Alex Lifeson Interview
25 Years After Victor, 40 Years After Moving Pictures
For the 25th anniversary of his solo record, Victor, and the 40th anniversary Rush’s Moving Pictures, guitarist Alex Lifeson spent a good chunk of a Saturday evening with us in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic to discuss life after the death of drummer Neil Peart, what lies in the future with Geddy Lee, synthesizers, guitar sounds, and selling off his guitar collection. This is a wide-ranging interview. If you’re a Rush fan, be prepared to cover some new ground that most interviews don’t cover with Alex.
This interview was conducted by Andre Cholmondeley, who joined MWM in late 2019. Andre is Steve Howe’s guitar tech, which is how he met Alex Lifeson and scored this major interview. We hope you enjoy it!
Interview Transcript
Special thanks to Kathy Starkey for transcribing this interview.
AG: Hello everyone, thank you so much for joining this stream. We are super excited to have Alex Lifeson here to talk about the 25 anniversary of his album Victor and it’s great to see so many people online! Thank you so much for joining! Make Weird Music has been around for about seven years and I know a lot of people are new here because you’re coming to see Alex. We have a lot of great interviews, a long history of videos, a couple hundred videos including interviews with Steve Vai, Devin Townsend, a lot of really great artists. The Residents. We’re all over the map! I encourage you to go check out some of our old content and I’d really appreciate it if you hit “Subscribe.” We have a lot of great new stuff coming up - a lot of King Crimson-related content, we have an interview coming up with Henry Kaiser and Andy West of the Dixie Dregs, and a lot of other really interesting artists. Thank you again for joining us today. I am going to kick this off by introducing you to Andre Cholmondeley who will be the host of this interview. Andre thanks so much for facilitating this conversation and Alex thanks so much for your time.
AL: It’s a pleasure.
AC: A pleasure to be here and YES! (laughs)
AL: Good to see you again!
AC: Good to see you too! How have you been?
AL: I’ve been okay. You know, as everybody, just dealing with this Coronavirus and all that the pandemic brings changes in our lives. Doing okay, a little bored, but starting to get into a few little projects and just trying to keep as busy as I can.
AC: That’s great to hear. Yes, we last met at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, looking at guitars. We’re here to talk about all kinds of things, folks, but one of the things I noticed just a few weeks ago is that it’s the 25th anniversary of Victor, the great record you put out in 1996. What’s also remarkable is that it happens to be the halfway point in the incredible journey that we’ve all been on musically with you. What’s interesting too is I remember at that time you spoke about the record being very cathartic, very spiritul for you, very cleansing. It was an interesting record lyrically and you said it had you dig down and kind of restart. It was a start. Any Rush fan knows that you guys have always changed and developed and evolved over the years, but after that record, wow, there was fresh stuff coming out of you. Reflect back on that for a minute. Did it hit your goals in terms of a restart?
AL: Sure. You know Geddy and his wife Nancy were expecting their second child and Ged wanted to take a year off. We really hadn’t taken very much time off at all up to that point. He wanted to take time off to be with her and the new baby and all that stuff. I thought a year off might make me kind of antsy but this was a great opportunity to into something on my own. Doing the record was really all about just wanting to do something and keeping myself busy. I worked on the whole thing - writing, the lyrics production, all the record, working on the cover and all the artwork - everything about the project I was involved in, as you would expect a solo record to be. It was a really good exercise for me to explore some of my own musical ideas independent of my two partners. I love working with those guys - Ged - my best friend forever - but this was something about me. It was something I really had to do to prove myself that I could actually make a conscious effort to do something BIG that required a lot of work, dedication and attention. So I dove into it and I got together with a bunch of my friends and they played on the record. It just started growing and growing and became the project basically for that year. I came out of it feeling like I’d really done something special for myself. I was of the opinion that even if no one bought the record, if we just sold one record, it was a success! It was all about going through this exercise on my part. Recorded it in my basement in my little studio on the ADAT machines, all my amps were there and my guitars, friends that came over to work on the record stayed over. It was really a fun event for all of us. Looking back on it lyrically it was a very difficult record for me to do. I’m not a lyricist, and having such an amazing lyricist in the band like Neil. It was hard not to be influenced by that and try to write at that level which was just not possible for me. I feel like I did the best that I could if I was to do it over again I would… I don’t know what I would do. Spend more time on the lyrics or try to do it in a different language or something and fool everybody. (laughs) Again at the same time there were a lot of people who were having problems in their relationships around me - friends, family members - so there was a lot to work from at time. But when I got through it was really a treat for me. I still feel very proud of the effort and it’s definitely a love of my life.
AC: Wow! That’s great! I love it too. Many things I love about it but I love the timelessness of it. When it came out - there are some synthesizers on it , some textures, some spoken word things - I speak to Rush fans a lot who still haven’t heard it. It kind of went under the radar. That’s why I was excited to give it a little spotlight. It’s quite timeless - the word timeless is kind of trite - but what I love about it is there was always the discussion of the time when Rush went into a lot of synthesizers. You’ve said a lot about that in interviews that some things you would have changed, some things you’ve liked over the years. Talk to me a little bit about the synthesizer approach - wow - there are synths on more than half the tracks. Beautiful stuff! How do you feel now about where synthesizers and guitar kind of ended up for you throughout all those years?
AL: You know I don’t have a problem really with keyboards. Certainly with Rush we always wanted to go somewhere else - to explore something else. Very early on, in the later part of the 70s when we started to introduce keyboards in the band - we took it upon ourselves to learn how to play those things. Geddy played a little bit of piano so he sort of got into it. I had a little bit of background so pedals and other keyboard stuff. That was always something he did. When we got to the mid 80s with Rush we really dove into the whole production thing working with Peter Collins - he came from that sort of background so the whole exploration of really developed keyboards happened. That happened in the recording process before the guitars. Now I was competing for space sonically amongst the keyboards. It was a real challenge to fit the guitar in once that you had all the mid-ranged keyboards laid in. I’m proud of those records we did back then. I think they are really unique for us in our whole history but it was definitely a tough job to work around what we were doing there. I kind of missed the drive of the guitar because it became so layered. I think in the early 90s we turned around a little bit and started to get back into that groove. By Counterparts we were sort of right back in there and had a nice balance of keyboard events and guitar and the power that brings. With Victor because I had an open slate I could do whatever I wanted. I worked with my son Adrian on a bunch of stuff. He’d been writing and playing a lot of electronic music. Although he started with guitar when he was about 14 or 15, that was the kind of music he was into for his age. He brought a lot of really cool melodies, a lot of the technical end of mapping keyboards and sequencing parts and things like that. It became fun for me to fiddle around and do something keyboard wise on my own, having my own material and being very open about the way I was putting it together. For me it was no conflict at the time - it was all part of putting it together.
AC: That’s great to hear you reaffirm that you really did love that material as you’ve said in some interviews which is great. What a special time as a fan, I was a big fan of synthesizers so suddenly when one of my favorite bands integrated all of that stuff into Signals, Power Windows… what’s really cool I think for any Rush fan is that you’ve always changed. A lot of great guitarists kind of pick a sound, pick an axe, and that’s what they use, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Angus Young, SG, Marshall - I’ll take it all day long! But one of the inspiring things is that you’ve gone all around the map - from the stacks to the Strats sounds to the piezo type pickups - back and forth. Really remarkable, Thank you for giving us all the template there to experiment. The question on post-Victor: We can hear so many new things you came up with on that record. Right after that you guys didTest for Echo and Vapor Trails. Things got very textural. One interesting thing about Vapor Trails is that there aren’t really any solos. You’re all very expansive and textural. Talk a bit about that period as we come forward in time.
AL: Vapor Trails was a very very difficult record to make. Neil was returning after his tragedy - a few years after the loss of his family basically. When Ged and I were writing material, I didn’t want the spotlight, a solo in the song where the attention was on the guitar in that way. I wanted it to feel like it was a real band effort, the three of us coming back together after coming very very close to never working together again. In my mind, I didn’t want to stand out in any way. I just wanted to be a part of the team. We kind of wrote in that way. That record took us over a year, and two or three months, to make. In the very beginning we were writing stuff, we hated it and got rid of it. We’d never had that problem before. Neil was coming back after not playing for a few years. It was a climb for him to get back into shape for recording. There were a lot of challenges at the time. Our souls are really in that record. It’s a very unique record for us and it represents that period that we were going through which was very dark, but at the end of it, we came out of it into the light. It’s actually a positive move forward.
AC: Yea. That’s beautiful. It might sound extreme but there are so many life lessons when folks have really enjoyed the art of Rush and what you’ve all said. Selflessness is one of those beautiful things. Anyone who has seen the movie knows what dear close friends the three of you are - still - in the universe. What a great point that you came to that point that you came to that record and said it’s a team and we don’t need the spotlight. Jumping back to Victor, that’s also something remarkable that you decided you didn’t want it to be “Alex Lifeson’s record” - it’s Victor - the team spirit, with the record. Now, there are some rumors out there that you had some other ideas, wanted to follow it up, something maybe with Sarah McLachlan…? Tell us how real any of that was or if you have any other bank of songs for “Victor Continued”…?
AL: (laughs) Sarah McLachlan?! I didn’t hear that one! That’s not true. She’s awesome but that was never really talked about. Over the years because I have a studio at home forever when we had time off I always wrote stuff. I don’t know how much - hours - of new material. Stuff I could develop with drum samples. Sometimes friends would come in and help with it. I think I spoke to you about it at the Rock Hall of Fame. Steve Howe was doing this. He was releasing some of his demos and we were talking about it. It occurred to me that this would be a great avenue for me and a way to release some of this kind of cool music from at the time, not super produced, not a big record kind of thing. Cool little musical vignettes of where I was at at that time. I still have all that stuff, still talk about doing it. I’ve done some writing. After we finished the last tour in 2015 I couldn’t sit still so I started just writing on my own and doing some stuff. Geddy was working on his book. We talked about getting together and doing some stuff together but it got very very busy for him even after he finished writing the book, taking it on the road. We never got the chance to sit down and start working or just having fun together. We still talk about it, and I’m sure we will. Of course now with the pandemic it’s kind of wrecked things for a bit. We’re both eager to get back together and kind of get back to that thing that we’ve done since we were 14 years old that we loved to do. We work really really well together. We’ll see what happens with that. I don’t know. I go back and forth. I’m kind of a lazy person. The prospect of doing a record after doing Victor and spending a year on it and knowing what it took…. . I don’t know if I’m in a hurry to do that sort of thing again. The advantage of working on my own, in my own place, is that I can work whenever I want to and it takes the pressure off a big release. Those days are sort of over anyways. I would just love to share some of my music if anyone is interested in hearing it. You know, at some point in the future…
AC: That’s exciting to hear! I think I can speak for people around the planet who would absolutely be interested in that! You had said you had heard some of Steve’s sketchbook demo releases and they are wonderful. They are really inspiring. I’m going to jump around to some gear a little bit. One of the fun things that day for me was having you and Geddy come by to check out Steve Howe’s guitars. One in particular - an incredible guitar that you are one of the only other rock guys associated with it - the beautiful Gibson ES 345 Stereo. WOW. Is that in the game lately? Is that something you’ve picked up or done anything with?
AL: It’s a 355 - the white one that I have. I have a 345 and a bunch of 335s back here. In fact the one you see here is a ‘58 - the first year that they made the 355s. That’s a very sweet sounding guitar. We’re renovating our condo and getting close to the end finally. I just took a bunch of guitars off the wall to take to our place because I will have a nice little working space in the new place. That’s where the 335 is going right now. It all depends - I’m fortunate. You can’t see the rest of the guitars but this wall behind me here goes up to about 16’ and is all covered in guitars of all sorts. I’m by and large a Gibson player but I’ve played lots of stuff. PRS I played for many years. They make a fabulous instrument. The Gibsons. I have some nice Fenders. Some Teles that I love. It really all depends on what I’m looking for in terms of character. I just pull it off the wall! They all speak a little differently. Being as old as I am, I’ve gotten to play almost all of them, usually on tour. They all have a little bit of history and I understand them and know their personalities. It’s kind of cool to pull things down and do some alt tunings and really have fun exploring. Lately I’ve found that I’m sort of bored with standard tuning. I’ve been messing around with a lot of alt turnings - really bizarre ones, more traditional ones. Now when I go back to standard, it’s like I’m a beginner. (laughs) I don’t know what I’m doing! (laughs) I’m a little scared about that!
AC: You said after a difficult year you were just now starting to tinker around and do some things. How does that look for the next six or eight months? Think you’ll hit “Record”?
AL: You know after Neil passed it was very difficult to get inspired - you can imagine. You lose anyone who is close, it’s a profound thing. I think both Geddy and I expected to be better with it… Neil was sick for three and a half years. It wasn’t really public information. We thought we would be prepared for the end when it came and we weren’t. We both really struggled with it. The same thing happened when his daughter passed away. I didn’t play for quite a long time. At all. Music just didn’t seem that important. It was the same thing with this and then Covid hit and now we’re all in a different mental space. For me, I think, that first year of grieving is the milestone. Once you get past that, I think, I don’t know, it’s an anniversary you can process and it becomes a little easier to handle. With Neil, I’m always seeing pictures and I’m always reminded of him. That was difficult. Now that it’s a year, I find I think of the good times we had together more than the sadness. We had SO many great times! We laughed so much over all those years. Aside from the work that we did, being a partner to one of the greatest drummers in history - and bass players for that matter - I just remember the laughing and the smiles and all of that stuff. It wraps up that picture and makes it a little easier to move forward. Once we got past the anniversary it just so happened that Andy Curran who used to work at our office and played in Coney Hatch (a Canadian band). Andy and I had been doing work together on a side project for the last three or four years - maybe longer - yeah actually longer… and I revisited some of those little projects that I left behind and started working on them again. In turn something else came up down the pipeline and all of a sudden I started playing and I’m spending more time in here and it’s the best thing. I can’t believe I wasted the last 10 months - well not wasted - but that I didn’t do this for 10 months when I had nothing else to do (laughs). This is the perfect thing for me. I’m just happy that I’m getting back into the swing of it. My fingers feel a lot better and I’m enjoying music and making music again. I’m really having fun with some of this stuff that I’m doing now. I also get to explore different areas of guitars - it’s not all heavy rock - it’s atmospheric very very funky some of it is hard and heavy but it’s an opportunity for me to explore different sounds, different tones. One of the things I really enjoy about it is that I’m trying to create guitar parts on guitar that don’t sound anything like a guitar. That’s a real treat! There are so many plug ins and I have such a pile of old gear - pedals and foot switches and all that junk. It’s a lot of fun to put that all together and go for it.
AC: Beautiful. Guitar that doesn’t sound like guitar!
AL: Yeah, it’s a challenge! It’s more a rhythmic thing or atmospheric thing. It’s really a lot of fun for me to do that.
AC: One of the things I want to talk about are some of the sessions that you’ve done recently. Speaking of guitar that doesn’t sound like guitar - you did a beautiful track on the new McStine & Minnemann, record where you did this “howling guitar.” Talk about that session a little bit - that is a great record.
AL: Marco reached out I guess about four or five years ago and he was doing a solo record. He asked if I’d be interested in playing on it. I knew of Marco but I had never met him or anything. I said - sure, I know I just came off tour - send me something and I’ll have a listen. So he sent me a track that he wanted me to play on and I did some acoustic stuff on it. This is the other thing - I love doing things where whoever I’m doing it with, they come back and say never in a million years would I expect this on this song, would never have thought anyone would think. For me, that’s the main compliment. So we did the track and I sent the stems to him and he said ok I’m going to use the stems, your parts, in the song, but I like these parts so much I want to write another song around these parts! So that’s what he did - he created another song from those same parts and we just sort of developed that. We worked together on a few things. We wrote a song called Lovers Calling. It’s a long song - eight or nine minutes I think. It’s a real epic but it goes through so many changes, so many cool atmospheric things. We brought in a singer that I’ve been working with with Andy named Maya Wynn. She’s just a fabulous vocalist. She has such a sensibility about how she approaches her vocals. They are very very emotional. It’s not rock singing, it’s something else. There’s a real depth to her arrangement - the way she puts these things together. I suggested to Marco that we get Maya to sing on the song which she did do. We had a singer previously that did a great job but was more traditional for a rock vocalisation but Maya turned it into this - oh - this thing you just fall into and the vocal wraps around you. Then the music comes in waves. So I think it was a really successful collaboration and it was great to just be able to share files - everybody works that way now basically. There was a real growth. It took about a year or more for the song to reach the point where we were happy with it. We kept redoing things and updating sounds and parts and stuff like that. Rich Chycki did a mix of it for us. Rich is on a bunch of our records. I don’t know - I think it’s popped up in a couple of places. I know Marco had it on one of his other releases. I was hoping to get it on a re-release of Victor because that was an idea that the label had, but unfortunately with COVID it all changed. Maybe I’ll send the track to you so you can have a listen to it. We are really excited about it.
AC: We would love to hear it! Marco - wonderful drummer. I’ve toured a bit with him and U.K. Now you guys were U.K. fans back in then right?
AL: Yes - Good ole Alan.
AC: Back to Victor for a minute. You said some things there that again I want this to speak to a lot of people who didn’t get to hear the record. I have a philosophy that it’s brand new to someone who hasn’t heard it. One of the things is that there’s lots of textures, guitars, telecasters, mandola is in there, right? Again with that sense of sharing - it’s really beautiful. Bill Bell does some great stuff on it. I want to talk about a couple specific tracks. Strip and Go Naked for instance - just a great short little thing, instrumental. Tell me about that track and if you’ve got some more things like that.
AL: Yeah, it’s one of the instrumental tracks of three or four on the record. We wanted to really create a song that had that character to it of the mandola, folk sort of feel about it. Bill is a great guitarist. We did a couple of things - he was working, and still does, for Tom Cochrane. Tom is an old friend of mine - we’ve been buddies for a long time and I really respect his music and his playing and he’s a great guy. We did some work together and Bill and I connected and I said, I have this time off and am going to do this solo record if you’d like to play on it. It would be great to do some stuff together. So, we became very good friends and Bill dove into the project. That particular song - I wanted to build it thru that, mandola sort of character. He’s a great slide player and he played some beautiful slide on that song. It has that double crescendo and a very dark sort of moody solo - that’s super compressed. It was a lot of fun putting it together and recording it and mixing it and all of that. I think we changed what we were going after with that particular song - no drums on it, just a drum machine for the kick and high hat maybe. That’s all the drum personality on that record. It was kinda cool I think. I loved playing the mandola and it’s sitting right over there! Again, it’s a different sort of instrument so it becomes a challenge to find cool things to do on it. The tuning is always a difficult thing on that particular instrument because it doesn’t really like being in tune (laughs) It’s always a challenge. You learn a lot, I think, by doing that.
AC: Beautiful instrument and of course it’s turned up on a couple of other Rush records. Really great. Beautiful piece, short little journey, that one. Another flavor that’s on the record - some Alex Lifeson brutally heavy riffs - the album starts with some heavy stuff. Start Today and Don’t Care, there’s almost Nine Inch Nails aggressive stuff in there. Talk to me a little bit about the track with Dalbello and the heavier stuff…Don’t Care and the Dalbello track..?
AL: Start the Day was really a song about reaffirmation and learning from difficult experiences and putting it all together and moving forward. Understanding in a relationship that it’s a two way street, and what you give is what you get back. Having that in mind in the whole concept about the record I wanted to have a female voice on it and Lisa she had a lot of records out in the 80s and she was quite a well known Canadian artist. What a vocalist! What an experience it was to work in the studio with her and watch her manipulate her voice and the microphone. It was - I was amazed watching her. She would move her hand around in a certain way, and she would get around the microphone another way. She really manipulated the whole thing - she just knew what she was doing in there. Real professional. I don’t think we did more than a few takes of whatever we were doing. She just nailed everything all the time! There’s something about her voice at that time that was kind of reminiscent of Geddy in the earlier days. I think that was an attractive thing for me in that - I wanted to have a woman singing in there but it was cool there was that connection in there as well in terms of a vocal character. I really enjoyed putting that song together. The acoustics that come in after the solo… There’s a section where the acoustics take over. I must have tracked about 10 or 12 acoustic guitars for that piece. Some were recorded acoustically and some were recorded electrically thru the pickup on the acoustic. I just love the scooped mids in those acoustics there’s a really cool character about that song that really impacts… it’s her voice sitting in that scoop - for me anyway - when I hear it. Which is kind of a cool thing. Riff wise it’s a little reminiscent of Zeppelin but at the same time I can’t deny my inspiration and my roots. I even said that to Jimmy Page when I met him the first time that he had been such an enormous influence. I gave him a copy of the record and I said, “Please accept this with my total respect. You are all over this record. Sorry.” (Laughs) That’s where I came from and that is what I hear. I hear him, I hear Jeff Beck, I hear maybe Steve Howe. I mean all of those guys were so important in my growing up and now I’m an old man who I suppose who inspires other younger players so it’s kind of cool that you move that forward throughout generations.
AC: It’s beautiful to hear that. Before I go to a couple other tracks, on this topic, as a Rush fan, too, you always talked about what you were listening to. There are some great interview clips and Neil wrote the book about listening to music on the road. You’ve always said - Hey I’m into this, I’m into that. This is exciting to hear that you are doing some music moving forward because that’s what it’s about. It’s about today and looking to the future. So excited to hear that tonight. Looking back for a minute, I want to remind people, in a couple of days, Moving Pictures is going to be 40 years old. I forget the date but in about two weeks. I don’t have to say what an incredible album that is, and to your journey. A track I want to talk about is the last one, Vital Signs. That track - you’ve got the little bubbly sequencer synth on there, you’ve got your guitar takes a new turn and pre-stages you doing the Andy Summers stab chords. I think it’s an incredible track. Also what’s incredible are the lyrics are about this stuff that no one knew about - filters and random sampling and all this stuff that if you look back prestages a whole bunch of stuff. Take us to that track a little bit - that could come out today with the little “doodoo do do do doo” (laughing).
AL: That’s 25 years…that’s tough enough with Victor. Forty years is a real stretch! Moving Pictures was by far the greatest record that we made, from our perspective. We had such a great time making that record. We were in a great space. We spent the summer working fairly close to Toronto, to home, writing it. When we went into the studio and started recording, everything about it fell into place. We really enjoyed the experience. The material was strong and all that stuff. The recording process itself was really a lot of fun and for the most part quite smooth. That doesn’t happen really very often. I could tell you horror stories about Grace Under Pressure - that was SO difficult to make. And Vapor Trails. But Moving Pictures was really a delight. When we came to that song - that jogged my memory - we had stuff on the record like YYZ (Y-Y-Zed) and Limelight and Tom Sawyer that were pretty big block traditional sort of rock songs. Maybe a little more concise than our previous writing as we were moving into that kind of writing economy that we sort of moved into from the late 70s. But when we came to that, it was just really different in the way we arranged it and put it together. Starting with the sequencer, and having that part, then the guitar part, and Neil was really into that kind of drum approach to that ska sort of more of a reggae-ish modern [inaudible] and he was really looking forward to that, and he was messing around with electronic drums at the time too. It all became a part of this little exploration that touched on certain things that were coming to the world from that point forward. That’s really it. I don’t remember much else about it. (laughing)
AC: It really kicked the door open to a time and a sound. I’m getting a couple questions in - let’s see - we’ve got a couple good questions from people. I wanted to talk about Canada for a second too - a country near and dear to my heart. I have a lot of family there. There’s just something in the water, I mean, there are you guys, you talked about alternate tuning before, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, then there are those great bands, like Gowan, Toronto, Oscar Peterson, Drake, Max Webster. Toronto. I love that you have worked with so many folks, Tom Cochrane, Red Rider. Have you been in touch with Jeff Jones in recent years - the early bass player?
AL: I haven’t seen Jeff in about four years. We did a gig together actually at the golf club that I’m a member at. It was their 10th anniversary in 2016. They wanted to do something really special, the owners at the time. They asked Tom and me if we would put something together and play. At the time Jeff was still playing with Tom for many many years. He was in Red Rider, and he continued with Tom over the years. So they were like a back up band. They came to do the gig. We got a big stage, lighting, PA all over the club and outside, it was like a real legitimate gig! There were about 500 people there. Members and guests. It was one of the best gig experiences I’ve ever had - we had so much fun! I got to play with Jack then. We did a bunch of Rush stuff, some Tom Cochrane stuff. I would bump into Jeff over the years when we played with Red Rider in the earlier days. Like I said I haven’t seen him in a while but we do cross paths. It’s pretty remarkable that 53 years later we still have a connection which is pretty cool. That was really a fun night. Bill came, played with Tom, we played an acoustic set, we had the Trailer Park Boys come in from Halifax and they did their schtick. It was a real special night - we had a lot of fun.
AC: Was that captured at all? Is there video?
AL: I don’t know if there was any proper video done - that was an oversight! We should have done something! I haven’t seen anything ever but I don’t know, maybe there is something?
AC: Of course..There are a lot of hard core Rush fans here that know that you and Jeff - that was the beginning of the band in 1968, with John Rutsey, and Jeff. Also Pete Cardinali, who plays on Victor. I know you did a lot of jamming with him at the Orbit Room. Tell us - what’s the status of the Orbit these days?
AL: The Orbit closed down early last year. I sort of drifted away from the club. I was there for 20 years. Things change. I was very excited in the beginning. I used to go and play whenever I had a chance on Friday nights or Saturdays. I played with the Dexters. Pete was in the band. But as things progressed, you know, it’s a tough business. I just sort of, I think I just kind of lost interest and it wasn’t part of my life so much anymore. I hung in there, and Tim, my partner, kept going and eventually I decided to get out of the business and I left a few years ago. He carried on for a while and then I think it was just too much with COVID coming and it was never going to survive. It was a struggle as it was. The Orbit room was a very cool place. In those early years particularly. It was live music every night in the city you didn’t have that back then, a place you could go to for live music. It was very different night to night. R and B, Jazz, all kinds of stuff. It was really a fun place. I find all those places they have their life and then it moves on. We had our regulars and eventually they grew up or they moved on. Things change and it loses their specialness I suppose. But we had some really great times there.
AC: That’s a very honest and realistic look. There are some great videos out there folks of Alex playing some blues stuff, some funk stuff. A couple questions from the folks out there - Christopher Clements asking: As a total gear head, is there the “one that got away”? A guitar that you still wished you could get or you missed?
AL: Not in terms of guitars. I was never a collector in the early days. I regret that. In the 70s for example, I would have had greater access to a larger number of vintage instruments that weren’t particularly vintage - like older Les Pauls from the 50s and particularly from 1960. So I never took advantage of that. I always believed that guitar is what YOU do with it. It doesn’t really matter. Most of my guitars from back then are vintage now only because I’m this old and they are old as well (laughs). In the last seven or eight years I did start to vary my collection a little bit and get a couple of older vintage guitars - a Getsch, a 57 Les Paul Gold Top. The 335 - a couple of those a few from that era. I don’t know… I have a Tele that I used… it’s a ‘58 reissue and I bought it in the early 80s. I traded an SG that I wasn’t crazy about at the time for this guitar at a music shop that wwe used to deal with. I tell you, I’ve probably written eighty percent of our music on that guitar. It’s so comfortable to work on. I took all the finish off the neck. It’s just bare wood and it feels great. I love the sound of it. My hands just feel so comfortable on that guitar. For writing, that was really the one for me. Kind of the standard writing guitar. Of course I used it a lot on the records. Typically back then it was a Les Paul on the left and the Tele on the right, or some sort of combination like that. I have lots of guitars and they are tools and I use them and I know them. There’s nothing that I feel like “Ah Damn it! I missed that one!” Or an amp or anything like that.
AC: Another question: What a beautiful book Geddy did - Geddy’s Big Book of Basses. Is there a thought of documenting these at all, either on the web or doing a book, or somehow telling that story?
AL: Not really, no. I saw what he went through (laughing). It’s a little different for him. It became this whole exploration for him of all things bass guitar. He started collecting before he did the book. It’s not like he was collecting for forty years. Most of his collection is more recent. Once he got into the book he wanted to get specific instruments or models and write about those things, it’s history and all of that stuff. Like I said earlier, I’m a little lazy. I’m not that committed or feel the need to jump in that deeply into something like that. In fact what I’d like to do sometime in the near future is to sell my collection. Would keep a handful of instruments but I’d love to sell my collection for some charities that I’m involved with. I think that would be really a great way for these fabulous instruments that have been so sweet and dear to me to carry on and do something very powerful and positive for the world. That’s something that I’ve been exploring in fact in the last few days.
AC: That’s beautiful and what a way to put it forward. Over to Victor again, on that note, go check the lyrics out on this record. As Alex is speaking about, they get into some very interesting areas. What’s interesting is that the last track on the record, I Am the Spirit, as you’ve said before there are some dark moments, there are some humorous moments. That song just pulls it all together. So positive about life, different things. Talk to me about that song because I love that one.
AL: I wanted to close the record with a very positive statement. Kind of reevaluating myself or anyone for that matter, your strengths and your weaknesses, they make up your character. They both work together - the yin and the yang. Your weaknesses are just as important as your strengths. This is how we progress, learn and move on. In terms of a relationship, the underlying theme is that it goes two ways. There needs to be an understanding and compromise and care and love and all of those things. I wanted to kind of encapsulate everything in that song. Even the fade out at the end just carries the melody and just gives you a chance to catch your breath and think about it as it’s ending. It doesn’t fade to infinity, it just stops eventually. You know that there is a point to get off and move forward. That’s what I was trying to get at with that. It’s a cool song. It’s traditional in a lot of ways. In a rock format, but halfway through the song it becomes another song that is completely different. It’s a really important part of the story of the song. It’s a chance to catch your breath and surround yourself with a different energy. I know that sounds corny but….
AC: No, the lyrics, I go back to them all the time. It’s some uplifting stuff. From the Rush nerd side of things, there’s a little Easter egg that I’m hearing. There’s a little Spirit of Radio lick in there.
AL: In that one, yeah.
AC: It’s like a cousin of that!
AL: Exactly!
AC: At the time you had said that you’d love to put something together and get this music on the road. Looking forward - we’re in this global nightmare and we all hope it all turns and we’re going to beat this. Do you envision that maybe that you might go on a short tour to do this material and some brand new stuff? Is there a thought of that?
AL: Honestly I think it’s very unlikely, I don’t think anybody is going to get back on the road for a while yet - probably for another year. It’s great that we have the vaccines. Although it’s been a slow beginning it will ramp up but it’s what - 350 million people in America? And I know in this country we’re in single digit progress with vaccines. Like I said it will get better but it will be a while yet. We’re going to be in this same state for another year and then things will turn around and get back into touring and live concerts and all of that stuff. But I gotta say that I’ll be 68 - if that happens! - in a year from now. I don’t know… At this age I don’t really have an interest in doing it. We toured for 40 years. I’ve lived in hotels for 40 years. I was away from the people I love and that’s all part of it and I don’t regret it. It was great. That’s the price you pay. I hardly saw my dad when I was growing up because he had three jobs to pay the mortgages. We looked after ourselves. He wanted to get a leg up so he worked like a maniac! We all make that sacrifice I think in whatever we love, and our passion. After spending 40 years of doing that…Honestly, I don’t see myself sitting in a hotel room with the remote in my hand going through channels just because I have to wait for sound check or I don’t feel like going out because I don’t know what to do in town and all of that stuff. That’s kind of out of my life now. The fact that we’ve been off the road for over five years, I don’t really miss it. I love playing! I do a couple of gigs here and there, locally, and it’s always a treat to get up and play in front of an audience. But I can’t say that I have this gnawing desire to get up and do it. I did it! 40 years is a long time to be in a band and touring the way we did. Very very few bands that have done that.
AC: You guys did the miles and wrote the book on a lot of that! Hopefully if there’s one or two special shows, we will travel ! If you just did something in Toronto.
AL: Never say never, right? You never know! I don’t know if Geddy feels the same way I do. I think he’d be up to playing something live, whatever form that is, but we haven’t really gotten to that point in the conversation.
AC: Never say never! I love that - a great quote from tonight. Thank you so much for spending the time with us. We’re getting to the end pretty soon. Before I forget, I wanted to give a couple thank yous as well. You remind me… talking about how much time Rush has spent on the road. Just one of the bands that really clocked those numbers. I wanted to thank Skully, John McIntosh for putting this together. But I also want to thank you guys - very early on, the selflessness. I think it’s the theme of Rush, you, the material, the fact of sharing, and friendship. I want to thank you for touching base on that personally and lyrically. One thing your band always did was very early on you acknowledged you couldn’t do it without your crew. We all knew those names - Howard and Liam Birt - and all those folks, that was really remarkable. You guys kept the same crew for the whole time! That was amazing! That says so much about the band. Tell me a little bit about your wonderful crew.
AL: Our band crew, like you say Liam and Skip and Howard, Tony, Jack Secret…..Those guys were all there in the beginning and were there pretty much, Skip wasn’t, until the end. A lot of other crews lighting or sound or raisers or whatever - the hired crews - they often came back because they said I don’t care what tour is coming up, I want to go back to Rush when they come up. It was a beautiful thing to us - quite a compliment. You know those guys work so hard! We fly in or come in on a nice bus or whatever, and you show up at the gig, sound check, you have to eat, do the gig, everyone claps and cheers and get all the adulation and then you leave, get on the plane and go. THOSE guys, and you know this, - slog it out! Putting the gear up, taking the gear down they’re in our case there was such a loyalty of our crew. They would cover for each other. That doesn’t always happen for a lot of crews. A lot of times there’s a lot of separation between the lighties and the sound guys and the band crew. They don’t always get along. WIth us, those guys were filling in for other guys on another crew because someone was sick or something came up. It was a really beautiful feeling of unity throughout our crew. We always really respected them and always tried to treat them as well as we possibly could. You’d hear stories about some bands and their crews that were treated so wrong. The immediate people you work with - either on stage or in an office - at the end of the day you have to respect them, give them space, treat them right. Who are you big shot? Rock star? NO. These people work hard and they love you for what you’re doing and respect you. You have to give that back. We had such a great relationship with our crew. We honestly loved them all. They were all great to work with and were part of our family. I still talk to Scotty - I spoke to Scotty my guitar tech this morning in fact. We haven’t even worked together in six years. We’re still connected. I hear from Liam it’s a good feeling. Lifelong friends. Brothers.
AC: Really inspiring! A lesson we all saw early on. To the Rush crew!
AL: I’m glad you brought that up. This world needs more of that - unity and respect. Particularly after the last 40 years in American and now a pandemic we have this fighting… I spent 40 years in that country - longer than I have in Canada! It’s heartbreaking to see what’s going on. Get it together and stop it! You know! Easy to say that but…
AC: As you say…. compounded by this global.. viral thing and I’m happy that a lot of people did take it seriously. At this point there’s no fooling around here –this is biology! It happens over and over in history. We’re just not tuned in - we can’t control everything. Thank you for saying that. Couple other questions from the stream. Someone - Armin Alic - says knowing that your parents were from Serbia, we’ve all seen some great things in the movie about that, do you have any connections to your Balkan roots? Any relatives there? Influence?
AL: I grew up in a very Serbian home. My parents spoke English but we spoke Serbian as well. I didn’t speak English until I was about, well, until I started kindergarten. We lived in a part of the city when we first moved to Toronto that was a very ethnic, ghetto kind of area of Toronto. It was all Czech, Bulgarians, Hungargian and nobody spoke English. All the kids played together. There was always music. Serbian music or Yugoslavian music playing in our house. My mother loved it. My father couldn’t really care less about music, so much. He was sort of a blue collar and not really interested in the finer things. There was always that culture… has always a part of my upbringing. Three years ago I went back to Serbia and took my mother and my two sisters. We went back to my father’s home town of Šabac about an hour from Belgrade. We spent a week there visiting my cousins and the people that are left of my family there. It was a remarkable experience for me. I had been there in 1965 when I was 12. I spent the summer there with my dad and my younger sister. I have great memories of that particular trip. So it was great to back so many years later and still see the town is pretty much the same. There are some newer buildings there but not a lot. The economy is very poor there, people are generally very poor. What I noticed was it does not matter the things that you have, it’s all about your family, all about your friends, it’s all about sharing. We went out with my cousins a few times, for dinner with their friends, and nobody’s got any money but it doesn’t matter. Everyone has such a wonderful time being together. They all love each other very very much. All the friends. It was a beautiful thing to see. My Serbian was very rusty. It got better at the end of the week. It was a little comic at times, I think for my sisters and me. It was really really a beautiful experience! Now, I’m in touch with my cousins all the time. At least every other week at the very least which is nice.
AC: Spectacular. You’re right - family.
AL: My dad used to go back from time to time. He built a shed on their little piece of property in the back that they converted into a home - a one room shed but it’s got a bed and someone sleeps there. My dad built another utility shed back there. He would go and do these things for them because they didn’t have anything. He was that kind of guy. In that way I feel like I’m carrying on his tradition and paying homage to him by doing these things and supporting my family over there.
AC: That’s beautiful. Giving back. Beautiful part of the world. I’ve been there just once on tour but wow! Beautiful old buildings and warm people…
AL: Crazy though… (laughs)
AC: (laughs) You had mentioned a little earlier there was a thought for a minute about re-releasing Victor. Who knows with the record industry stuff. Do you have that now? Could you re-release it online so people could get it with some extra tracks?
AL: That was the intention. I wanted to at the very least remaster or maybe remix it. In fact, when they first talked about releasing it last spring I thought ok well this is an opportunity to do the remix. It’s a little bass light, the record. That’s my fault. I was just not hearing things the way I should have been. So this was an opportunity, for me to get in and remix it and freshen it up a little bit, like we did with Vapor Trails. But as time passed I was going to add a few tracks - Lovers Calling was one of them and a couple of other tracks from my little clutch of my stuff, little bits that I’d had written about that same time. I’m really not quite sure what happened. As time went on with so many other distractions the record company just decided not to do it. They re-released Gedd’s My Favourite Headache, last year and they wanted to do it with Victor but it didn’t come to be.
AC: We hope it does! Just judging from the comments and support tonight people…. there is an army of folks around the world that would love to hear it especially with some additional stuff. On the record again, the synths - I just love because I’m a big synth head. Do you remember what you used on there? I’m hearing Prophets or Oberheims? Do you remember what’s on there? Virus?
AL: I used a Prodigy, a Prophet I used some rack-mounted synths. I can’t recall the names. That was all Adiran’s gear that was up in our studio. I just basically took over his stuff. (laughs) As I said, he’s a co-writer on four tracks on the record. They were his keyboard ideas.
AC: And the correct way to say your last name… and Adrian’s last name….?
AL: My proper surname? Živojinović (ZIV-o-yin-o-vich)
AC: WOW. ZIV-o-yin-o-vich. Everyone messes it up.
AL: Yes, it’s a scary looking name! That’s why I’ve used Lifeson for almost my whole life!
AC: Is Adrian doing music these days?
AL: He does a little bit still. He has a group of 3-4 guys that he likes to work with. We have a studio downtown in the city that’s more like a writing room. All my gear is there and his stuff. I don’t know how much they’ve been doing this last year but up until then they were down there quite a bit. I don’t know if they go there to just smoke pot and drink wine and have fun which is what I think is most of what they do and I don’t blame them. They make use of the space for sure.
AC: That’s great. So people can Google that and find some of his work perhaps.
AL: Yes, they’ve had a few limited releases. It’s good - trancy kind of electronic music.
AC: I’ll be looking for it tonight. (laughs) We have a couple fun questions as we wrap up here, Alex. Again, this has been a pleasure, most of all to hear that you’re doing as well as you can, all the different ways and challenges, and that you do see a path to keep creating and sharing with us which is so inspiring. Couple questions… On that note, well it’s legal now! Did you ever think you’d live long enough? Pot’s legal in Canada and all these places! You guys did a track A Passage to Bangkok - for the Rush fans - go to one minute forty-nine…. (mimics sharp inhale sound) Do you know anything about how that sound got in there? (laughing)
AL: (Laughing) I forget! Yeah, that was fun to write that song! We were cannabis aficionados early on. Here it was legalized in 2014? 2015? In America… quite possibly on a federal level it’llbe legalized sometime in the near future. It’s about time. Here in this country in the early/mid 70s the Le Dain Commission was set up by the government to write a paper on the legalization of marajuana. They recommended, at that time in the 70s that it should be legalized. But…the American government was not interested in having a neighbor where, you know, everyone was smoking pot. This was the time of Nixon so nothing ever came of that, until his son Justin Trudeau legalized it in this country. You know what? At the end of the day it was no big deal, everyone was excited about it. We were on both sides of the argument then after a year you don’t even notice anymore. It’s no big deal. You smell it around a little bit more but honestly, it was all those wasted years, right? All the people sent to prison for a joint. (scoffs)
AC: I’m happy that here, we are getting more and more states legal and more people getting released. Fun song and that’s one of those songs - sometimes people think of Rush as this serious band, and there are a lot of serious topics. Again I look back and so many things you were right on about - Witchhunt, Show Me Don’t Tell Me, the concept of Fake News. Neils hit so many great topics. But there were always fun things like Passage to Bangkok, or your Rock Hall of fame speech , your gear stuff in the tour books. I love that! There’s a real yin yang, of just (being) light. Shut Up Shuttin’ Up. Want to close on the title track, that’s just another one. I’ve played that to so many people and they can’t guess who it is because there’s no real guitar on it. I just love that track - just a moody, ethereal, art piece. Of course I’d also like you to touch base on how you ran into a 50 year old poem by the wonderful W. H. Auden. Talk to me about Victor, the title track a bit.
AL: I had received a book of Auden’s poems from my wife as a birthday gift. I wanted to do a song that didn’t have guitar that was completely out of my wheelhouse. I was reading through the book. I keep it at my bedside and read through. I came across the Victor poem, which is very long. The song is condensed. It really struck me, and when I was fiddling around with some of the sounds there was a real darkness about it. By being judicious with some of the lyrics, I could create this vision and this dark character and dark story. Bringing in the saxophones and the other keyboard stuff. It was just something I thought that would be unexpected from me as a guitarist in a rock band. That was really the motivation on it. It became one of my favorite songs, on the record because of the way it was constructed. And how it all worked together and how the story line worked.
AC: Wow. The timelessness. I’ve said that a few times but that’s the beauty of music really. it’s all timeless. You put on Cab Calloway and if you haven’t heard it it’s new. That song in particular is from a time and place - we’re back there! A lot of people are listening to ambient music. Great synthesizer stuff. A couple things on music that we all love and listen to. I know you’ve done some work with Steven Wilson, Porcupine Tree. Have you heard his new work which is very electronic - his brand new stuff?
AL: No, I haven’t yet. But I will for sure.
AC: Super electronic and all kinds of modular stuff.
AL: Good for him!
AC: What are you listening to these days, if anything?
AL: I haven’t really been making an effort to listen to too much outside of this room and what i’m doing in this room. Generally at home here when we’re sitting around we just put in Chill Radio on Apple. I like having that background music. Just not really focused on chasing anything right now. I always find that when I’m working on something the less specific music I listen to the better. It’s ok to have that background ambient stuff but I find it sneaks into what you’re doing and I don’t like that feeling. I like to be really really fresh. You know I’ve always written in such a way that it’s always the early stuff that’s my best stuff, that speaks to me the most. Then I move on very very quickly. Maybe it’s because of the laziness or just being a little antsy. I don’t really belabor a lot of stuff. I’ll come back and I’ll listen a million times. But I like to get performances out..so l like to keep a clear head, I tend to not listen to too much new stuff.
AC: Got you. Alex this has been really so special, and I want to thank you again for giving us some time. I think I speak for all the fans here, guitar fans, art rock fans, prog rock fans, Rush fans, that we would love to hear you doing some new music, with Geddy, or on your own, so please do that. I try to not inject myself into these interviews - it’s about what the artist - but I will say a special thank you because this band has meant so much to me. I saw every tour from 1979 to 2012…
AL: Wow - ME TOO! (laughs)
AC: (laughs) You were there! (laughs) Rush college from the age of 14. The music, the guitar playing, the complete textural journey you guys have had. Most of all, that it’s going to continue and that you’re going to do some new music for us.
AL: Thank you, Andre, thank you so much.
AC: Thank you! Thanks for checking it out folks, we’ll see you soon!
AL: See ya!
