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Rush Hour

When the headmaster strode into the classroom and called his name, he knew he was in trouble.

 

No, this isn’t AI plagiarizing Harry Potter.

 

This was an actual person’s life. Hugh Syme’s life.

 

Syme, who would go on to a career as a prominent illustrator of rock and pop album covers (including nearly every Rush album), was a mere broth of a boy at that time. A Canadian boy attending school in England.

 

“I was taking an exam that day,” Syme recalled. ‘He walked and the whole class stands up all nervous as to why he’s visiting the class. And all he said was, ‘Syme.’ I thought, ‘(Expletive), what have I done?'”

 

As it turned out, it wasn’t about what Syme had done. It was about what they wanted him to do.

 

“So I go into his chambers and the vicar from St. Nicholas Abbey was sitting in there,” Syme said. “He asked if I would be interested in rendering the Christmas card for the church last year. I was all 11 years old and I thought, ‘Sure.'”

 

Syme was already building a reputation as an illustrator at an age when most of us were still building Legos.

 

Incidentally (or not-so-incidentally), an exhibit of his work is open now at the Honeywell Center in Wabash. There will be a public reception at 7 pm on Wednesday.

 

The St. Nicholas Abbey Christmas card is not part of it, presumably.

 

As a lad, Syme was equally interested in and passionate about art and music. ‘

 

“Art and music have always kind of coexisted,” he said.

 

Syme was born in Canada and his family returned to Canada from England eventually.

 

Music temporarily upstaged art when Syme joined the Ian Thomas Band, fronted by the younger brother of SCTV’s Dave Thomas.

 

Syme was the band’s keyboardist.

 

Thomas’ work is virtually unknown in the states, but his band was pretty big in Canada in the early 1970s.

 

“We opened up for the Beach Boys for six weeks,” Syme said. “Roxy Music. Robert Palmer. We opened up at Massey Hall for Billy Joel.”

 

Labelmate Neal Peart, Rush’s drummer, asked the Ian Thomas Band’s manager if Syme would be interested in illustrating the cover of Rush’s third album, “Caress of Steel.”

 

Rush had about as much worldwide fame at the time as did the Ian Thomas Band and Syme was ambivalent.

 

“I remember thinking, ‘Well, they’re not Genesis or Supertramp, but I’ll give them a shot.'”

 

Little did he know that he would continue to illustrate and art direct Rush’s albums until Peart’s death in 2020. And since then, he has been illustrating Rush’s reissues.

 

After an A&R man meddled with the cover of “Caress of Steel” to muddy effect, A&R men were banned by Rush from every stage of the creative process.

 

“There’s only one A&R person I ever met in my life who was highly respected by the people he hired,” Syme said. “And that’s John Kalodner from Geffen who signed Whitesnake, Aerosmith, Joni Mitchell, Nirvana, Sammy Hagar. Whenever he went into the studio with the band, they just revered his recommendation.”

 

Unlucky were the A&R persons who didn’t happen to be John Kalodnar. That would have been most of them, come to think of it.

 

“A&R people were not allowed in the studio and no one was allowed to talk to me,” Syme said. “So, I had a 50-year run with the boys with autonomy and respect and trust, which I’m forever grateful for, because it allowed us to do what we do.”

 

Most commercial illustrators will tell you that there is no such thing as “too many cooks spoil the broth” in the worlds of marketing and advertising. There is also no such thing as admitting the broth has been spoiled by a surfeit of cooks, many of whom have never made anything edible in their entire lives.

 

But Syme, who also illustrated covers for Bon Jovi, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Charlotte Church, Survivor, Night Ranger, Styx, Celine Dion, Aerosmith, Great White, Def Leppard, Stray Cats, Supertramp, Earth, Wind and Fire, The Band, Iron Maiden, Alice Cooper, the Allman Brothers Band and many more, has always insisted on a rare-in-this-context degree of autonomy.

 

“I’ve always kind of been a selfish art director,” he said. “I develop concepts based on a good title. And then I intentionally disappear…even to this day, I would never end an email with, ‘Let me know your thoughts or ideas.’ The moment you beg for an opinion, you’re gonna get one.”

 

If Syme had just been Rush’s art director, he would have more than enough to brag on, not that he’s the type to brag. But he also played piano and keyboards on four Rush albums.

 

Syme said he was devastated when Peart died, although he was prepared for Peart’s passing because he’d been part of a “militantly guarded inner sanctum” that had knowledge of his terminal illness.

 

Syme said it is always difficult when one of the architects of rock music passes away.

 

He lives in fear of getting a grave news bulletin about Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger or Jeff Beck.

 

“You can’t really say, ”Oh, other people will take their place,'” Syme said. “There are no other people.”

 

The progression (some might say, regression) from vinyl albums to CDs to digital music affected Syme’s profession greatly.

 

It is difficult to be a music industry illustrator if there is nothing to illustrate.

 

But Syme has reached a point in his life where he can pick projects that are more motivated by the passion he feels for them than the payday he’s been promised.

 

A few years ago, he moved to New Castle to be closer to his daughters.

 

And he has been doing a music podcast called Music Buzzz with Dane Clark, John Mellencamp’s drummer, and Andy Wilson, a music marketing and public relations professional who knows the business as well and loves it as much as anybody.

 

On Wednesday night, attendees will get a chance to purchase a limited-edition print and have Syme sign it. The reception is free but reservations are required. The exhibit is viewable through Nov. 5. More information can be found at honeywellarts.org/exhibits

 

DELVE DEEPER

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