Godeater2112

Yeah I am keeping my eyes and ears peeled, this was absolutely golden and I'd love to listen to it again, was half way while tuning in lats night.

Someone with more time that I have did a pretty good run-down of the "interview" on RIAB. Credit to "Most Endangered Species" from over there:

Here are some highlights from the interview for those who missed it:

Jim Ladd, for those who don't know, was a well known radio DJ in LA ever since forever. Very passionate and opinionated about rock music. He had a brief spot in the Moving Pictures Classic Album episode. The format of the interview was a track by track discussion of the whole Clockwork Angels storyline, with Neil reading the prose from the liner notes leading into the playing of each of the 12 songs in order, with brief interview questions before/after each song that shed light on what we'll see in the novel. Seemed that Ladd did his homework about the songs and the storyline, and he gathered several questions from a colleague at Sirius who is a big Rush fan. With Neil doing interviews so infrequently, it was a treat to listen to an interview that was a serious attempt to get to the bottom of the lyrical subject matter. The way I would put it, they "gave the album the attention it deserves."

Neil said he just finished recording the audiobook and joked that because of that he was very warmed up to read these liner notes intros. [i though he did indeed read it very professionally]

The lyric "In a world where I feel so small" wasn't originally in the lyrics that Neil submitted to Geddy, and came about later in the writing process because Geddy asked for an extra line to make it sound good.

He described The Anarchist's character as a "Freedom Extremist", the polar opposite of the Watchmaker. Not originally a terrorist, but "brought up" to be "lacking" which in turn fueled his evil. Neil said the Anarchist fits the saying "I am the way my life has made me." He said he got chills when he heard Geddy sing "A missing part of me that grows around me like a cage." Didn't realize how cool a lyric that was until he heard Ged sing it.

A funny part was that Neil referred to The Anarchist as a "Malignant Narcissist" and even quoted the line from Team America: World Police (as authentic as he could with a girly voice!).

The song Clockwork Angels is about how the pageantry of Chronos Square is meant to keep the population in line. Noted how in Ancient Rome they said "Give them bread and circuses and they will never revolt."

Joked about the reference to In N Out milkshakes with the biblical quote in the title track. He explained to Jim Ladd how that SoCal burger chain has biblical chapter:verse references on the bottom of their cups and fries. [As a sidenote, I actually had lunch at In N Out today and sure enough there was "Proverbs 3:5" at the bottom of my milkshake.] And proof that Neil is not infallible, during the interview he mistakenly referred to it as Proverbs 3:16.

Asked about his collaboration with Kevin Anderson (author of the book version), he said they always wanted to collaborate on something but never had an opportunity until this project. Neil had the initial idea and they fleshed out some of the story while on a hike near his home in Colorado, discussing themes of order and freedom.

Halo Effect was one song that came out of that collaboration. They weren't afraid to make the hero in the story a reflection of themselves and this song was somewhat inspired by experiences in their own lives.

The Pedlar is really the Watchmaker in disguise. He wants to know what people lack, hoping the answer is "nothing". His role in the storyline is to prompt soliloquy's with his "What do you lack?" question.

When asked if they'd ever consider adding other pieces to their tour, Neil gave sort of a long stammering pause (seeming to choose his words carefully) before saying they are "talking about" augmenting the live performances with an orchestra. The way he stumbled at the beginning of his answer led me to the same conclusion as #14 below, that he let the cat out of the bag.

Francesca is the name of the trapeze artist that the hero gets tooled by in Halo Effect. [i'm wondering if that name could be a literary reference of some kind?]

The historical factoid about the fake lighthouses from The Wreckers is that this was done in the southwest coast of England, in Cornwall.

Speaking for myself, I have been confused about why BU2B2 comes after Headlong Flight. Seemed backwards to me, as BU2B2 seems like a sort of fork in the road that should follow the character's disaster in The Wreckers, with Headlong Flight as sort of a 3-part epilogue to his adventures along with Wish Them Well and The Garden. Neil addressed that a little bit in this interview, he said that in BU2B2's soliloquy the hero is figuring out how to deal with all the bad things that happened to him, and Wish Them Well is the answer that he comes up with.

Asked if Wish Them Well is how he approaches life, he said it's more like a resolution that we should try to do that. Ladd said "like turning the other cheek?" and Peart said no you're not just standing there and taking more abuse, you're walking away from the situation.

Did nobody else hear this last night?! HOLY SHIT this was the most amazing thing I've ever heard on the radio!

First off I expected you know a half hour interview with Neil, same old questions, probably not playing much off the new album?

No.

This interview went on for hours. Neil was so excited he would go on and on for 10 minutes without Jim Ladd getting in a word edge-wise, very insightful, Neil was terribly excited about the new album, I'd never heard him like this before!

To top it off they played the entire album, track-by-track, with Neil explaining the concept entirely, he would then narrate the introduction right before each of the songs before they kicked off.

I don't know the relationship between Neil and Jim Ladd, but Neil was right in his comfort zone with this guy like they are best buddies, no stuffiness whatsoever.

This was beyond awesome, please tell me a bunch of you managed to listen and heck even record it! We'll have to keep our ears peeled for a replay.

Wow! Can you tell I am excited?!

F******k.

Hard to teach the cranky old bastards in the crowd new tricks. I can't even train half of them to stand up.

Cool idea, not a fan of slappin' da bass schtick though.

And good god, nothing like the retreads in the Superconductor video... I wills tart hurling people I swear. How stoned were they when they approved this idiotic concept for a video?

Nice thread! I love this series and it's great to revisit the history of the franchise. Very nicely summarized, totally awesome!

All I know is that this album sounds amazing to me!

Keep it in the wrapper, it could be worth more than that stamp with the upside-down biplane one day!

Man I am also a Dutch support and even got to see them a qualifier against Slovenia in Eindhoven a couple of year back...

Are they even in a tough spot now though after a disastrous opening match against the weakest team in the group of death. Today the Krauts. What are the odds they can pull this off today?

2:45 we'll see!

Ahhhhhh! Fresh day, fresh set of brains and ears, going to listen to this with headphones once again and soak some more in.

*clickity click*

What the "heck" is Metacritic and why would anyone care if they "score" Clockwork Angels or not?

^----- yep! And now maybe with a draw in the books, the fans will calmTF down a bit and the violence will subside. Hopefully.

How stupid are they to book this match on "Russia Day" or whatever it is called, have it in Poland instead of Ukraine.... officially endorse this parade or whatever... just begging for retarded amounts of trouble.

I dunno... young squad, learning as they go, I really like their gib actually. Focussed, disciplined, no whining or diving...

They can have flashes of being really dangerous too... just gotta get out of the group stage and if we lose today we are sunk.

How could I not vote for #15?! How could I NOT?!