Ray Alder is firmly etched upon the Mount Rushmore of progressive rock and metal vocalists. After years as frontman for bands like Fates Warning, Engine, Redemption, and others, he released his first solo record in 2019. He is about to release a second solo record, titled II, and recently took some time to talk about it.
Please press the PLAY icon below for the MisplacedStraws Conversation with Ray Alder –
On the band joining him for II – Well, the guitar player, songwriter is Michael Abdow, touring guitar player in Fates Warning and friends now for 10 years. Tony Hernando is a guitar player for Lords of Black in Spain, and Craig Anderson, drummer from Ignite, who is having a resurrection, so to speak, the band has a new singer and they’re touring and did a new record. Craig’s been a long-time friend of mine for, well over 20 years. When the first album came together, it was actually gonna just be Tony and myself, and then Tony got really busy with his band, Lords of Black, and Mike actually just send me an email and said, “Hey, I know you’re working on a new solo album”. He’s like, “Let me know if you want me to write a couple of songs”. I said, “Yeah, actually, great.” So that’s how Mike came aboard and ended up being really, really, really great, all of them, and I knew I wanted Craig to play drums. So that’s just how that worked out. Then with this one, I saw no reason to change. I thought those guys did such a great job, and actually, the very first album I thought I would do the thing where you have multiple guest musicians, different songwriters, but it ended up being just logistically, it was a nightmare. So I just figured I’ll work with just a couple of guys and that worked out perfectly. So I figured, there’s no reason to change it. :47
On if the pandemic played into the emotionally heavier feel of the record – Maybe, maybe subconsciously, I’m not sure. With the first one, I just so wanted to distance myself from Fates and people are obviously going to recognize me from Fates Warning, but I wanted to do something that was different and show that I’m capable of doing different kinds of music, songs, and melodies, and whatnot. You take the song “Crown of Thorns”, which is completely different than anything Fates would ever do, That’s what I wanted to do, just sort of create my own image, I guess, or put across that I have a different image. I think we did a good job with that, but I think with this one, I knew I wanted to be heavier, I wanted to sort of go back to my roots and have longer songs, I am in a prog metal band, and I have been for 30 years, and I feel there’s no reason to run away from that, and it’s how people recognize. With this one, I wanted to go back to my roots, just longer songs, deeper sort of lyrics, and I just wanted to be heavier, sort of darker in general, and I think we pulled that off pretty well, well, Mike and Tony did. They did a great job. 2:58
On his writing process – I actually, it’s funny, what I do is I listen to the music and I sort of, I know how it sounds very, what’s the word here? I’ve lived too long in another country, I’m forgetting how to speak English. I don’t want it to seem like, “Oh, look at me”. But I actually take from the music and whatever the music makes me feel, I think that is sort of where I wanna go with the lyrics. For example, the first song that came out, “This Hollow Shell”, was very ominous to me, and it had all these great vibes in it. Mike has this amazing ability to use his effects when he writes a song to create this great atmosphere. What I grabbed from that was so ominous, not evil, but just something coming, something that wasn’t very pleasant. That’s where the last come from, it’s sort of an individual who is out for revenge, so to speak. Every song is different, more upbeat ones I think have more upbeat lyrics. I never have a set plan. I think a lot of the times when I write a melody, even in Fates, I’ll just throw out just nonsense words and just to come up with the melody. Then sometimes I’ll end up actually writing lyrics from that nonsense, it sort of makes sense, it’s sort of a subconscious thing going on, but a lot of time that works. Sometimes I just start writing lyrics as I’m writing the melody and that works out as well. It just kinda depends on what the day is like. 4:58
On going solo after so many years in bands – Well I like being in a band. I like when decisions are made across the board. For me to do a solo album, it’s a lot of work. It’s just so much to deal with, producing and getting everything together, artwork, even finding a label. But I miss the camaraderie that goes along with being in a band. With Fates, we’ve been friends forever, to me that’s more special. I like doing the solo things because I can just branch out and do whatever I want, and there’s no one to tell me any different, but I think I prefer being in a band, just so used to it. 7:29
On how he first joined Fates Warning – They actually played a show in San Antonio, where I grew up and was living. I was a big giant fan of Fates Warning, there was a DJ in San Antonio, the Godfather, Joe Anthony, and he would play the coolest music man. He was one of the first ever to play Triumph on the radio in America and Rush, and he would just play these amazing bands, Mercyful Fate and Fates Warning, he played on the radio, and it was great and I became a fan of them. They played in San Antonio and I was with a band called Cyrus at the time. We had a manager named John. So they played the show. Before I was in the band Cyrus, they went to Cyrus’ rehearsal studio and I was friends with all those guys, and Fates Warning went there for a freaking barbecue, which is really funny. So I actually met the band that day, it was really weird. But John (Arch) didn’t go, they would never do it nowadays, it was hilarious, that it even happened back then, the people there, I ended up getting them to play some songs and in the rehearsal studio and people stood up and sang it was fucking hilarious. I didn’t because I was so nervous. So months later, John left the band and the guys in Fates were asking around the country if anybody knew of any singers, and they got a hold of John, and John at that point, I was already in Cyrus, and John asked me if I wanted to audition and I said, “Yeah, I’d love to”. And he said, “Okay, but you gotta keep it a secret, man. Don’t tell the guys in the band. Because, you know, I’m the manager or whatever”. And I said, “Well, okay. That’s kind of weird, but okay”. So I did this secret audition tape, which was “Quietus” and sent it to them, and they were like, “Yeah, this is great, this is great. But we already picked somebody else”. It was another guy from San Antonio, this guy named Chris Cronk, I was a little disappointed. I guess, I don’t remember what the timeframe was, a few months or weeks, they called me back and said, “Chris didn’t work out. Can you fly in?” That’s what happened and I said, “Okay”. I landed there, and we had lunch, and then we went to the studio and they said, “Okay, let’s see what you got”. I said, “Fuck, okay, these guys are my heroes”. So I was so nervous and I was a kid and I was 19 or 20. And that was it. He said, “You got the gig. You have to live here now”, and I said “What? I have to live in Connecticut?” Yeah, that’s how I ended up living in Marlboro for a while, and I’d moved to Newington. Then I missed Texas so much, I ended up going back and living in Texas. That’s when the band started, originally, they’re off from Connecticut and then you got Mark (Zonder) in L.A., Joey (Vera) in L.A., and me in Texas. There you go. 8:35
On if it’s difficult singing other people’s lyrics – Again, with that, it’s you gotta listen to the music, and with that Nick (van Dyk) was writing melodies and everything. Of course, he was like, “You do whatever you gotta do. It’s just a map, so to speak”. I said, “Okay”. Because just singing somebody else’s melody exactly as they sing is weird to me, I would imagine. Because it’s not something I would do. I think differently whether that’s good or bad. As a singer, I think 90% of your job is, well, let’s say 50% is performance and 50% is being able to emote and relate with the lyrics, so it’s not easy all the time, put that way. 12:35
On how he reunited with Mark Zonder for A-Z – Mark actually called me one day and being Mark Zonder, he’s very business-oriented, and he said, “Hey man, I gotta get a business opportunity for you”. I said, “OK, what’s the deal?” He explained it to me and told me he was working with Viv Lalu and Joop Walters. He said, “We have the songs as kind of a throwback kind of thing”, and I said, “Let me check out the tracks”, and I loved the music, I thought it was really cool. I really wanted to do it at that point. So that’s basically how that happened, and it ended up taking a lot longer than I thought it would, but in the end, it was fun. I was able to go back and sing what I grew up on. I was throwing a lot of old 70s sort of melodies out, to me they were 70s things, and there’s even a line in there and I was singing it, and I wrote it and I said, “That fucking reminds me of something I can’t get it to my head, I don’t know what song it is”. Then it popped into my head and I looked it up and I listened it’s from a Peaches and Herb, song. It was really funny. That’s the shit I listen to when I was growing up. My mom listened to it, so I listened to that. So that’s what was really fun about the A-Z album, going back to the 70s, 80s, 90s, kind of things. 13:36
On the future of Fates Warning – I think Jim (Matheos) doesn’t wanna write any more new Fates Warning music, so that’s that. You’re not gonna change his mind unless he wants to, so I don’t think there’ll be any more new Fates music. From my end, of course, I’m willing and I would love to. I love continuing on with that. But as far as touring and things, we still talk about touring, but it’s so difficult now with Joey in five different bands and Bobby (Jarzombek)’s now with George Strait, one of the greatest country legends. Bobby is his drummer now and they play arenas. Bobby’s playing arenas in the round, and it’s like Bobby’s dream, he’s a huge country music fan. When we’re on tour, he’s always trying to play country music on the tour bus and we’ll deal with it for five minutes. I don’t hate country music, it’s just not my thing. On the weekends in Texas, in San Antonio, he plays in a country band, they do covers, so for him, it’s like his dream job and really difficult for him to get away because George doesn’t really do tours, he just kinda throws shows out. So it’s difficult to Bobby away for more than two weeks or something. Jim and I were talking lately about next year is actually the 40th anniversary of Fates, so maybe next year we can throw out a few special shows or something and get together, it won’t be a long tour but at least we can set shows here and there. That would be nice to see everyone again. 15:43
On if he will do a solo tour – I would love to. I really would. Once I listened to the songs, I thought how great it would be to actually play them live. When we did the first solo album I thought about doing shows, but I don’t know how badly people are gonna wanna see this kind of thing, but we were lucky enough to have Glenn Harveston invite us to ProgPower, and it was fun to do one show. It was unfortunate at Craig, couldn’t go and Tony couldn’t make it again, it’s a problem working with other musicians and finding time, but it was a great time and I was able to sing some of the songs live, and that was a lot of fun. But this one I would love to hit the road, even if it’s opening for somebody or something. I wanna look into at least doing some shows in Europe, whether it’s opening, like I said, or headlining or something, just a few would be nice, but we’ll see if anyone knows a good promoter. 17:57
On upcoming plans – I’m kind of on the fence right now. There’s a few projects that are, I’m looking at. Let’s see, may start doing the next A-Z album. I just actually finished another album a few weeks ago with Jim Matheos. The two of us wrote some songs and we made an album out of it, so that probably won’t be out until next year, 2024, but I was busy with that for a while too, and that was a lot of fun. Definitely different, it’s not Fates Warning, but let’s see what people think when it comes out. 19:21