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No slugfests

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Do you guys cut proper demos before recording the actual album?

"Oh yeah. Our demos sound like pretty good records. Geddy has a Logic recording system in the writing room in his house, and we go in there and work things out. By the way, he lives five minutes away from me. Can you believe that after 40 years we live so close together? Anyway, we have a great system for writing: We work three days a week from noon till six o'clock, then we play tennis or hang out with our families; a lot of times we go out to dinner after our writing sessions and talk about what we've done - a very relaxed pace.

"We tracked the record at this wonderful place called Allaire Studios in the Catskills. It's a great studio with tremendous views of the mountains - very inspiring. Nick came up and threw himself into the situation. A few songs we didn't touch at all, some songs we moved a few things around, and there was one song called Spindrift that we made radical changes to. We were very impressed with Nick: He wasn't afraid to tell us that we had the song all wrong. Most producers are afraid to do that with name bands. Also, he allowed us to re-record anything we wanted, as many times as we wished. A lot of producers these days just want to Pro Tools parts together."

Obviously you have a pantload of guitars. How many did you bring to the studio?

"A 'pantload'...that's funny. I didn't bring too many, actually. My acoustics were...let me think...a Gibson J-55, a Larrivee...and I also used Garrison guitars, six and 12-string. As far as electrics...I think I mainly used my Tele, my ES-335 and this fantastic Les Paul goldtop reissue I have. I tried to keep things relatively simple."

As you said, the dominant sound on the album comes from acoustic guitars.

"Yeah...I was playing a lot of acoustic before making the record and my head was stuck in that world. Plus, I had recently seen Tommy Emmanuel and Stephen Bennett perform, and I was very taken with what they were doing. In fact, Stephen gave me a half capo, which I'd never seen before, and I thought it was really cool. You can move it around but still have open strings - what an awesome little thing! I used it on the song Bravest Face."

One last question: You guys have been together for so long. Have you ever had a good slugfest?

"No, no, no! But it's come close. We don't always see eye to eye; we squabble. Back in the old days when we were touring ten or twelve months out of the year, my God, you get sick of each other; the slightest little thing one guy does can just set you off. But at those times when we do fight, five minutes later we're saying, 'Shit, I'm sorry, man.' We love each other, we love hanging out together, and we really love playing music together - after all these years."