Rush’s Alex Lifeson made a special appearance on Loudwire Nights on Thursday (March 13) to discuss the upcoming release of Stygian Waves, the second studio album from his band, Envy of None.
“We finished the record in September, so we’ve been sitting on it for a while,” Lifeson told Chuck Armstrong about Stygian Waves.
“We had a listening party here in Toronto and it was great … We had about 80 people and played the record in [Dolby] Atmos for the first time for an audience. It went really, really well and it sounded great.”
While Lifeson acknowledged his own bias, he expressed confidence in the album, believing not only that it sounds great but that it’s an enjoyable listen overall. Naturally, he’s eager for the world to hear it.
“These songs are strong and there’s great variety on it,” he said.
“It’s funny because you finish a record and you love it and a week later, it’s like, oh you know what, I wouldn’t mind changing just 80 percent of it. But with this record, I’ve listened to it so much over this time, just to be sure that we were on the right track and we were accomplishing everything we set out to do. Every time I hear it, I’m really happy with it.”
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Beyond discussing Stygian Waves, Lifeson also reflected on Rush’s history and how the band first came together in Canada in the late 1960s, around the same time Black Sabbath was emerging in England.
“Those were very early days, we were playing in high schools, eventually clubs and things like that,” Lifeson recalled.
“I don’t know if I was really a fan of Black Sabbath, but I did get a couple of records back then and I enjoyed listening to them. I respected Tony [Iommi’s] guitar playing … There was an interesting parallel for their beginnings and our beginnings.”
As he reflected on this period, Lifeson transitioned into discussing Back to the Beginning, the concert event set to mark Ozzy Osbourne’s final performance as a solo artist, as well as the last show for the original Black Sabbath lineup.
“We were asked to be part of it and we’d agreed to do it, but other things came up and sadly, we had to back out of it,” Lifeson said.
“It would have been a lot of fun. We enjoy playing with other people and it gets Geddy [Lee] and me together to do stuff.”
