Geddy Lee's Ludicrous Machines - New SPIN Interview

Rush Clockwork Angels Album Cover
David Marchese of SPIN magazine recently conducted an interview with Geddy Lee. The contents of that interview are now online in a piece entitled Geddy Lee's Ludicrous Machines: Rush Frontman Talks New Album, Tour. In it, Geddy discusses the evolution of the 'concept' theme behind Clockwork Angels:
You guys have done conceptually-driven music in the past — 2112 is the most famous example. Is there anything different about how Rush puts together concept-pieces today as opposed to how it did in 1976?

It felt different this time. I think because we were taking the approach of making the songs work as individual pieces, we didn't have to worry about the necessity for an overture or trying to bring musical themes back. That approach would've felt formulaic to us. The three times we attempted side-long concept pieces in the past, the music was really like one song broken up into many parts. The thread connecting the music on Clockwork Angels is the story-line. That's the key difference.
There was also talk about the upcoming tour:
On the "Time Machine" tour that you guys finished last year, you were playing the entirety of [1981's] Moving Pictures. This time you'll be playing a lot of new material. Do you have to psych yourself up for the fact that fans are not going to have the same response to the songs simply on account of lack of familiarity? Are you in a different headspace going into this year's tour?

We're very excited about doing this stuff — more so than the old stuff — but we're not sure how much patience the audience has for it. We're not sure how much they will dig it. I think the fact that we played two songs [from Clockwork Angels] and put them in the show [last year], and saw that there was such an immediate reaction emboldened us. It gave us confidence when we were finishing the record to think of maybe playing a big chunk of it live.
To read the entire interview, click HERE.

Thanks to Eric from Power Windows for passing along the interview.

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