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NEIL PEART
future—the passion for the instrument. That people would want to play, whatever it takes. And now people are finding avenues to
communicate their music other than coming up through clubs. Not to publicize it or to brand it or sell it, but just to get people to hear it. If a band can get heard and seen on YouTube, then they can get gigs and start playing live. It’s different, all right, but I still see people making it.
The Write Way MD: You’ve said that sometimes you’ll change lyrics so that Geddy can sing them more easily. Do you ever collaborate on the rhythmic delivery of the vocals? Neil: Yeah, we often discuss phrasing. Plus it’s kind of in-built. I have an advantage there, in that words are always rhythm to me. A line comes into my head and it has a rhythm, automatically, because I hear it as a drummer and pattern my phrasing that way. But sometimes I’ll take liberties so that one should be longer and the next one should be back-phrased. And I might explain that to Geddy, or when he’s doing his vocals I’ll be around and if I hear him having trouble, I can rewrite something. MD: And he’s open to your suggestions? Neil: Oh, mostly asking for help. [laughs] “I’m having trouble with this line” or “I need two more lines like this.” Great—I can do that. A lesson I learned is not to try to write one
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44 Modern Drummer January 2016
whole song and give it to the guys, like, “Here’s my precious masterpiece.” I just write a whole bunch of stuff and give it to them. They’ll sit and jam and record it all, and Geddy will sift through it and make an arrangement out of it. And when he likes lines, I’m inspired. Just the fact that it’s been accepted and found worthy to be a song. If anything gets rejected or left out, it’s not a negative. “Caravan” from Clockwork Angels is a
good example. We had the “I can’t stop thinking big” line. Geddy made it into the chorus and asked if he could have one more line to wrap it up. And somehow it came out to be “In a world where I feel so small, I can’t stop thinking big.” I don’t know where that came from. It was just spontaneous. It was a puzzle to solve. I’m really good at
crosswords, and that helps a lot with that kind of thing. I have this many syllables. A song, even in our case, without much repetition, is only a couple hundred words. So you have to become super-economical with them and choose the word that conveys the meaning the best and that
sounds the best being sung, and that bears repeating. I didn’t write “I can’t stop thinking big” to be repeated. It was just a line. That’s one example where the problem solving can suddenly be inspiring. I don’t know where that came from, but thank you. [laughs] MD: What’s more gratifying, seeing fans singing your lyrics or seeing them air drumming? Neil: Singing. One of the keys to our longevity is that I know in many bands there’s a great envy of the singer for getting all the attention. It causes a lot of ruptures and conflicts and all this pure ego. But all these people singing along with Geddy, they’re singing my words. How can I feel bad about that? So that’s very gratifying. And the air drumming is the same thing.
It’s a level of engagement, just sheer exuberance. That’s the energy you feel. It’s truly spontaneous and it’s a feedback loop. We energize them and they energize us. It’s a palpable, sincere thing, and it’s not just about [the musicians] putting on a show, but [the audience] being in the show. And I always say, I am the audience. I’m not a performer by nature. The choice of drums drove me into being a performer. I’m really a one-on-one talker. When I’m on stage, I watch people a lot. And the world too—on my motorcycle rides on my days off, it’s the show coming at me. I’m the audience for it, and I try to absorb it as deeply as I can and hopefully share it with others later. And that’s the big appeal with prose
writing, the urge to share. And this just occurred to me, but I bet the excitement I get in playing particular songs of ours [comes from the fact that] it communicates, “This is real.” The energy that I’m giving this, the fact that this excited me when I recorded it and that became the drum part I wanted for that song—that meant something, and it still means something. MD: Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the cover of Rolling Stone…what’s going on here? Neil: [laughs] Persistence! Just keep going. You can eventually earn people’s respect. It’s easy to be dismissed in the beginning. And I’ve done that myself as a reader. Just dismissed certain writers. And then they earn my respect over time. That’s persistence. MD: What’s in the future? If Rush isn’t touring, will you still record? Write prose? Be a dad? Neil: You just answered it. There’s no strict answer, but those possibilities are all there.
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