As far as my keyboard playing goes... I'm really just an adequate keyboard player, I'm a really good bluffer!
But, I would be naive not to recognize the number of musicians who tell me they have been influenced by me and sight me - as well as Alex and Neil - as a musician who has been a positive influence on their playing.
First of all, when you live in a country like Canada, it's quite different from America in the sense that it's very tied to traditions that were born in Britain.
For me, how I feel about what I wrote down turns into a song.
For me, there is a lot of room for improvement and there are a lot of things I would like to be better at.
I am moved more by melodies, song structure, and evocative textures.
I do love using keyboards and I love writing keyboard parts, but I am not a player in the true sense of the word.
I feel a little uncomfortable about endorsements.
I feel safe and comfortable to do that once I know that the song structure around the bass part is very interesting and it satisfies me in a compositional sense.
I guess, we were people who just dedicated to trying to get better.
I have a lot of hobbies and I can be very remiss in reminding myself to go down to the basement to work.
I have always felt I was more accurately a Hard Rock musician.
I have such an extreme attitude about work, where I can just completely be derelict of my responsibilities and then when I am not derelict, I am completely indulged in it. I swing pretty wildly from the two extremes.
I like to be able to come and go as I please, and I don't really like having my face and name plastered around. I think it's a bit weird to have your name plastered on every page in a magazine, where in each case you're using a different piece of equipment.
I like to feel I can use any piece of equipment that strikes me at the time and I don't want to be overly obliging to any company.
I like to practice on the bass, but I don't do it as often as I should.
I liked the fact that I was forced to get inside of my emotions and to really try to figure out a lot of what I was going through.
I love to write. It's my first love.
I prefer to think of myself as a musician who is still learning and trying to do something every time out.
I probably don't go to the record stores as much as I should to find out what is new.
I was taking piano lessons with a very good piano instructor in Toronto, and I'm afraid due to my schedule and discipline, it kind of fell apart. One thing lead to another and I was unable to practice as much as I wanted to.
I would like to shift more into writing for and producing people.
I would like to think that Ben and myself have begun a partnership that will take us into different areas of music that we can continue to write, enjoy and keep me involved with music other then what I do with RUSH.
I'm a big believer of daylight in the studio.
If you have some magical chemistry that actually find the music you make compelling, that is a big bonus.
It's hard for me to just practice without writing something.
Music is all about wanting to be better at it.
My studio is designed for atmosphere. I have a really cozy, comfortable room that has a great, huge glass door that views my backyard.
Neil is very professional to work with.
Of course, I love what I do with RUSH and I will continue to do it as long as we all believe it is all worthwhile to do.
Other times, I'll just sit with the lyrics and, basically, the lyrics will inspire me to write a particular melodic part or vocal melody.
So, I don't know what is going to happen when the CD comes out, how well it will sell, etc. But, from a personal point of view, it was a very worthwhile endeavor.
So, I really don't consider myself a fabulous keyboard player.
Some writing and production projects will be a great way to spend my elderly rock years.
Sometimes it's nice to have a song that can be taken more then one way, so it can be interpreted differently.
That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.
Then, once I have lyrics, being able to shape them around a song is nothing new for me, I've been doing that for 25 years. The soul searching part of it, the spontaneous part of it, that was, and remains, a really terrific process.
There was a time when fast playing and fretboard pyrotechnics on the bass were important to me and when I am recording a bass track, that is still very important to me.
Well, I certainly identify with Progressive Rock and I certainly don't mind RUSH being labeled as a Progressive Rock group.
When I do a take, I very often try things that I haven't planned to try to see if I can pull it off.
When I usually go to my studio to work, I start with something that is going to take two minutes just to put some idea down and the next thing I know, ten hours have gone by and my family is screaming at me because they want me to come up to have dinner with them.
With me, satisfaction is always very fleeting with our work. I always get a little restless with it.
With the help of modern technology, I can compose intricate keyboard parts and then I have to go back and learn them in order to perform them properly.
His Astrological sign is Leo.
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