Envy of None

For his first post-Rush album project, guitar wizard Alex Lifeson has teamed up with bassist Andy Curran of veteran Canadian rockers Coney Hatch, producer Alfio Annibalini (Voivod/Sons of Otis) and beguiling young singer Maiah Wynne to form Envy of None. The group’s self-titled debut is a true collaborative effort featuring deep electronic textures, dreamy alt-rock and a poignant tribute to Lifeson’s late, great friend and bandmate Neil Peart. Just don’t expect any of it to sound like Rush. “I was in Rush for 45 years, but I have a lot of other musical ideas,” Lifeson tells Apple Music. “Working with a different set of people who are great musicians and great songwriters was a rewarding experience. I was able to create the type of soundscapes and character in the guitar that was very non-guitarlike.” Below, Lifeson and Curran discuss each track. “Never Said I Love You” Alex Lifeson: “Even when this song was in a demo format, before it had vocals or anything, we felt it was a pretty darn hooky song. We were even jokingly calling it a ‘smash-hit bed track’. We had a bit of confidence that it might actually get a lot of airplay one day. When Maiah got involved, I think Andy suggested the line ‘I never said I loved you,’ and she just ran with it. I ended up adding some acoustic guitars to the chorus to help make it really big and wide and singable.” “Shadow” Andy Curran: “This is probably the earliest Envy of None song that we all collaborated on. Certainly, it was the first time Alfi and I shared anything we were working on with Maiah. That might be the one that really resonated with Alex when he realised, as we did, how special Maiah is—and her grasp of melodies and lyrics and harmonies. She said the electronic vibe of the track reminded her of a video game.” “Look Inside” Lifeson: “When this first came around, we all struggled with it. The parts were interesting separately, but gluing it together seemed to be a little bit of a task. The difficulty is it’s a