"By the end of May, we had eight songs that we all liked, and I had worked out drum parts for six of them...at the end of our month together, I was driving from Toronto to Quebec for a few days’ rest, and I was able to listen to the songs we had been working on in the familiar, pleasurable space of a car cruising down the long, straight highway. The next day I wrote to Alex and Geddy, 'On the drive back yesterday, I did have the opportunity to listen to the new songs with some objectivity, in my favorite listening environment, and I wanted to tell you I think they are great! The freshest stuff we have done since — well, ever! As I intuited when I first heard your song sketches, there is something very different about the character of these songs, and I’m really pleased by that. I mean to say — at our ages!'...
"While considering the logistics of getting my drums from Toronto to Los Angeles and back, I was talking with my friends at Drum Workshop, and they pointed out that some busy drummers have a different drumset for each coast, stored and ready when they need it. Since I lived on the West Coast now, maybe I should have a 'West Coast kit.' Well, yeah, obviously. So in talking to John Good at DW, we decided to build a pure 'recording' kit, with basic chrome hardware and a natural wood finish. John designed an elaborate combination of laminates and reinforcement hoops for each individual shell...Lorne and I had decided on a 'tobacco sunburst' finish, like a classic guitar, but when John chose 'curly maple' for the base of it, and master painter Louie applied his artistry, they looked way better than I had imagined." - Neil Peart, NeilPeart.net, June 17, 2006
"Dammit Jim!! I'm a guitarist not a roadie...so haul my gear"
