RUSH: Busy, Not Hurried

The Toronto Sun spoke to RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson about the group's upcoming two-DVD set, "Rush In Rio", due in September. "I've been in the studio with the mixing portion of it for the last seven weeks," he said. "We still have another couple of weeks to go on it. [Bassist/vocalist] Geddy [Lee] has been in the video part and [drummer] Neil [Peart] was involved in the earlier stages of the assembly. I'll be honest with you, I've been in the studio from noon until 4 a.m. every day, so nothing is going to bump up the pace ... It's not just a mix of the audio of the show, it's a lot of other things that are included in the whole thing. It's the stereo mix and the 5.1 mix and they are separate issues. So the workload has been intense."

Lifeson says the Rio concert, recorded before 60,000 in Rio de Janeiro, was a one-shot deal.

"We really lucked out," he said. "The truck, the sound truck, it was like a bread van with two-by-fours screwed into the ceiling and floor with all of our gear literally screwed into all these two-by-fours. I mean it's a miracle that this thing came about ... It all worked out and we're really proud of it."

Lifeson says that although it's still too early to tell, the band plans on making 2004 a work year, whether in the studio working on a new album or back out on tour. A decision will be made in September.

"We never really do feel that pressure (to make another album)," he said. "When I look around at all these bands that have come and gone and the ones that are around, and the kind of restrictions placed on how they do things, we're lucky. We've always done things the way we wanted to do them and the way we thought best." Read more.