Alex Lifeson entered a new chapter in his life and career with the launch of his group Envy of None in 2022. It came on the heels of some serious losses, in particular, the death in early 2020 from brain cancer of his lifetime colleague and dear friend, drummer Neil Peart. And with him, the wildly popular band that he and Peart, with bass guitarist and singer Geddy Lee, forged and fostered for 50 years — Rush.
“I didn’t want to play guitar or work at all, really, for a long time after Neil passed away,” Lifeson says. “After the first anniversary, I felt it was time to come out of the grieving process.”
That, in turn, led to the creation of Envy of None, the quartet Lifeson created with singer Maiah Wynne, bassist Andy Curran and co-guitarist Alfio Annibalini. The group’s 2022 self-titled debut marked a fresh start in Lifeson’s long career.
But one track on the record holds a deep connection to Lifeson’s former band and the process of letting it go: “Western Sunset.” As Lifeson told Guitar Player, he wrote it in memory of Peart.
“That song came about around the time we all found out that Neil was ill,” he says, sitting in his home studio in Toronto, surrounded by vintage preamps, high-wattage amps and a few dozen electric guitars, including the Gibson ES-335 he blazed to fame with in the 1970s.
“I was visiting with him and I was sitting on his balcony in Santa Monica. He had a little balcony off his office and he'd go out there every so often and have a smoke. There were times in the afternoon where the sun was setting, and there was this particular time when the sun was setting through the trees, filtering through the branches and the leaves, and far off we could see the ocean and the hills of Malibu.
“It really struck me that there's this closure in a sunset. It's the end of a day, and sure, tomorrow a new day begins. But the sunset marks the end of one day, and that day is not going to be there anymore.
“That thought occupied me for some time. And I just thought it was such a serene, peaceful moment, at a time when we were dealing with something that was very painful and difficult. That really stayed with me.
“When I started working on the song, I thought about the whole idea of a western sunset, being there in California with Neil and watching the sun set. I wanted to try to re-create the serenity, calmness and peace that I felt in that moment. As the song developed, that was the key thing in my mind”
To record “Western Sunset,” Lifeson says he played one of his custom PRS Angelus acoustics.
“They made me a few with different woods and various depths and body styles. I miked it with, I believe, an Earthworks SR25 microphone, which is great, and that went through a Neve 1073 preamp/EQ into the Universal Audio 1176, and from there into my Universal Audio Apollo x4 interface, and into Apple Logic Pro, which is my main recording platform.”
Lifeson says that in writing the acoustic guitar part, he endeavored to reflect the tranquility of that moment in California on Peart’s balcony.
“I wanted the acoustic guitar line to be warm and connective; not complicated, but just sweet and setting the stage for your attention,” he says. “And then once the rest of the track comes in, it's all about the melody of that string arrangement Johnny Dinklage created for it, a beautiful, subtle string arrangement.
“Everything is subtle in it: the drums using only brushes, a simple bass line. All of those things combined to make a very peaceful, very visual kind of music.
“As for the song itself, it's a very personal thing, obviously. It was something that [sighs] … I don't know if I felt I needed to do it, but I felt I wanted to do it. And I’m glad that I did.”
