Solo Projects
"I was involved with that. It was ten kids living on a farm together for ten weeks and the interaction between them, and the cameras were always on, like reality TV before reality TV. Allan King was the filmmaker and he had made a few films like that...I auditioned for it and there were about three hundred kids who went up for it. It didn't turn out the way Allan invisioned it would. We weren't very interesting so nothing really happened with it. It kind of flopped as an idea. It shows up on TV occasionally; I've seen it, it was on a few months ago. I was going through the channels, and there I was and it was really shocking. It was nineteen-seventy. I was seventeen at the time." - Alex Lifeson, "Closer To The Art", Classic Rock, Oct. 2004
"It was so weird, it was so nerve wracking. I don't know whether the lady who told me that 80 million people were watching was the reason I was nervous, but going out there accapella just to sing to this echoey environment was definetly not easy. But it was thrilling to turn around and see all these great ball players, having to wait for you to finish!" - Geddy Lee, WMMR Interview, Dec. 18, 2000
"In May of 1994, Neil Peart undertook a recording project which will forever stand as the ultimate tribute to Bernard 'Buddy' Rich. He and Buddy's daughter, Cathy, invited eighteen of the most respected drummers in the world to New York's Power Station studio, and for two weeks, each day, two or three world-class drummers would perform with the Buddy Rich Big Band. To quote Neil Peart: 'I'll never forget those two weeks at the Power Station. I'd walk in excited every morning, wondering what's going to happen today?' The result of this monumental project (released on CD by Atlantic Records) was some of the most exciting music ever put on tape. This DVD contains preparation for the recording, final takes, interviews with the drummers about Buddy, candid footage of the control room during play back, and more, all tied together by Neil Peart's beautiful commentary. This 2 DVD set (previously available on 4 VHS video tapes), features: Kenny Aronoff, Gregg Bissonette, Bill Bruford, Billy Cobham, Steve Ferrone, Steve Gadd, David Garibaldi, Omar Hakim, Joe Morello, Rod Morgenstein, Neil Peart, Max Roach, Simon Phillips, Ed Shaughnessy, Marvin 'Smitty' Smith, Steve Smith, Matt Sorum and Dave Weckl. A photo slide show is included as a bonus feature."
"One hot night in a village in Togo called Assohoum, in November 1989, I laid out my sleeping bag on an adobe rooftop and lay looking up at the bright stars in the perfect silence of an African night - no traffic, no television, no radio, just scattered conversations or distant dogs. As I was dozing off, a drum rhythm echoed from across the valley, two hand-drummers playing an intrelocking pattern, and it stuck in my head, only to emerge months later as the basis for a rhythm I used in a Rush song called 'Heresy'...Later, the same rhythum became the foundation of a solo piece I created in the early '90s to serve as a backing track while I practiced my marimba playing, called 'Momo's Dance Party.' A version of that little étude appears at the end of my instructional video, A Work In Progress. 'Momo's Dance Party' was also inspired by a real-life experience on that same African journey...Momo, an ambitious young man who had received some education away from the village. Momo seemed to be the only villager who spoke the colonial language of French, and he seemed to be trying to put his village on the tourist map...in the evening, the entire village gathered to put on a show for us. The children sang and dance while the men drummed, then the women performed graceful, narrative dances. The grand finale was the village choir, the rich voices of men and women harmonizing beautifully, accompanied only by one man playing a shaker, and annother playing a metal disk with a stick. This syncopated pattern hypnotized me at the time, and remains in my memory as one of the most musical performances I have ever heard." - Neil Peart, Traveling Music, pg. 297
"I just gravitated to the lonely Johnny Cash sound," Lifeson smiles, "and it was down to retuning the guitar to where the strings sound big and fat and carry the melody better. And I wanted it to feel that if you had a fire in the fireplace and were decorating the tree, you'd want to hear it again. It starts off feeling that stark lonely vibe-then you start tapping your foot, and it makes you feel good." - Merry Axemas linernotes
"We loved it! The problem with it is we got in at the tail end. I know Matt wanted to work it into the movie itself. But, he didn't get in touch with us until the last couple of weeks of their production. So it was all kind of a 'rush' job but, ah - God I can't believe I just said that (laugh). But, it was great and he's a wonderful guy, very, very funny, very smart and it was really great." - Alex Lifeson, AT&T Celebrity Chat, Feb. 10, 2003.
"It all began when co-executive producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe was talking to executive story editor Ethlie Ann Vare, a former rock journalist (Hollywood Reporter, E! Entertainment Television, ROCK magazine). He said that the top band on his wish-list to do music for Andromeda would be Rush. Inspired, Vare made some strategically-placed calls. Since Alex Lifeson is as big a science fiction lover as some science fiction fans are Rush lovers, he seemed a good fit for the job. Lifeson composed and performed the Andromeda theme, "March of the High Guard". Lifeson created the whole piece in his home studio, overdubbing an astonishing 20,000 guitars for a sound quite unlike any other main title theme on television." - www.andromedatv.com, Aug. 2000.
"Alex is a big fan of the show...Alex came to us and asked to do a cameo. The director was like, 'No, but why don't we write a whole episode based around you?' And he was totally into that. So we flew him out to Halifax and we shot with him for three days and had really great times. He's a really amazing person." Mike Smith (aka "Bubbles"). For more information click here.
Trailer Park Boys fan Alex Lifeson is seen in a cameo role as a police officer in the film, which also includes many Rush references. As part of the film's promotion, Lifeson hosted a Canadian TV special titled "Trailer Park Boys 101", which is also available online. For additional information regarding this release, click here. "Jeff Burrows is still pumped about getting the chance to play drums with Alex Lifeson and Geddy Lee of Rush. Last month, the ex-Tea Party drummer joined Lifeson and Lee to record a song for the new Trailer Park Boys movie, The Big Dirty. 'When they called me about it, I was in Vancouver working on my new band,' said Burrows, 38. 'How could I say no?...That was the band that convinced me I wanted to be a rock musician,' he said. The song they did was the often-covered "I Fought The Law", by the Bobby Fuller Four. What could Burrows and two-thirds of Rush bring to it that others like The Clash and Green Day couldn't? 'It's got a real Rush feel to it because of Lifeson's guitar,' he said. Burrows was asked to play because Neil Peart was unavailable...Peart is one of Burrows's idols, so filling in for him was a daunting task, he said." - Windsor Star, Sep. 8, 2006
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