[Rush bringing the Time Machine to Birmingham]
A new Alex Lifeson interview with the UK's Express & Star was posted earlier today. Alex touches on all the usual subjects including the upcoming tour and album. He also recalls the first time Rush ever played the UK and discusses the huge impact that all the great British bands of the 60s had on himself and Rush:
... “The first time was, I guess in ’76, when we were a relatively unknown band. I remember how exciting it was to come to the root of where our hearts lay in terms of music. There was The Who, for sure, and earlier on The Stones. For me it was always more The Stones than, say, The Beatles.
“But there were all those other great bands from the 60s. The Searchers were amazing, The Zombies were incredible. And then over the years came Cream, The Who, Zeppelin of course, Jeff Beck and then Yes – it just goes on and on and on.
“That really was where our musical tastes were centred. And I think that was more a Canadian thing as well. I think generally Canadians lean more towards the UK than they did to America. We had the benefit of absorbing from both sides.
“Pete Townsend for me was a huge influence. Because essentially they were a three-piece band and the way he structured his chords and took up a lot of space musically in the songs was really important to the way Rush developed. Geddy and Neil both were such active players and lot of the time we were all playing like crazy and it was too much and somebody had to reel it in and me being the faceless guy, I would do that,” he laughs. ...
He didn't reveal much in the way of new information regarding the tour and upcoming Clockwork Angels album, but when asked if the experience of taking a couple of their new songs out on the road for this past tour changed how the album will turn out, Alex had the following to say:
... “Well, we’ll see . . . I think once we get into recording we’ll see. I mean we record every concert and we reference those recording every week or every second week, just to see where we’re going, to see where we’re maybe slowing down or speeding up, those sort of things. It’s a very analytical listen.
“But I have to say that those two songs sound really good and they sound a little more vibrant, that’s to be expected I think. I wish we could do that with the whole record, write the whole record and then just go out and play it for a month or two and then record it. But it’s just impossible to find the time to do something like that. But I think it would be a great benefit in how the songs develop.” ...
You can read the entire interview at this link. Thanks to BW&BK for the heads up.
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