Given Neil Peart’s significance to Rush, the band’s sound came to be associated with his drumming patterns and technical mastery. The group’s lyrics, which frequently included intricate themes and tales, were mostly written by the late guitarist. So, Geddy Lee’s solo career was emotionally taxing due to his lack of a bandmate of his caliber. On November 14, 2000, the bassist’s first solo album, “My Favorite Headache,” was released. After that, in December of the same year, he had a conversation with Global Bass about his first album’s creative process. Following Peart’s tenure as Rush’s primary lyricist, Lee was asked by interviewer Christopher Buttner if he felt uneasy about incorporating his own lyrics and ideas into his music. He responded by saying:
Indeed! It was a fairly transparent procedure. That’s probably what made it appealing to me. I appreciated that I was compelled to explore my feelings and make a sincere effort to understand a great deal of what I was going through. The majority of people think about various things during the day. The mind travels to specific locations, recalls events, and attempts to make sense of things. He went on to explain why it is so beneficial to put everything on writing: The best thing to do is to remind yourself to write that stuff down. Days later, you revisit it, give it a close reading, and use poetry to express your feelings at the time of writing. My feelings regarding the things I wrote down end up becoming a song. Above all, disregard the lyricist and the outcome. The bassist also discussed how writing’s reflective qualities made him feel, saying: “I found that to be a really fascinating process of personal growth! For me, the ability to do that alone was pretty essential.
After all, I’ve been crafting words around songs for 25 years, so shaping them around a music is nothing new for me. The introspective and impromptu aspects of it were, and still are, incredibly wonderful processes. Even though Geddy’s solo album didn’t sound all that different from Rush’s, the rocker had never written lyrics before. In an interview with Rolling Stone from 2018, he discussed the songwriting process as follows: Starting to compose lyrics was difficult for me, but once I got going, it was the most enjoyable aspect of the endeavor. Lee revealed in the album’s electronic press kit that he wasn’t very determined to launch his own project at first. He was happy with his musical experiences in Rush and didn’t feel the need to make a name for himself or attract more attention. But he was also interested in what it would be like to interact with various people and work on projects outside of his band.
