the new album. Peart had come
in a few weeks back with some lyrics; Lifeson and Lee had some riffs
they had honed and now the elements are slowly being stitched together
into new material. In January, if all has gone well, the will have
enough songs ready for producer Rupert Hine to listen to. He'll suggest
changes and then the recording project will start. Time has already been
booked at Le Studio in Morin Heights, McClear Place in Toronto, and
Metropolis in London England. It is not the way most bands can afford to
write music and make records, but then Rush is much more successful than
most bands. Without the benefit of a single hit record, the band has
toured endlessly for 18 years, and has sold more than 30 million albums.
Rush's 19-album catalogue sells well over 1 million copies each year;
the first six months of this year saw the 1981 album, _Moving Pictures_,
sell 150,00 copies in the U.S. alone.
This year, the band played 70 dates in North America to support
_Presto_, its latest album (not counting the best-of set _Chronicles_).
In the past Rush has played as many as 250 dates a year, and in 1989 had
emerged from a tour to support _Hold Your Fire_ tired, bored and not
anxious to do it again. The three took six months off.
It was a wonderful time; finally all three members had time to spend
with their kids and wives, who had been too far away, far too often.
Of course, Rush doesn't have to tour as much these days, even though
the demands to do so are increasing. Lee can continue his interest in
architecture-and demonstrate it practically by supervising the building
of his cottage on Georgian Bay. Lifeson can indulge his passion for
flying (he's been a pilot for 100 years) and Peart can take time to
cycle his way around China or Africa, and write about his travels to
exotic places in lavish volumes with print-runs of about 100 copies.
Once the new record is finished, he plans to cycle through rural Turkey.
The music these three men make is as vital as ever. Rush-two decades
later-is a band with 30 million fans around the world.
Reprinted without permission from the Winter 1991 issue of Canadian
COMPOSER.
----------------------------------------------------------
[ I believe Frank's full address should be:
tools!fl@uunet.uu.net or fl%tools@uunet.uu.net :rush-mgr ]
Date: Wed, 21 Aug 91 13:18:40 +0200
From: tools!fl (Frank Lancaster)
Subject: Interview with Geddy, 19th August 1991
Crossing The Dreamline
An interview with
Geddy Lee
19th August 1991
by Frank Lancaster
On monday evening at 18:20 on the spot, Geddy Lee called all the
way from Canada to Germany. At the german end was a very nervous
first-time interviewer, fiddling with his recorder.
F: I'd thought we'd start talking about the new album.
G: OK
F: The first obvious question you have when you listen to it, is how
did the rap get into "Roll The Bones"?
G: Well, we've used spoken stuff in the past in various songs, but
this time when we were approaching it, we thought we'd have a little
more fun with it. At first we weren't really sure...
[and here it happened, I was fiddling with the recorder and lost at
least two seconds of the interview, I'll never forgive myself]
>...if it would be just a rhythmical thing in the end. It ended up
being a bit of both.
F: Who speaks the rap section.
G: Oh, that's a mystery guest.
F: A mystery guest? Not one of you.
G: Well, could be.
F: Could be? My idea was perhaps Neil.
G: No, it's not him.
F: "Roll The Bones" and "Where's My Thing?" are quite funky tracks.
Is this a new direction you're going or does it reflect the new
enthusiasm you had with the new album?
G: Yeah. I don't know. We've had so many new directions over the
years. The basic state of the band in terms of musical direction is a
fluid one. We're always in a kind of constant state of change.
Perhaps what you say, the kind of new enthusiasm we have for our band,
is partly responsible for that. I don't know, perhaps it's just the,
you know, time of the year! It's hard to really nail it down to one
particular reason. But it was definitely a very positive writing
session. And I would say that it was an optimistic recording session.
And I think maybe that is reflected in some of the groove on the
record.
F: I find the theme of the record split into two parts, the more
cheerful things like "Roll The Bones", "You Bet Your Life", which I
find especially lively and vigorous, and the sadder parts like
"Bravado" or "Ghost Of A Chance". Is this the main theme in the album,
life split into these two parts?
G: I wouldn't say exactly, but the concept of this record in
particular is a bit more to do with chance and the effect that chance
plays on our lives. From one aspect it's kind of how life and luck
seem to be almost like two roads to travel along the same direction
and any time one can cross over into the other. Whereas you know, you
think you've got your life sort of planned out and then some accident
of fate happens and the next thing you know everything is different.
So it's kind of a record that in a few different ways looks at that
theme of chance and how it plays havoc with our lives. Sometimes with
very positive results and other times with a little more trying
results.
F: I find the guitar very prominent on the album. Is it just because
the keyboards have been reduced more or was intended that way? It's
very variable and there are a lot of solos. Did you concentrate on the
guitar more this time?
G: Well, I think the last two records have been going in that
direction. Kind of a backlash against the more computer-style of
writing and the more synthesis involved in the band. We've been doing
a lot more writing in the last two albums which was bass, guitar and
vocals. I think when you start with these three instruments you
concentrate on that kind of attitude and that's a naturual result of
that. So on this record in particular we decided to use the keyboards
and sequencers mostly as an orchestration device as opposed to a
fundemental writing tool.
F: Did you use a Wal bass on this album or one of your older basses?
G: I'm using a Wal.
F: Which qualities do you like in the Wal bass?
G: I like the mid-range and bottom end in particular. It's very easy
to get it to sit at a comfortable level in a track. It has to me a
very kind of --- it's very difficult to describe --- fruity bottom end
that's quite rich. You don't have to add a lot of EQ to it to get it
to be quite present in a track.
F: Did you use it in all songs?
G: I have two different Wal basses. One a newer one which has a
slightly richer tone and my older one which has a slightly twangier
sound and I went back and forth between the two.
F: How did you get to use a Wal bass?
G: Actually I heard of them quite sometime ago when I was recording in
England. I was quite aware of them because I was a big fan of a band
called "Brand X" and the bass player of that band used to use one. But
when I was recording Power Windows Peter Collins, who was our producer
at the time, had a Wal bass and he suggested that I try it and I just
fell in love with the sound of it.
F: What kind of focus do you have on your vocals at the moment. Do you
have a special direction your going?
G: Well, yes. To me it was very important. Everytime I go in to write
a record I have a kind of hidden agenda, one area I like to
concentrate more on than others and to me song-writing is really a
mysterious thing, is always a challenge everytime round. And this time
round I wanted to really --- actually it started on the Presto album
and continued on this album --- focus on writing very strong vocal
melodies first, so them being the basis of a lot of the songs and
writing the songs around the vocal melody. So there was in my mind a
lot of emphasis on what the melody would be and how to layer the
harmonies and I really experimented in that area.
F: The drums on "Heresy" are the most exceptional, on the other tracks
they fit very well into the songs, whereas on "Heresy" the drums are
more a main instrument. Did you plan this or did it just get into the
song?
G: I think that sometimes you don't plan these things, they just
evolve that way. And when it comes time to the mix you just go what
you've got instincts in. It seemed at that time that the pulse of the
song was very important --- it's such a simple song really. It was
important that the rhythm had that kind of heart beat pulse to it,
which I think echoes the feeling behind some of the lyrics as well.
F: This is the second album with Rupert Hine, why did you decide to do
another album with him?
G: Well, I think there are a couple of reasons. Number 1: we are a
pretty self-sufficient band in a lot of ways, a lot of writing and
demoing is done on our own. But it's very helpful for us to have
especially somebody who is very well versed in song-writing. And
Rupert being an accomplished song-writer himself, he becomes a very
helpful input for us to bounce song-writing ideas off us. And also
he's been very helpful in helping us establish a slightly looser sound
on record than we had in the past. In terms of our performance I think
he has been a very good influence.
F: Peter Collins changed your production manner somewhat, you used to
record most instruments in one take and he changed it to recording
each instrument alone. Did Rupert Hine change anything in the
production techniques?
G: Not really. The tricks that we learnt from Peter we kept on on
these last two records. But Rupert's sensibility as to when our
performance is feeling in the groove and when one is a little too
stiff, that whole perception of what makes a loose performance, was
the most helpful.
F: You said that as a band you are quite self-sufficient, but it seems
to me that there's always a distinct change of the bands sound when
you change the producer, or does this just conincide?
G: Yeah, there's no doubt that when you get a new production team ---
and I mean not only the producer but the engineer as well --- it will
have a dramatic effect on your sound. But I think there's still an
essence with a band like ourselves that's been around for so long that
is always kind of the same. At the same time if you look between the
sound of Presto and the sound of this last record, there's also a
distinct change in sound and yet it's the same production team. So I
think the first record you make with a new production team there seems
to be a dramatic change, a more pronounced change in the kind of
surface, superficial sound of the band. But from project to project
there's always an internal thing that is changing.
F: Have you ever considered doing an album with Terry Brown again?
G: Well, you know, Terry was a great friend and a great collaborator
for many years. The time that we made the decision to move on from
working with him we felt quite strongly that it was for the betterment
of our education to keep working with new people. So I think that at
this stage we are dedicated to that philosophy of every couple of
records to move on to work with new people and to keep learning as
much as we can.
F: Was the switch to Atlantic worthwhile? I heard you were somewhat
unsatisfied with the publicity with Mercury?
G: Well, I don't discuss business matters in interviews.
F: Well, in Germany we had some adverts for Presto and I hadn't seen
any for the earlier albums before.
G: That's nice to know.
F: Well, what about touring. You're probably doing a tour in North
America.
G: We're starting to tour in North America at the end of October and
we're hopeful that we're able to come over to Europe sometime in the
spring.
F: You reduced touring in the last years. Is it going to become even
less or a bit more?
G: I can't see us expanding our touring schedule anymore. We tour a
limited amount for what we consider to be very good and sane reasons
and that's kind of the way we are. For us there has to be a portion of
the year that is done without touring. In order for us to maintain our
family lives and our individual interests, it's very important for us
not to tour all year long.
F: One fan from Australia ask me if you ever considered touring
Australia, it's such a long way for him to America.
G: Well, I think at one point when we were doing Japan, we did
consider doing Australia, but at that time there seemed to be not
enough interest.
F: How do you think Presto was received here in Europe as opposed to
America. Did it do well or could it have been better?
G: I think in parts of Europe we seem to be well known and well
received, in other parts we still are quite an unknown quantity and
obviously had we concentrated more of our efforts throughout the years
in touring Europe maybe that would be a different thing.
F: Yeah, especially in Germany the rock scence is still more
influenced by live gigs that videos or such.
G: Sure, but at the end of the day we only have so much time and so
many places to go there's nothing we can do about it. We do the best
we can and we go as many places as we can and we just keep our fingers
crossed and hope for the best.
F: Someone asked me if you've ever used a fretless bass? He thought
that the bass on "Madrigal" sounded somewhat like one.
G: I've tried one, and much to my dismay I found myself to be not very
good at playing it! But I have been able to achieve a fretless kind of
sound on certain tracks like the one you mentioned.
F: Your first singles were "Not Fade Away" and "You Can Fight It".
Have you ever considered releasing them again?
G: (very amused) I never ever for a minute considered it! I prefer to
keep them buried in the past.
F: You always seem a quite democratic band and very agreed with one
another. Have there ever been any difficulties when recording an
album?
G: Well, we're not 100% concillatory all the time obviously. I would
say that there have been times we've had disagreements but we've
always been able to work them out, there's never been disagreements
that have caused any kind of deep and serious rift. Obviously you have
times when you've been together as many years as we have when you feel
that you're closer to each other than other times. That's a natural
thing and we've got to periods where you kind of question your resolve
because you wonder if you're feeling the same closeness you should be,
but at other times you feel very close and very united and very
confident in a particular direction you're going through. And I'd say
that's probably the situation that we're in at the moment. We feel
very positive.
F: Yes, Neil mentions that in his release notes, that you have a good
feeling at the moment and are very enthusiastic.
G: Yeah, well, I don't know how long it's going to last!
F: Well, it would be nice if it'll last until you tour here again.
G: That's right! It'd be nice if it'll last until the tour!
F: Who's idea was the theme about chance and life?
G: It was Neil's concept. He's the conceptual man and I don't think
that the original intent was to make a concept album, it just
concurred to cling together one after the other. And I wouldn't say
that every song in the album deals with that but there is probably a
majority of songs that do deal with that, seeing how it's relationship
and effect on our lives and it's effect on the world. Not to make it
sound that gargantuan a concept because it's not exceedingly overt but
it does exist in a number of the songs.
F: Yes, and it is quite a broad theme.
G: Yeah.
F: Someone who saw the cover was a bit shocked by it becuase it has a
skull on it which is being kick around.
G: I thought it was quite funny.
F: Well, the problem is that a lot of heavy bands have these covers
with a lot of skulls and bones on them. I found it a bit different
from previous Rush covers, was it done by the same artist?
G: Yeah, same artist. Try to call an album "Roll The Bones" without
showing any bones! I found the skull quite funny, I like it.
F: Thank you very much for the interview.
G: You're welcome.
At the end of interview I couldn't think of anything more to ask him!
My mind was a blank state. Afterwards I realised that he would have
talked probably at least another 10 minutes, but I was totally spent.
That's how it goes, you have your chance and try to make the best of
it, but it always seems that it could have been better. But anyway,
life goes on and I'll keep on ROLLING MY BONES.
----------------------------------------------------------
Date: 6 Nov 91 17:18:00 EST
From: "ANDREW J WILSON" <WILSONA@vax001.kenyon.edu>
Subject: Neil Peart Interview from the Rochester Times Union, 10-24-91
Here's an article from the Rochester Times-Union, just previous to the 10-26
show, and the Bass Player bassist of the year award.
LIVING IN A BIG RUSH
reprinted without permission from the Rochester Times Union, 10-24-91
We seem to know every last, tawdry detail about the members of Guns 'N
Roses, but think fast - are the guys in the Canadian rock band Rush even
married? Do they have kids? Do they come to blows over musical ideologies?
If you're a fanatic Rush follower - and judging by the speed with which
this Saturday's concert sold out, Rochester has plenty - these might be easy
questions. But the average Rush fan probably doesn't have much of a clue; he
or she simply likes the music.
That's exactly how the band likes it.
"The privacy aspect of Rush is really just self-defense," says Rush
drummer and lyricist Neil Peart. "And from a writer's point of view, it's to
make sure I can continue being an observer instead of being observed all the
time. It's hard to write about the real world when you're not living in it, so
it's been important for us to protect that element of reality in our lives. We
need to get outside the bubble that being a rock band could certainly allow us
to create. You could build such a wall of defenses that suddenly, you'd have
no contact at all with the world outside."
In other words, Peart is happy to admit that all three members are
amrried and have children. But beyond that, he says, the band has learned,
without much difficulty, how to keep its public and private lives separate.
Rush may have sold more that 20 million records in its 18 year history - and it
may have sold out the Community War Memorial in just hours on both this tour
and the last one - but it doesn't attract a whole lot of media attention.
"Luckily, we're not Michael Jackson or anything - the National Enquirer
doesn't par on OUR doorsteps," says Peart, laughing. "We're not super-popular,
although we're self-sustaining and our albums and tours do respectably. But at
the same time, we don't sell the same number of records that Guns 'N Roses do.
They get a lot more attention because they're a part of many more people's
lives. And anyone who lives that kind of fishbowl existence, well, people will
find something to write about."
So, no - Peart and Geddy Lee, Rush's high-pitched lead singer, have
never knocked each other down. Bassist [????] Alex Lifeson has never gone to
the bathroom in an airplane aisle. And none of them has paternity suits
pending. It makes for fewer inches in the tabloids, but according to Peart,
life in Rush is uneventful. The trio rarely disagree on their musical pursuits
and genuinely enjoy working with each other.
Saturday's show is only the second on the new Roll the Bones tour, so
on this mid-October afternoon, Peart is on the telephone from the band's
Toronto rehearsal space. The guys are trying to hammer out the tour's song
list, which is no easy task.
"We basically start from last year and decide which songs have become
stale," Peart explains. "Sometimes we put songs away for a few tours, until we
feel refreshed enough to bring them back, and that's been the case with
Limelight. Now, we're ready to play it again."
But a concert can only be so long, and for every new song that's put
into the rotation, another has to exit stage left. The toughest part, Peart
says, is deciding what to play from Rush's new Roll the Bones album. He
doesn't say for sure, but fans might expect Peart's own two favorites - Ghost
of A Chance and Bravado - and Dreamline, the first hit played locally on WCMF,
FM 96.5.
"Changing arrangements can also be fun," Peart says. "In the past, our
ideal has been to play as close to the record as possible, and that's an
incredible goal to shoot for. But this time, we began messing with new songs
right away."
Another tour highlight will - once again - be Peart's lenghty drum
solo. It came at the end of YYZ on the last tour, but this time Peart has a
different plan; a "history of percussion" solo that will feature African, rock
and jazz rhythms.
"I'm not going to comeo out of a song this time," he reveals. "I
wanted a free standing piece of music with its own dynamic structure. I
haven't worked out every beat, though - I know where I'm going next, but I
don't always know how I'm going to get there. It actually becomes a metaphor
for the whole show: We do have to plan it out because we do want consistency,
but there's room for it to breathe bigger on a good night."
Another question from fans might be, "Are we going to hear the OLD Rush
on Saturday night, or the NEW Rush?"
It's a valid question. The band did in fact change its approach after
1981's Exit...Stage Left album, and those changes - more synthesizer-pop than
the band's traditional metal-pop approach - annoyed many of the faithfuls who'd
been with Rush from its Fly By Night and 2112 days.
"It's so difficult for someone on the inside to judge between early and
late; to me, the band has been a series of evolutionary steps," Peart says. "I
mean, what we went through in the '80s were a wealth of experiments that have
served us so well in the long run. For us it wasn't like we lost our way or
anything. Quite the contrary. We went off in some interesting ways and tried
a lot of things that expanded our range. I would agree that the last two
albums (A Show of Hands and Presto) have been more focused, but I think that's
been a result of prior experimentation, whether those experiments worked at the
time or not. For me to compare Roll the Bones with, say, Hemispheres would be,
'Thirteen years of evolution.' There's been a lot of change and well there
should be."
It's not just the group that has changed, though - Peart as band
lyricist has also matured. He's always been lauded by the press and fans for
his insightful, well-drawn phrases, but he says that on Roll the Bones he was
comfortable, for the first time, with subjects like eternal love (Ghost Of A
Chance). So what's been his secret?
"Discipline," he answers without hesitation. "People think songwriting
is all about mysterious inspiration, but really, it's about being on the edge
of sleep, having an idea, and forcing yourself to get up and write it down. Or
if you're in the middle of something and a phrase pops into your head, it's
about saying, 'Well, this is inconvenient , but I'm going to write it down so
it will be there in a year when I need it.' You have to save up your little
inspirations and then sit for three days if you have to, until you get the song
right."
----------------------------------------------------------
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Copyright The Rush Fans Mailing List, 1991.
Editor, The National Midnight Star
(Rush Fans Mailing List)
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End of The National Midnight Star Number 408
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