RUSH Guitarist Discusses Recording Process For New Album

Guitarist Alex Lifeson of Canadian rock legends RUSH spoke to Billboard.com about the recording process for the band's next album, "Clockwork Angels", which is due out in 2011.

"We've never afforded ourselves the luxury of coming off tour and then going straight into the studio when you're in top playing form," Lifeson tells Billboard.com. "We usually finish a tour and then we take some time off and we slowly get back into writing and then into the studio, recording. This time we'll go straight back into the studio and continue recording and writing while we're still in top form from the road."

Lifeson says RUSH is "a little more than halfway done" recording "Clockwork Angels" with producer Nick Raskulinecz, who also helmed 2007's "Snakes & Arrows". Two of the songs, "Caravan" and "BU2B", have been released online, and four others were recorded during sessions at Blackbird Studios in Nashville. "Certainly these two songs are pretty heavy indications of where the record's going," Lifeson says, "but there are a lot of different tonalities and soundscapes on the material that we've written so far, so I'm interested to see where we go on these next few songs."

Source: RNRCOLA

Rush May Possibly Return In 2010

Rush fans take note -- the legendary progressive rock band could be back on the road with a new album in 2010. The trio would love to work again with Nick Raskulinecz, who co-produced the last studio album, 'Snakes & Arrows,' but he'll have to hang on a bit longer.

"I think Nick calls the office once a week," laughs guitarist Alex Lifeson, "just to make sure we're still planning on getting back to work at some point."

Lifeson, lead singer-bassist Geddy Lee and drummer/lyricist Neil Peart played 120 shows behind 'Snakes & Arrows' and "were pretty beat by the end of it," says Lifeson. "We'd been working constantly for the last eight years or so, and really needed a break, and decided to take a year off. We're sort of coming to the end of that period.

"Neil and his wife had a baby just a couple of weeks ago, so he's asked if we can just wait a little bit until he gets settled and see how he feels about getting back to work or when to get back to work. So we're sort of playing it open right now."

Lifeson says he's been doing a little writing at home in Toronto, "just getting myself back into the groove again with recording and stuff like that. I would guess that sometime in the early fall we would get back together and start writing again, and then hopefully by next summer, we'd be ready to tour."