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.

Words: David West

Northmen: Ray Alder

Images: Jeremy Saffer

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.’

“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.”