In a new interview with Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson, Max Mobley – obviously a huge Rush fan himself – talked at length with Lifeson about his love for playing guitar and, of course, about Rush.

Some interesting highlights of the interview include word that the studio where the band recorded their most recent album, Snakes & Arrows, has gone out of business. Some earlier comments about Allaire studio back when the album came out revealed the group’s fondness for the unique atmosphere, and equipment that was available – something that Lifeson speaks of fondly again during this most recent interview.

For a moment, I wondered why a studio that was so highly regarded by musicians who worked there would be closing, but then Lifeson reminded me that this digital age we are living in has changed a lot about the way the music industry works these days. “But unfortunately, yeah, you can go anywhere now, take your Pro Tools, and make a record, and that’s what everyone is doing,” he says.

Much like the comments we are hearing from other classic rock acts that are still touring these days, Lifeson mentions his appreciation for seeing more kids showing up for their shows, some as young as 9 or 10 years old.

Although it is sad to hear about studios like Allaire going out of business, I also suspect that the same digital revolution that put them out of business is partly responsible for exposing today’s kids to music from groups like Rush. It is so easy to download a song or an album from iTunes or Amazon these days, or hook up a video game with a plastic guitar to your television set and pretend you’re on stage with Aerosmith, Heart, Rush and other classic bands. Obviously, some of these kids recognize great music when they hear it!

A common theme that seems to run through most of the interviews with the guys from Rush is how they remained true to their own ideas and style, and did not compromise for the sake of commercial success or due to pressure from managers.

While on the subject of the group’s independence throughout their career, Lifeson take a bit of a swipe at The Police by saying, “We don’t want to be like the Police or like a nostalgia band that comes back and plays all the old hits. We want to keep growing and progressing and we want to mix our sets up with new and old stuff.” Whether we hear any response from Sting and company regarding that comment remains to be seen.

In his closing comments of the interview, it sounds like Rush isn’t entertaining any plans of retiring any time soon. With comments like "We are all in such great shape right now. We’ve been playing with such confidence and ease…” it sounds like they are as satisfied with their abilities as they have ever been, and if the other two members of the group are still in love with playing (and in the case of Geddy Lee, singing as well) their instruments as much as Lifeson is with playing his guitar, there is no reason to expect that Snakes & Arrows will end up being the last we hear from Rush.

You can read the interview in its entirety at Crawdaddy.

Another thing Lifeson mentions during the interview was how 2112 seemed to be an album that really defined what their style of playing and songwriting was, which makes for a nice segue into this next bit of Rush-related news.

Sean Scallon has an article at American Chronicle that draws some parallels between the story from 2112 and the global financial crises we find ourselves mired in currently. I can easily see his point, and perhaps the new Priests of the Temples of Syrinx have indeed assumed control, as he suggests.

From the way things look now, I’m guessing they have been in control for a while.