During the mid ‘90s, Lifeson participated in one-off side project, Victor, a group that issued a self-titled debut in 1996, and included appearances by Primus bassist Les Claypool and I Mother Earth vocalist Edwin. By the ‘90s, Rush's desire to return to more straight ahead, hard rock-based material had returned, as Lifeson's guitar work once more became more prominent, especially on such releases as 1993's Counterparts. Rush continued to tour the world and issue hit albums throughout the ‘80s, but Lifeson's guitar work took a backseat, due to the group's experiments with more textured, synthesizer-based sounds. During this string of classic albums, Lifeson's fine guitar chops could be sampled on a variety of standout tracks, especially 'Xanadu' (1977's A Farewell to Kings), 'La Villa Strangiato' (1978's Hemispheres), 'Freewill' (1980's Permanent Waves), and 'YYZ' (1981's Moving Pictures). It took a few releases for the new line-up to truly gel, but with 1976's breakthrough release, 2112, Rush had begun a journey that would eventually establish them as one of hard rock's most popular and successful acts in the whole world.

After the release of this album, drummer Neil Peart, joined the group and the rest is history. The trio eventually signed a recording contract with Polygram, who reissued their self-titled debut in 1973 (which had previously been released independently). The group slowly built a regional following, and eventually started penning their own original songs (which were initially highly derivative of the aforementioned bands they had been long covering – especially Zeppelin). In the late 60's, the trio focused primarily on perfecting cover songs of Cream, Led Zeppelin, and The Who, among others. Lifeson was primarily a self-taught guitarist with the only formal instruction coming from a high school friend in 1971 who taught classical guitar lessons.Īlthough it's widely agreed that all three members of Rush are incredibly talented at their respective instruments, guitarist Alex Lifeson tends to be the most underrated of the bunch. Both interested in music, they decided to form a band. In 1963 Lifeson met future Rush drummer John Rutsey in school. During adolescence, Lifeson was primarily influenced by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Pete Townshend. His first guitar was a Christmas gift from his father, a six-string Kent classical acoustic which was later upgraded to an electric Japanese model. His first exposure to formal music training came in the form of the viola which he renounced for the guitar at the age of 12. His assumed stage name of 'Lifeson' is a semi-literal translation of the name 'Zivojinovich', which means 'son of life' in Serbian. Lifeson was born in Fernie, British Columbia to Serbian immigrants, Nenad and Milka Zivojinovich (from Serbian: Живојиновић, Živojinović), and raised in Toronto, Ontario. Lifeson and the band followed up the album with the Snakes & Arrows Tour. On May 1, 2007, Rush released Snakes & Arrows, their eighteenth full-length studio album. The trio was the first rock band to be so honored, as a group. Aside from music, Lifeson is part owner of the Toronto restaurant The Orbit Room, and is a licensed aircraft pilot, motorcycle rider, and gourmet cook.Īlong with his bandmates Geddy Lee and Neil Peart, Lifeson was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The bulk of Lifeson's work in music has been with Rush, although Lifeson has contributed to a body of work outside of the band as well. During live performances, Lifeson, like the other members of Rush, performs real-time triggering of sampled instruments, concurrently with his guitar playing. He also performs backing vocals in live performances, and occasionally plays keyboards and bass pedal synthesizers. Lifeson founded Rush in the summer of 1968, and has been an integral member of the three-piece band ever since.įor Rush, Lifeson plays electric and acoustic guitars as well as other stringed instruments such as mandola, mandolin and bouzouki. Here's his latest gear list for this tour.Ģ Behringer Ultralink mx-662 6 Channel Spliter/Mixerġ Audio Technica AEW-DA6600 Antenna Distribution Systemġ Custom Audio Japan AC0912 System Power Supplyġ Dunlop Crybaby DCR-1SR Rackmount Wah WahĢ Custom Audio Japan GVCA-2 Rev.3 Midi Programmable Volume Controlġ TC 1210 Spatial Expander+Stereo Chorus/FlangerĢ Digital Music Corp.Alex Lifeson,(born Aleksandar Živojinović August 27, 1953) is a Canadian musician, best known for his work as the guitarist of the Canadian rock band Rush. I think everything he gets live noe comes stright from his amp or rack. A Retro Sonic chorus might get you there. A lot of those classic tones are from an Electric Mistress Flanger, and even earlier from Maestro phasers in addition to chorus. I saw them on Wed in Atlanta and they were phenominal!

Alex liefson sound on ampkit