ALEX LIFESON Reflects On RUSH’s Touring Philosophy: “We Were Opening Acts For A While And Were Treated Horribly At Times, And We Swore We Would Never Do That To Anyone”

With Stygian Waves, the second album from Envy of None, Alex Lifeson and his bandmates— Maiah Wynn, Andy Curran, and Alfio Annibalini — have solidified their creative chemistry. Unlike their self-titled debut, which was more of an exploratory process, the band entered this new phase with a clearer understanding of their individual strengths.

The result is a more cohesive and mature collaboration, blending electronic textures, Middle Eastern influences, and Lifeson’s signature atmospheric guitar work.

In a candid conversation with Sonic Perspectives collaborator Rodrigo Altaf, Alex reflected on his evolving role as a guitarist, preferring subtlety and purpose over flashy solos. While Stygian Waves features moments where his guitar takes center stage, like on “The Story” and “That Was Then”, he emphasizes that solos should serve the song rather than overshadow it.

He also shares how Maiah’s travels in India helped shape the album’s sonic palette, particularly on the title track, where he even experimented with playing the oud for the first time. Beyond Envy of None, Rodrigo and Alex discussed the guitarist’s extensive collaborations, from working with Marco Minnemann and Porcupine Tree to his ongoing jam project with members of Rheostatics and Barenaked Ladies.

Though he enjoys live performances, he acknowledges that an Envy of None tour would require significant effort and audience demand. Meanwhile, he continues to find fulfillment in smaller, impromptu musical projects and charitable work, including a possible return of the Grapes Under Pressure fundraiser.

Of course, no conversation with Alex Lifeson would be complete without touching on Rush. He reflects on the band’s keyboard-heavy era, his candid discussion with bassist Geddy Lee during the making of “My Effin’ Life”, and the challenges of bringing their Rush Canadian Golden Ale to international markets, alongside some reflections about the band’s philosophy when touring towards other bands which opened for them.

Whether looking back on his legendary career or pushing forward with new creative ventures, Lifeson remains as passionate and engaged as ever. Watch or listen to their lengthy and detailed conversation below – or read the transcript further down, and remember that for more interviews and other daily content, follow us on Facebook, and Flipboard, or subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified about new content we publish daily.

INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT

Rodrigo: Our guest today is Alex Lifeson of Rush, Envy of None, and a many other projects. Alex, thank you so much for joining us.

Alex: It’s a pleasure to be here!

Rodrigo: Talking about the new album of Envy of None, Stygian Waves. I think the first album was more about you guys getting to know each other and learning – figuring out how to work together. Now the collaboration’s a little bit more cohesive and mature, right?

Alex: Yeah, absolutely. That’s exactly what we’ve experienced. I mean, the first project was great. We’re very proud of it. But we were learning, you know, how to work together. And I think with the second record, we know now what the strengths are of each individual, and we’re really starting to mix it all up in this delicious kind of soup.

Rodrigo: Well, I heard you say that you started working on the second album right after the first was released. But yeah, it definitely seems you guys got closer together as a unit this time around.

Alex: I think we really enjoyed the experience of the first record. And once we finished it and released it, and we knew that it was now in other people’s hands, we thought, do we want to keep working? Do we want to continue? And right away, everybody was up for carrying on. So, we kind of dove into the second record very soon after the first one. And it was a great experience working together. We did it the same way, remotely. Which is a very efficient way to work. But I think we got to know each other a little bit better with the second record.

Rodrigo: And, well, that’s probably a coincidence, but Stygian Waves is, of course, a reference to the River Styx. And exactly 50 years ago, Fly By Night came out with the song “By-Tor And The Snow Dog”, which also references the River Styx. Has anyone made that connection yet?

Alex: I haven’t heard it yet. You’re the first. There you go.

Rodrigo: I know the primary intent was for you to add textures, and you didn’t want any shredding or flashy solos. But there are some moments where you shine on the solos, like “The Story or That Was Then”, even “Under The Stars” as well, right?

Alex: Yeah, I sort of stayed away from it because sometimes there’s too much attention paid to the guitar solo. And it’s a platform to be flashy and show what skills you have and all of that stuff. But that’s never been an important part of soloing. For me, the solo has to be an integral part of the song. It has to have some purpose in the song to make the song better, not necessarily as a high point.

So, for example, the solo in “The Story” is a perfectly constructed solo for me because it ramps up. It goes up to a crescendo. And then the most important part of the song is what follows after that solo. When Maya comes back in and then drives the point of the song, that is the high point of the song. And the solo’s job was just to take you to that doorway and then open the door for you.

So I just think that it’s an important part, and it needs to be treated as such when you’re doing it. I’m not a shredder. I don’t care for that. Frankly, I can’t play like that. As I’m getting older, I’m losing a little bit of speed, but it doesn’t bother me. And there are a million other young guitar players who are very happy to show off all the skills that they have.

Rodrigo: With Andy and Alfio playing guitar and keyboards. How do you guys split the work when it comes to writing and recording? Is there a stem of an idea that comes from you or from Alfio or Andy, and then you sort of go from there?

Alex: Actually, a lot of the stuff does come from Alf and Andy. Some of it comes from Maiah. What I love is to take those seeds and then grow them into a big, sturdy tree. That’s my kind of specialty, I think, with Envy of None. And I’m quite happy. I mean, we all work very, very closely together. We all share everything about the music and the construction and all of that stuff. So it’s a good balance that we have.

Rodrigo: And there are noticeable influences from Middle Eastern music on at least two songs, “Under the Stars” and the title track. I know that was brought by Maiah after a trip she did to India, right? Can you tell me about that?

Alex: She took a trip to India where she was chaperoning a group of students. And it was really an important step for her. She was making some changes in her life that were very, very important. And to get out and be very independent and to put yourself in a situation where you’re responsible for other people was really remarkable. She learned a lot, and she did a lot of growing on that trip.

When she came back, she had ideas for Stygian Waves in particular. That song started out as a song called “Wham Bam” in the very early writing title. And we only had one little section. And then it grew into this big thing with lots of different influences. There’s that industrial thing about it. There’s a dancing, this EDM kind of thing. And then there are the Middle Eastern influences.

I played oud on it. I’d never played an oud before. So sitting down and trying to learn to play the instrument was really fun. I love doing stuff like that. So, influences came from all over the place. And there is a little bit of Middle Eastern, but that influence is in a lot of music. I grew up with – my parents were Serbian, so there’s a Turkish influence in many things in the Serbian culture, food, and music. So it’s already deep down inside me. It just takes a little bit to bring it out.

Rodrigo: If I were to pick a favorite of the album, I think it would be “Handle with Care.” To me, it’s almost like a metaphor for how the three of you are nurturing Maiah‘s career and providing this platform for her to develop her artistic expression little by little. So you’re kind of helping her take off.

Alex: That is somewhat the case. More in line with the actual song, Andy‘s wife was going through some medical issues, and it was a very delicate time. But Maiah turned the lyrics into being much more than one singular thing. And it’s about handling people with care. Maybe people that are sensitive and see things differently, and not just throw people out because you disagree with them or you don’t care. And there’s just too much of that these days.

Rodrigo: I’m curious, did your connection with Maiah start with this single here with Marco Minnemann? It’s the first time I’ve heard of her collaborating.

Alex: It’s cool that you bring that up. Actually, when we met Maiah, it was through a talent contest that Andy was a judge, and we talked about this in the first record. And so we brought Maiah in to work on music together. After I’d heard what she was capable of doing, I used her for that project with Marco Minnemann. I suggested using her to Marco, and she did an amazing job because that track is very progressive. It’s all over the place, and it’s long. It’s seven or eight minutes long, with a lot of changes. So, she was right in there, and she did an amazing job. But that 19 or 20-year-old to this 28-year-old is a different person. She’s a genius as far as I’m concerned.

Her arrangements are so amazing, but her voice how she carries it, and how confident she is in what she’s looking for in her performance is just remarkable, the amount of growth that she’s had.

Rodrigo: And I love how the cover of the first and also the second one play with “almost symmetry”. Both models look and dress the same, but you can definitely tell the difference, right? It’s almost like you trace a line, and it’s almost symmetrical.

Alex: Yeah, it’s kind of cool to carry on with this imagery that we have. It’s the graphic imagery of the two females, nurses or these girls. And they’re very stylized. They’re very fashion-oriented photographs, but they don’t mean anything. There’s no hidden meaning or anything like that. They’re just really cool graphic images.

And that’s what I love, because people look for something always, like, what does that mean? What does the wind mean? What are the binoculars? Are they looking into the future? It’s a cool picture.

Rodrigo: Exactly, yeah. Leave it at that... I know you guys discussed live shows, and that would depend on the interest and the reception of the second album. But have you guys considered doing maybe a soft launch or a one-off, maybe at a place like the El Mocambo here in Toronto? I think Andy is still connected to the venue.

Alex: I mean, it sounds easy, but it’s not. We’re talking about – if we’re gonna do a show, we would do both records. So, it would take two hours of music with some other musicians to do it properly. It’s a big endeavor. It’s a big, expensive endeavor. And I think if this record takes off and we have an audience that would support some shows, then we would do it because we’d love to do it. We love the idea.

But it’s not so easy to just get up and do it. It’s not like you’re grabbing your guitar and going downtown and playing the gig. It takes a lot of work, takes production, putting a show together, all of that stuff.

Rodrigo: Outside of Rush and Envy of None, you’ve played on hundreds of records, to name a few, like Porcupine Tree, Fu Manchu, and you did songs with Marco Minnemann that we spoke about, and with Rick Emmett on his album Resolution 9. You must get tons of invitations to collaborate. What’s your criteria to say yes or no to a project?

Alex: Obviously, I want to be interested in the music, but I have very broad requirements. What I really love doing is taking someone else’s music and enhancing it, making it better or different. And so far, with my track record, I’ve been pretty fortunate. Everything that I’ve done is something that no one ever expected. They think it’s a guitar player from Rush, and he’s going to do this or this or this. And I often end up doing something that they just don’t expect at all. And I get a response like, I never would have thought to put a piece of music inside like this, but I can’t not hear it now. This is exactly the way it should be. So I’ve been lucky in that way. And so that is really gratifying for me to do that. And very satisfying as a musician to be able to do stuff like that.

Rodrigo: I was wondering if Joe Satriani ever approached you to be part of one of his G3 tours? Did that conversation ever happen? Because that would be cool. You could play the Victor stuff and a few more maybe Rush songs or non-Rush songs.

Alex: I don’t recall getting an invitation directly. But I know Joe. I don’t know him very well, but I know him, and I have enormous respect for him and all the people that he works with. Eric Johnson is a dear friend, and I love his guitar playing. He’s been involved in a lot of these guitar sort of things. It’s not my thing.

Those guys are great players, and they get up and they show their stuff. I’m more interested in being a part of a band or a part of some musical unit and not at the front of it, more in the back. I like to support it. And I think I have musical skills that are valuable and effective that way. As far as Envy of None is concerned, Maiah is the gem. She is the shining star at the front of Envy of None. The music that we make is very satisfying. It’s really the music that we want to write and record for the other three guys. But it really comes down to Maiah. She has such an identifiable voice and such a power that she’s developed over these last few years. And we don’t have a problem with that. We support it. We stand for her and support her a thousand percent.

Rodrigo: I saw you play with the Rheostatics at a West End Phoenix gig in a brewery not far from where I live. We were in the back, and it was a tiny stage. You had a beard then. Do you remember that? 2019!

Alex: I remember it clearly. They asked me to do a bunch of stuff. And I get together with those guys in jam on a fairly regular basis. Hugh Marsh, the violinist, is just one of my favorite musicians ever. He is brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. We get together. We’ve been doing some stuff on our own, the two of us with violin and guitar.

It’s just a really, really beautiful, amazing music. But the guys from Rheostatics, yeah, I do that. I love to jam. I love to go and do stuff like that just at the last minute. Andy Kim, the Christmas shows, I get to play with all these other musicians and bands. It’s really a lot of fun. I feel like I’m in the community, and I’m a part of it.

No one should ever be afraid of asking me to do something. I really do love it. I’m working on a project now with the guys from the Rheostatics and Kevin from Barenaked Ladies on a Great Lakes documentary. It’s essentially a jam project where we get together and jam. And we have hours and hours and hours of material that we’re now editing. And I’m amazed at how great the stuff is. So there’s always something interesting to do.

Rodrigo: Through your career, you have played some incredible shows to gigantic crowds, one of them being the Rush In Rio, which I had the pleasure to attend. Is there anything you would still like to accomplish in a live setting at this point? Or you’re more interested in a smaller setting with playing with your friends and things like that, right?

Alex: Yeah, that’s everyday kind of stuff. Playing in Rio and throughout South America was really an incredible experience. I feel satisfied that I got to do a lot of great things. The SARS concert, we had half a million people for that SARS concert. I’ve been on some pretty awesome stages, and it’s really great. I did it for 40 years. But that’s not the only thing in life, right? There are other things in life.  I’m a consummate musician. I’m a guitarist. I love playing guitar. I play guitar for hours every day. I don’t get bored of it. It’s who I am. So long as I can do that in any kind of form, I feel blessed.

Rodrigo: One of the coolest things you and Geddy did outside of music was the Rush Beer with Henderson Brewery. How did that idea come about? Are you thinking of selling internationally? I know that Aiden at Henderson would love to bring it to Brazil, for example. I tried to help him with that a little bit, but it kind of didn’t work out.

Alex: No, it’s so difficult. It started out as just a fun idea. Our merchandiser, Pat McLaughlin, he’d been pushing us to think about doing a beer. Eventually, he said, “I got these guys from Henderson that are interested”. Geddy and I tasted 20 beers, I think, during the pandemic, and we settled on that beer.

And then we did those ads that are really fun. We just do them off the cuff. We don’t rehearse them or anything. We just record these fun things. We did license a brewery in the States, in Minnesota. But it’s been mediocre, the response with them.

And you got to stay on top of it. And every country, every state is doing business with a different entity when it comes to anything to do with alcohol. And certainly, Brazil, they have some of the biggest alcohol or beer companies in the world who own most of the beer companies here. So, it’s tough to get into other markets that are very, very protected because there’s just so much money in booze.

Rodrigo: I know the bureaucracies of Brazil.

Alex: For sure.

Rodrigo: You’re are also involved in a lot of charities, including the Grapes Under Pressure. I attended the 2018 one, which was awesome. Is there a chance of another edition? I’m friends with Garrett from the board of Grapes for Humanity.

Alex: We’d love to have another one. Oh, for sure. We had so much fun doing those. But the pandemic messed up a lot of things for all of that kind of stuff. And now it’s been, what, seven years later. Garrett and I always talk about it, and we always keep ourselves open to the idea of doing it. And now, maybe this year, there’s a chance that we might be able to do it now that things have settled down so much.

Rodrigo: Fingers crossed… Let me talk about Geddy for a minute because during the making of Geddy‘s book, I know you were interviewed, and there was a cathartic moment where you mentioned to him that you sort of questioned your role in the band when the keyboards were at the forefront. Can you tell me about that dialogue and how it went down?

Alex: I guess we’ve always been very open to keyboards and developing that side of it. And so I don’t know why I felt so, I don’t know, unhappy with it because I really wasn’t. I think those records that we made that were predominantly keyboard records are great records. You know, Hold Your Fire and Power Windows. But I just felt like there was an element of Rush that was getting pushed aside. And that was that core three-piece element. The guitar is a very important instrument. A lot of motion is derived from the guitar in rock music. The keyboards, I always felt were just, you know, just fancy dressing.

And it was becoming more and more that way with those couple of records. And I kept it in, I guess, for the most part, because things did change around with Counterparts; we went back to more of a driving core. So I, you know, obviously in Envy of None, we have lots of keyboards, so it’s not like I hate them or anything. It’s just – I guess it’s the purity of players making those noises rather than an instrument that’s already got the noises in it. But, you know, I got over it. Fair enough.

Rodrigo: Do you write with keyboards for Envy of None? Or is it just purely guitar?

Alex: I don’t. I, you know, usually, if it’s an idea that’s coming from Andy and Alf, there will be a keyboard element, you know, but they’re doing some programming with the drum machine and, of course, bass. That’s always very important.

Andy’s going to do the bass thing, which provides a nice, for me, provides a nice base for launching points of developing other ideas that sort of are core elements. Counterpart or are in line with whatever those things are.

Rodrigo: Let me ask you about the latest Rush release, which is the compilation R-50. A lot of live tracks in there. Some of them were previously unreleased. Who has the key to the Rush vote? And can we expect more live stuff coming out soon?

Alex: I don’t know. I don’t have that key. I was amazed when I saw some of the stuff that was on there. But, you know, Anthem has the whole catalog. They have everything that we ever did. And I’d forgotten. We’d all forgotten about some of those things. And generally, Rush never recorded anything that we didn’t use on a record when we were in the studio.

But there are things that are floating around and including the first single. Can’t fight it and not fade away as much as we are embarrassed by those recordings. It’s great to have them because it’s part of our history. And that’s what this whole package is. And I think they did a terrific job. They don’t have to ask us permission for anything, but they always do.

They always want approval. They always want to make us happy that we’re not doing anything that we wouldn’t have done on our own. So, they’ve been terrific to deal with over the years. And they’ve knocked this one out of the park, really. And Hugh‘s done an amazing job with the artwork as well.

Rodrigo: Does Hugh ask for your approval? I speak with him somewhat often via email. He mentioned that you guys exchange emails to talk about the designs and things like that, right? You and Geddy and him.

Alex: Somewhat, but not a lot. I mean, we leave it up to him. He’s always been there. So it’s a relationship that has been solid for all of these decades. So we have trusted him that he’s going to maintain the integrity of what his design is. It’s his design. So we don’t get in his way. Everything that he does is pretty amazing. We might make a suggestion about a color or something minimal, tiny, tiny thing. But generally, it’s great, everything he does.

Rodrigo: I’ve interviewed a lot of artists who opened for Rush. Saxon, Mr. Big, Candlebox, Eric Johnson, and Voivod. All of them were unanimous in saying how kind you guys were to them. I think in a business that’s filled with a lot of assholes, it’s great that you guys chose to be kind to the opening act.

Alex: Well, we were an opening act for a long time. We were treated really well sometimes, and we were treated really horribly other times. And we learned from being treated poorly how not to treat people. And we swore that we would never treat anyone poorly. And maybe that’s a little bit of a Canadian thing, too. We tend to be on the more polite side and caring, and thoughtful.

So you get a new band that’s opening for you, and you leave a card welcoming them to the tour with a bottle of champagne. It just sets the tone for happiness. Everybody then loves to work together and push together.

Rodrigo: My last question is about the acting roles you had on movies like Suck and The Breach. You also did Trailer Park Boys, where you play yourself. How did that start? Is there a chance of you doing more?

Alex: I don’t know exactly where it started. I guess I’m sort of a pretty extroverted, outgoing person. It’s a fascinating realm being in that world of acting. I’m not a professional actor, but I respect the skill of a professional actor because it’s not easy. It’s not easy to memorize lines. It’s not easy to be cool.

And that character and great actors can do that so convincingly. But I’ve always had fun, and they’ve always been more comedic kinds of things. And it’s really cool. The guys from Trailer Park Boys are so much fun to be with. They’re so cool and we’re dear, dear, dear friends. So whenever I do stuff with them, it’s loose and it’s improvised and it’s always really a riot.

Rodrigo: Well, you did that documentary in 1973. How did you get selected for that? I believe it was called “Come on, Children.”

Alex:  Yeah, that was in 1971, actually, that we filmed it. Alan King, who was a very well-known director at the time, had made a couple of films, Warrendale and A Married Couple. That was probably his most well-known film. And they were all done in the cinema verite style where you’d call it reality programming where you move in and you film what’s going on in a household and he would document it.

So they wanted to do this movie about 10 kids living on a farm outside Toronto and the kind of things that develop amongst them. They’re all different parts of the city, so very different backgrounds. And it was for 10 weeks. I was one of 350 people that auditioned for it. I just went to the audition and got picked with Jane and Al, who were very good friends of mine too. The three of us got picked from that one audition session.

So, it was no magic. It just happened that we got picked. And then we went to that farm and that one day in the middle, everybody had their parents up to see what was going on. And it was sort of a luncheon, and they wanted to film it at the same time. So that argument that I had with my parents or discussion all came from that experience of making that film.

Rodrigo: I think right now Charlene is probably calling you to have lunch, so I want to thank you for so many years of great music, and I’ll keep an eye out for the next chapter of Envy Of None!

Alex: Obrigado!