Andrew MacNaughtan
“I wanted to be involved in music in some way,” says Toronto-born Andrew MacNaughtan, whose first knowledge of Rush came from his sister – she gave him ‘A Farewell To Kings’ when he was 14 years old. “I only could play Side One, not Side Two, it was too loud, too heavy metal or something,” he says. “I eventually flipped over to Side Two and I was hooked!” Hooked enough to run off a few issues of a Rush newsletter, a year later. “It was me wanting to be entrepreneurial, I was never really a fanatical fan,” he says. “I loved the music, it definitely shaped my teenage years.” Before long Andrew had moved on to publish a more broad-based music magazine, distributed to the local record stores. “It was garbage, it wasn’t done well at all!” he laughs. “Then, I needed to do photos for my magazine. I would borrow a camera from a friend. I wasn’t great but I got by, eventually I bought a camera.”
Through a lucky break when his magazine was bought by a publishing corporation, Andrew found himself with nothing but his camera. Despite his lack of education in photography, he decided that was enough and started touting his services around the contacts he had made through his magazine. In 1984 and when Andrew was in his early 20s, the opportunity came up to shoot a Rush concert. “I photographed ‘Grace Under Pressure’,” says Andrew. “I shot one of the concerts in Toronto.” Sadly however, the pictures were never used.
Meanwhile, Andrew needed to pay the bills. Some friends were in a band called The Spoons who were signed to SRO, and Andrew was asking around for part-time work. SRO’s Pegi Cecconi offered him a job answering phones and sorting out the tape room, and a conversation with Geddy’s wife Nancy led to Andrew helping out in her fashion business, Zapata, as well. “They were designers, they had a fashion studio and then they would sell their clothes to various retailers,” he says. “It was a very exclusive line which was so beautiful.” Andrew also got work as a waiter.
A chance meeting with Howard Ungerleider led to a discussion about the photos he had taken – little did Andrew know, but SRO was having difficulties getting pictures together for the ‘Power Windows’ tour book. “I’m going, that’s awesome, my childhood heroes, it would be so great to have them use my pictures,” says Andrew. To his surprise they asked to use 14 of them. “I got a little note from Neil thanking me for the beautiful pictures, and a photo credit in the tour book, I was like, this is so exciting, I really do want to be a photographer!”
In July 1985, after running errands for Nancy (and on occasion Geddy), Andrew plucked up the courage to show his portfolio to Geddy and asked if he could take his portrait. “He said, absolutely, so he came down to my studio and I did those portraits in ‘Presto’. He loved it so much, he asked the other guys if it would be OK if I did their portrait. I was actually a little nervous – this was an incredible opportunity for me as a photographer, but also I had a lot to prove, this was the first time I shot such a hugely successful band.” Andrew was asked to take some more shots – of the video of ‘The Pass’, and then some more portraits. “It was all Geddy, basically, Geddy was very supportive of my work and my ability,” says Andrew. “We’d become good pals and there’s an interesting dynamic too, he sort of took me under his wing in a way.”
As time passed Andrew ended up taking on more and more of the Rush portfolio. When offered the opportunity to act as band assistant on the ‘Presto’ tour, of course he jumped at it. “Of course I said yes!” Doing it meant he had to close his studio for the duration of the tour. “I said, you know what, for 6 months, it’s the chance of a lifetime. I got to see America!” He also got to see Europe on the following tour – but it wasn’t all roses. “Being on the bus was one of the most dreadful experiences of my life! I don’t know how crew can do it,” he says. “In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have done the ‘Bones’ tour, I really felt that being away from home for so long was a bit of a mindfuck for me.”
Meanwhile, however, Andrew had been developing his own skills with other bands, and had a growing reputation as a video director. “One of the bands I did an album cover for – the Gandharvas – asked me if I’d do a music video for them,” he says. “By chance, the guys who did the special effects for the ‘Hellraiser’ movies, they happened to be in town. I basically had these incredible hooks and stuff going through the singer’s skin…” The resulting video was very well received, becoming the number one video on Canadian channel MuchMusic. “It launched my video career!”
Following a number of successful videos, Andrew joined Deborah Samuel as a video director at the Revolver film company, which at the time was being run by Allan Weinrib. Andrew had learned his lesson from the road trip – next time, he would stay at home. “Also at that point my career was starting to take off in photography,” he says. “I was away for 8 months and clients were starting to use other photographers!” Having worked with the likes of Alanis Morissette and Tom Cochrane, Andrew moved to California in the late nineties, “I got burnt out in Toronto,” he says. “I needed to shake things up, personally, spiritually and creatively. I was sick of being stuck in my studio for 6 months of the year, in winter, being limited on low-paying budgets.” Los Angeles was a fresh start, full of new opportunities, but that didn’t make the change any easier. “I started to meet a bunch of Canadian expatriates – John Kastner from the Dough Boys, my friend Dave Foley (of the Kids In The Hall comedy troupe). I started to get to know Matt Stone from South Park, we like to think of him as being Canadian!” Through some twist of fate, Andrew’s new domain offered a kind of sanctuary for Neil, who at the time was biking through his dual tragedies. “I don’t think LA really held any special memories for him, that’s why he sort of gravitated to it,” says Andrew. “We just started hanging out together – I was in charge of his social calendar, I would take him to my friends’ houses or we all would go for dinner. They’re wonderful people and great friends, and I think he recognised that. As well as anonymity I think it was a win win situation for everybody!”
At some of his photo shoots, Andrew had been employing an assistant by the name of Carrie Nuttall. “One day we were driving home from one of the shoots, and she was saying, ‘I just broke up with somebody, I’m tired of dating all these superficial gym bunnies, I wish I could meet someone a little older, someone really interesting and articulate’,” says Andrew. “I said, ‘I just might know somebody, but he’s been through a lot…’ To cut a long story short, we all went out on a double date and they hit it off. I think they had a lot in common, Carrie is very articulate, she was well travelled, speaks French, lived in Paris, she’s just a smart, beautiful woman.”
Currently living back in Toronto, Andrew remains Rush’s photographer, most recently taking the pictures for ‘Feedback’ and working with Neil on his Sabian drum video. “It’s weird… being in my parents’ living room, listening to ‘A Farewell To Kings’, and then, me introducing Neil to his new wife – weird!” he says. “Life is so strange, I’ve done such incredible things and seen so many things and learned so many things, I’m very, very fortunate.”