Rob Laing from Guitarist Magazine/Musicradar.com conducted an interview with RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson in early December. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Musicradar.com: It's a new step for you to record and release two new songs – 'Caravan' and 'BU2B' – ahead of recording a whole album, and you're also playing them both live. Are you planning to reappraise them when you go back to work on the album?

Lifeson: "Well I think it would only make sense to have a go at them and see if it develops in any way. They will develop in the course of a tour and it's interesting how much they've changed from the very start of the tour. And you don't think you've don't anything different to them but the feel has changed and maybe the ferocity with these two particular songs. It'll be interesting to have another whack at them. It's an easy thing that once you've been playing a song for close to a year, you go in and record it. We don't ever really do that so I'm eager to see what happens with it."

Musicradar.com: Is the steam punk imagery from the Time Machine tour going to carry over to the next album?

Lifeson: "It is kind of unplanned but at the same time it lends itself to it, the imagery of where we're going. But after you make a record you have a much better idea of where you want to go with it and this may all seem like the past then, this whole approach. But I don't know, it's a lot of fun to develop those ideas for a tour and see where it goes. And it starts with the album – we'll have a much better picture once we get into that."

Musicradar.com: Is the plan now to take a break after this tour then think about releasing the next album in 2012?

Lifeson: "Originally the plan was to get back into writing and then recording this year but this tour was so successful with the demand for us to carry on and play a little bit longer. So we played with the ideas and as we got closer to the end of the tour we realised we were going to get a lot of push to continue it. And we wanted to, we didn't think we were going to have quite as much fun as we've had with it. The whole idea of doing Moving Pictures and not sharing it, particularly in the UK, was a real concern of ours. So Ged and I will get back to writing in the new year. We'll get through the Christmas holidays and start writing through January and February. We only have two or three more songs that we feel we need for the album. So we can start reworking the material and get it in great shape. Then we'll prepare for the tour in March, finish in July, take the summer off then start work in earnest in September."

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