Alex Lifeson has come a long way from the early days of Rush when the band was working with an initial maximum eight tracks for recording and eventually, 16 tracks and beyond. But even as the technology progressed, he says they had one important rule.It was a simple guideline, as he remembered during an upcoming interview on the UCR Podcast. “We had to be able to replicate whatever we’re doing a studio live,” he says now. “We followed that forever — and even in the latter days, it just meant triggering more things that we’d recorded in the studio.””[Eventually], we got up into high track count. Remember, Neil [Peart’s] drums took up about 30 tracks on recording. So we managed to layer a lot of stuff, too much stuff, I think, at times,” he recalls. “That can be the danger. You know, you have so many ideas. You want to get everything down, I think. On Snakes and Arrows, boy, we layered so much stuff on [that album]. I heard so many guitar things and I wanted to get everything on there. And then Ged [Geddy Lee] would layer all his vocals and the harmonies.READ MORE: How Rush Channeled Old Board Game for Snakes and Arrows CoverThe guitarist had a recent opportunity to address some similar misgivings about his past work with last year’s remix of his Victor album from 1996, a collaborative record which featured a variety of contributions from friends including Les Claypool of Primus, plus vocals from I Mother Earth’s Edwin. “I realized that I had layers and layers of guitars just to make it dense and heavy,” he shares. “It was so muddled [that] when I got the mix up to remix, I pulled so much of that out and just kept one guitar track, or maybe a double. Here and there, I’d bring something in and suddenly there was clarity and there was air around everything. It still was tough and powerful. So [it was] a lesson learned.”How Rush Evolved as a BandNow more than 50 years removed from the debut Rush album, the Canadian legends are taking stock of their long history with the new R50 box set which will be out on Mar. 21. It includes a wide swath of material, from a sample of their final performance in 2015, all of the way back to some of their earliest gigs, including a version of “Before and After” from April 1, 1974 at the Laura Secord Secondary School in Ontario. “I remember that gig, [with original drummer] John Rutsey,” he notes. “This is a retrospective of 50 years. So you have to include John — and it’s great to have access to all of that early stuff. We changed so much over the years — and the gear changed. I listened to some of those early live performances. Wow, we played so fast! I know we were called Rush, but boy, we played fast. So it’s really interesting to have this whole stream of music and all the influences that impacted [what we did] over those years.”Listen to Rush Perform ‘Before and After’ Live in 1974It’s a busy month for Lifeson who is celebrating the pending arrival of Stygian Wavs, the newest album from his current band, Envy of None. Fans can pre-order the album now in advance of its physical Mar. 28 release and can also get an advance listen when the record hits streaming on Friday (Mar. 14). The guitarist is visibly excited to get their next chapter out there and credits vocalist Maiah Wynne as just one important factor that has helped them continue to evolve as a group. “She fell in love with us, we all fell in love with her — and there we were, just so tight,” he says. “She’s gone through a lot, and as a vocalist, she’s amazing, and she’s matured so much from the first record, she’s bordering on genius.”Rush Albums RankedWe examine Rush’s 19 studio albums, from 1974’s muscular self-titled release to a series of remarkable late-career triumphs.Gallery Credit: Eduardo RivadaviaNext: A Show of Hands Finds Rush at ’80s-era Crossroads