Tom Henheffer from Macleans.ca spoke with Suck director Rob Stefaniuk and RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson about their rock n' roll vampire movie. Here are a few excerpts from the chat:

Macleans.ca: It seemed like one of the big themes in the movie is the fear of losing relevance. Do you feel like there’s any parallel between that and rock music today?

Alex Lifeson: It has lost a lot of relevance. The whole industry has changed so much. I think the movie is a metaphor for the way the rock industry used to be, selling your soul to get ahead and to realize your dream.

Macleans.ca: Did you find that there were many parallels in the movie between your experience as a musician and what this band was going through, being on the road, being the losers that they were at the start of the movie?

Lifeson: "Somewhat. You know, the starving, travelling in one vehicle, whole band kind of thing. We certainly did that for years when we were playing high schools and clubs, bars around southern Ontario. And really the first three or four years we toured in the U.S. we were in a car, a station wagon."

Macleans.ca: And running into pain in the ass border guards?

Lifeson: "Yeah, well I’ve had a lot of experience with border guards."

Macleans.ca: Rush never sold its soul like the band in this movie. How did you guys manage that?

Lifeson: "It was on our third album, Caress Of Steel, that we tried to experiment a little bit more. We started working on concept pieces for a whole side of a record, and that record was not very commercially successful. We had a lot of pressure, we were heavily in debt. So we sort of sat down and said we can either do one of two things: go with what the record company’s saying and make more of a straight rock record, or we can just do what we want to do, go down in flames, but at least we did it on our own terms. That’s what a lot of this movie is about. What are they, and what kind of band are they? Do they need this sudden influence that’s coming from somewhere else?"

Macleans.ca: And in the end they decide it’s better to sell your soul for rock and roll.

Lifeson: "Yeah exactly."

Macleans.ca: But that isn’t your experience.

Lifeson: "Well we didn’t have to. We didn’t break up after Caress Of Steel and go home and wear our plaid jackets and cardigans like they did and always live in that thought, “did I blow it, did I have a chance?” That wasn’t the case for us."

Read the entire interview here.