
Alex Lifeson On Envy Of None's New Album: ‘We Were Just So Excited To Keep Going'
When former Rush guitarist Alex Lifeson recorded the debut self-titled album of his new band Envy of None, which was released two years ago, he thought it mioght be a one-off project. 'I didn't know what the future would hold,' he says today. 'It takes a year or a year-and-a-half to make these records. [I thought,]
The enthusiasm of Lifeson and his bandmates — bassist Andy Curran, keyboardist Alfio Annibalini and singer Maiah Wynne — from working on the Envy of None album carried over into the supergroup's new sophomore record Stygian Wavz, which comes out on Friday, March 28. It further builds on the group's first album's moody and melodic mixture of alternative rock and metal, hard rock, industrial and electronic music.
'I think the first record was a little trippier, a little more atmospheric,' Lifeson says. 'Whereas Stygian Wavz is a more focused record. There's lots of funk on this record. There's heavy rock.'
He also points out that he played solos prominently on Stygian Wavz after he initially stayed away from doing them. 'I don't want them to be misconstrued as just show-off stuff,' explains Lifeson. 'I believe solos have an integral part of the song and they need to reflect the song and they need to be in the service of the song.'
One example of that is his guitar solo near the end of the anthemic track 'Clouds.' That's just a little short solo, but it's really powerful," he says. "It doesn't have to be this big shreddy craziness. That makes a statement at the end, and it's full of dread and danger. And it's fun.'
The album's first single, 'Not Dead Yet,' is a driving and seductive-sounding track that lyrically conveys a theme of resilience. 'What attracted me to that song when I started working on it was the funky structure,' says Lifeson. 'It's bouncy and rhythmic. And then it reaches that crescendo where the heavy guitars come in. That's where the song ended when we initially started writing it. Then we added…that sort of James Bond vibe to the end. Now, when I listen to 'Not Dead Yet,' I'm thinking, 'This should be the theme song for the next Bond movie.'"
Another single from Stygian Wavz, 'Under the Stars,' begins with a Middle Eastern feel and then morphs into a dreamy power anthem. 'Joey Vitale played drums and tablas in the opening and that sets a particular mood,' Lifeson says. 'Then the vocals come in and juxtapose against Andy's heavy bassline. There's a menace going on in that first verse. Then the heavy chorus comes in…I really like that guitar solo because it touches on a number of things. There's sort of a bluesy feel, but it's very emotive. I was channeling probably more of David Gilmour throughout that solo.'
Lifeson describes 'The Story' — which encapsulates Envy of None's mixture of hard rock and electronic soundscapes — as kind of incoporating power pop. 'Lyrically, it's an awesome song,' he says. 'Everybody you know wants to be a better person. And not always can you control that devil that's sitting on your shoulder. And I think Maiah gets that across really, really well.
'Structurally, the song builds in a really interesting way. I got to play my 12-string Rickenbacker in the choruses. So it's got that little bit of a '60s vibe in that guitar part. Then the solo — again, is an ascending solo that reaches the climax. And then [Maiah's] vocal comes back in. It's that vocal reentry, that part where the track just starts to really drive, and it's so emotional and plaintive. That is the high point for me.'
Stygian Wavz captures a band sounding more confident and bolder following their the debut album. Lifeson says: "I think we started working on this second album, I don't know, maybe the next day [after Envy of None]. We were just so excited to keep going. And as that project progressed, things got more interesting. Everybody's work was really focused. I think we went from being just this co-op of four musicians recording music to actually being a band.'
Lifeson particularly credits Wynne, whose vocal and lyrical contributions complement the music's hard rock and electronic components.
'She is just an absolute joy to work with,' he says. 'The way she delivers, something about her lyrics. I would say that Neil [Peart] was the same way in Rush. Just that ability to deliver something succinctly that it just grabs you immediately and you understand what it is. Maiah has that ability at 27 years old. Her lyrics have just become more and more relatable. And they're very introspective. Her skills as a singer have increased enormously as well.'
Envy of None
For casual and die-hard fans of Rush, the music of Envy of None, which formed in 2021, may still seem like a stylistic departure for Lifeson, who is obviously more well-known in the world of progressive rock. And that's fine with him.
'I am very proud of what I did in Rush for the music,' he says, 'but also for the relationships that I had with Geddy [Lee] and Neil. But Envy of None is a different thing. It's not Rush. The music's not Rush. And I don't want to play like Alex Lifeson of Rush. This is Alex Lifeson of Envy of None.'
'There are three other guitar players in this band,' he adds. 'Alf plays a lot of guitar. Andy once in a while plays a little riff, usually in the writing stage. And Maiah does a couple of little guitar things here and there. I am so relieved that I can do something else, that I can look at what I can bring to the table in this particular unit and work from there. It's liberating for me, and I'm really lucky.'
Remarkably, Envy of None has not yet performed live. But that could change depending on audience interest and the proper staging for a concert, according to Lifeson. 'We would love to [perform]. To do both albums in a beautiful theater with a nice light show would be spectacular. I already know the other musicians I would like to bring on, just to really flesh out the sound.
'I think what we'll probably end up doing is just waiting out the record and see how the reaction is," Lifeson continues. "If it does well, and there's an audience where we can go into that theater and do two or three nights, and maybe do it in two or three other cities — then we would definitely consider doing it because it would be awesome.'
The enthusiasm within Envy of None following the first two albums has prompted consideration of making a third record. 'We're excited to keep the juices flowing,' says Lifeson. 'I'm sure we'll take a break. Everybody's got other stuff, but we're excited to continue.'
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'The Summer I Turned Pretty' Reveals How Conrad Responds to Belly's Big News
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Newsweek
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When audiences left early screenings of James Gunn's new Superman, many carried more than popcorn and superhero nostalgia—they carried the unmistakable feeling that they had just watched a parable of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And that, in itself, says something profound. Despite fierce controversy and calls for boycott by some pro-Israel commentators, Superman is topping the box office charts, making over $220 million globally during its opening weekend. Gunn has repeatedly insisted that Superman is not about the Middle East. "When I wrote this the Middle Eastern conflict wasn't happening," he told The Times of London. He emphasized that the fictional war between Boravia and Jarhanpur was crafted before the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, and Israel's ensuing war on Gaza. He even said he tried to steer the narrative away from Middle Eastern analogies once real-world violence erupted. And yet, despite these denials, the allegory has taken hold. Why? 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TikTok creators, influencers, and activists lauded the film's unflinching portrayal of invasion and resistance, with one user declaring, "Superman is antizionist and leaves no room for doubt." Others—particularly in right-wing circles—branded it "Superwoke," accusing Gunn of injecting ideology into entertainment. Whether or not the film was meant to be about Israel and Palestine, it functioned as a kind of cinematic Rorschach test. When seeing injustice portrayed on the screen, viewers brought with them the images that have been burned into global consciousness after nearly two years of siege on Gaza—images of children killed, hospitals bombed, and international law flouted with impunity. When you witness a conflict where one side wields F-35s and the other buries its dead in mass graves, any story of asymmetrical warfare will inevitably call Palestine to mind. LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 02: James Gunn, David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult and Peter Safran attend the "Superman" Fan Event in London's Leicester Square on July 02, 2025 in London, England. LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 02: James Gunn, David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, Nicholas Hoult and Peter Safran attend the "Superman" Fan Event in London's Leicester Square on July 02, 2025 in London, be clear, Superman is not a perfect political text. The film's Jarhanpurians—coded as Middle Eastern or South Asian—are largely passive. One of the few named Jarhanpurian characters is a falafel vendor, Malik, who serves as emotional fuel for Superman's arc before being killed off. As The Forward noted, the Jarhanpurians' purpose is less to assert their own dignity than to highlight the hero's morality. And so, while some audiences saw pro-Palestinian messaging, others rightly questioned whether the film reinscribes a savior narrative—centered on a white alien-immigrant superhero—rather than empowering the oppressed to resist on their own terms. Indeed, as Middle East Eye pointedly observed, Palestinians are not waiting for a white superhero to rescue them. The real heroes are the medics treating the wounded under rubble, the journalists livestreaming amidst bomb blasts, and the people who keep marching for their right to exist. Superman may deliver lines about morality, kindness, and justice, but in the real world, those words are being lived by people with far less privilege and far greater courage. Still, the film revealed how deeply the public has absorbed the reality of Gaza, how far sympathy for Palestinians has spread beyond Arab or Muslim audiences, and how badly establishment media and politicians have underestimated this shift. When a Warner Brothers tentpole provokes hashtags like "#SupermanIsHamas," it is not because the film is agitprop—it's because the world now sees Gaza everywhere. Even Gunn's framing of Superman as "an immigrant" touched off fierce debate, with conservative pundits recoiling at the suggestion that a refugee from Krypton could embody the American immigrant story. But that, too, is part of the tension: if Superman is a refugee who stands up to bullies, who uses his power to shield the powerless, then what happens when audiences draw connections between that ethos and the very people being demonized by Western governments? The film doesn't just expose geopolitical parallels—it exposes cultural contradictions. America wants to believe in Superman's values, but recoils when those values are applied consistently, especially when they implicate allies like Israel. It wants to celebrate rebellion in fiction but criminalize resistance in reality. And it wants to embrace immigrants in theory while deporting, detaining, and defunding them in practice. That's why Superman matters—not because it offers a perfect analogy for Gaza, but because it unintentionally lays bare the moral hypocrisy at the heart of so much political discourse. The discomfort it generates is revealing. When people see children under fire and think immediately of Gaza, the problem isn't that the film is too political—it's that reality is too brutal to ignore. This isn't the first time a Hollywood film has echoed global struggles, and it won't be the last. But what's different now is the speed and intensity with which audiences connect the dots—and the growing unwillingness to let sanitized narratives obscure the truth. Even in the heart of a superhero spectacle, people are demanding moral clarity. In the end, Gunn may not have set out to make a film about Palestine. But the world saw Gaza in it anyway. And that, in itself, is a kind of justice. Faisal Kutty is a Toronto-based lawyer, law professor, and frequent contributor to The Toronto Star. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.