Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson have detailed how Rush is approaching rehearsals with drummer Anika Nilles as they prepare to return to the road following Neil Peart’s death in 2020. The pair said the goal is to honour the band’s classic arrangements while giving Nilles space to grow into the role, after initial rehearsals exposed how different her feel and training were from Peart’s.
As The Guardian quoted, discussing how closely Nilles is expected to follow the original parts Lifeson said she must be “true to the arrangements” because that’s what fans expect, but added that once she is comfortable, she is “free to enhance them with her own spirit.”
“They have to be true to the arrangements, because that’s the expectation from the fans. But we don’t place any restrictions on her,” Alex Lifeson said. “When she is comfortable and confident in the arrangements, she’s free to enhance them with her own spirit.”
Lee said the band didn’t fully know what it wanted when rehearsals began, and admitted he briefly worried the match might not work. He explained that the hardest challenge was not the famously intricate fills, but adjusting to “a relationship between snare, bass drum and hi-hat” that differed from Nilles’ background. Lee described several uneven early days, before a final rehearsal session where he said she “nailed it.”
“And she will. But I don’t think we knew when we arrived what our expectations were, to be honest,” Lee said. “When we started playing with her, something felt wrong. And I was, of course: ‘This is not gonna work.’ Those seemingly impossible fills were not a problem for her at all. What was difficult was understanding a relationship between snare, bass drum and hi-hat that’s different from her training.”
“The first four days were up and down, and she was nervous, and she was jet-lagged, and we were unsure,” he continued. “We had a little chat before the last day – ‘I don’t know, Al, is this going to work?’ We talked about all the things we liked about her, and what a work ethic she has, nice person and deep knowledge, deep technical ability. So there’s a lot of positives. So let’s not be hasty. And we went into that last day and she just fucking nailed it.”
The comments add detail to the larger story of how Lee and Lifeson found momentum to play Rush material again, including the way Dave Grohl played a role in the Rush reunion after the pair’s appearance at Taylor Hawkins’ tribute concerts.
With the touring lineup now taking shape, the focus appears to be on delivering a faithful Rush performance while allowing Nilles to bring her own musical personality as confidence builds. Further tour specifics and how much room there is for interpretation onstage will likely become clearer once the shows begin.
