UPDATE - 3/27@9:46AM: Here's another, short radio interview with Alex on Gator 98.7 FM.
UPDATE - 3/26@12:04PM: The interview is now also available to watch on YouTube (thanks johnnyC):
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Alex Lifeson has been hitting the interview circuit the past several weeks to promote the upcoming release of Envy of None's new album Stygian Wavz, due out in just 2 days from now on Friday, March 28th. His latest interview is an extensive, 45-minute conversation with Tom Power for CBC's Q with Tom Power podcast, where Lerxst chats with Tom about Envy of None, Rush and much more. A large part of the conversation focused on Alex's early days pre-Rush and how the band was created (thanks RushFanForever):
... I played in a band, like a basement band with John Rutsey and a couple of other guys called The Projection. And our gigs were limited to whoever happened to have a basement party. And we knew, I don't know, half a dozen songs, Yardbirds, covers, yeah, House of the Rising Sun and stuff like that. And every time we played those songs, we played them over and over again. It was so exciting to be even just standing in a room with a guitar and a crappy little amp and playing. As things develop and you improve, you want to do it on a bigger scale. And John and I had done so many things together. And I said, let's start this band. And I had been jamming with a bass player, Jeff Jones, who went on to play with Tom Cochrane in his band. And Jeff was a vocalist. And we'd just been jamming, you know, casually. And I asked if he'd want to play in this band. And we got a gig at this drop-in center at St. Theodore's Anglican Church in Willowdale. It was just like two blocks from where we lived. ... The Coffin. It's great, by the way. And we, I think we probably knew a dozen songs and we just played them over and over a couple of times. And then in the fall, they wanted us to come back. And so the following week, Jeff couldn't make it. He was in actually in another band. So I called Ged because we'd also, you know, we were at school and we were jamming and all that stuff. And I used to ask him if I could borrow his amp mostly. But then I asked if I could borrow him for this gig. And he came and we played all those same songs, Hendrix and Cream and all of that stuff. And we got paid $10 and we went to, we went to Panzers after the gig and ordered fries and coaxed and plotted our takeover. ...
You can listen to the entire interview below or online at this location.
