From: ericm@eebbs.isis.org (Eric Mathurin)
Newsgroups: alt.music.rush
Subject: Interview Part II
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 11:23:06 EST
Organization: Electronic Encounters BBS

[con't]

--- I heard rumours that the band was once close to folding?

   "That's not quite true.  Right after recording Hold Your Fire we did the 
tour, which was a longish tour -- not as long as the early days -- but long 
in our more recent terms.  During it, Geddy got sore in his throat often, 
and I got the flu...it was one thing after another.  It was a very tense, 
stressful tour.  We didn't feel very positive about our touring  future as 
a band after that tour.  We still wanted to record -- we weren't looking at 
the breakup on the band or anything -- but it was a serious question mark 
after the word 'tour'.  So we decided to take seven months off, which was 
by far the longest break we'd ever had.  And the seven months really gave 
us a chance to separate ourselves from Rush, from the whole scene, and we 
pursued other interests -- most importantly, we touched base with our 
families.  We'd only had three months before, which wasn't enough 'cause 
it takes you a month just to unwind, and then it takes you a month to wind 
up again, so that middle month is just not enough.  It's not really a 
break.  And after 15 years of doing this, we needed to get away from it.

   "When we went in to do Presto, everybody was fired up.  There was a whole 
new enthusiasm.  Then, while we were at dinner one night, Neil said, 
'Well, I guess we have to talk about doing a tour,' and we all thought, 
'Oh, No!'  We all enjoy playing live, but it's the touring that becomes 
boring and tedious, and it seems harder with every year.  But that tour 
went great for us -- it was by far the best tour we'd ever done.  We had a 
really good time -- the pacing was great, and the personnel were great -- 
everything was fun again.  We did a little shorter run that on some other 
tours, which left us wanting to do more.  We could have done another month 
or so, but we felt the wanting to doing more and carrying that into our 
next record was more important than squeezing in more dates.

   "When we went in to write Roll The Bones, everybody was fired up again, 
and we had the additional step along in our enthusiasm.  We really regard 
this record as a rebirth for Rush.  Now, we don't look at just the next 
record -- we're looking at three, four, or five records into the future.  I 
think, we're going to be around along time."

--- I'm told this record came about quickly?

   "Now that we've had a chance to record a lot of records, it's become an 
art for us really.  We're learning to do it better in terns of songwriting, 
pre-production, preparation...everything.  We took two months less on this 
record than we did on the past few records -- definitely since Grace Under 
Pressure.  I mean, we're happy if we finish a couple of days early, or 
we're on time that's a relief.  But to finish two months ahead is just 
unheard of for us.  I take pride in our pre-production for how efficient 
it's become, so our recording has become a very positive thing.

   "With this record, we went straight into recording after writing and 
rehearsing it, instead of talking the time off.  It wasn't supposed to come 
out until January, but since we finished early we moved everything up a 
couple of months.  Now that we feel rejuvenated and better about 
everything, we're looking forward to this tour, which will probably go on 
until July, and then we'll take the summer off and start writing again in 
September or October of '92, with our next record out in the spring of '93.  
That's not bad for us."

--- Overall, is Rush still the most important thing?

   "Hey, I mean there are other things to life than playing in a rock band.  
Not that it's not any less important than it was, it's just that you have 
to find a balance in your life between what you do for a living, and some of 
the other things that maybe you never had the opportunity to do and would 
like to catch up on.

   "Being home, in your environment, is important.  Sure, you'd like to have 
more time off to go on vacation and do stuff.  When you're on the road, you 
are so separated from the really important things in your life, like 
family and friends, and, to some degree, you're in a prison -- sitting in 
a hotel, then sitting in a dressing room, then sitting on a bus --- while 
working for two hours where you have to pack in everything, then repeating 
the same ritual over and over again.  I mean, you're whole life is just 
that for months on months, and the price you pay for that, over a long 
period of time, is quite great.  Although it sounds very luxurious to have 
three months off, I really do believe it's warranted."

--- What has age done to you?

   "I think it has tempered us.  I think there's a trade off -- you're a 
little wiser, but a little less spirited.  You look at things in a broader 
sense.  I spend a little more time pursuing other things I like.  In terms 
of the band, I think it may have tempered our music a little."

--- It doesn't seem to have affected your popularity.  Actually, you seem 
to be getting larger with this record, and appealing to more types of fans.

   "Just the fact that we've been around for so long will mean that our 
audience is quite broad, from older guys to kids of 15.  There's quite a 
big spread.  It's because our audience tends to be quite interested in what 
the band is doing -- they look at us as a long term thing, and keep up on 
the growth and development of the band.  I think, for a lot of our audience 
today, they may agree with some things, and disagree with some things, but 
they buy each record 'cause they want to see what Rush is doing.  It's a 
really great kind of evolution to see that we get this kind of response.  
I did an interview with a guy, and, and the end of it, he asked for an 
autographed picture, saying, "It's for my Dad -- he's a really big fan of 
yours.' [laughs].  I think, we wrote something like, 'Grow up...leave us 
alone.' [laughs].  This interviewer was in his mid-20's, so it's just an 
indication as to the wide spectrum of our audience.  We have fans who have 
been with us all the way.

   "On the other hand, there were fans that after 2112, or Hemispheres, 
decided or perceived that we were moving into a much more commercial or 
poppy vein -- something less hard -- and they kinda dropped the band at the 
point.  Well...that's the way it goes.  All I can say is that we're happy 
with our progression and change, and that progression is important to us.  
We're not going to keep one segment of our audience happy by just playing 
what they want to hear -- that's not what we're all about.  If we make a 
record that we love, and everyone hates, we're going to stand by that 
record.  It doesn't matter to us.  It may be the end of the band as far as 
making a living [laughs], but we'll feel we've done the right thing, and 
that's what we've always done.  I feel that's part of the appeal of Rush."

--- Roll The Bones entered Billboard at #3, your highest ever.  What do you 
attribute this to?

   "It comes in strongly because or audience is waiting for our record to be 
released, and they all go out and buy it.  After about a month or six 
weeks, we've sold the majority of our records.  Then, it's important for us 
to get out on the road and support it live.  It's great to know our base is 
so strong."

--- Radio seems to be a major player in your rising popularity (their 
latest single, "Gost Of A Chance", hit #1 on US rock radio).

   "I'm not sure why this is.  Either our songs are more radio playable, or 
else we've entered that stage where we're considered a living legend kind 
of band.  We haven't made any changes in the band, and we still do the 
things we've always done, and we're not a high profile act -- there's no 
image to the band per se -- so maybe, grudgingly [laughs], a lot of these 
radio stations are feeling sorry for us, like 'They've slugged it out all 
these years, so we'll give them a break' [laughs]."

--- Your band is one of the first rock acts to utilize technology.  How, 
from your point of view, has it affected Rush?

   "I think that we've always been on the leading edge of technology.  
Anything new that comes out we've always been first to try to get into it, 
or utilize it in the band.  For us, it goes back to a long time ago when 
we thought about adding a fourth member to the band to give us texture.  But 
we decided we had a couple of feet that weren't too busy, so we opted for 
that.  Now, of course, with the advent of samplers, it's expanded our 
ability to reproduce our records live much more accurately.  Since we've 
taken some steps in the past to develop our sound utilizing keyboards, I 
think it's impotant for us to be able to bring it to the fans live.  It's a 
disappointment to me to see a band live and not see them do their songs as 
close as possible to their record."

--- Do you feel you, as the guitarist, got lost in the technology, 
especially the heavy introduction of keyboards?

   "Yeah.  Signals was a disappointing record from the aspect of my role in 
the band.  We tried to bring in the keyboards to a more predominant 
position, and I feel the guitar on that record suffered in some places.  
With Power Windows that was difficult, too.  I'd worked out guitar parts, 
but, unfortunately, when we got down to recording it they keyboards were all 
done first, and they took up so much of the space that my guitar had no 
room.  It was really a struggle.  With Hold Your Fire, we didn't want to 
take that same route.  But, unfortunately again, the keyboards were 
recorded again first due to scheduling, but this time out we were able to 
eliminate some of it and whn we got to mixing it my guitar came though.  
I'd made sure that I was better prepared for that record.  When we put 
Presto and Roll The Bones together, espcially Roll The Bones, we knew that 
the keyboards were definitely going to be in the back picture.  When we 
wrote those records, we did everything on the guitar and bass, and then we 
used the keyboards to enhance everything."

--- What was different in the past from now in Rush's sound?

   "Our sound was more open before, and our attitude was different too.  If 
there was a solo, there wasn't a rhythm guitar under it; if there was a 
keyboard part, there was never bass.  So there was a much more open feel. 
You have to take into consideration the differences in the recording 
techniques of the mid-70's compared to now.  Things are much more produced 
now -- we look for a bigger, more lush sound now -- which in some ways we 
got away from with this new record."

--- Being that you're basically a guitar / bass / drums band with keys 
added, would you consider yourself a metal band?

   "It's tough to categorize us.  We've never considered ourselves a metal 
band, but we were influenced a lot by the first metal bands from the '60's 
and '70's, like Deep Purple and Zeppelin, of course.  Of couse now, with 
bands like Guns 'n Roses, metal is the current thing."

--- You did receive the 1991 Juno for "Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Band" (and 
are nominated for the '92 Junos in the same category, one they'll likely 
win).

   "I'm not sure why we were on that list for the Junos.  I guess that 
category was brought in to cover a certain spectrum of music, and maybe 
that's where we may more closely fit in, but we're not really the type of 
band that fits into any typecast criteria category.  It's also weird 'cause 
we don't spend 90 percent of our time south of the border."

--- One thing I've always condered Rush to be is truly unique, and your 
playing style one of a kind.  Is this a conscious effort?

   "My aim has always been to be unique.  Playing in this band, as a three 
piece, my role has always been to fill in a lot of space, so I try to 
structure my chords into chords which are quite broad or suspended, so that 
they take up a little more room, so that's how my style developed.  There 
are a lot of other guitarists who are copied all the time 'cause they're 
the big thing, but I think the guitarists of the '80's and '90's have swung 
into that technological way of playing, like Eddie Van Halen began.  In 
most ways that's good.  There's always the argument that there's less 
feeling in this, but I don't know about this."

--- Do you feel you have a large musician following?

   "Sure.  A lot of our audience are musicians.  It's rewarding to know 
that you've influenced people to the point where they'd like to play lile 
you play, wanting to be like you.  In those terms, it's rewarding.  But I 
don't give it much thought -- it's kinda embarrassing."

--- Do you miss ripping out like you used to?

   "I figure I rip now on albums like I want to rip on them.  There's a lot 
of guitar work on this album -- a lot of it was taken off our 8-track from 
the writing stage and just flown in.  Two of the solos, from 'Ghost Of A 
Chance' and 'Bravado', are among my top all time favourite solos I've ever 
done on all our recoreds, and they were just done on one take on the 
8-track.  There's a spontaneity and feel to them that, even if I could 
play them 10 times over, it wouldn't have mattered.  Stuff like this I feel 
really good about.  I don't feel I have to show off.  I can't possibly 
compete with these guys who are 100 times faster than me.  It makes no 
sense.  There's a great joke here -- 'How many guys does it take to screw 
in a lightbulb?  Six: one to screw in the light bulb and five others 
watching saying, 'I can do that.'  It's so true -- most guitarists are like 
that."

---  Live your guitar sounds just like in the studio.

   "That's part of being spoiled by recording alot.  In the studio, you get 
to play with everything, and it's right here.  So live I try to capture the 
way I sound in the studio though the use of effects.  I've developed my 
sound so that live it's quite similar to what's on the record." 

--- Because you're respected musicians, you seem to attract mostly guys to 
your shows.

   "Our audience is mostly male, and 99 percent of the girls in the audience 
were forced into going there because their boyfriend dragged them along.  
With Presto, there was a larger female audience, and this was something 
very strange to us.  Maybe it was the amount of airplay we got.  Maybe 
we'll get the same with this record.  We're not an appealing band to look at 
-- we're all older guys.  We're not cute.  But because the emphasis has 
always been on the music for us, I would guess that most of the female 
audience that comes to see us is mostly because of the music."

--- How fanatic are your fans?

   "Very!  We often read mail from people who are very keen and into the 
music and lyrics, and the there's a whole other faction who think that we 
wrote every song for them, and that's unfortunate [laughs] -- 'Hey, buddy, 
get a life!  It's only a song and music.'  It's very strange.  There's a 
surprising number of crazy people."

--- Maybe they analyse your lyrics so much because you, Geddy, and Neil 
come off as very mysterious to many people 'cause little is known about 
your private life?

   "We try to be very private -- we cherish it.  When we're on the road and 
someone is in the hotel lobby and they want an autograph, or to talk to 
you, I'll take the time.  But, at home, it's a different world.  We're very 
protective about our privacy, unless you want to live that rock n' roll 
lifestyle.  We don't hang out at clubs -- we're not into posing [laughs] -- 
were never much wilder than now, but you can bounce back from that.  It's a 
different would for us now.  Music has always been the important factor for 
us -- it's not the fact that we're in a large band, or that we want to be 
'rock stars'.  It's always been the music that has fed us all these years.  
We take this very seiously, and sometimes I feel the band has the image of 
being super serious.  But we're not -- I mean, we spend 80 percent of our 
time together laughing, joking, and goofing around, like most people.  But 
when it comes to our writing, recording, producing, and staging we take 
that very, very seriously.  We set a standard for ourselves and we try to 
live up to that.  Everything outside of that is off limits.

   "We're not darlings of the industry either for this.  We're not easy to 
get along with.  We don't go out and do things for the press, or to pose -- 
we're very low profile.  It's more attactive to the industry to have a band 
or artist with a more high profile." 

--- Since you're famous you must get to meet your heroes, especially other 
guitarists?

   "I don't like meeting the people who influenced me as a guitarist 'cause 
sometimes they're really nice, but, other times, they're not, and it 
shatters my image of what I though they were.  Sometimes, it's better not 
to meet people who you look up to in that respect.  I've had my times too 
where I was rude and felt really bad about it.  On the Hold Your Fire tour, 
I was at a club, and I'd drunk too much, and I started insulting a guy who 
was really into the band, and really respected me.  The next day I felt bad 
-- so much so that I phoned and left an apologetic message for him.  To 
this day, its huanted me, 'cuase I think of houw I shattered his image of 
me or us.  I'm sure he went, 'Fuck them,' after that.  I'm not a rude 
person, but this night I was.  I've never done that before, or since.  I 
was just at the wrong place at the wrong time, and the alcohol took over."
  
--- Let's get to another topic that is interesting with your band, and 
that's videos.  You began at a time when video wasn't used for marketing 
a band.  How do you feel about the now? 

   "Your videos have almost always been performance orientated.  It's a 
difficult thing, to be honest with you, and, this is a personal opinion, I 
don't like them.  I don't like doing them, or the idea of them.  I find 
them annoying.  I don't like what video has done to music, and what it's 
done to the whole industry.  It's suffocated so many bands that have 
talent.  You have to do them now -- record companies rely of them to do 
most of their advertising.  For many, it costs hundreds of thousands of 
dollars to do a video, and if someone at Much or MTV finds it not to their 
liking, then they can prevent it from being played, which means your money 
and time is down the drain.  I don't like it at all."

--- Is it fair to say that Rush 'made it' the old fashioned way?

   "Yeah [laughs].  We had to benefit of playing on three or four act 
shows, getting 20-minutes to show our stuff, and then come back and getting 
a better spot for more time, until we moved up to headline status.  We also 
grew from doing clubs to 3,500 seat halls, to 7,000 seat halls, to 15,000 
plus arenas.  We were able to devlop slowly and steadily, which really 
doesn't exist nowadays.  The bills going out have to be monster, or else 
people would rather sit at home and watch a video.  A lot of these bands 
that open up shows, like Skid Row, are opening acts despite selling 
millions of records.  I mean, we opened up shows in order to sell records 
-- that's how we got our sales.  And that kind of fertile ground doesn't 
exist for young bands, and that has a lot to do with video.  You get a band 
with very little talent or interest in the way of music, but they look good 
and they get a good video director and budget, and girls with big tits, and 
they're going to be big stars.  Where's the justice in that?"

--- Would you ever want to return to your roots and play again in a club?

   "No, not particularly.  I know everyone says, 'I'd like to get back to 
my roots,' but my memories were that the roots wer tough [laughs].  Now 
everyting is very organized, and there's more to chew on at a Rush show now, 
and, I think, it matched the music better.   I don't think I'd want to 
return to a small show...maybe once, but it's not an overwhelming desire."

--- Rock bands from Canada are now getting record deals, some based in the 
US.  How do you feel about the chances for a Canadian rock act today?

   "They may be getting record deals now, but where they go from there is a 
tough one.  Canada's a small country and it really doesn't get behind its 
artists, so the US is important.  For six years, we played clubs and we 
released our first records independently, and we had really good local 
success from it, but we would have gotten nowhere if we hadn't gotten 
recognition in the US.  Once we got that the whole perception by our 
country on the band changed -- suddenly we were big international stars.  
Some good opportunities and luck came our way.  We were 'discovered' by our 
first record being sent down to a US radio station, where we got big phone 
ins, so the DJ turned it on to a US company, and, within days, we had a US 
deal and an American tour.  And when this door came open, we took 
advantage of it and worked very hard.  It's a very, very tough border to 
cross, but you have to get support from that market."

--- So, what can you, as a successful veteran of this business, tell a young 
act today trying to 'make it'?

   "All you can do is persevere, hone your skills, and go for it and try.  
And maybe with a lucky break, and with someone who's willing to put a lot 
of time and effort into your band to get you known, and get a good deal, you 
may get a chance.  It's not easy."

[end]

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ericm@eebbs.isis.org (Eric Mathurin)  | "no one is blameless,          
 Sysop, Electronic Encounters BBS      |  but we're all without shame"   
 (613)820-0324, 1:163/133@FidoNet      |       -- Second Nature, Rush        
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: alt.music.rush