Twice or three times a week we’d drive to a small town down the road and have dinner together. “We’re Canadians – we’re not afraid of snow!” Lifeson exclaims. In April 1982, Rush, Brown and engineer Paul Northfield decamped to Le Studio at Morin-Heights for a four-month stay. John Wetton once told this writer that Asia suffered a near-fatal case of cabin fever while recording their Alpha album there the following year – the place is getting on for 60 miles outside Montreal, after all – but Rush relished the facility’s remoteness. It dawned on us that we wanted to try new ideas maybe work with different people. “I remember it as a very enjoyable time,” smiles Alex, before volunteering: “It was only when we began recording the songs that things became a little more difficult. However, in contrast to The Shining, none of the group encountered any ghosts, lost the plot or began wielding axes and whacking them into doors. There was one room that we converted into a studio/rehearsal area, and we began working on the material we’d brought with us.” When Prog suggests that it all sounds a little like Stanley Kubrick’s iconic celluloid edition of the Stephen King novel The Shining, Lifeson beams in agreement. The snow was piled up everywhere and we ended up staying in this deserted summer lodge.” Lifeson remembers with a shiver: “It was a very cold, snowy winter. The band headed to Lake Windermere in the north of Ontario to fine-tune their ideas. “I had a little amp in the shape of a transistor radio with a tiny speaker which we put into a guitar case – that was our rather primitive recording technique.” “Geddy and I had some of Subdivisions, and we’d worked on Chemistry over at his place,” relates Lifeson. Rush actually began the preparation of material for Signals during their Moving Pictures tour. “But,” he adds, almost lost in a moment of quiet contemplation, “for obvious reasons I have mixed memories of that record.” “I agree with the consensus that Signals is among our most important and interesting records,” muses the guitarist, scrutinising the vinyl sleeve that Prog has brought along in the hope of triggering an extra memory or two. This suggests that he’s either an extremely fine actor, or that the passing of so many years has softened the recollection of what must have been an extremely frustrating time for him. More than three decades later, Lifeson can look back at the events of 1982 with some detachment. Rush still make records and tour, and as every reader of this magazine knows, have flourished in the new millennium. Today Lifeson is in London where, 24 hours from now, he will be presented with a Spirit Of Prog gong by Rick Wakeman on behalf of his bandmates at the Classic Rock Awards. Potentially more damaging still, the album concerned (later titled Signals) was the first of a sequence to alienate Alex Lifeson, whose contribution dwindled – the guitar certainly became less of a lead instrument – as layer upon layer of sequencers were daubed upon the trio’s aural canvas. The ensuing sessions were to prove troublesome and their results not only divided their fanbase, but they also terminated a long and fruitful relationship with Terry Brown, the co-producer of all their LPs since 1975’s Fly By Night. The band dived headlong into a world swamped in keyboards and the very latest in electronic instrumentation. “After the success of Moving Pictures we could’ve done anything we liked,” observes Lifeson, “and in Rush’s world, that usually means it’s time to change.” Now it’s time for them to do it again, but for minds as inventive as those of bassist/vocalist Geddy Lee, guitarist Alex Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart, the notion of self-replication is a complete non-starter. Thanks to a more radio-friendly format and the continued integration of keyboard technology, the previous year’s Moving Pictures was by far the biggest seller of the Canadian trio’s eight-album career. It’s the spring of 1982 and Rush are facing arguably their biggest challenge yet. So the ever-contrary Canadians turned to new technology for 1982’s Signals… Rush – How they made Signals (1982) “We were bored of doing things the same old way”Īfter the massive success of Moving Pictures, Rush had the world at their feet.