Alex Lifeson debuts heady instrumental, Cherry Lopez Lullaby, written during Rush’s Clockwork Angels era

Alex Lifeson has unveiled a new track, Cherry Lopez Lullaby, which was penned during the mix sessions for Rush’s final album, Clockwork Angels. 

The swirling, psychedelic instrumental debuted on Lifeson’s YouTube channel on October 29, alongside a statement from the guitarist. 

“This was written during the mix session of Clockwork Angels while in LA for months starting early 2012,” says Lifeson. “I did an interview with High Times and the interviewer brought along a friend, an esteemed grower who provided a sample of his creation named Cherry Lopez.  

“Because I was on an EST body clock, I was up most mornings @ 5:00 AM.  I'd order coffee, sit on my hotel room balcony, read the paper and wake and bake then dive into making some fun sounds while the city was waking up. 

“I had some borrowed acoustic and electric guitars for the duration, thankfully, as sitting around waiting to go to the studio was tedious and certainly, a bowl of Cherry kept my appetite healthy.”

The instrumental seems to have been posted as a one-off and is unrelated to the record that Lifeson is reported to be working on with former Coney Hatch bass guitarist Andy Curran and vocalist Maiah Wynne.

“We’ve basically done an album’s worth of material that we hope to release sometime soon,” he told retailer Sweetwater earlier this year, around the release of his Epiphone Alex Lifeson Les Paul Axcess Standard signature. 

Pressed on the release date, Lifeson responded, “We’ll see. Hopefully late summer, early fall we might have something. But we are very, very excited about it. It’s pretty cool stuff, I think.”

We might not have long to wait on the new album, but we're unlikely to see Lifeson playing arenas again any time soon. He recently told Guitar Player, "I don’t think I have it in me to go on the road."

"After 40 years of sitting in hotel rooms, I’m not interested," he explained. "It’s kind of fun getting up and playing with other people, but the whole production – the big, giant machine – it doesn’t really hold much appeal to me now."