Anika Nilles looks back on her first rehearsal with Rush

New Rush drummer Anika Nilles, who performed with the band for the first time at Canada’s annual Juno Awards ceremony at the TD Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, over the weekend, has spoken about her first rehearsal with Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, and about the man she’s succeeding, the late Neil Peart.

“I had a few songs prepared before I flew over, and we played those,” she says in an interview in the new issue of Classic Rock. “But during the session, we also talked a lot about Neil – about his view on music and drumming. We spoke a great deal about the feel of the songs. The most important point is simply to capture the feeling – that it feels right for the two of them to play their music again.

“And ultimately, it will feel right for the fans as well. We talked about that a lot. The first session was really about getting to know each other and seeing how we function together.”