Interview with Fates Warning and OSI guitarist, Jim Matheos.Being given the chance to interview one of your biggest idols does not come along very often, so I took full advantage of Jim’s kindness and openness and asked him a lot of questions I had been waiting to ask for awhile, and here they are for everyone to see.
Thanks again Jim!
Having not heard the new OSI yet, can you give me a description of what you want the listener to experience with this new album?
(laughs) Well, I don’t think there’s any grandiose idea of what I want people to get out of the record, I hope they like it, pretty much as simple as that. (laughs)
Ok (laughs), How would you say the sound on this album differs from the first OSI album and what were you aiming for?
Well, again, as far as what we were aiming for, we didn’t really sit down and have a meeting and map out what we wanted to do with this one. I think it just kinda happened that our ideas of where we wanted to bring the record kinda coincided and that was to kinda take where the first OSI record ended and take it from there. The first one started as kind of a solo project for myself and was kind of more in the progmetal vein and as Kevin became more involved it kinda drifted into becoming something completely different from that and those songs that had more of a 50/50 collaboration between Kevin and I are the ones that we really liked on the record and we wanted to go more in that direction. So I think this one, if anything, is a bit more focused than the first one—has more a defined sound to it I think, it’s not so all over the place. That’s not to dog the first record, I still like the first record but I think this ones just got a little bit more of an idea of where we’re going, a bit more of a straight ahead direction.
Well with that, we’re talking about Kevin, you’ve already worked with him for awhile—what’s it like working with him in a project where he has equal weight? I would think on this second OSI album that it’s hand in hand at this point but do you guys ever butt heads or has it been easy because you’ve been working together for so long?
Umm, it’s somewhere in between. I wouldn’t say we really butt heads. There’s been occasions where we see things differently. We both come from kind of different areas the way we like to develop songs and I think that’s the interesting thing as he tries to take them in one direction and I’m usually trying to take them in another direction but we kind of like each others other direction, if you know what I mean, so we kind of compromise. There are very few situations where we have a hard time compromising in the end. It takes awhile, it’s usually a long back and forth process between his ideas and mine until we arrange, until we come somewhere in the middle but we don’t have too much of a hard time. For me, that’s part of the real joy of this project is being able to have my songs developed in a different direction. With Fates its kind of, I write the songs and they don’t really change a lot from the point I finish them to the point where they’re on the record, with this, its completely different in that the songs are developed in a totally different way than I would ever have heard them to begin with but I end up liking them that way.
Right because with Fates you’re basically your own editor, right?
To a certain extent. I send the stuff to the other guys and they give me their comments but its not a situation where they take the songs and bring them in a completely different direction, if anything, they just maybe elaborate a little on what I did and obviously they put their own touch on their parts but there isn’t a whole lot of rearranging of songs or adding new parts or anything like that, for whatever reason its just become that way. So that’s fun for Fates but for this its great to be able to, like I said, have my songs taken in a completely different direction I would have never envisioned.
I know there was talk about Daniel Gildenlow working with you on the first album, did you consider working with him on this album or was it you and Kevin the whole time?
No, we decided before we started working on this record that we were going to try to make this more into a band as the first one was kind of a project and we had different people coming in and out. This one we want to portray an image of a band. So the band is Kevin and I and we have a few other people, for lack of a better word, backing us up so there’s really no other reason to bring in like a guest vocalist or guest ‘this and that.’ OSI is a band that consists of Kevin and myself.
Well that probably answers my next couple questions which were, why go with Mike and why go with Joey who you are very familiar with while on the first album you worked with Sean Malone, which was very interesting.
As far as Joey goes one of the things we wanted to do is, I think I touched on it before, we wanted to go more in the song direction, a little bit less in the progmetal direction for this record and I think Sean is really firmly rooted in that, he’s great at it, but we wanted someone that was a little bit more, kind of a little more groove oriented I guess.
And that’s what Joey is.
Yeah, Joey is the perfect guy. It wasn’t really that we wanted to replace Sean, we just didn’t want to use exactly the same line-up as the first record. So when it came to look for a bass player, we kind of thought about it and the first name that came up was Joey because we both worked with him in the past, obviously I’ve worked with him a bunch. I had a little bit of hesitation to it just because I didn’t like the Fates Warning connection but after thinking about it for awhile there’s really no one better that could fit and play so he was the guy.
And with Mike he did such a great job on the first record and I love working with him. There was some question of whether he’d be on this record or not because I think he was a little frustrated with the process on the first one but after a long period we kind of came back to him and just said let’s make some new rules. Instead of you being part of the actual creative process would you be interested in doing it as kind of session musician where you wouldn’t really have to deal with all of that creative process and all the frustration that goes along with it and he was up for it.
That’s very interesting that Mike would do that since he’s such a creative minded drummer, I would think he would be very interested in laying down his own ideas but I think that’s great!
Yeah, I mean he always is, but I think that also, like I said, that it’s a real frustrating process to especially when you get two other guys in there that are also used to kind of having there own way. Then you really do get into a situation where there is a lot of head butting going on and sometimes it’s not really worth the frustration.
With all of that in mind, had you ever considered making OSI your permanent project? Umm, I don’t really see that I need to choose between Fates Warning and OSI. There are plenty of music fans out there, there’s plenty of time in the day for me to do both and neither one is so big or has so many demands on my time that I can only work on one at a time so I’ve never had to think about it.
That’s a wonderful answer(laughs)
(laughs)
What are the chances of us getting an OSI tour coupled with Fates Warning or Chroma Key or at least something along those lines?
There is some definite talk about doing an OSI tour and it would probably be coupled with some Chroma Key material. It wouldn’t be a situation where it would be Chroma Key and OSI, like two different bands, we’d probably put together one band and do a combination of both material, that’s what we’re talking about. So right now we’re in the process of just looking for the right agent in the States and in Europe and if comes together we’ll do some dates probably in September in the States and maybe October/November in Europe.
That would be great!
Yeah
I know some people were asking me, what gear did you use on this album?
Really a lot of different stuff I guess, the bulk of the rhythm guitars is the same set-up I’ve been using for awhile which is PRS Guitar, Mesa Boogie Mark 4 and I usually do like four tracks like that, double, triple, quadruple, and then I’ll throw on a couple tracks on top of that to give the tracks a little bit more definition so it’s really a layered sound usually about 8 different guitar parts for each song.
Ok. We’re going to turn a little bit over to Fates Warning here.
Ok.
Now I remember reading awhile ago that you were going to dive right into writing some new Fates material after the OSI album, is this—
Who said that? Did I say that? (laughs)
(laughs) Is this to soon to ask about it?
(laughs) It’s not to soon to ask about it, it’s too soon for me to answer it (laughs) because I don’t know. I’m not trying to be mysterious or withhold any information I just haven’t come to a decision yet, I guess it’s not right for me to say I haven’t thought about it, I have thought about it but I haven’t come to a decision yet. Ray and I have been talking just this last week actually about what we’re going to do (clears his throat) excuse me, and we don’t know. Metal Blade wants us to do another record and I think probably sometime down the line we’ll do another one. Right now Kevin and I have both cleared off our schedule for the rest of this year to be able to do some live stuff with OSI.
Oh, ok.
So if anything, I have some down time like June and July I might start writing at that point and than hopefully do some dates with OSI and then when we’re done with those I’ll have some material to think about using for Fates. I really don’t know actually what we’re going to do.
Ok, well it sounds positive atleast.
It’s a possibility, put it that way.
Now for the past couple albums what’s the writing process been like for you? I know that with A Pleasant Shade of Gray tapes were being sent back and forth in the early process. How did it go for Disconnected and especially with FWX?
Disconnected was pretty much along the same line as APSoG, I mean, there wasn’t really a lot of tapes going back and forth.
I think with APSoG I wrote the whole thing and demoed it out here and the first time the other guys heard it, Ray and Mark, was when I sent them the complete demo which was the whole thing from beginning to end, everything in there and than Mark worked on his parts and Ray worked on his parts.
Disconnected was a little bit more of a back and forth thing where I just work on one song and usually I would demo it and send it to Mark and he would work on his drum parts and send it back to me.
The X record was a little more towards the APSoG kind of feel where I would just demo everything here and then send it to those guys and then they would learn there parts and add things to them of course, especially Mark. That’s just the way we’ve been working ever since I can remember. Really kind of the same way I work with Kevin its just that Kevin is more into actually taking what I think are complete songs (laughs) and kind of deconstructing them and adding things and taking them apart where the other guys just kind of take them and if they like them we just move on from there.
Speaking of Mark, you’re obviously not sure what’s going to happen with Fates Warning so I’m pretty sure you don’t have an idea of who you want behind the kit.
That’s for sure (laughs). I mean, we need to do one thing at a time. We have to decide if we’re going to do a record then Ray and I will decide whose going to be on the record.
What made you guys decide to produce FWX yourself?
Well I think, we’ve really been producing ourselves for awhile—Disconnected was us wasn’t it? I don’t remember (laughs).
On Disconnected there was some production done by Terry.
By Terry, yeah. I think he did a lot with the vocals actually.
Yeah, and this album was just all you guys. I think we’ve been kind of heading in that direction for a long time. We’ve been pretty much in control of what we do for a long time and we didn’t really feel that there was anybody that we could bring in from the outside that would really add a lot. When we got ready to go into the studio the songs were pretty much where they were going to be and we didn’t see changing them at all so we just felt comfortable with the material and didn’t like the thought of any outsiders coming in and changing things around.
Is it overwhelming to look back on your career, fourteen studio albums (including solo work), and see the legacy of music you’ve left behind?
(laughs) No, not at all. No, I just look at it as kind of my job. It’s just what I do, I’ve been doing it for a long time so to me, fourteen records if that’s what it is I haven’t counted, if that’s what it is that doesn’t seem that remarkable to me, one every couple years. It’s kind of like, maybe I’m a little bit of a slouch.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that but—(laughs)
(laughs) No, I mean, and when I say that I look at as a job I don’t mean that to be jaded about it, it’s just what I do. I love it, I’m glad, every day I’m very appreciative that I get to make music for a living but you know, it’s a job so to put out a record and do some live dates… that’s nothing compared to someone that has to work eight to nine hours a day on a loading dock or whatever else, you know?
That’s a good point. How have you managed throughout the years, I think it’s the one thing that most people pick up on, to really evolve and change your sound. You guys have changed every couple albums and it’s great.
Well, I think that’s the key to why we’ve been able to do it so long. We keep it interesting hopefully for the fans but more importantly for us. Ya know if we had done Awaken the Guardian three more times after the original Awaken the Guardian we wouldn’t be here and if we had done APSoG three more times after we did APSoG we wouldn’t be here. It’s trying to keep things interesting for us and it also comes from, at least for me, that I have a really wide variety of listening tastes. I like to try to bring different things into music that interest me listening, as a listener. So, I guess the downside is that you don’t build a real solid fan base. I mean, we have a real kind of core solid fan base but along the way when you change styles or change directions so often you lose people. Hopefully you bring new people in but you don’t keep building on that base so that’s the one downside but for me it’s a good trade off because I’m happy doing what I do. I don’t get too frustrated, I don’t feel too stagnant, I feel like I can take this thing where I want to.
That’s the beauty of it. Do you foresee yourself eventually not making albums anymore, I mean, you could still make music for yourself, but releasing albums?
Not anytime in the foreseeable future. I mean, as we get more and more records and I do more and more things it does get harder and harder to keep coming up with something new and to keep it fresh so it doesn’t seem like that loading dock job that I was talking about… so it gets harder and harder, but right now, I’m still enjoying it and I still see at least another couple records coming out of me though I don’t know in what direction. Other than that, I don’t have too many long term plans, I really have nothing I can fall back on so I guess I have to keep doing this.
We appreciate it! (laughs)
(laughs)
Now this may not be something you’ve talked about for awhile but I’m very interested; have you ever considered doing another Jim solo album, like First Impressions or Away With Words?
Yeah, I’d love to! I’m thinking about doing one sometime soon. I really really enjoy those, they’re great fun for me and both those records are two records I can listen back to now and still enjoy which isn’t the case with everything I’ve done.
Unfortunately they don’t sell as much as Fates or OSI and the business side always has to come into these decisions and for me to take, what would likely be a year to put one together which is usually what it takes me to do anything, it’s hard to justify although I really love doing it and I’m going to try to put one together, I don’t know, sometime in the next couple years? But yeah, I’d love to do one, those are great fun.
Well, what inspired you when you first started making those albums to go and do an album like that? I know its cliché for someone who plays metal to go out and do an acoustic album but your albums are just so thick and lush, what made you decide you needed to do them?
Again, I guess getting back to the different kinds of music that I really like and listen to and I think, during the first one, First Impressions, I was listening to a lot of Will Ackerman who’s a big influence of mine—a lot of that Windham Hill stuff at that point. That was probably the biggest influence at that time but there is a lot of those kind of guitar players that I listen to in that kind of music— Michael Hedges. Theres a lot of them. It really gets down to whatever I’m listening to and whatever kind of moves me at that time. But I’ve been playing acoustic for much longer than I’ve been playing electric and I still tend to, even for Fates or OSI, I write a lot of stuff on acoustic so it’s something I’m comfortable with something I really enjoy doing.
Have you considered asking either Michael Manring or Charlie Bisharat to work on another project at all aside form the solo stuff? Did you ever consider Michael for OSI?
We talked about it actually, he was on my list, but again, one of the reasons we didn’t use Sean was because we wanted to get away from the whole progmetal thing. I think Michael is known a lot for that, he’s such a players player, and we wanted to get someone who was more of a team player more of a groove oriented guy in Joey… but I loved working with both of those guys. I think out of all of the stuff that I’ve done, those two guys were probably way up on top of best musicians I’ve ever worked with and the coolest most down to earth guys as well so I’d love to work with them in any capacity.
Speaking of them guesting on your album, I’m wondering why I have heard or seen you guest on a Chroma Key album yet?
(laughs) Well you’d have to ask Kevin that wouldn’t you? I don’t know why on the first couple but I think now it’s pretty obvious.
Now it is, yeah.
Yeah, it would be to close to OSI and the same thing for Fates Warning. I wouldn’t see Kevin writing or being in Fates other than maybe doing a guest appearance here or there, so I don’t know. You’d have to ask Kevin.
Now when you have made guest appearances on albums, and I use that phrase lightly, the only album that I could find that you’ve made guest appearance on is Sean Malone’s Gordian Knot. I doubt it’s from a lack of people asking, is it just--
(laughs) I don’t get asked that often actually. I don’t know what it is, nobody likes me (laughs). No, I don’t know, Sean asked me and there’s been a few other things that were a little bit under the radar that I wasn’t interested in but as far as anything that you would have heard of before, no, I don’t turn down a lot of offers.
Oh, that’s interesting. I’d love to hear your guitar playing on more albums.
(laughs) Well, people send me some offers and I might appear.
All right, I’ll see if I can set that up for you.
(laughs)
Just a couple more for you. What type of music that’s new to you are you into? They don’t have to be brand new, but maybe new to you?
People that are new to me? I don’t know if I’ve gotten into anything that’s really new to me, there’s always things that I’m listening to, I can tell you things that I’m listening to. I haven’t really stumbled across anybody that I’m loving right now that’s new. Stuff that I’m listening to that I love a lot right now would be the new Opeth record, umm, No Man, I love No Man stuff, uhh, the new David Gilmour, fantastic.
Is that good, I haven’t heard it yet?
Yeah, I mean it’s good to me, you’d have to be a Pink Floyd fan and David Gilmour fan—it’s really laid back but I love that kind of stuff.
That’s excellent, yes! So I can’t think of anybody off the top of my head that’s new that I can recommend. Usually when I get asked these kind of questions I choke, I can’t think of anyone and as soon as I hang up I go, “Doh! I forgot!” but I can’t think of anybody right now.
It’s ok, you’re just plugging artists at this point (laughs). Yeah, that’s true. (laughs)
How about reading wise, have you been reading anything good recently?
I’m always reading. That list would probably be longer than my music list. I just finished a book called “Collapse” by Jared Diamond which was pretty interesting. I’m reading “The History of the Early Roman Empire” that’s really interesting (laughs). I just finished some John Updike stuff who I’m a big fan.
Now does any of the reading that you do really have a vast influence on your own lyrics?
I don’t think so. In the early days, when I first started writing lyrics for the band around No Exit, those influences I think are real obvious… to me they are anyway. I was reading a lot of 18th century Romantic poetry and Poe and Rimbaud and stuff like that and a lot of that comes out to me in those lyrics. I got away from that, I don’t read as much poetry anymore so I think I’ve gotten away from stealing those kind of lines making those lyrics. So, I don’t think so.
Do you still do a lot of exercises and different practice techniques to keep in shape playing wise?
No (laughs). No, I don’t really practice at all unfortunately. I don’t really find interest to sit down and pick up my guitar and play scales or anything like that. Really, practice for me comes in either practicing for live shows, which I’m doing now, or writing. So, it’s bad, bad me (laughs) but I don’t really find time or any interest to sit down and practice the way I used to. I do with piano, I have a piano now and I practice on that. If it’s a new instrument it’s a lot more interesting to start learning scales and all that kind of stuff, that seems really interesting and a challenge to me but to play a couple hours doing scales on the guitar would just bore me to tears.
Does that mean when we get this new Jim solo album it’s going to be all piano and no guitar?
No, it’s mostly for my daughter but I like to have it here and play around with it, its fun.
That’s actually all I’ve got for you Jim.
Cool!
Thanks a lot for the interview and I hope to see you on the road soon.
You’re welcome man.
