RUSH’s bassist/vocalist, Geddy Lee, was recently interviewed by RollingStone.com and he discussed everything from Moving Pictures to the new album and touring and much more! We’ve selected some extracts from that interview below:

Did you gain a new appreciation for Moving Pictures after playing it so many times on the last tour?

There were parts of Moving Pictures that we hadn’t played in quite some time –particularly “Camera Eye.” We felt that it hadn’t aged very well. It’s also a tough song to learn because it’s so long. But we approached the song with the sensibility we have now and we kind of reinterpreted it and made it our own, 30 years later. We really did enjoy playing Moving Pictures every night. I looked forward to that part of the show and I saw how much it meant to fans to hear that song live. That really was the most requested Rush song on all the Rush petition sites.

Do you think you guys might perform another album on a future tour?

I think we would. I would love to try that idea again. I thought it was really fun. And given the fact that we play for almost three hours, you can do that and still have lots of time left over to play other stuff. We had time for our newer songs and we had time for more obscure songs. So it kind of works in the way we present ourselves.

I’d love to hear 2112 straight through.

I think that’s something that would be fun to try.

Do you think it’s possible?

Oh yeah, it’s definitely possible.

There are times I watch you onstage and I just can’t help but think how taxing it must be to sing all the songs, while playing bass and keyboards.

Yeah, it’s hard. But it’s fun. I like a challenge every night. And certainly as the tour winds on, you feel the pressure to continually do it as well every night to keep that level up. But I think that’s also part of the pressure for me in a way. You don’t get bored. You don’t have time to get bored, and you feel really good when you’ve hit all your marks and you’ve changed all the instruments and everything sounded correct.

Have you ever thought, “Screw it, we’re getting a keyboard player”?

Well, we’ve had that discussion many times, believe me. There was a while when we were doing a lot of heavy keyboard-oriented material where it was getting a bit much for me and I would suggest, “Let’s bring in a keyboard player and free me up to play bass more.” I was getting a little resentful because I consider myself a bass player first, and that was starting to become a problem for me. We talked it through and said, “Well, look at the technology that’s available for us. Let’s just figure out a way we can bring in more technology into the show.” We think our fans would rather see the three of us wrestling with machines rather than adding another member.

What’s the status of the next album?

We’re almost finished writing. We wound the machine back up about three weeks ago. After a sluggish start, we’ve had a very fruitful couple of weeks in terms of writing. I’m very pleased with the direction that the material has taken. And I think we have one or two more songs that we’d like to write, and then we’ll start recording in earnest. Hopefully we’ll have all of the recording done before Christmas. Then we’ll mix it some time in the next year, and then get it out.

Wow. So it’ll be out sometime early next year?

Yeah. I hope it’ll be out by the spring anyway.

Is the sound of the album similar to Snakes and Arrows?

I think it’s a little different than Snakes and Arrows. It’s not finished so it’s hard to say exactly what it will sound like in totality, but I think that the direction of “Caravan” and “BU2B” sort of points in the direction that we’re going.

With a new album in the spring, will you be touring in the summer?

Well, there will be a tour. I can’t tell you exactly when. Maybe the summer or maybe the fall. We need some time to organize all that, but we have started to do that at the same time. But yes, there will be a follow-up tour to support the record.

You can read the full interview over on RollingStone.com by clicking this link. RUSH’s Time Machine 2011: Live In Cleveland is being released on the 21st of November and you can pre-order your copy of the album by pointing your mouse in this direction.