Lifeson Guests on the new Tiles CD

 

Tiles Reveal Final Special Guest for “Fly Paper…

Alex Lifeson of Rush reunited with his old friend Terry Brown (aka Broon) for the first time in 25 years to work on a song for the forthcoming Tiles CD “Fly Paper.” Guitarist Chris Herin provides a few details:

“Terry had approached Alex about making a guest appearance – and played him some of our new songs. Alex liked what he heard and said he would have a chance to do “something” before Rush began rehearsals for their ‘Snakes and Arrows’ tour. The window of opportunity arrived this past March – and Terry went to Alex’ studio where the two proceeded to work their magic on “Sacred and Mundane.” Listening to Alex’ parts for the first time was amazing – and the amount of work he put into the song was beyond what we could have hoped for. He came up with a counter-riff that literally ‘became’ the song; he added acoustic guitars to the refrains; played an acoustic Celtic counter-melody in the bridge; came up with a cool backwards solo in the breakdown section; and added an assortment of guitar textures and effects from start to finish. Terry and Alex spent almost 12-hours recording (well…, they did stop for dinner – as Terry usually insists upon – and who knows how long that took!). Terry has come up with a 3½ minute single edit of "Sacred and Mundane" for which we're hoping to do a video. But now it’s like I’m 15 years old all over again learning to play Alex Lifeson parts”

It’s an amazing privilege to have Alex Lifeson lend his signature guitar style to a Tiles song… along with Alannah Myles’ singing on “Back and Forth,” Kim Mitchell’s lead guitar on “Dragons, Dreams and Daring Deeds,” Hugh Syme’s keyboards on “Crowded Emptiness,” and our friends Sonya Mastick on percussion & Matthew Parmenter on keyboards… plus a vocal cameo from Nate Mills of ‘Run with the Kittens.’

That’s a lot of noteworthy help – and a lot of liner notes to organize – but we did actually do some of our own playing too…

 

About Lerxst working with Terry Brown, I wonder if them meeting again ignited sparks strong enough for Broon to work with Rush again for their next album ????

 

Man, you should buy the book "Contents Under Pressure : 30 Years of Rush".  Author Martin Popoff interviews Neil, Geddy and Alex in an "album by album" way, collecting the guys' thoughts on EVERY album.

 

Anyway, they stopped working with Broon due to Signals ; Alex was so displeased with the production (keyboards too loud and guitars WAY too low) and so was the rest of the band, that they decided it was time for them to try something new, find new producers with new and refreshing approaches.

 

They are however great people.  Pat telling me Jeff cut off his really long hair and donating it to kids with cancer is a great example.  I really do wish them success and I will probably buy this.