The release of Rush’s 20th studio album, “Clockwork Angels,” is only a few weeks away (it’s out June 12).
Lyrically, the album chronicles a young man’s quest across a lavish and colorful world of steampunk and alchemy as he attempts to follow his dreams. The story features lost cities, pirates, anarchists, an exotic carnival, and a rigid Watchmaker who imposes precision on every aspect of daily life.
The novelization of the album is being written by science fiction writer Kevin J. Anderson in collaboration with Rush drummer and lyricist Neil Peart.
In a new interview with Spin magazine, Rush bassist Geddy Lee explains how the band approached the project.
“I didn't want the details of the story to start weighing down the individuality of any one song. I wanted the songs to be a collection that could stand on their own, outside of context of the whole story,” said Geddy. “When you look at a collection of songs like those on the Who's ‘Tommy,’ you could pull ‘I'm Free’ out of that and it still stands on its own. But in connection to the story, it takes on another interpretation. So there was a lot of discussion about that. I think at one point, Neil was a little frustrated with my determination to keep the story-line minimal in a sense.”
Given Rush’s history of conceptually-driven music, Spin asked Lee to comment on whether “Clockwork Angels” was created in a different way than their previous efforts.
“It felt different this time,” replied Geddy. “I think because we were taking the approach of making the songs work as individual pieces, we didn't have to worry about the necessity for an overture or trying to bring musical themes back. That approach would've felt formulaic to us. The three times we attempted side-long concept pieces in the past, the music was really like one song broken up into many parts. The thread connecting the music on 'Clockwork Angels' is the story-line. That's the key difference.”
Read the full Geddy Lee session at Spin here.
Rush Rush – Headlong Flight (lyric video)
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