Neil Peart has taken to his website to discuss to state of Rush. According to the acclaimed drummer, the band will convene in Los Angeles very soon to discuss their next recording, the follow-up to 2007's Snakes & Arrows.
"We learned many years ago that when we finish one long project - like a two-year tour following a year or so of writing and recording for Snakes & Arrows - we don't make any further plans for a while," Peart writes.
"It's good to feel truly free for a time, and to clear your mind to focus on what you'd really like to do next. Of course, these are parlous times in the music business, so our time-honored pattern of touring, recording and touring is no longer the obvious way to do things."
Things are different now
"The music world - or at least the business of it - is very different now, even since 2006, when we began work on Snakes & Arrows," he continues. "The importance of 'the album' is not what it was, and there is currently a reversion to a musical climate rather like the 1950s, when only 'the song' matters.
"The three of us haven't even discussed what we might discuss...so our ideas and shared enthusiasm for the entity of RUSH will be fresh, spontaneous and quite likely exciting."
"Radio, downloads and 'shuffle' settings are inimical to collected works. Because of that reality, record company advances that used to pay for album projects are a thing of the past, so if that was what we wanted to do, we'd be on our own...
"To this point, the three of us haven't even discussed what we might discuss, so to speak - so our ideas and shared enthusiasm for the entity of RUSH will be fresh, spontaneous and quite likely exciting. For myself, I'm open to anything we can all agree on (I've pointed out before that in a three-piece band, we need consensus, not democracy - it's no good having one outvoted and unhappy member)."
An orchestra, perhaps?
Peart adds, "My favorite group activity is always songwriting and recording, and I've got some lyrical ideas and those new drumming frontiers to explore. However, those rhythmic concepts would also be inspiring for a new drum solo, if we decided to do a tour of some kind, maybe with an orchestra.
"We could write and record just a few songs, and release them some way. Or there were a couple of film-and-music projects we had discussed in the past. In any case, there are enough possibilities for future collaboration, and I am curious to see what we'll come up with."
Read the rest of Neil Peart's blog here. (Thanks, Blabbermouth)
