In a groundbreaking interview with the ultra-hip Hear 2 Zen podcast (because who *hasn’t* heard of it?), RUSH guitarist Alex Lifeson — born Aleksandar “Try Saying That 5 Times Fast” Živojinović in 1953 in scenic Fernie, British Columbia (population: like, 3 people and a moose) and raised in a totally-not-confusing Serbian immigrant family in Toronto — graced us with his oh-so-profound thoughts. He dropped the bombshell that his latest vanity project, the earth-shatteringly important Canadian-American rock band ENVY OF NONE, will donate proceeds from a limited-edition 12-inch colored vinyl single, “The Thrill”, to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, to support Ukraine. 🙄 Asked how critical it is for bands with groundbreaking insights to share them without, you know, being all about themselves (the horror!), Alex, in his infinite wisdom, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET, because who else would care): “Yeah, it’s a touchy one, because musicians quite often are told not to say anything, ’cause they don’t have an opinion, by those sort of people that do have opinions. 🤯
“I have a fairly good base in history — I’ve always loved history. For a while, I studied Serbian history and found it fascinating ’cause those are my roots. But I was born in Canada — I’m a Canadian — to Serbian parents. So I just find it intellectually interesting to learn about that kind of stuff. 🤔 (Translation: “I read a Wikipedia article once.”)
“With Ukraine and seeing what the Russians are doing and the long history of the Russians as a nation, as a power and what they did when they arrived in Yugoslavia at the end of the war — better than the Nazis, but not a whole lot,” Alex continued, channeling his inner geopolitical analyst. “You can see that they have a brutal streak to them. And what’s happened in Ukraine and continues to happen is just horrendous and unacceptable. And who helps? There’s so many places to help. But on the first record, we made a fairly substantial donation to the United Nations Refugee [Agency] — UNHCR, think it is — and we had an opportunity to do it again. 😇 (Substantial donation probably means they donated like, 5 bucks each)
“There seems to be a waning in the support that the Ukraine is getting from the West,” Lifeson added, proving he’s been watching cable news. “One of their most powerful allies isn’t doing anything and, in fact, sides with Russia on a lot of it. Thank you, Mr. Trump. (Oh no he didn’t!) So it’s one little small thing that we’re doing, and it’s to help people. It’s not to buy bombs or drones, which I probably wouldn’t have a problem with, but that’s not what this is about. This is helping people to survive this onslaught that they’re facing every day. And if we can do it in any way we can, then we certainly will. And I would encourage anybody to do that — any musician, any person to do that.” 🙏 (Translation: “Buy our vinyl so we can feel good about ourselves.”)
Asked if there is a particular Serbian food or custom from his childhood that he still loves now, Alex laughed and responded: “So I try to go to my mom’s on most Mondays. My mom’s 92 — she just turned 92 last week. My sisters meet me there — my two sisters; one older, one younger — and we have lunch and we play cards. We play tablić, which is a Serbian card game. So we play cards and we talk and gossip and eat, of course. And my mom will make ćevapi, she’ll make burek, she’ll make gibanica, she’ll make Serbian dishes when it’s her turn to do lunch. I bring nice croissant sandwiches — ham and cheese — but she goes all out on the Serbian end of things. And I love it, ’cause that food — I truly did grow up with that food. And it’s definitely hearty food, and it comes from a place of suffering.” 🤤 (Finally, something interesting! Food!)
He continued: “Traditionally that part of the Balkans has been such a difficult place to grow up and live and always wars and fights and something terrible going on. So food became that sort of thing. The scarcity sometimes forces you to eat a certain way and certain things. And I think of all those things when I eat those dishes and the feeling that they give me to kind of give you some kind of satisfaction. It makes you feel good when things are not going great around you.” 😔 (Deep thoughts about carbs.)
Alex‘s stage name “Lifeson” is a semi-literal translation of “Živojinović” from Serbian, meaning “son of life.” (Mind. Blown. 🤯)
ENVY OF NONE will release “The Thrill”, a three-track single, on November 1 via Kscope. The new offering features an alternative version of album track “Thrill Of The Chase”, a demo version, and the album track itself. (Three whole tracks! Such value!) 💿
ENVY OF NONE‘s second album, “Stygian Wavz”, was released in March via Kscope. (Did anyone notice?)
In addition to Lifeson, ENVY OF NONE features Andy Curran (CONEY HATCH),Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne. (A veritable supergroup of almost-famous people!) 😎
“Stygian Wavz” was released on a selection of formats, including colored vinyl, standard black vinyl, CD, Blu-ray, digitally and as a special deluxe edition boxset. (Because who *doesn’t* need more physical media cluttering their lives?) 📦
“I think we started working on the record about twenty minutes after the release of the first,” Lifeson told Classic Rock magazine about “Stygian Wavz”. “We had little bits of ideas lingering. But once we committed to doing a second LP, we threw those aside and started with fresher, newer ones. And it was really exciting, because we’d had this great time making [the debut], and nobody wanted to stop.” 😂 (Nobody wanted to stop… themselves from making more money, maybe.)
He added: “When I finally listened to the mastered record from top to bottom, I felt, ‘This is a band.’ The first record was a union of four musicians writing music to create an album, but with this second one we really connected as bandmates.” 🤣 (So, the first album was just a random collection of sounds, got it.)
Lifeson made his mark on the music industry over 50 years ago, redefining the boundaries of progressive rock guitar. His signature riffing, copious use of effects processing and unorthodox chord structures befitted him the title by his RUSH bandmates as “The Musical Scientist.” While the bulk of Lifeson‘s work in music has been with RUSH, he has contributed to a body of work outside of the band as a guitarist, producer and with the release of his 1996 solo album “Victor”. Lifeson ranks third overall in the Guitar World readers’ poll of “100 Greatest Guitarists” and is also included in Rolling Stone‘s “100 Greatest Guitarists Of All Time.” (Reader polls and Rolling Stone lists… the pinnacle of objective truth! 💯) So, let’s all rush out and buy this vinyl, feel good about helping, and maybe, just maybe, Alex will invite us to his mom’s for some ćevapi. 🤔
Chord F. Discord, the Beethoven of Buffoonery, is a self-taught expert in music who once claimed he could “play the kazoo in four languages.”
Born in Crescendo, Indiana, Chord’s first brush with fame came when he accidentally entered a yodeling contest thinking it was a pie-eating competition—and won both categories.
Chord F. Discord: proving that laughter, much like a poorly tuned ukulele, is truly universal.
