Vapor Trails Remixed

GEDDY LEE
bass guitar, vocals

ALEX LIFESON
electric and acoustic guitars, mandola

NEIL PEART
drums and cymbals

Music by Lee and Lifeson, Lyrics by Peart

Produced by Rush and Paul Northfield

Recorded by Paul Northfield, Geddy Lee, and Alex Lifeson, at Reaction Studios, Toronto, January - November, 2001, assisted by Chris Stringer
Mixed by David Botrill
Assistant engineer: Mike Monson

Mastered by Andy VanDette
Management by Ray Danniels, SRO Management, Toronto
Executive Production by Anthem Entertainment: Liam Birt and Pegi Cecconi
Equipment care and feeding by Lorne (Gump) Wheaton

Art Direction, paintings, and portraits by Hugh Syme
Reissue design by Lisa Gines

Thanks to everyone at Reaction Studios: Ormond, Claire, Chris, and Jeff, and everyone at SRO: Ray Danniels, Pegi Cecconi, Sheila Posner, Andy Curran, Meg Symsyk, Cynthia Barry, Shelley Nott, Steve Hoffman, Bob Farmer, Randy and Frances Rolfe.

As always, we owe our families a huge debt of love, gratitude, appreciation, and attention. We also owe them an apology.

For technical help and contributions, our thanks to Jim Burgess and Ed Wilson at Saved By Technology, Andrew MacNaughtan, Barry and b. zee brokerage, Paul Reed Smith, Fender bass guitars, Coll Audio, Tyme Rogers at Tech 21, Mackie Digital Systems, Steve and Mark at Hughes and Kettner amplification, Dean Markley, Sean Browne at Yamaha, Drum Workshop, Avedis Zildjian, Promark, Remo, Roland electronic percussion, and - Ω™

Still brought to you by the letter "3"

© 2013 Atlantic Records © 2013 Anthem Entertainment

Notes

  • Atlantic/Anthem, September 30, 2013
  • Released September 30, 2013; the following week, Vapor Trails Remixed landed on the Billboard Top 200 chart at #35, at #3 on Billboard's Hard Rock Albums chart, and #9 on both Billboard's Top Rock Albums and Tastemaker Albums charts.
  • Atlantic Records issued a limited edition Vapor Trails Remixed Lithograph which was free with the purchase of the CD at local record stores while supplies lasted. The litho is album cover sized, and is also embossed and has a high gloss coating over the text and fireball, and a dull coating over the rest of the background. A very nice gift provided you happened to stumble upon it at your local neighborhood record store.
  • Click here for the history of the Vapor Trails mix.
  • Click here for the 'Vapor Trails Remixed' Transcript Archive.

In Their Own Words

"The band had recently been overseeing a remixed version of our Vapor Trails album, from 2002, as we had never been happy with how it turned out. I found that trying to listen to those songs again was too upsetting, taking me back to a mindset and emotional state that hadn't been good to live through then, or to relive now. I had to 'recuse' myself from those judgments, and the Guys at Work understood, of course." - Neil Peart's News, Weather and Sports, July 30, 2013
"Vapor Trails was an album made under difficult and emotional circumstances - sort of like Rush learning how to be Rush again - and as a result, mistakes were made that we have longed to correct. David Bottrill's remixes have finally brought some justice and clarity to this deserving body of our work...Every song has been given a new life, from the fire of 'One Little Victory,' 'Secret Touch,' and 'Ceiling Unlimited' to the melodic musicality of 'Sweet Miracle' and 'How It Is'...these songs have been redeemed. Thank you David!" - Geddy Lee, Rush.com, August 1, 2013
"Vapor Trails. I remember hearing it before it came out, and thinking 'Wow, I guess this is why I will never work with Rush.' The snare and vocal were so overshadowed by low end....I see why they had a hard time remastering the original mixes. So much of their energy is in the bottom octave 20-40Hz. You can roll it off, but so much of the mixes' punch came from that. It was just mixed that way. The David Bottrill remixes are very well balanced and musical." - Andy VanDette, Masterdisk remastering engineer, TheMasterdiskRecord.com, October 1, 2013
"When I approach any mix, I will reference any rough or previous mix lightly, to find balance or tones that the client might like. But in this case, I was aware that the band weren't happy with the final mixes they had, so I just approached it fresh with little referencing to the originals. My philosophy was that they didn't like what they had, so I would just work with the material they gave me and do what I thought would work best for each song. The first mix took the longest to complete, but that was only a couple of days. Once we were into the groove, the band usually only had little tweaks or suggestions and went mostly with what I presented them with.  There was very little direction prior to starting. I did a test mix for them as did some other engineers and producers. They liked most of them, but I think that they had wanted to try to work with me for some time, so perhaps that swayed their opinion towards my mix as opposed to others. Andy Curran, who works with the band, is also a friend of mine and I think he was pulling for me to do the remix as well - and this may have had an influence.  Nothing new was added. The band weren't present for the mixes as they were mostly on tour, so there would have been no opportunity to do any further recording...[Regarding the "new" guitar solo heard in "Ceiling Unlimited"] It sounded good to me. As I said, I just worked with the material they gave me. I didn't really check the originals to see what they used or didn't use. I liked that solo and put it in. I don't think many people have complained about that one so far. When a record is made, often times there are things that are recorded that are left out of the final mix. I had no attachment to the older mixes or what was left in or out. I just put in all the mixes what I thought worked the best. I don't think I left much out from the tracks they gave me. There was no really grand plan for the mixes. I just tried to make the songs all shine as much as I could. There was some talk in the fan press that the tracks were distorted in the recording process or that there have been new recordings done. Neither is true. The source recordings are top quality and we didn't add anything new from those early recordings." - David Botrill, Popdose.com, October 7, 2013