A sense of liberation can do wonders for the imagination. Ask Alex Lifeson. After nigh-on five decades as Rush’s guitarist he is now chasing new creative frontiers with Envy Of None, whose sophomore LP, Stygian Waves, presents Lifeson’s electric guitar like we have never heard it before.
Not that playing in Rush was a rinse and repeat deal. The seminal Canadian prog trio were animated by a restless musical curiosity. But Rush played their final shows 2015, officially disbanding in 2018, and so being “Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson” is a label that could weigh heavily on you after some time. Lifeson had more to give. Creativity is like a muscle; it can waste away, and so he kept on writing.
In 2021, he found an outlet. Envy Of None would find Lifeson in the company of his old friend Andy Curran of Coney Hatch fame on bass guitar, and esteemed producer Alfio Annibalini on keyboards. The band would be fronted by the prodigiously talented Maiah Wynne on lead vocals, and their 2022 self-titled debut mined an altogether different sound for Lifeson, pulling ’90s industrial rock and electronic textures a la Depeche Mode into his orbit. Lifeson’s guitar found new purpose.
Stygian Waves draws the canvas wider. Wynne’s vocals once more pull focus. Everything is built around her voice. And there is a lot of building.
Joining from his home studio in Toronto, Lifeson says the idea is that we fall into these songs.
“When you have 16 layers of vocals plus a bunch of keyboard stuff, plus guitar stuff, and Andy likes to play a lot of stereo bass stuff, it does build up the tracks,” he says. “But it’s great, because we want the tracks to be dense, and we want them to be kind of spongy. You want to sink into them.”
That you do, as though in a dream. Wynne’s vocal has an after-hours feel, a hypnagogic, 4AD/Cocteau Twins quality. It is a sound that establishes its own logic, emboldening Lifeson’s guitar to play with textures and to drop all kinds of sonic references. As he explains here, there are ‘60s Motown influences, solos that call to mind David Gilmour – there’s even a six-string shout out to Sir Paul McCartney.
Some of the guitar sounds on this record that sound like you are trying to disguise the instrument.
“I’ve always moved outside of what typically the job of the guitar is. I have always looked at trying to manipulate the sound; it’s obviously played on the guitar but it doesn’t sound anything like one, so I am already set up for that sort of thing.”
There is something about Maiah's sensibility as an arranger. When I heard her vocal arrangements, they really informed a lot of my guitar parts
How does Maiah’s vocals influence what you want to play?
“There is something about her sensibility as an arranger. When I heard her vocal arrangements, they really informed a lot of my guitar parts. So we would trade back and forth. We would trade back and forth several times.
“I would update guitars. I found we would dance together in these arrangements. I would weave in and out of her vocal lines and she’d do the same. She would add something under a solo, for example. On this new record, she does vocal lines under the solos that I play and it is just a great relationship that we have as guitarist and vocalists.
“Most vocalists, when you are working with them, they will have the main vocal, a double, and then two or three harmony vocals, and so you have five or six tracks of vocals. Maiah has 16 to 20 tracks when she submits her arrangements.”
With so much of the guitars serving as textures, did you have to have a special pedalboard put together for this?
“No, I didn’t. Anything that I had to use pedal-wise, I would pull it out and plug it in. Generally, it was just guitar straight in, and then I am manipulating it through software and some effects. I played some different instruments.
“I got an oud, and I won’t say that I learned to play it but I managed to play it. The 12-string mandola! It’s inspiring to just pull out other instruments and create sounds. And then Alf does a great job with mixing, and he will also massage some of the sounds so that they can be a little different from the norm.”
It sounds like you are having fun with this, dropping little references here and there. Thrill Of The Chase even has this little Daytripper call out. It sounds so freeing.
“Oh yeah, first of all it is a lot of fun, but it’s also challenging to come up with something different. I embrace it. I love the challenge. I love to do that sort of thing. Like on Not Dead Yet, that kind of ’60s funk, Motown-ish funk, is so cool.
“The Story, in the chorus, bringing in the 12-string Rickenbacker is just the perfect sound for what I was going for, that ‘60s kind of vibe. And that pops up here and there. Daytripper, like, stealing a part of that line? That was for my buddy Paul McCartney. [Laughs]”
Sometimes you’ll present something, a lick, or a guitar sound, in a totally different context to what we might expect. Is that a deliberate choice?
It became a very natural thing for us to look for different influences and flavours
“It’s hard to say because it all comes so naturally. It’s not as though we are looking for a direction, or looking to do a specific thing. We work remotely. We’ve been in the studio together a couple of times but generally we work remotely and that started during the pandemic. We had no choice but to work that way, and also distance –Maiah is out in San Francisco and we are all here in the Toronto area.
“We would share files. We would get something and it would spark something, and you would follow that up. A lot of trial and error. There was a lot of stuff that I deleted because it just wasn’t going anywhere. But the things that stuck, that back goes to the next group pass and everybody else hears that and it sparks something else in them that’s a little bit more out of the ordinary.
“So I guess it became a very natural thing for us to look for different influences and flavours. I think there’s great variety on this record; every song is different. And sonically, there are a lot of different characters going on in each of those songs.”
All those different flavours have this effect on the whole, it’s like you are playing around with the pop-cultural timeline, with some ‘60s elements, an ‘80s vibe. Some of your solos have an almost David Gilmour feel.
There’s a little bit in Under The Stars, the solo has definitely more of a Gilmourish bluesy kind of character to it. It just suits the density of that song
“I don’t know if I was aware of doing that. I guess it’s a flavour that I like and try to incorporate, like, ‘Maybe a ‘60s thing would be good for that part.’ I’ll try things.
“When I used the Ricky for the chorus in The Story, it wasn’t my first choice. I thought of a guitar, just a melody line in there – and I have another 12-string that I’d much rather play, that’s much easier. That Ricky can be a nightmare to play! But it had the tonality I could hear in my head and it had to be the Ricky.
“Yeah, there’s a little bit in Under The Stars, the solo has definitely more of a Gilmourish bluesy kind of character to it. It just suits the density of that song, the sonic density. I think you derive inspiration from everywhere, especially when you are full of it.”
It still unspools a little like a dream, giving you little clues of what might have inspired you over the years. The End has this sort of folky guitar that’s kind of Hats Off To Roy Harper. I feel like all these details will reveal themselves over time
I’m so fortunate that I went from one career in one band to something that is so different in this little world that I am in now
“I think it will and that’s a good point you bring up. I feel freedom on this record. I feel freedom on this project. Not that I was restricted in any way with Rush. I’m very proud of it and what we did. But this is a whole different kind of experience, a whole different way of writing and recording, and it requires the same kind of intense dedication to follow it through.
“But at the same time it is liberating and fun and easy, even when it’s hard! I’m so fortunate that I went from one career in one band to something that is so different in this little world that I am in now.”
When you are working remotely, how does the production work?
“Well, I sit right here, and I hit play, and I record. [Laughs] And that’s what I do over and over and over again! This is my studio. It’s in my apartment. We’re up on the 24th floor so we have a nice view of the city.
“When we moved in here I built this studio. I was limited with space. so I did what I could with soundproofing. It’s a great room and I get great results – and it’s comfortable. It’s my sanctuary.”
Usually in rock, you find a rhythm guitar tone and you’re off to the races. This album sounds a bit more complicated.
I am playing way more solos on this record than I did on the first
“It has to be in service to the song. That’s the other thing. It’s always about that for me, especially with this particular outfit. Nobody wants to stand out. It is all about presenting the song in the best way possible.
“I am playing way more solos on this record than I did on the first, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do that but in those places I could hear a solo, and the way I approach soloing it’s not just to be a show-off, or to play something super-fast – maybe when I was young!
“It is all about taking the song to another level with this very specific kind of music, this musical arrangement that fits inside but doesn’t take up too much space if that makes sense. I want the solos to be expected, to be part of it, and reflect the melodies and the emotional power of the song. And I think I did that with these solos. They’re sparse. They are not too fancy or anything. But they’re emotive and they fit.”
It sounds like you are using those solos as you might a backing singer…
“Yeah! And then the solo, like that solo in The Story, the most important function in that solo is to set up what follows, which is the whole point of the song... the song lifts after the solo.
“It kind of steps up for the solo, of course, like all solos do, but then it steps up again for that denouement that follows, where Maiah really sings into it and the music becomes driving being really distorted and heavy, just like a clean driving, really digging in.
“You’re playing the previous part one way but you get to this part, the climax, and you start digging in, and that’s how you start investing all that emotion into the part. It’s so important in crafting the song.”
What were the main guitars for the solos?
“It was a little bit of a mix. I used my Lerxst for some stuff. I used my 335, my original 335 – my first great guitar. This is a ’58, the first year they built the 335. I used a Les Paul with the vibrato.”
Did you write them out or were they improvised?
“Typically, I’ll do five tracks, and I find that five tracks is the perfect number for me. I’ll record solos five times and then I’ll listen back.
“That’s the way I have always worked. I do my best work when it’s spontaneous and quick. I can’t get too close to it because then I start repeating something. I lose my natural approach, that very uncontrolled sort of attack.”
Before you go. With your Lerxst amp and signature guitars in the background, we need to know – do you have any more releases planned?
“There is a black one – Free Will I think it’s called. And that will come out months from now as the final of the trio of these guitars.”
Nice. Completing the trilogy. Are there any more pedals?
“Yeah, we are working on a chorus pedal. It’ll be a little more than that. But certainly By-Tor and the Snow Dog have done well.”
- Stygian Waves is available for preorder, is out 28 March via KSCOPE.
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