I do love using keyboards and I love writing keyboard parts, but I am not a player in the true sense of the word.

I have a lot of hobbies and I can be very remiss in reminding myself to go down to the basement to work.

I have always felt I was more accurately a Hard Rock musician.

First of all, when you live in a country like Canada, it’s quite different from America in the sense that it’s very tied to traditions that were born in Britain.

I feel a little uncomfortable about endorsements.

I’m a big believer of daylight in the studio.

Music is all about wanting to be better at it.

I guess, we were people who just dedicated to trying to get better.

If you have some magical chemistry that actually find the music you make compelling, that is a big bonus.

Then, once I have lyrics, being able to shape them around a song is nothing new for me, I’ve been doing that for 25 years. The soul searching part of it, the spontaneous part of it, that was, and remains, a really terrific process.

With me, satisfaction is always very fleeting with our work. I always get a little restless with it.

I liked the fact that I was forced to get inside of my emotions and to really try to figure out a lot of what I was going through.

For me, there is a lot of room for improvement and there are a lot of things I would like to be better at.

I like to be able to come and go as I please, and I don’t really like having my face and name plastered around. I think it’s a bit weird to have your name plastered on every page in a magazine, where in each case you’re using a different piece of equipment.

But, I would be naive not to recognize the number of musicians who tell me they have been influenced by me and sight me – as well as Alex and Neil – as a musician who has been a positive influence on their playing.

I feel safe and comfortable to do that once I know that the song structure around the bass part is very interesting and it satisfies me in a compositional sense.

Sometimes it’s nice to have a song that can be taken more then one way, so it can be interpreted differently.

I love to write. It’s my first love.

So, I really don’t consider myself a fabulous keyboard player.

I was taking piano lessons with a very good piano instructor in Toronto, and I’m afraid due to my schedule and discipline, it kind of fell apart. One thing lead to another and I was unable to practice as much as I wanted to.

When I do a take, I very often try things that I haven’t planned to try to see if I can pull it off.

There was a time when fast playing and fretboard pyrotechnics on the bass were important to me and when I am recording a bass track, that is still very important to me.

With the help of modern technology, I can compose intricate keyboard parts and then I have to go back and learn them in order to perform them properly.

I would like to think that Ben and myself have begun a partnership that will take us into different areas of music that we can continue to write, enjoy and keep me involved with music other then what I do with RUSH.

I would like to shift more into writing for and producing people.

I like to practice on the bass, but I don’t do it as often as I should.

I prefer to think of myself as a musician who is still learning and trying to do something every time out.

It’s hard for me to just practice without writing something.

I am moved more by melodies, song structure, and evocative textures.

For me, how I feel about what I wrote down turns into a song.

That is what intrigues me; songwriting and song structure and expression.

Some writing and production projects will be a great way to spend my elderly rock years.

I have such an extreme attitude about work, where I can just completely be derelict of my responsibilities and then when I am not derelict, I am completely indulged in it. I swing pretty wildly from the two extremes.

So, I don’t know what is going to happen when the CD comes out, how well it will sell, etc. But, from a personal point of view, it was a very worthwhile endeavor.

My studio is designed for atmosphere. I have a really cozy, comfortable room that has a great, huge glass door that views my backyard.

When I usually go to my studio to work, I start with something that is going to take two minutes just to put some idea down and the next thing I know, ten hours have gone by and my family is screaming at me because they want me to come up to have dinner with them.

I do love using keyboards and I love writing keyboard parts, but I am not a player in the true sense of the word.