Skip Daly from Modernguitars.com spoke with RUSH guitar legend Alex Lifeson recently about a number of topics. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Modernguitars.com: Are we going to see a remix or remaster of Vapor Trails?

Alex: "You know, Rich Chycki just remixed a couple of the songs for the retrospective that’s coming out [Retrospective III], and he did such a great job that we’re so tempted to just remix that album, because we’ve never been pleased with the mix, and particularly the mastering on it. It’s a dangerous precedent that you set by doing that, because you want to go back and re-do a bunch of things.

We were never happy with that one. There are a lot of reasons for that. We’re to blame for a lot of that. The way we recorded it was very impulsive. We didn’t spend a lot of time on getting sounds, and we used a lot of the stuff that we did in the writing phase, rather than re-recording things. So, to maintain the pure energy of what those ideas were, we gave up a bit on the sonic end. But, Rich just has this way of mixing and hearing this band that translates so well into our heads. He did a great job. He remixed 'One Little Victory', and 'Earthshine'. They sound so big and powerful and heavy and thick and round. Whereas, the original recordings are very compressed, and a little bright and scratchy. So, we listened to those and we thought 'well, look, what is the point in remixing it really? We would just be doing it for ourselves…and…so…well, ok why not - let’s do it!' So, we’re sort of toying with the idea, when we have some spare time, of just remixing that whole album, just for our own peace of mind."

Modernguitars.com: Well, hopefully this will be the lucky one. Rush just completed a major world tour in 2008 that spanned 13 months. Has the band been feeling re-invigorated about road life in recent years? Is touring easier than it used to be?

Alex: "Well, if we were feeling re-invigorated about it, certainly this tour completely changed that [Laughing]. We did about 120 shows on this last tour, and it was exhausting, I have to admit. We really enjoyed it and I thought we played the best we’ve ever played. We were in a really nice pocket. You know, I think with age comes a maturity and a confidence in one’s playing, and we’re really hitting that stride right now. But, we all found it a little exhausting this time around. We’re a bit older, and you just kind of notice that. We stay in great shape. We eat well, we have a chef that travels with us, we exercise a lot, and we do all the right things. But, it can be grueling doing a three hour plus set.Having said all that, we did really, really enjoy it. We’re going to take a long break now, and I think that will recharge our batteries, and we’ll come back into it truly re-invigorated."

Modernguitars.com: I’d like to talk for a minute about this newest DVD, Snakes And Arrows Live. The accompanying album is the band’s seventh live album, by my count. I’ve heard that the band considered All The World’s A Stage to be too ‘raw’ and Exit…Stage Left to be too ‘sterile’…with subsequent live albums having more of a balance. Were there any ‘repairs’ made to the raw tracks on this one, or is it “warts and all”?

Alex: "No, actually…let me think…there might have been a couple of vocal things. Certainly there were no guitar things or drum things.You know, we had the benefit of doing a second date, so if there was a section that maybe felt better in a song on the second day, we may have put a couple parts in. But, I’d have to sit down with Rich [Chycki – engineer], and ask him. Those two gigs were pretty consistent gigs. I thought we played well both of those nights. It was at the end of the tour, and by that point in the tour we’re pretty set with all of our tempos. Neil has a metronome on his drums that gives him a tempo reference at the beginning of a song. It’s just a light that pulses, and it gives him a tempo reference. He’s very solid."

To read the entire interview head to this location.