Rush - 8 news songs written

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   http://www.knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=4950

Rush has penned eight songs for its next studio album, which should be out in early 2007, according to drummer Neil Peart.
The artist tells Billboard.com his lyrics for the as-yet-untitled set
were greatly influenced by his motorcycle journeys throughout the
United States, chronicled in the new book Roadshow: Landscape With
Drums. 

Peart says he
was struck by the ubiquity of religious billboards that have sprung up
on America's highways, which got him thinking about some weighty
topics. "Just seeing the power of evangelical Christianity and
contrasting that with the power of fundamentalist religion all over the
world in its different forms had a big effect on me," he says. 

"You try to put
your own way of seeing the world into some kind of congruence with
other peoples, and that's difficult for me," he admits. "I mean, I see
the world in what I think to be a perfectly obvious and rational way,
but when you go out into it and see the way other people think and
behave, and express themselves on church signs, you realize, 'Well, I'm
not really part of this club.'" 

"I looked for
the good side of faith," Peart says. "To me it ought to be your armor,
something to protect you and something to console you in dark times.
But it's more often being turned into a sword, and that's one big theme
I'm messing with." 

Musically, the new album is continuing in much the same vein as 2002's "Vapor Trails," which returned Rush to a more guitar/bass/drums-driven sound. But Peart is quick to add that the music
is "remarkably organic in a way that I haven't heard [from Rush]
before. We spent a month together in May working on those songs and
developing our individual instrument parts for them. It's early to
characterize it, but it's definitely fresh and different and that's
certainly satisfying." 

Peart, bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson
will regroup next month to finish pre-production and will begin
recording in November. However, as Peart writes at the conclusion of
Roadshow, he is ambivalent about putting himself through yet another
massive world tour. 

"It is true
that in 1989 I announced that I wasn't going to tour anymore, and have
said that every time since and have gone back and decided [to do it]
for all good reasons," he says. "One of the main ones to me is that a band
plays live, so if I want to consider our band as a living, working
thing then that's the case. I haven't in my own mind committed to
[another tour] yet, but of course I haven't ruled it out, either." 

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