Last week we learned that the latest issue of Prog magazine contained a feature on Rush's Signals album with the cover tagline Rush: creating Signals, a synth rock opus!. The feature itself is titled The Albums That Saved PROG: Signals and contains a new interview with Alex Lifeson that was conducted when he was in London last November to receive the Spirit of Prog award at the Classic Rock Awards. Eric over at the Power Windows site has transcribed the article and made it available online here. Alex shares some of his memories about the recording of the album including its heavy use of keyboards:

... The problem with Signals, from Lifeson's viewpoint at least, lay not with the songs but in an irregular production. "In a couple of key places there was too much emphasis placed on the keyboards," he explains. "The mix of Subdivisions has always been a disappointment for me. I recall leaning over to push up the faders [to increase the guitar levels in the mix] and Terry would smile and push them back down again."

Lifeson tolerated this situation for a while, 'taking one for the team' in today's parlance - though Lee later related how the normally placid Lifeson returned to the studio with fresh perspective following a few days away, storming into the control room with the statement: "There's not enough guitar on this record for Chrissakes!"

"The language was probably more colourful than that," guffaws Lifeson at the memory. "But look, a band operates on consensus. Everybody else felt we were going in the right direction. To my way of thinking there was an imbalance, but I have no regrets. ...

The article also contains a short sidebar piece with Haken vocalist Ross Jennings. You can read the entire article/interview at the Power Windows site.