The creative engines behind Fates Warning switch gears as they shapeshift into North Sea Echoes. Ray Alder talks about the excitement of reconnecting with Jim Matheos, the joy of singing quietly, and the torture of writing lyrics for Really Good Terrible Things.
Last year, Fates Warning frontman Ray Alder let slip in an interview with Prog that guitarist Jim Matheos, his bandmate for over 35 years, had neither any plans nor the desire to write new music for the progressive metal pioneers. It appeared that a creative partnership spanning four decades had reached the end of the road. Then along comes North Sea Echoes, a new project reuniting the pair while exchanging the heavy riffing of Fates Warning for acoustic guitars, electronic percussion and ambient spaces on their immersive debut Really Good Terrible Things.
“It was all Jim’s idea,” says Alder today. “Jim contacted me out of the blue and said that he was working on some music.”
Matheos was writing for Tuesday The Sky, the name under which he released 2021’s The Blurred Horizon and 2017’s Drift. However, the music led Matheos in unexpected directions, away from the predominantly instrumental approach of Tuesday The Sky.
“He said he keeps hearing vocals and wondered if I’d be interested in trying it out, seeing if it worked,” says Alder. “He sent me a few songs, and I picked Open Book, the opening track on the album. That one just seemed to grab me. The music was beautiful. I said, ‘It’s going to be hard to sing over this, to be honest with you.’ I didn’t want to ruin it.”
After four days working on lyrics and a melody, Alder sent the song back to Matheos with his vocals and the chemistry between the longtime collaborators ignited once more.
“At that moment we knew that we were on to something,” he says.
It was even more surprising because on Fates Warning’s 2020 album, Long Day Good Night, the band signed off with The Last Song. “So I just assumed we would never work together writing again,” says Alder.
The undulating soundscapes of North Sea Echoes feel like they exist worlds away from Fates Warning or Alder’s solo albums, 2019’s What The Water Wants and 2023’s II. However, Alder had considered making an album on the quieter side for some time.
“I need the right musicians to make it happen,” he says. “There’s also the fact that I don’t know if anyone would give a shit because it’s quiet music and a solo album. There’s already a lack of interest in solo albums anyway, so who knows what that would have been like.” Consequently, when he heard what Matheos was working on, serendipity smi
