Armored Saint bassist and longtime Fates Warning member Joey Vera says he remains hopeful that the progressive metal band will play live again, despite no concrete plans on the horizon. In a new interview with George Dionne on The Rock Is George podcast, Vera said (transcribed by Blabbermouth): “Man, I wish I had an answer for you… I don’t have any news on that, and I’m bummed about that because I do get asked about it a lot. And I’m still in touch with Jim [Matheos, Fates Warning guitarist] and with Ray [Alder, Fates Warning singer]. We text each other. And we’re sort of, like, ‘Hey, we miss you guys. Let’s go out and do this again.’ And they’re, like, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.’ Well, everybody’s busy, which is kind of true. Everybody’s doing other things at the moment.”
Vera continued: “But I haven’t given up. I would love to do more shows. And I know that offers is coming in from promoters, ’cause sometimes they come to me. And I’m, like, ‘Hey, man, I got no pull here. You gotta go to the booking agents, and you gotta go to Matheos and Ray.’ But the interest is still there, and I hope that one of these days I can have something better to tell you.”
Four years ago, Vera told VWMusic about how he came to join Fates Warning: “I’d been friends with Jim Matheos and the guys since 1984. In fact, they asked me to fill in for Joe DiBase back in 1989, when he had a family emergency during their No Exit tour — I flew out and played four shows on the East Coast. One day, I got a call from Jim in 1996, and he asked me if I wanted to play on their new album. I said, ‘Hell yes.’ I didn’t know then that I’d still be working with them after all these years, but it’s been one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done.”
In February 2024, Alder told The Metal Gods Meltdown that Matheos has no interest in writing new Fates Warning music: “Jim doesn’t wanna write any more music for the band. I think he just kind of feels it wouldn’t be honest — he wouldn’t be honest with himself or to the fans. He’s just really not into it at the moment. Maybe he becomes inspired or bored. I don’t know. We’ll see.”
In May 2023, Alder elaborated to Rock Hard magazine: “With Fates Warning, after we did the last album and Jim saying he doesn’t wanna write any more Fates Warning music, I have to do something. I’m a singer. Music is my life.” Alder also noted that future touring remains complicated by scheduling: drummer Bobby Jarzombek is now the full-time drummer for country star George Strait, who does one-off shows rather than extended tours. Fates Warning last performed live in April 2019, closing out a North American tour.
Fates Warning formed in Hartford, Connecticut, in the early 1980s around vocalist John Arch, releasing three albums that shaped progressive metal — Night On Bröcken (1984), The Spectre Within (1985), and Awaken The Guardian (1986) — before Arch departed and was replaced by Alder. Vera has held the bass chair since 1996. The band’s most recent studio album, Long Day Good Night, was released in 2020.e.
