Hemispheres Radio Special
Promo album by Anthem Records for radio broadcast, Fall 1978, transcribed by Spirit of Rush
JD: Hello, I'm John Donobie, and for the next hour, Alex Lifeson, Neil Peart and Geddy Lee of Rush will discuss amongst other things, life on the road, working in the studio and, most importantly, their newest album Hemispheres.
Geddy: No.1, we thought it was time for a change of studio, because all the albums we'd done were done in Toronto Sound. No. 2, we wanted to do an album that was in an environment away from home. We wanted to get away from small, everyday hassles that sort of take your mind off what you're doing. Recording in the United States didn't really appeal to us very much, so we thought, well, England is where the music that we learned how to do what we do came from; and so we thought that was the perfect place.
JD: The recording of Hemispheres as compared with Farewell and 2112 and so on, was there a lot of time spent on this particular outing, or was it much the same as before?
Geddy: You should ask!
Neil: More than twice...
Geddy: We spent about 11 weeks on this album, which was twice as long as we've spent on any other album. With every album, we want it to be that much more perfect, I guess. The material changes and the approach to the recording of material has to change to a certain degree, because the music calls for a different approach. So a lot of times we got into the studio, we really don't know what the approach should be, so a lot of experimenting is called for.
Alex: On this album, we spent hours just going back and forth with different ideas, canning a few, then suddenly one will click in and you'll go: "Yeah, that's it" and you start zoning on that and refining it.
Geddy: What happens with us is that sometimes we'll write a piece of music for a lyric and we'll be fine, we'll be happy with it, and we'll start recording it. And when we hear it back on tape, we don't like it. It doesn't make it or Terry Brown, our producer, who's very active in our arrangements will go "I don't think that's strong enough".
Neil, can you tell me, how did Hemispheres have its beginning?
Neil: The basic idea came from a book I was reading called Powers Of Mind, and it was just an incidental thing that was mentioned in the book, that was something I'd read before, so I tied it into a whole lot of things. And it's the basic constant conflict between thoughts and emotions, between your feelings and your rational ideas; and Apollo and Dionysus have been used in a lot of books in modern times to sort of characterize these two elements - the rational side and the instinctive side - and I've always been really interested in the way that those two things transmit themselves into people, in political life or in social life, all those conflicts are always going on between people, whether the instinctive way is right or whether the rationally thought out way is right. And the basic theme of it is that conflict, the battle of heart and mind. Armageddon is really the focus of that. It's the climax of that conflict. And our hero Cygnus comes in and sort of breaks up the conflict between Apollo and Dionysus and makes them aware of what they're causing, as representatives of the heart and representatives of the mind, the chaos they're causing on earth, and they're causing right now. And one of the main points I wanted to make in the lyrics too, is that the battle is inside each of us, it's not some abstract cosmic battle, it's part of our everyday personal lives, and so much of what we do in a day is governed by an idea or by a feeling, and sometimes they can be battling against each other.
Geddy: We ended up with a finished piece that had all that flow and all that right pacing and balance, I think we did achieve this with Hemispheres.
J.D. As a songwriter, Neil, is it ever... I'm sure it passed through the minds of a lot of songwriters, "Oh god, I hope I don't, dry up".
Neil: All of us go through that terribly. You think every song you write is the last. I think I've heard an awful lot of other writers say the same thing.
Geddy: I've lived with that fear every day of my life!
Neil: You just hope that another one comes, there's nothing else you can do. You can sit down and try and write 'til your brain hurts.
Geddy: Even other musicians that tell you that they go through the same thing, that doesn't make it any better, you know, you talk to other writers and they go: "Yeah, every time I write a song, that's it, I figure it's gone, I'm finished". And you go "Wow, it happens to you too!".
Alex: You have to have the right attitude.
Neil: Just an attitude of "I'm not worried, (laughter) don't think about it (more laughter) when it's time it'll happen.
Geddy: The only answer is to be very shallow and empty and have no ideas, nothing interesting to say.
JD: Randy Newman said on his Little Criminals album that he had to actually rent an office and sit down and force himself to write again. How does it work with you guys? Is it to a point where you say "Well gee, we got a new album to put out by so and so, let's sit down and write some", or is it, "I got an impulse", get on the phone and meet somewhere?
Geddy: When we used to travel, we used to 'special guest' and support a lot. We had a lot of time on our hands. We'd get finished at the gig about 9:30 to 10 o'clock and we'd have the whole night to ourselves. So then we'd usually, just about whenever the mood struck us, get together and write. But now that our time is, like, a whole day on the road is taken up, we have no time at all to do any writing on the road, which is kinda frustrating. So what we've done the last couple of albums, we've taken some time and done a bit of pre-production and during that time try writing what we're putting together.
JD: It must be difficult though, when you're three people like yourselves, all with independent feelings and minds and so on, and you're travelling on the road and being very close to one another and writing together... you know, hotel rooms and the whole bit. Doesn't it get to the point sometimes where you want to just kind of stop and just say, "I can't stand this any longer", you just got to get away?
Geddy: Only when you do your basic tracks I think. I mean it's amazing how well we get along. I won't attempt to try and figure out why, we just do. We get on very well and very rarely ever argue, but when we're doing basic tracks then it gets pretty tense.
Neil: Jekyll and Hyde syndrome!
JD: Was "Circumstances" written after "Hemispheres"?.
Neil: Oh yes! It was written right at the very end.
Geddy: That's a story in itself!
JD: Right at the very end?
Neil: Yeah, in my hotel room. While we were mixing, we were recording the vocals.
JD: I'm wondering if that's why, it's not a recuring thing, but as you say, the conflict seems to remain although we're looking at a different type of music or form of music altogether, but the conflict remains. Is that because it was so closely written to "Hemispheres"?
Neil: I think that was something to do with it. It was a little bit bastardized from another song that I had which was about a really personal type conflict, and I tried to make/take it out of that with the choruses, because the verses are from an old song and the choruses were brand new.
JD: I noticed that you break into a bi-lingual stanza here, into French. Why?
Neil: Well that phrase I've always liked. It comes from Voltaire I believe, and it's just the more things change, the more they stay the same.
JD: And people think that rock musicians aren't well read! How many tours a year are you doing now?
Geddy: We do one gigantic tour. I mean, we have little breaks in it, but, like for this year, for the Hemispheres Tour or The Tour of the Hemispheres as it's called, we'll start in the middle of October and say we'll work four weeks and we'll have a week off, and in that four weeks we'll work our way across Canada, into the U.S. and we'll spend the next four or five, six months touring the U.S. on and off with little breaks so we can come home and (pants), and go back to England, and we'll do all of England and all of Europe this time.
JD: That's NEXT April?
Geddy: Uh huh!
JD: Rush has been known as one of the most exciting and exhilarating bands on the concert stage. I asked Geddy if he thought there were any major differences among audiences they've played for throughout the world.
Geddy: I think basically most audiences are the same, they just show their appreciation in a different way. Like in England, the audience will sit intently and absorb exactly what you're doing, until the song finishes or until the climax of a piece comes and then they go "YEAARRRGGGGHHH!" It's almost like a football cheer. It's like, yeah, cheering for their team, sort of thing. In the midwest it's more of a party all the time. They're screaming right through your set.
I mean, the only real reason for us to be doing what we're doing, is the results - is our work. And if that isn't done as well as we can, then it's not worth doing, you know, it's not worth us being here. We're not just here for the flash and cash. We're here to work and we want it to be just as perfect as we can make it at that point in time.
JD: Special thanks to Neil, Alex, Geddy and Mercury and Anthem records.