Canadian rock legends Rush appear to be nearing the end of their three-year hiatus and plan to return to the studio in the fall, guitarist Alex Lifeson said in a recent interview.
Mackietone News (www.mackie.com), an online site dedicated to home recording studio equipment, interviewed the guitarist and reports the group is "anticipating" a return to the studio in October to record a new studio album.
A spokeswoman for Rush's management company in Toronto told JAM! on Thursday that she couldn't confirm the recording plans but added, "We're all hopeful."
If the recording session does materialize, it would mark the group's first work together since the end of the "Test For Echo" tour in July 1997.
Since then, drummer Neil Peart suffered the loss of his daughter (to a car crash) and his wife (to cancer). As recently as January, bassist Geddy Lee told JAM! the group was prepared to give Peart as much time as he needed to recover.
Lifeson also revealed he has been working in his home studio with his 22-year-old son Adrian, with an eye to launching his recording career.
"(The studio) is in constant use between Adrian and I. I have to book time in advance just to mess around with it," Lifeson told Mackietone News.
"Adrian writes a lot of Electronica, I would almost call it transient ... not really dance music, it's a little tougher sounding than that. We're actually in the process of putting some mixes together so we can seek a deal for him."