The four-piece are set to release their self-titled debut album in April, featuring a tribute to Lifeson's Rush bandmate, Neil Peart
(Image credit: Richard Sibbald)
Alex Lifeson's new band, Envy of None, will release their self-titled debut album on April 8 through Kscope, and have kicked off proceedings with debut single, Liar.
The track sees Lifeson and his new bandmates – Coney Hatch bassist Andy Curran, producer and engineer Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne – experiment with industrial-flavored, synth-heavy arrangements, interspersed with subtle acoustic guitar lines and crunchy electric guitar stabs. Check it out below.
And if Lifeson's new musical direction is up your street, there's plenty more on the way, as the rest of the forthcoming album promises to “ricochet between various shades of alternative, experimental and synth rock”.
“Lifeson himself is proudly aware of how little of [the album] crosses over with the band that made him famous,” a press release reads.
For the new project, Lifeson explains that Wynne's voice became his “muse”. “She was able to bring this whole new ethereal thing through her sense of melody on tracks like Liar and Look Inside,” he continues.
“After hearing her vocals on Never Said I Love You, I felt so excited. I've never had that kind of inspiration working with another musician. When we say she's special, it's because she's really special!”
Curran echoes Lifeson's comments on Wynne: “I sent over an early version of the song Shadow. When I played what she’d done back to the others they were like, ‘Who is this crazy talented person?!’”
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“One of my favorite things about these songs is the intimacy of them,” shares Wynne. “It makes them feel different and more honest. There are some heavier songs too, like Enemy, and then tracks like Kabul Blues, that sound completely different to anything else.”
The LP will also play host to an Alex Lifeson-penned tribute to his late friend and former Rush bandmate Neil Peart, in the form of its closing track, Western Sunset.
“I visited Neil when he was ill,” Lifeson says. “I was on his balcony watching the sunset and found inspiration. There's a finality about a sunset that kind of stayed with me throughout the whole process. It had meaning. It was the perfect mood to decompress after all these different textures... a nice way to close the book.”
Envy of None is available now for preorder. Take a look at its tracklisting below.
Sam was Staff Writer at GuitarWorld.com from 2019 to 2023, and also created content for Total Guitar, Guitarist and Guitar Player. He has well over 15 years of guitar playing under his belt, as well as a degree in Music Technology (Mixing and Mastering). He's a metalhead through and through, but has a thorough appreciation for all genres of music. In his spare time, Sam creates point-of-view guitar lesson videos on YouTube under the name Sightline Guitar.
