Jim Matheos: Guitar / Programming
Ray Alder and Jim Matheos’ musical legacy is huge and lauded, each as collaborators and people. Alder has been the vocalist and principal co-writer for prog metallic heroes Fates Warning for the previous 35 years. With them he has recorded 10 albums between 1988 (No Exit) and 2020 (Lengthy Day Good Evening). Additional rounding out his discography are seven albums with Redemption, two solo albums, and the band A-Z with Mark Zonder, which debuted in 2022.
Prolific and pioneering guitarist/producer Matheos is a co-founder of Fates Warning, the lineup debuting with 1984′s Evening on Bröcken on Steel Blade. Along with 13 albums with Fates, Matheos’ myriad different work consists of a number of solo albums, 4 albums alongside former Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore, underneath the identify OSI, and new band, Kings of Mercia, a lineup that’s been termed “a hybrid; it’s heavy, however not metallic.“
On North Sea Echoes‘ debut album, Actually Good Horrible Issues, the duo embarks upon a recent musical journey, a brand new chapter of intimate, moody, and evocative songs highlighted by the singles “Open E-book,” “Empty,” “Throwing Stones.”
“All through Actually Good Horrible Issues, Matheos and Alder serve up the sort of seductive melancholy Fates Warning followers will acknowledge,” says Jeff Wagner, writer of the Fates Warning e-book Vacation spot Onward. “But there’s a totally totally different strategy right here: vocals are delivered with a form of nostalgic disappointment, and the guitar work is layered in such a means as to really feel dreamlike. These are wealthy sonic landscapes, visiting locations haunting, lovely, spectral and secret. The Matheos/Alder partnership is taken to some new and great locations right here,” Wagner concludes.
Matheos and Alder started speaking about working collectively once more as quickly as they accomplished Fates Warning‘s Lengthy Day Good Evening. “We simply didn’t know what, when, the place” says Matheos. “I had begun work on one other Tuesday the Sky report, which is an ambient, largely instrumental, pet mission of mine. However the first songs I’d provide you with felt like they have been extra arrange for vocals. Ray and I had achieved one thing related on Lengthy Days Good Evening, a music referred to as ‘When Winter Falls,’ and we each actually appreciated the end result. So, I requested him if he’d be onto doing an entire report with an identical strategy.”
The resultant Actually Good Horrible Issues was produced by Matheos with cowl artwork from Simon Ward (Kings of Mercia, Marillion). “Open E-book” kicks off the report and was additionally the primary music written. Matheos felt that “with Ray’s lyrics about ending and beginnings, it felt like a great temper to begin off with.” Alder provides: “The road ‘we’re a cloud behind the moon’ is referring to the truth that we’re all mainly an impossibility. But right here we’re. And we are going to go on till we will’t. I’m talking of inevitability.”
The ominous sounding “Empty” begins with Matheos’ atmospheric guitar work and includes a highly effective drum efficiency by Gunnar Olsen (Puscifer). “Throwing Stones,” additionally with Olsen on drums, sees the pair tapping their huge influences to create some of the instant tracks on the report. Lyrically it’s about one thing referred to as “Cherophobia,” as Alder explains: “Some folks have a worry of happiness. They really feel that one thing painful all the time follows pleasure. So, they’re form of locked into this world the place they attempt to really feel nothing, and that’s what Cherophobia is, and what impressed the lyrics.”
One in all Matheos’ favourite tracks is “No Maps.” Matheos had an idea for the lyrics, and Alder took it from there: “The monitor was a lot, a lot totally different than what ended up on the album. On the demo there was the sound of a freight prepare quietly transferring down the tracks all through your complete music, together with acoustic guitars. Jim stated it reminded him of hobos. So, I believed I’d write a couple of wanderer who’s happiest being alone. Type of romantic to me, in a bizarre means.”
The songwriting course of was as acquainted one for the Fates Warning vets: Matheos demos music, then passes it alongside to Alder. “If he likes the music, he’ll begin arising with lyrics and melodies. After that, the music will have a tendency undergo additional modifications, generally minor, generally main, as the ultimate type begins to take form,” explains Matheos.
Actually Good Horrible Issues reveals the breadth and flexibility of the acclaimed pair, together with a freshness that belies their lengthy musical partnership. “We each nonetheless love making music and we actually take pleasure in working collectively. There’s a great quantity of chemistry there, I feel,” Matheos concludes. “We each know what to anticipate from one another.”
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