| Neil Peart | |
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Peart performing a drum solo at the Xcel Energy Center on May 22, 2008. Photo by Matt Becker |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Neil Ellwood Peart |
| Born | September 12, 1952 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada |
| Genres | Progressive rock, hard rock, heavy metal, jazz, swing, big band |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, producer, author |
| Instruments | Drums, percussion, tubular bells |
| Years active | 1970–present |
| Labels | Mercury, Anthem, Atlantic |
| Associated acts | Rush, Buddy Rich Big Band |
| Website | neilpeart.net |
| Notable instruments | |
| Sabian Paragon Signature cymbals, designed by Peart | |
Neil Ellwood Peart ( /ˈpɪərt/; born September 12, 1952), OC, is a Canadian musician and author. He is the drummer for the rock band Rush.
Peart grew up in Port Dalhousie, Ontario (now part of St. Catharines). During adolescence, he floated from regional band to regional band in pursuit of a career as a full-time drummer. After a discouraging stint in England to concentrate on his music, Peart returned home, where he joined a local Toronto band, Rush, in the summer of 1974.
Early in his career, Peart's performance style was deeply rooted in hard rock. He drew most of his inspiration from drummers such as Keith Moon and John Bonham, players who were at the forefront of the British hard rock scene.[1] As time passed, however, he began to emulate jazz and big band musicians Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich. In 1994, Peart became a friend and pupil of jazz instructor Freddie Gruber.[2] It was during this time that Peart decided to revamp his playing style by incorporating jazz and swing components. Gruber was also responsible for introducing him to the products of Drum Workshop, the company whose products Peart currently endorses.
Peart has received numerous awards for his musical performances, and is known for his technical proficiency and stamina.[3]
In addition to being a musician, Peart is also a prolific writer, having published several memoirs about his travels. Peart is also Rush's primary lyricist. In writing lyrics for Rush, Peart addresses universal themes and diverse subject matter including science fiction, fantasy, and philosophy, as well as secular, humanitarian and libertarian themes. All four of his books are travel-based non-fiction, though they diverge into his life and these subjects as well.
Peart currently resides in Santa Monica, California with his wife, photographer Carrie Nuttall, and daughter, Olivia Louise. He also has a home in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, and spends time in Toronto for recording purposes.
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Peart was born in a Hamilton hospital and lived his early years on his family's farm in Hagersville,[3][4] on the outskirts of Hamilton. The first child of four,[5] his brother Danny and sisters Judy and Nancy were born after the family moved to St. Catharines when Peart was two. At this time, his father became parts manager for Dalziel Equipment, an International Harvester farm machinery dealer. In 1956 the family moved to the Port Dalhousie area of the town. Peart attended Gracefield School and later Lakeport Secondary School, and describes his childhood as happy and says he experienced a warm family life. By early adolescence he became interested in music and acquired a transistor radio, which he would use to tune into pop music stations broadcasting from Toronto, Hamilton and Welland, Ontario and Buffalo, USA.[4]
His first exposure to musical training came in the form of piano lessons, which he later said in his instructional video A Work in Progress did not have much impact on him. He had a penchant for drumming on various objects around the house with a pair of chopsticks, so for his 13th birthday, his parents bought him a pair of drum sticks, a practice pad and some lessons, with the promise that if he stuck with it for a year, they would buy him a kit.[4]
His parents bought him a drum kit for his 14th birthday and he began taking lessons from Don George at the Peninsula Conservatory of Music.[4] His stage debut took place that year at the school's Christmas pageant in St. Johns Anglican Church Hall in Port Dalhousie. His next appearance was at Lakeport High School with his first group, The Eternal Triangle. This performance contained an original number entitled "LSD Forever". At this show he performed his first solo.[4]
Peart got a job in Lakeside Park, in Port Dalhousie on the shores of Lake Ontario, which later inspired a song of the same name on the Rush album Caress of Steel.[6] He worked on the Bubble Game and Ball Toss, but his tendency to take it easy when business was slack resulted in his termination. By his late teens, Peart had played in local bands such as Mumblin’ Sumpthin’, the Majority, and JR Flood. These bands practised in basement recreation rooms and garages and played church halls, high schools and roller rinks in towns across Southern Ontario such as Mitchell, Seaforth, and Elmira. They also played in the northern Ontario city of Timmins. Tuesday nights were filled with jam sessions at the Niagara Theatre Centre.[4]
At eighteen years of age, after struggling to achieve success as a drummer in Canada, Peart travelled to London, England hoping to further his career as a professional musician.[2] Despite playing in several bands and picking up occasional session work, he was forced to support himself by selling trinkets to tourists in a souvenir shop called The Great Frog on Carnaby Street.[7][8]
While in London he came across the writings of novelist and objectivist Ayn Rand. Rand's writings became a significant philosophical influence on Peart, as he found many of her treatizes to individualism and Objectivism inspiring. References to Rand's philosophy can be found in his lyrics, most notably "Anthem" from 1975's Fly by Night and "2112" from 1976's 2112.[9]
After eighteen months of dead-end musical gigs, and disillusioned by his lack of progress in the music business, Peart placed his aspiration of becoming a professional musician on hold and returned to Canada.[2] Upon returning to St. Catharines, he worked for his father selling tractor parts at Dalziel Equipment.
After returning to Canada, Peart was recruited to play drums for the St. Catharines band Hush, who played on the South Ontario bar circuit.[2] Soon after, a mutual acquaintance convinced Peart to audition for the Toronto-based band Rush, which needed a replacement for its original drummer John Rutsey. Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson oversaw the audition. His future band mates describe his arrival that day as somewhat humorous, as he arrived in shorts, driving a battered old car with his drums stored in trashcans. Peart felt the entire audition was a complete disaster.[2] While Lee and Peart hit it off on a personal level (both sharing similar tastes in books and music), Lifeson had a less favourable impression of Peart.[2] After some discussion, Lee and Lifeson accepted Peart's maniacal British style of drumming, reminiscent of The Who's Keith Moon.
Peart officially joined the band on July 29, 1974, two weeks before the group's first US tour. Peart procured a silver Slingerland kit which he played at his first gig with the band, opening for Uriah Heep and Manfred Mann in front of over 11,000 people at the Civic Arena, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on August 14, 1974.[10]
Peart soon settled into his new position, also becoming the band's primary lyricist. Before joining Rush, he had written few songs, but, with the other members largely uninterested in writing lyrics, Peart's previously underutilized writing became as noticed as his musicianship.[11] The band were working hard to establish themselves as a recording act, and Peart, along with the rest of the band, now had to learn to live from a suitcase.
His first recording with the band, 1975's Fly by Night, was fairly successful, winning the Juno Award for most promising new act,[12] but, the follow-up, Caress of Steel, for which the band had high hopes, was greeted with hostility by both fans and critics.[13] In response to this negative reception, most of which was aimed at the B side-spanning epic "The Fountain of Lamneth", Peart responded by penning "2112" on their next album of the same name in 1976. The album, despite record company indifference, became their breakthrough and gained a following in the United States.[14] The supporting tour culminated in a three-night stand at Massey Hall in Toronto, a venue Peart had dreamed of playing in his days on the Southern Ontario bar circuit and where he was now introduced as "The Professor on the drum kit" by Lee.[15]
Peart returned to England for Rush's Northern European Tour and the band stayed in the United Kingdom to record the next album, 1977's A Farewell to Kings in Rockfield Studios in Wales. They returned to Rockfield to record the follow-up, Hemispheres, in 1978, which they wrote entirely in the studio. The recording of five studio albums in four years, coupled with as many as 300 gigs a year, convinced the band to take a different approach thereafter. Peart has described his time in the band up to this point as "a dark tunnel."[16]
From this point on, Peart's career was near exclusively with Rush:
In 1992, Peart was invited by Buddy Rich's daughter, Cathy Rich, to play at the Buddy Rich Memorial Scholarship Concert in New York City. Though initially intimidated by the request, Peart accepted the offer and performed for the first time with the Buddy Rich Big Band. Peart remarked that he had little time to rehearse, and noted that he was embarrassed to find the band played a different arrangement of the song than the one he learned.[17] Feeling that his performance left much to be desired, Peart decided to produce and play on two Buddy Rich tribute albums titled Burning for Buddy: A Tribute to the Music of Buddy Rich in 1994 and 1997 in order to regain his aplomb.
While producing the first Buddy Rich tribute album, Peart was struck by the tremendous improvement in ex-Journey drummer Steve Smith's playing, and asked him his "secret." Smith responded he had been studying with drum teacher Freddie Gruber. As a result, Peart would put Rush-related activities on hold while he regularly met with Gruber.
In early 2007, Peart and Cathy Rich again began discussing yet another Buddy tribute concert. At the recommendation of bassist Jeff Berlin, Peart decided to once again augment his swing style with formal drum lessons, this time under the tutelage of another pupil of Freddie Gruber, Peter Erskine, himself an instructor of drummer Steve Smith.[17] On October 18, 2008, Peart once again performed at the Buddy Rich Memorial Concert at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom. The concert has since been released on DVD.
Soon after the conclusion of Rush's Test For Echo Tour on July 4, 1997, Peart's first daughter and then-only child, 19-year-old Selena Taylor, was killed in a single-car accident on Highway 401 near the town of Brighton, Ontario, on August 10, 1997. His common-law wife of 22 years, Jacqueline Taylor, succumbed to cancer only 10 months later on June 20, 1998. Peart, however, maintains that her death was the result of a "broken heart" and called it "a slow suicide by apathy. She just didn't care."[18]
In his book Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road, Peart writes that he told his bandmates at Selena's funeral, "consider me retired."[18] Peart took a long sabbatical to mourn and reflect, and travelled extensively throughout North and Central America on his BMW motorcycle, covering 88,000 km (55,000 mi). After his journey, Peart decided to return to the band. Peart wrote Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road as a chronicle of his geographical and emotional journey.
Peart was introduced to photographer Carrie Nuttall in Los Angeles by long-time Rush photographer Andrew MacNaughtan. They married on September 9, 2000. In early 2001, Peart announced to his bandmates that he was ready to return to recording and performing. The product of the band's return was the 2002 album Vapor Trails. At the start of the ensuing tour in support of the album, it was decided amongst the band members that Peart would not take part in the daily grind of press interviews and "Meet and Greet" sessions upon their arrival in a new city that typically monopolize a touring band's daily schedule. While Peart has always shied away from these types of in-person encounters, it was decided that exposing him to an endless stream of questions about the tragic events of his life was not necessary.[19][20][21]
Since the release of Vapor Trails and his reunion with fellow band mates, Peart has returned to work as a full-time musician. Rush released a cover EP, Feedback in June 2004 and their 18th studio album Snakes & Arrows in May 2007, supported by tours in 2004, 2007, and 2008.
In the June 2009 edition of Peart's News, Weather, and Sports, entitled "Under the Marine Layer", he announced that he and Nuttall were expecting their first child.[22] Peart and Nuttall's first child, Olivia Louise Peart, was born on August 12, 2009.
Peart and the rest of the band toured North America, South America and Europe on the Time Machine Tour, which concluded on July 2, 2011, at The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington.
Peart's drumming skill and technique is well-regarded by fans, fellow musicians, and magazines.[3][23] His influences are eclectic, ranging from Jon Thomas, John Bonham, Michael Giles, Ginger Baker, Phil Collins, Steve Gadd, and Keith Moon, to fusion and jazz drummers Billy Cobham, Buddy Rich, Bill Bruford and Gene Krupa.[24][25] The Who was the first group that inspired him to write songs and play the drums.[26] Peart is distinguished for playing "butt-end out", reversing stick orientation for greater impact and increased rimshot capacity. "When I was starting out", Peart said, "if I broke the tips off my sticks I couldn't afford to buy new ones, so I would just turn them around and use the other end. I got used to it, and continue to use the heavy end of lighter sticks – it gives me a solid impact, but with less 'dead weight' to sling around."[27]
Peart had long played matched grip, but shifted to traditional as part of his style reinvention in the mid-1990s under the tutelage of jazz coach Freddie Gruber.[2] Shortly after the filming of his first instructional DVD A Work in Progress, Peart went back to using primarily matched, though he does switch to traditional when playing songs from Test for Echo and during moments when he feels traditional grip is more appropriate, such as the rudimentary snare drum section of his drum solo. He discusses the details of these switches in the DVD Anatomy of a Drum Solo.
With Rush, Peart has played Slingerland, Tama, Ludwig, and Drum Workshop drums, in that order.[28]
Peart played Zildjian A-series cymbals and Wuhan china cymbals until the early 2000s when he switched to Paragon, a line created for him by Sabian.[28][29] In concert, Peart uses an elaborate 360-degree drum kit, with a large acoustic set in front and electronic drums to the rear.
During the late 1970s, Peart augmented his acoustic setup with diverse percussion instruments including orchestra bells, tubular bells, wind chimes, crotales, timbales, timpani, gong, temple blocks, bell tree, triangle, and melodic cowbells.[28] Since the mid-1980s, Peart has replaced several of these pieces with MIDI trigger pads. This was done in order to trigger sounds sampled from various pieces of acoustic percussion that would otherwise consume far too much stage area. Some purely electronic non-instrumental sounds are also used. One classic MIDI pad used is the Malletkat Express which is a two-octave electronic MIDI device that resembles a xylophone or piano. The Malletkat Express is composed of rubber pads for the "keys" so that any stick can be used. Beginning with 1984's Grace Under Pressure, he used Simmons electronic drums in conjunction with Akai digital samplers.[28] Peart has performed several songs primarily using the electronic portion of his drum kit. (e.g. "Red Sector A", "Closer to the Heart" on A Show of Hands (video) and "Mystic Rhythms" on R30.) Peart's drum solos also feature sections performed primarily on the electronic portion of his kit.
Shortly after making the choice to include electronic drums and triggers, Peart added what has become another trademark of his kit: a rotating drum riser.[28] During live Rush shows the riser allows Peart to swap the prominent portions of the kit (traditional acoustic in front, electronic in back) and still face front as he plays. A staple of Peart's live drum solos has been the in-performance rotation-and-swap of the front and back kits as part of the solo itself. This special effect provides both a symbolic transition of drum styles within the solo and a visual treat for the audience.
In the early 2000s, Peart began taking full advantage of the advances in electronic drum technology, primarily incorporating Roland V-Drums and continued use of samplers with his existing set of acoustic percussion. His digitally-sampled library of both traditional and exotic sounds has expanded over the years with his music.
In April 2006, Neil took delivery of his third DW set, configured similarly to the R30 set, in a Tobacco Sunburst finish over curly maple exterior ply, with chrome hardware. He refers to this set, which he uses primarily in Los Angeles, as the "West Coast kit". Besides using it on recent recordings with Vertical Horizon, he played it while composing parts for Rush's latest studio album, Snakes & Arrows. It features a custom 23-inch bass drum; all other sizes remain the same as the R30 kit.
On March 20, 2007 Peart revealed that Drum Workshop prepared a new set of red-painted DW maple shells with black hardware and gold "Snakes & Arrows" logos for Neil to play on the Snakes & Arrows Tour.[30]
Peart has also designed his own signature series drumstick with Pro-Mark.[31] The Promark PW747W, Neil Peart Signature drumsticks, are made of Japanese White Oak, which adds more weight than a standard hickory stick. They have the thickness of a standard 5A (0.551", 1.4 cm) but are longer (16.25", 41.3 cm) with a thicker taper and larger olive shaped wooden tip. When Rush held their Time Machine Tour, Pro-Mark released three limited edition sticks, each with one of the three designs selected from Peart's "Steam Punk" tour kit printed with Copper ink. Some other artists who use the Neil Peart Signature series include Ben Johnston (Scottish musician) of Biffy Clyro, Richie Hayward of Little Feat and Paul Garred of The Kooks.
During the 2010 Time Machine Tour Peart used a new DW kit which was outfitted with brass hardware and time machine designs to match the tour's Steampunk theming. Matching Paragon cymbals with clock imagery were also used.
Peart is noted for his distinctive in-concert drum solos,[32] characterized by exotic percussion instruments[33] and long, intricate passages in odd time signatures.[23][34][35] His complex arrangements sometimes result in complete separation of upper- and lower-limb patterns; an ostinato dubbed "The Waltz" is a typical example.[36] His solos have been featured on every live album released by the band. On the early live albums (All the World's a Stage & Exit...Stage Left), the drum solo was included as part of a song. On all subsequent live albums, the drum solo has been included as a separate track. His instructional DVD Anatomy of a Drum Solo is an in-depth examination of how he constructs a solo that is musical rather than indulgent, using his solo from the 2004 R30 30th anniversary tour as an example.
Peart is also the main lyricist for Rush. Literature has always heavily influenced his writings[37] and, as such, he has tackled a wide range of subjects. In his early days with Rush, much of his lyrical output was influenced by fantasy, science fiction, mythology and philosophy.[38] However, nearly as much would deal with real world or personal issues such as life on the road and parts of his adolescence.
The song "2112" focuses on the struggle of an individual against the collectivist forces of a totalitarian state. This became the band's breakthrough release, but also brought unexpected criticism, mainly because of the credit of inspiration Peart gave to Ayn Rand in the liner notes. "There was a remarkable backlash, especially from the English press, this being the late seventies, when collectivism was still in style, especially among journalists," Peart said. "They were calling us 'Junior fascists' and 'Hitler lovers.' It was a total shock to me".[39]
Weary of ideological fealty to Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, Peart has sought to remind listeners of his eclecticism and independence in interviews. He did not, however, try to argue in defence of Rand's views: "For a start, the extent of my influence by the writings of Ayn Rand should not be overstated. I am no one's disciple."[40]
The 1980 album Permanent Waves saw Peart cease to use fantasy literature or ancient mythology in his writing. 1981's Moving Pictures showed that Peart was still interested in heroic, mythological figures, but would now place them firmly in a modern and reality-based context. The song "Limelight" from the same album is an autobiographical account of Peart's reservations regarding his own popularity and the pressures with fame. From Permanent Waves onward, most of Peart's lyrics began to revolve around social, emotional, and humanitarian issues, usually from an objective standpoint and employing the use of metaphors and symbolic representation.[38]
1984's Grace Under Pressure strings together such despondent topics as the Holocaust ("Red Sector A") and the death of close friends ("Afterimage").[41] Starting with 1987's Hold Your Fire and including 1989's Presto, 1991's Roll the Bones, and 1993's Counterparts, Peart would continue to explore diverse lyrical motifs, even addressing the topic of love and relationships[42] ("Open Secrets", "Ghost of a Chance", "Speed of Love", "Cold Fire", "Alien Shore") a subject which he purposefully eschewed in the past out of fear that he wouldn't be able to write about it without using clichés.[43] However, 2002's Vapor Trails was heavily devoted to speaking about Peart's personal issues, combined with other humanitarian topics such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks ("Peaceable Kingdom"). The band's most recent album Snakes & Arrows deals primarily and vociferously with Peart's opinions regarding faith and religion.[44] The lyrics of one of the songs on that album, "Faithless", exhibit Peart's life stance, which is most closely identified with secular humanism.
Opinions of Peart's lyrics have always been divided. While fans have lauded them as thoughtful and intelligent, some critics have called them over-wrought and bombastic. In 2007, he was voted No.2 on Blender magazine's list of "worst lyricists in rock".[45] However, Allmusic has called Peart "one of rock's most accomplished lyricists." [46]
Peart has never publicly identified with any political party or organization in Canada or the United States. Even so, his political and philosophical views have often been analysed through his work with Rush and through other sources. Peart is often categorized as an Objectivist and an admirer of Ayn Rand. Most of this is based on his work with Rush in the 1970s, particularly the song "Anthem" and the album 2112, the latter specifically credited to "the genius of Ayn Rand."[47] However, in a 1994 interview, while contending the "individual is paramount in matters of justice and liberty," Peart specifically distanced himself from a strictly Objectivist line.[48] Although Peart is sometimes regarded as a "conservative" and "Republican" rock star,[49] he, in 2005, described himself as a "left-leaning libertarian",[50] and is often cited as a libertarian celebrity.[51][52]
Peart is the author of five non-fiction books, the latest released in May 2011. His growth as an author predates the published work by several years (not including his work as Rush's primary lyricist), through private letters and short travelogues sent out to a small circle of friends and family.
Peart's first book, titled The Masked Rider: Cycling in West Africa,[53] was written in 1996 about a month-long bicycling tour through Cameroon in November 1988. The book details Peart's travels through towns and villages with four fellow riders. The original had a limited print run, but after the critical and commercial success of Peart's second book, Masked Rider was re-issued and remains in print as of 2006.
After losing his wife and only (at the time) daughter, Peart embarked on a lengthy motorcycle road trip spanning North America. His experiences were penned in Ghost Rider: Travels on the Healing Road.[18] Peart and the rest of the band were always able to keep his private life at a distance from his public image in Rush. However, Ghost Rider is a first-person narrative of Peart on the road, on a BMW R1100GS motorcycle, in an effort to put his life back together as he embarked on an extensive journey across North America.
Years later, after his marriage to Nuttall, Peart took another road trip, this time by car. In his third book, "Traveling Music: The Soundtrack of my Life and Times,"[54] He reflects on his life, his career, his family and music. It shows Peart still carrying emotional scars, but building a new life. As with his previous two books, it is a first person narrative.
Thirty years after Peart joined Rush, the band found itself on its 30th anniversary tour. Released in September 2006, Roadshow: Landscape With Drums, A Concert Tour By Motorcycle details the tour both from behind Neil's drumkit and on his BMW R1150GS and R1200GS motorcycles.
Peart's most recent book, Far and Away: A Prize Every Time, was published by ECW Press in May 2011.[55] This book, which he worked on for two years, is based around his travelling in North and South America. It tells how he found in a Brazilian town a unique combination of West African and Brazilian music.[56]
Apart from Rush's video releases as a band, Peart has released the DVDs:
Peart has received the following awards in the Modern Drummer magazine reader's poll:[12][57]
Peart has received the following awards from DRUM! magazine for 2007:[58]
Peart received the following awards from DRUM! magazine for 2008:[59]
Peart received the following awards from DRUM! magazine for 2009:[60]
Peart received the following awards from DRUM! magazine for 2010:[61]
Along with his bandmates Lee and Lifeson, Peart was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock band to be so honoured, as a group.[62] Peart was inducted into the Canadian Songwriter Hall of Fame along with bandmates Lifeson and Lee[63]
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