Lifeson tolerated this situation for a while, ‘taking one for the team’ in today’s parlance – though Lee later related how the normally placid Lifeson returned to the studio with fresh perspective following a few days away, storming into the control room with the statement: “There’s not enough guitar on this record for Chrissakes!” I recall leaning over to push up the faders and Terry would smile and push them back down again.” “The mix of Subdivisions has always been a disappointment for me. “In a couple of key places there was too much emphasis placed on the keyboards,” he explains. The problem with Signals, from Lifeson’s viewpoint at least, lay not with the songs but in an irregular production. “That’s what Rush is – we’re always looking to try something different, or to head in a new direction.” “All three of us we were unanimous in that desire,” clarifies Lifeson. Rush, for their part, were keen to experiment with all of the new hardware that was becoming available. And he really wasn’t keen on Neil’s use of electronic drums.” “But Terry was definitely afraid that we were moving away from being a rock band, taking too much influence from other bands like The Police. “You know what? I don’t remember that being the case,” responds Lifeson diplomatically. “With the possible exception of Moving Pictures, which almost fell into place, they’re all difficult to make,” he laughs, “but if I told you the creation of Signals was completely smooth then I would be lying.”īut the straw that broke the camel’s back was the reggae-ish section of Digital Man, which, so the story goes, Terry Brown hated so much that he at first refused to record it. Lee later expressed the viewpoint that Signals was “a difficult album to make, and it spelled the end of our relationship with Terry Brown”, a statement Lifeson echoes. “I love that one, actually,” responds Lifeson, “but I know what he’s saying: we could’ve spent more time on it.” Perhaps surprisingly, Geddy Lee dismissed Countdown as “a pretty poor song” in 1992. I love the chordal progression of Chemistry, but with retrospect it’s a little disjointed, and getting Digital Man to sound the way it did was like pulling teeth.” “We brought back Analog Kid on our last tour and the mix of guitar and keyboards makes it great fun to play live. “ Subdivisions was such a strong song – a real marker for us,” Lifeson says. We’d put up a net and play volleyball after the sessions, and of course there was lots and lots of lubrication.”įrom the snappier approach of New World Man, which became their biggest US hit single, to the more audacious The Weapon (Part II Of Fear), the material the band had accrued was rich in variety and quality. Twice or three times a week we’d drive to a small town down the road and have dinner together. “We’re Canadians – we’re not afraid of snow!” Lifeson exclaims. John Wetton once told this writer that Asia suffered a near-fatal case of cabin fever while recording their Alpha album there the following year – the place is getting on for 60 miles outside Montreal, after all – but Rush relished the facility’s remoteness.
In April 1982, Rush, Brown and engineer Paul Northfield decamped to Le Studio at Morin-Heights for a four-month stay. It dawned on us that we wanted to try new ideas maybe work with different people. “I remember it as a very enjoyable time,” smiles Alex, before volunteering: “It was only when we began recording the songs that things became a little more difficult. However, in contrast to The Shining, none of the group encountered any ghosts, lost the plot or began wielding axes and whacking them into doors. There was one room that we converted into a studio/rehearsal area, and we began working on the material we’d brought with us.” When Prog suggests that it all sounds a little like Stanley Kubrick’s iconic celluloid edition of the Stephen King novel The Shining, Lifeson beams in agreement. The snow was piled up everywhere and we ended up staying in this deserted summer lodge.” Lifeson remembers with a shiver: “It was a very cold, snowy winter.
The band headed to Lake Windermere in the north of Ontario to fine-tune their ideas. “I had a little amp in the shape of a transistor radio with a tiny speaker which we put into a guitar case – that was our rather primitive recording technique.” “Geddy and I had some of Subdivisions, and we’d worked on Chemistry over at his place,” relates Lifeson. Rush actually began the preparation of material for Signals during their Moving Pictures tour.
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