Rush Member Solo Projects
Solo Songs
"Pieces of Eight", Neil Peart on a 45rpm flexi-disk included in Modern Drummer, May 1987
"Another thing I have been seeking for quite a while is a keyboard percussion synthesizer. I had been playing a marimba quite a lot and really wanted some kind of more portable instrument to use live and (hopefully) in the studio. Once again, Jim [Burgess] did some research and came up with a unit made by the KAT company in Massachusetts. It is available in modules of one octave and up, and basically consists of a set of soft rubber pads laid out as a keyboard. I decided on a three- octave range, and since the KAT is also a programmable MIDI controller, compatible with the Akai unit, I started collecting samples of marimbas, vibes, tubular bells, glockenspiel, tuned African percussion, harp arpeggios - again, you name it! Like many percussionists, I had long harbored a secret wish to create a piece of music using only percussion instruments, and this looked like the key to that dream! I practiced with the KAT for a few days and then, when I had a free day, recorded a 'demo' of a marimba piece I had been working on over the summer. I began with the marimba part, double-tracked it, and then overdubbed my acoustic drums on top (yes, the new Ludwigs!). I began experimenting with overdubbing different vibe sounds, a bass marimba, a cabasa, castanets, concert toms, metal sheets, African toms, and some highly tuned bongos. (All of this was played with mallets on the KAT unit.) I did use one of Geddy's keyboard sounds, but since it consisted of a marimba with a human voice mixed in, I decided that was close enough! The biggest difficulty was finding a good bass instrument in the percussion library. The bass marimba didn't provide the power in the bottom end that I was looking for, so we experimented with some other things. We ended up using an African drum called a Djembe - transposed to the keyboard - and I played the bass part with that! It made me laugh - a new definition of "bass drum"! The piece is entitled 'Pieces Of Eight' because of all the different time signatures it ended up meandering through. I hadn't thought about that too much just playing the marimba, until I had to learn it on drums! With only a day to record it all, I didn't really have time to play it more than a couple of times through, so that, too, was a good challenge." - Neil Peart, "The Quest For New Drums", Modern Drummer, May 1987
"Momo's Dance Party", Neil Peart from A Work In Progress video, October 9, 1997 (VHS), April 23, 2002 (DVD)
"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
"Little Drummer Boy", Alex Lifeson on all instruments from Merry Axemas, October 14, 1997
"I approached it in a Western-sort of 'Bonanza' kind of guitar presence, a big guitar with big, gigantic strings, if you could imagine." Alex Lifeson, "Rockline", May 15, 2002
"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
"I always liked the Little Drummer Boy because of the tonality of the song. There was always something very plaintive about it. It wasn't one of those 'up,' joyous Christmas songs, which tend to get a little overdone. Actually, I did a version of it a while ago that came out nice." - Alex Lifeson, MusicRadar.com, December 5, 2011
"O Canada", Geddy and Alex featuring South Park's Terrance and Phillip from South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut (soundtrack), June 22, 1999
"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, February 10, 2003
"March of the High Guard", Andromeda Theme, written and performed by Alex Lifeson, October 2000, available on the Andromeda Soundtrack, February 26, 2002
"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, August 2000.
"They gave me this napkin with what kind of character the song should have. I had no visuals, and written on it was 'Introduction of 20,000 guitars at this point'. I think I managed to give them around 19,856. That was great fun, a real challenge." - Alex Lifeson, Classic Rock, July 2002
"The strongest composition on this collection is actually Alex Lifeson's invigorating 'Season One Main Title (March of the High Guard).' The cue lasts for only 59 seconds, but it packs a punch that, for the most part, is lacking throughout the rest of the CD...With the exception of Lifeson's lone contribution, the 25 cues on the collection are all written and played by Matthew McCauley...While McCauley's artificial Andromeda arias are invariably expressive, his tunes are also consistently mediocre and, in many respects, surprisingly rough-edged." - Scifi.com's Andromeda Soundtrack Review
"Bittersweet Bundle of Misery", Alex Lifeson on R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour, November 22, 2005
"The Hockey Theme", performed by Neil Peart for TSN, available via iTunes Canada, January 19, 2010
"Peart and DW Drums are donating the custom kit to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, where it will be on display for hockey and music fans alike to enjoy...'Growing up in Southern Ontario in the '50s and '60s as 'a kid who couldn't skate right' was a serious handicap,' said Peart. 'Hockey totally dominated our lives for half the year - Sunday nights with my dad at the St. Catharines Arena cheering on the Junior A Blackhawks, anxiously watching NHL games on television, arguing in the schoolyard over favourite teams and players, trading hockey cards, putting them on our bicycle spokes, and playing on backyard rinks and frozen ponds, on the street, and on those old tabletop games. Hockey ruled. So, all these years later, being invited to create a new version of 'Canada's second national anthem' for TSN's NHL broadcasts was a huge honour to me, and an exciting musical challenge. The day of recording and filming it 'in the presence of the Stanley Cup' was truly one of the great experiences of my life. (Take that, bullies from 50 years ago!)' For the recording, Peart wore his trademark cap adorned with the logos of the original six NHL teams. He also wore a hockey jersey featuring his 'Bubba's Bar & Grill' logo on the front and the number three on the back, in reference to the three members of Rush. The band's name was also sewn onto the jersey's nameplate." - Rush.com Newsletter, January 13, 2010
"In 2008, some complicated publishing maneuvers resulted in the CBC, Canada's government-sponsored network, losing the rights to that music to Canada's largest independent network, CTV... CTV planned to use the traditional theme for hockey broadcasts on their satellite sports network, TSN. A director at TSN, Eric Neuschwander, attended the Toronto performance of Rush's Snakes and Arrows tour, and at the climax of my drum solo, with the horn shots and big-band action, Eric thought, 'Wouldn't it be cool if Neil played like that on 'The Hockey Theme?' He brought the idea to Andy Curran at our office (who has since been promoted to Vice President of Hockey Operations); Andy mentioned it to our manager, Ray, who then conveyed the offer to me...So many unanswered questions already leap up, waving their hands frantically. What about those fancy drums? Why was the Stanley Cup there? What's with the hat?" - Neil Peart, News Weather & Sports, February 2010
"The year before last, [TSN] first approached me about doing something and we'd just finished a Rush tour...This year was just perfect. I had time off and I was reinvigorated,' he said. 'I knew the [Hockey Theme] arranger because he was at the Buddy Rich tribute show. We needed a whole orchestra [17 musicians in all] but I knew people who could arrange that. It all came together...We played the song a few hundred times. We filmed every step of the way as a documentary [for the Drum Channel website]. I'd go home and listen to it and we only had a minute for the song but I'd say: 'There's room for more drums in there.' I put everything I knew into that one minute,' Peart said. 'I start off with some Latin patterns I'd just been working on. There are three different rhythmic steps. There's a faster one at the start, then some slower rhythms, then the climax with the full Buddy Rich snare drum roll. As a band, we wanted to be true to the melody of the song. At the same time, I'm not going to play those parade drums.' All totalled, it took Peart 60 days to record 60 seconds worth of music..." - The Globe And Mail, January 13, 2010
"The fact that it was just one minute was a perfect inspiration, really. I wanted to get everything I knew into that one minute. I spent several days a week working on it. I'd listen back to a part and say, 'There's two beats with no drums in it - I can get more drums in there!' " he laughs. "We wanted to pay respect to the original, melodically and even orchestrally, but at the same time, I was going to be rocking it up quite a bit." - Neil Peart, Jam!Music, Januarary 13, 2010
"The new rendition of The Hockey Theme features Peart accompanied by 17 musicians. The Stanley Cup was on hand to both inspire the musicians and to help symbolize The Hockey Theme's significance to the game. To further aid in instilling the hockey state of mind in his fellow musicians, Peart used a custom drum kit created by DW Drums that featured the logos of all 30 NHL teams. In addition, Peart's trademark cap was specially adorned with the logos of the original six NHL teams. He also wore a hockey jersey featuring his 'Bubba's Bar & Grill' logo on the front with 'RUSH' on the nameplate and the number three, in reference to the three members of Rush. 'Touring in Rush, we play all the same arenas as the hockey teams. Having traveled to and performed in nearly all of those arenas, some of them many times, and looking up at the championship banners and retired jerseys, you can't help but soak in the history of each city's team,' says Peart." - TSN.ca (includes video), December 9, 2009
Solo Albums
Victor
January 9, 1996
My Favorite Headache
November 14, 2000