A Canadian Chart Rush
By Jon Sutherland n ush is a Canadian three piece that to do something else. There comes a point thinking along the same musical lines it "has travelled many a long tour and when you find yourselffalling into a certain makes the number tliree a nice number of endured the harrassment of commercial pattern and it becomes time to shake your people to work with. success. Their individual talents are head loose and do something else. As far as What kind of music do you listen to? I unquestioned. Each member is a the 'conceptual album' we've done that. can't remember Rush ever speaking of any magnificent musician in the progressive We've taken it to its logical limit and it's influences. hard rock sense. Neil "the immaculate" time for us to do something else. We may We've had a lot of influences during Peart is as timely and. interesting a return to it again if the time is right. stages of our career. Very early on it was drummer now playing. He is a part of a Quite freqQently conceptual albums, obviously Led Zeppelin, Jeff Beck, Eric triangle that includes Alex Lifeson on all especially a series of them, tend to become Clapton, that was definitely our beginning imaginable guitar creations and Geddy Lee compared to themselves. It adds some influences. Then as British music ' on bass, lead vocals, synthesizers and many pressure. progresseq like Yes and Genesis, people of effects. Through eight albums their sound The pressure is not the important thing. that ilk were more in the forefront. To pin has grown and matured to the pinnacle of The important thing is to keep improving. down any influences I would say basically their profession. Permanent Waves is by We've tried a few long pieces and once we'd progressive British rock music. far the band's most successful album to done it properly 'we thought what's the Rush has never ever done covers. Every date. Arguably it is their best but many a sense of doing another one right now. It's song on every album has been original. Rush fan can tell you how good 2112, A like walking on a treadmill. Yes. Farewell To Kings ,and Hemispheres are. One thing I have noticed in the evolution You would never consider doing that Geddy Lee spoke openly to Record Review of Rush is the tremendous improvement would you. about the principles of Rush'sfoundation, and range developed by all three players. I don't know if we would. We've never their recording history, and future plans. Our first priority has always ' been as even talked about it. I imagine if a How's the tour going? musicians and we've tried to get better songwriter came up with an interesting Fine. every year and with each album. That's the song that we felt very, very strongly about A lot of one nighters? whole reason for a band. The better a then maybe we'd do it. Yeah. musician you become the more you can It's never ocuffed to the band? In the past few albums Rush has used a apply that to your songwriting. Those are No because we enjoy writing ourselves. particular story line or the familiar concept pretty simple goals. Sometimes that can make it a problem to album technique. Why switch in I have thought it would be a tremendous establish yourself commercially. It takes Permanent Waves? advantage for you and Alex to have a time to develop an identity in a crowded You can only go so long before you have drummer that writes, does a lot of lyrics, arena such as hard rock. Rush came up the and it is such a brilliant player like Neil hard way, touring, maintaining originality, Rush (from left): Alex Lifeson, Peart. and sticking to the goals it made for itself. Neil Peart Gedd Lee Yes it is. When you have three people I don't know that that is the hard way.
18 RECORD REVIEW JUNE 1980
, /' It's not necessarily a bad way to do it Permanent Waves there is one curious little Yeah. The studio is a really strange though. You don't have to compromise. endeavor. The reggae flash. animal. You can go in so and the studio will And the longer it takes and the slower it The song it's from represents the radio dictate what it's going to sound like. In takes the .more you learn on the way. It's and we wanted to do several different Farewell To Kings it was the first time we . the trip that you're into not the getting styles. The reggae part is a part of music had gone away to record. It was a real nice there. , now and the little riff is something we have setting, outdoors for some of it. We had the What's up for Rush in the future? You'll been trying to figure out how to sneak in opportunity to say 'this is the kind of finish the tour, , , for a long time. (laughs) The tune seemed sound we want to get.' That was the first It's a long tour. We'll do the U.S. and to be the right opportunity for that. album where the production was in the' Canada up until about June then we're Permanent Waves is another Rush ballpark as to the way we wanted to sQund going to Europe again. statement where long instrumental like. Back to the three-piece questions. Do passages can wander but the melody will It made sense looking back now that you ever find being a three-piece a still remain coherent. A lot of bands when hanging out that long without limitation? All of the embellishments and they play hard and fast can really lose it. compromising you would eventually win'. sp«;.cial arrangements; does that ever make Well the key to a successful piece of Yeah (laughs). That's what everyone you 'want to add musicians for the tour? music is its melodic line. That is something likes to think. No. We've managed so far. It's a lot of we've been on. I don't There was more exploring on running around and I've got a complicated Hemispheres, more keyboards,additional set-up. I have a couple of synthesizers that instruments. .. I trigger with my feet. It's a crazy set-up It was al very ambitious album actually. and it keeps it interesting and on your toes. We wrote that whole album in the studio. It Have you added much to the show took us about eleven weeks to finish it and visually? it was a monumental effort on our part. It's basically the same presentation but Because of the complexity. it was something every year it expands with more visual we learned a hell of a lot from but it took.a effects. lot out of us too. By the' time we finished that album we felt that a part of our brain Is there a special formula that the band and heart was on the cover of the album. uses in songwriting? Do you all write (laughs) together? How does a Rush album get put We did lea'rn an incredible amount about together? sound and what we could do like using the There is no real normal way. They've all studio to achieve the sound you really been different. want. Some of the things on our albums How about Permanent Waves? that end up being songs started out as Permanent Waves was put together in experiments. the most traditional Boy Scout way. There The fact that we wrote it in the studio was a lot of preparation involved. It was meant we had to write it, rehearse it and the first time that we were this prepared. 'The studio is a really record it in a very short period oftime. We Everything except "Natural Science" was had to sound like we'd been playing it for written before we went into the studio. We strange animal' three months where in actuality we'd only wrote that while we were recording. Lee been playing it for a few days. Permanent We went out to this farm during the Waves was a reaction to that, We took time summer after we'd had a month's holiday think it's something you perfect, I think it is off before we wrote, we did everything and we wrote all of the tunes together. something you keep getting better at that's slowly and carefully and it's a much more Then we did a short tour of about three honing down a sense of melody. It's just a pleasant way to record, weeks and we went into the studio. matter of how complex you allow a piece of Are you going to take Permanent Waves Did you have' a chance to do anything music to get. There has to 'be a strong mel to Japan? I think the climate would really from Permanent Waves on the tour in ody to tie it together like a thread running be ripe for Rush to tour there. getting ready for the studio? through a piece of music to keep the interest There's talk about going at the end of the We played a couple ofthem. We did the there. year. I would like to go. tour with the specific idea of doing the Let's trace Rush's history a little if we What happens after the tour? songs and working the bugs out of them , could. The frrst three albums settle pretty At some point of the English tour we're and see how they would go over. nicely into the heavy metal bracket. 2112 going to record for another live album. The vocals on Permanent Waves are was the door opener in America for ,you. We'll probably do most of the material more toned down, more accessible. You Yeah it was our first successful album we've done since our last live album. came down from some of the' higher ranges and piece of music that was longer than ten Recording and playing live is going to be and changed the style. Why did you do minutes as well. It was a very important pretty consuming. You guys are pretty that? and passionate album for us. It was a very ambitious buggers. My voice is an instrument. It definitely important album for us to do' at the time. It's a good way to be 'ey. (laughs) fits the bill for what we are doing. The Because at the time we were under a lot of Are you surprised about how well material on this album required a different pressure . to write hit singles. That album Permanent Waves is doing now? sort of style which I sort of got into. It is was a way of saying "leave us alone." Oh yeah. I really don't understand the very difficult to sing very high. Farewell To Kings to me was when your charts and the nature of that animal. We Like on 2112 I would think the vocals bass guitar took on a greater prominence, had pretty much given up on that aspect a would be very difficult to perform live. It became more of a lead instrument and long time ago ' but it is pleasant. It's Yeah it was and it taught me a lot of focal point. something ,you can't really put too much things about my voice. But as far as the Yeah that was the first album where I creedence in. ' It's better to keep your vocal styling on this album it was nice to attained the bass sound in the direction of priorities straight and do what we do bring it down a notch and sing in a the sound I wanted. In the studio we because we intend to be making albums for speaking tone; it was a pleasant change for controlled the environment instead of it a long time to come. If one happens to be a me. controlling us. hit and another doesn't ~hat's great it's still I would think it would really help open You produced that with Terry Brown not going to 'stop us from making the next 'up Rush to a lot more people. On didn't you? one.
JUNE 1980 RECORD REVIEW 19