Kings Of Mercia – 2024
Steve Overland: Vocals
Jim Matheos: Guitar
Joey Vera: Bass
Simon Phillips: Drums
Every now and again, art offers up the perfect storm. When creative worlds collide with a furious cacophony of power, licks and lyrics, magic happens. Such is the case with Kings of Mercia, whose second album, Battle Scars, is the continuation of a story as unlikely as it is glorious. When guitarist Jim Matheos of prog-metal powerhouse Fates Warning made it known to a few close friends that he was writing songs for a brand-new project, word got to English journalist Dave Ling, who put Matheos in touch with singer Steve Overland of Brit hard rockers FM. Sparks flew. The duo then recruited drummer Simon Phillips (The Who, Toto) and bassist Joey Vera (Armored Saint, Fates Warning).
2022’s approachable, world-class self-titled debut was termed “truly a hybrid: it’s heavy, but not metal. It’s got tones of melodic AOR hard rock, but with an edge.” And 2024 brings Battle Scars, the sophomore album featuring “Don’t Ask” and the epic “Aftermath” as the first singles. Written and recorded throughout 2023, Battle Scars sees the core writing team of Matheos and Overland expanding on their obvious chemistry.
“I think it was a bit easier this time around because we’ve established a good working rhythm,” states Matheos. “I’ll send Steve at least a few songs every couple months, and I try to keep them varied. This allows him to work on whichever ones he feels strongly about.“
“What Jim sends me is the first draft of that song,” says Overland. “So once he’s heard all the melodies and the harmonies I sing, he can chop it about and make it how he thinks it should be. He always sends me three or four different versions. He’ll say, ‘What do you think? Which do you like?’ Then we work it out between us and come up with the one we’re both happy with.”
“Steve and I started working together in 2021,” says Matheos. “I was aware of FM-they came up around the same time as Fates Warning-but I’d lost touch with them and wasn’t familiar with their more recent work. When Steve was recommended to me, I checked out some of the newer releases and felt Steve was exactly what I was looking for.“
“It’s a different genre of music that I’m normally involved in,” says Overland, whose voice has been likened to other British greats Paul Rodgers and Glenn Hughes. “Obviously I’d heard of Fates Warning-they’re a very big cult band in their field. Jim and I touched base, and I told him to send me one backing track. If it sounds great, then it’s a win-win. If it doesn’t, we’ll just call it a day, knock it on the head, not take it any further. That song became ‘Humankind’ from the first album. I wrote the melodies and the title and put it all together. Jim got it and he was blown away. So we made a couple more. I loved doing it. It was just such a different challenge for me.”
Those songs would become the self-titled debut album, which was released in 2022. Written during lockdown, bouncing tracks across the Atlantic, Kings of Mercia found its mojo. Fans of Fates Warning, FM and Armored Saint all rejoiced at the common ground on Kings of Mercia, the sweet spot in the middle of the Venn diagram.
It’s a true collaboration that led to KOM‘s singles from Battle Scars. However, despite the unfolding sound and clear chemistry between the four Kings, Overland has never met his bandmates in person. Battle Scars, like its predecessor, is a slab of transatlantic magic. From it emerges the first single, “Don’t Ask.” Overland describes the track as an “angsty love song” with lyrics including: “You could believe in anything you wanted to believe; We were all free to be whatever we wanted to be.“
The second pre-release single, “Aftermath,” is “very dark,” Overland says. “It’s about what will be left behind in the end. What will be left on the planet. It’s a very dark track, and very dark subject matter.” “I almost didn’t send this one to Steve, and when I did I was certain he wouldn’t like it,” adds Matheos. “I’m glad I did though, as it’s one of my favorites on the album now. It’s quite different for us and I think Steve really shines on this one.”
On Battle Scars‘ release day comes the title track. “That’s about post-war distress syndrome,” says Overland. “It’s about a guy who comes back from fighting and can’t really deal with real life. He realizes that he can never be what he was before he went away and did this. But he really, really wants to, but he’s trying to get that across to everybody that loves him. But the problem isn’t him – it’s what he’s been through. I came up with the title ‘Battle Scars,’ and I think that suggested the subject matter.”
Overland is convinced that Battle Scars is the record which sees the quartet of seasoned players fully coalesced. “I think we’ve found what Kings of Mercia are,” the singer says. “You’ve got the ‘Battle Scars,’ the title track, which is a real melancholy, sad song. That’s what I like about it – I never really know what I’m going to get from Jim. We found our feet with this album. This is the Kings of Mercia evolving.”
“People think you can pigeonhole rock music fans, but they just like good songs and good music,” says Overland. “Most of the response to the first record was off the charts. Fingers crossed with this one-we want to really push it to another level, and then carry on. That’s what I love to do.”
Kings Of Mercia – 2022
The combination of big riffs, driving rhythms, thick yet lithe bass lines and rich vocal melodies has made for some of the greatest music of all time, and in the hands of Kings Of Mercia this recipe is intoxicating. Best known as the founding guitarist for Fates Warning, but with countless other projects under his belt – including Arch / Matheos and most recently Tuesday The Sky – Jim Matheos is incapable of stifling his creativity. In early 2021, he started working on the songs that would become Kings Of Mercia’s self-titled debut album, bringing his distinct style yet doing something a little different. “I started writing without any real idea of what direction I wanted to go in or what I was going to do with the material. The first few songs came together quickly and were a bit more straightforward than I’m used to, and I really liked that idea, kind of going back to my early heavy/hard rock roots.” Not having any pre-conceived ideas of what the record should or would end up sounding like, at least early on, certainly helped, “as did the fact that it’s our first record, so there was nothing to measure it against or expectations to live up to, even if only in my own head.”
Churning out songs, Matheos’ next concern was to find the musicians who would help him realize the material, and his first priority was a vocalist. Putting together a list of 30-40 contenders he contacted a handful but none of them worked out for various reasons, and it was his friend Jeff Wagner who suggested FM’s Steve Overland, and another friend, rock journalist Dave Ling, who put them in touch with each other. “Jim had asked Dave for my contact details, we talked about his idea for mixing the two styles, his heavier background, with my melodic/bluesier direction,” says Overland. “We decided to try a collaboration on one song and see how it worked, we came up with the track “Humankind”, and we both loved it.” The combination of Matheos’ riffs and Overland’s vocals makes for perfect bedfellows, and the evident chemistry belies the fact they have never met. “We both wrote on our own, me completing songs instrumentally and then sending them to Steve who wrote the lyrics and recorded the vocals on his own. But there was never a moment where he said, ‘I don’t really like this part, or that song’, and likewise there was never anything that he sent me where I thought, ‘Hmm, I’m not sure about that…’ Everything I sent to him he worked on as is and everything he sent back to me ended up being final vocals, first time around. So there wasn’t any of the usual ‘what if you try this instead?’ that I’m so used to. That was really refreshing.” Having already settled on this hard rock direction, it was only once Matheos got the first couple of songs back from Overland that it became all the way clear of the shape the record would take, with the vocalist sending over his parts every few weeks, everything gradually coming together. “I think “Humankind” set a precedent for the way the album would go,” says Overland. “It’s a heavy anthemic track, but it’s hooky and has melody. Although the songs all have their own identity, I think they are all very powerful. Lyrically, it’s very varied, and there is a different subject matter and story in every song, so there’s no concept or thread that runs throughout the album.”
Behind the kit for the record is the legendary Simon Phillips (ex-Toto, Derek Sherinian), one of Matheos’ favorite drummers. “I decided to contact him on a whim, not really expecting that he’d be available or interested in this project. But, to my surprise, he liked the music and was able to fit some recording into his schedule. It’s an honor to share a credit with him and I couldn’t be happier with what he added to the record.” Rounding out the group is bassist Joey Vera – Matheos’ Fates Warning bandmate – who brings his trademark style and professionalism to the table. “My old friend and co-worker Joey Vera was a natural choice for bass. Not only did I know he would deliver performance-wise, but it was nice to have a familiar face among the new personalities.” With these players involved it was an easy, stress-free process throughout, making music for the love of it, and coming up with something that sounds familiar yet new, expanding the repertoire of all involved. This means songs like the half-acoustic ballad, half-swaggering “Too Far Gone” or the beautiful “Everyday Angels”, and the soaring “Wrecking Ball”, which opens the record on a high note, all brought to life in dynamic style.
The hardest part of the whole process was coming up with a name for the band. “We didn’t want to go with Matheos / Overland, or Overland / Matheos, etc, and Steve and I probably batted around 50 ideas before settling on Kings Of Mercia. It’s pretty much the only one we both liked. There’s no specific meaning or message behind it.” It made sense to self-title the record due to it being the band’s debut, and given how much life there is in the songs it would not be surprising if it did not become the first of many, the combination of those involved creating something special, and with Matheos’ permanent creative hunger you may well be hearing a lot more from Kings Of Mercia.