Producer NICK RASKULINECZ Looks Back On Recording With RUSH Drummer NEIL PEART - "I Went Back To The Control Room.... 'Oh My God, I Hope I Didn't Blow It'"

January 27, 2020, 4 years ago

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Producer NICK RASKULINECZ Looks Back On Recording With RUSH Drummer NEIL PEART - "I Went Back To The Control Room.... 'Oh My God, I Hope I Didn't Blow It'"

Eddie Trunk recently paid tribute to Rush drum legend Neil Peart. Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins and producer Nick Raskulinecz both guested on the show, with Raskulinecz talking about recording the last two Rush albums - Snakes & Arrows (2007) and Clockwork Angels (2012) - telling stories about working with Peart, and more.

Raskulinecz: "Imagine sitting in the control room listening to Neil play and it's, like, 'Whoa, here's the drum set, there it is!' It's like levitating off the ground with a glowing delight. The very first drum track we did (for Snakes & Arrows), he played the song a couple of times. I believe it was that song 'Armor And Sword,' the first song we recorded on that album. And he did a fill, and any drummer that's worked with me would tell you I like to be in the room with the drummers. I like to be in there with headphones on; I like to have a stick in my hand, and I'm pacing around like a madman listening and feeling it. And I haven't done that with Neil yet because he was, you know, Neil Peart - it's The Professor, it's The Master.

A couple of takes went by, he kept doing these things, and I was, like, 'Oh, but if you did that here...', you know? I ran in the drum room out of the control room with my stick, I walk right up to the drum set, right in front of him; and he's got his head down, like, he's playing the track, he's recording the song right now. And I kind of got down in his face, like, 'Hey, stop,' and he kind of stopped and looked at me, like, 'What? Why are you in here with me?' And he stops playing.

He took his headphones off and the track is still playing in the background and I'm, like, 'Man, that fill you did right there, going into the chorus - can you do that fill coming out of the chorus again? And can you do a chorus that's more like...?' I referenced something like 'Fly By Night'... 'Can you do something like that?' And he was just... 'Well, you need something like this?' I was 'That's it, perfect!'

"I went back to the control room, and I was walking... 'Oh my God, I hope I didn't blow it.' And I walked in the control room, and Geddy (Lee) was sitting in the control room, and I'll never forget the look. He just looked at me over the top of his glasses and he goes 'You, he's gonna like you, kid.' And literally from that moment forward, it was on with him and me in the studio. I mean, anything that I can throw out at him, he would try or he would do, he was excited that somebody in the room was excited about the drummer that he was."

It kind of got to the point that when we started making Clockwork Angels, he came into the studio with nothing. He never demoed the drums for any of the songs for that record. He came into the studio and on the first day of tracking, he brought me a conductor's baton, and he said, 'I will not play the drums unless you have the conductor's baton in your hands. Conduct me, I am yours for this record.'

And I think about that now, and it's hard to put into words what that means."

Check out the interview here.



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