To get to The Mars Volta you must cross over the tracks. The Journey to its studio take you away from the trendy clubs of Hollywood, around the skyscaoers of Los Angeles where taco shacks and automotive chop shops crowd the streets, crammed with musical gear, lyric sheets and wires running everywhere, its a place where talks of sanatoria, ghosts, curses, Soothsayers and superstition hang in the air.
"If theres is a philosophy to The Mars Volta it's that you have you have to gamble everything all the time" says guitarist/producer Omar Rodriguez Lopez "Theres a train, it's moving. You dont know where its going. You get in if you want to be apart of the trip, if you want to be apart of the adventure. If your scared of the adventure and you'd rather stay with what you know - your favorite places to eat, your friend's house, your city-then thats fine too, dont get on.
There was a time not long ago when Rodriguez-Lopez and band cofounder/vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, who have been friends since 1988, put it all on the table, wagering their career in the music business.
Prior to The Mars Volta, the duo was part of the El Paso Texas post-punk emo outfit At The Drive-In. In 2001, at the height of their popularity and teetering at the edge of superstardom Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler Zavala walked away. Everyone - friends managers and journalists-thought they had lost it. They all wanted to know why. "Boredom" says Rodriguez-Lopez "People weren't evolving as quickly as we were...they were unwilling to take certain risks and free themselves to improvisations. Its like being in a relationship and having bad sex all the time. Whats the point"
While the other members of At The Drive-In formed Sparta and continued down a similar road, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala began to experiment with a new sound. "It's Become something I didn't think it would" says Bixler-Zavala, his moody eyes peeking out beneath his shaggy black hair "We'd always talk about wanting to make a salsa group born out of our dub group (Defacto)" Although there are elements of hard salsa akin to the legendary Fania All-Stars and aspects of tripped out Bill Laswell style dub, they didn't stop there. Retaining parts of their aggressive punk rock roots they began to mix in more advance influences from progressive rock, free jazz and spacious jams.
Bixler-Zavala smiles as he confesses that back in the day he used to tell other hardcore punks that he wanted to create something more challenging, a band with two drummers, "a Punk-Rock Grateful Dead" Bixler Zavala got his wish. Over the course of six years, four full length albums and hundreds of ruthless live shows, The Mars Volta have developed into an 8-headed latin laced psychedelic rock monster. But the path wasn't easy. Along the way friends and band members died, others were removed, addictions were kicked and skeletons were buried. The 2003, Rick Rubin produced debut (the only album to feature an outside producer) De-loused at the Comatorium was a fictitious account of the life and death of inspirational friend and artist Julio Venegas who committed suicide in 1996. 2005's Frances The Mute was loosely based on departed band-mate Jeremy Ward (who died of an apparent heroin overdose in may of 2003) 2006's Amputechture was the first album to not focus on a concept or theme but was every bit as dark and sprawling as the previous efforts. "You write what you know about" says Rodriguez-Lopez. "Our friends ave always made fun of us, saying that they should be careful being our friends because people around us seem to die alot. Thats why we know about death and addiction, poverty and success, all those things are found in our music, we have to dive into those things"
For years they dove into just about everything: needles, powders, rocks, pipes, girls, you name it. But in younger days, before heavy use turned everything black, they readily admit thats drugs especially psychedelics opened their minds and helped forge their friendship. "I dont think we can identify with a lot of people who have not done psychedelics, its just something that has left its print on us, its like you really want to know whats going on, and that is really is a way to tell you whats going on, really, really going on" says Bixler-Zavala "it left a hugh impact on us"
The stamp is all over The Mars Volta. From the 32 minute album version of Cassandra Gemini to the brain busting live shows that rival any pre-eminent jamband for instrumental indulgence to their choice of cover art everything about the band glows psychedelic. But the gateway became a boundless curiosity then a crutch for life on the road until the drugs got heavier and the cost increasingly unbearable. As they were approaching the edge Bixler-Zavala recalls once incident that may have saved him "Having Jeremy Ward walk dont and ask if he had maggots in his head, I was super high when that happened and that literally scared me straight, I didn't do half of what what I was doing after that" It wouldn't be long till Jeremy Ward lost his fight, Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler- Zavala still have the scars but today they are bright eyed clear headed clean living vegetarians and yoga practitioners who rule The Mars Volta with an iron fist.
"We're extreme, contradicting all out give everything family" says Rodriguez-Lopez "and in every family there is a mother and a father, someone says if your going to live in my house these are the rules" In this family, Rodriguez-Lopez wears the pants and the rules are explicit: he writes every piece of music and gives it to Bixler-Zavala so he can write every lyric. Rodriguez-Lopez now produces every album, generally recording each piece out of context, keeping band members in the dark, allowing them to see and hear only their part Rodriguez-Lopez spends upwards of around 16 hours a day in the studio and obsesses over every detail. There is no way he could do it nor would he try without his partner Bixler-Zavala (who created his own dialect and often sings bilingual tongues)
Many artists cant deal with leashes, they want to be part of the creative process original drummer Jon Theodore was one of these musicians however The Mars Vola is not a democracy and he was replaced in 2006 because "he didn't have the faith" after Theodore the band shuffled through Blake Flemming who actually played on the bands first recording 2002's Tremulant EP and Deantoni Parks before arriving at 24 year old Thomas Pridgen. Hailing from the worlds of gospel and R&B he's not the obvious choice but the vola is a mindset and a system of disbelief more then style "he's like the missing member" says Bixler-Zavala "an ideal fit"
Pridgens initiation involved flying to ohio to meet the mars vola while they toured stadiums with RHCP, Rodriguez-Lopez took Pridgen into a back room where a drum kit was set up. He taught him him an odd little beat and said "remember that because that's wheres we start and where we end" Pridgen thought he was just there to hang out but ended up playing for10,000 people with a band he never met. "He gambled everything" smiles Rodriguez-Lopez "without even hesitating, we have a whole new life as a band now. Its like we are able to let our hair down completely because we dont have the one guy standing on the port going "why should I get on the boat, wheres it going is there gonna be food there"
All this brings us to the most bizarre chapter of this fantastical band The Bedlam in Goliath released in january, the story of Bedlam begins in Jerusalem. "It was may 2006 the days after I finished mastering Amputechture, I went on a whim. It was just a calling I felt Cliché had to go" recounts Rodriguez-Lopez "my going there seemingly had nothing to do with the music I thought it was something for me some cliché spiritual journey I had no idea, little did I know I was being called there by the Soothsayer"
While shuffling through as odd antique Rodriguez-Lopez stumbled upon an ancient ouija style talking board. He immediately knew this would be the perfect gift to Bixler Zavala. He purchased the item and unknowingly invited something sinister into his home.
The band became obsessed with their new toy. They played with it night after night as they drove to shows. The board began to repeat the story of a man, a woman and her mother and the love/lust/murder triangle that followed. As if the-recurring tale wasn't spooky enough, eventually the top layer of the board pealed back to reveal pre-aramaic words and cryptic symbols. Bixler-Zavala explains "coming as a result of us fucking with the board poetry attached to it that tells a very typical scenario that can be compared to the way Afghanistan honor killings happen. Where if a woman is raped or if a woman doesn't have her virginity it shames the family and the best thing a man can do its kill her"
The band continued to interact with the board pulling song titles and inspiration from words offered. Bixler-Zavala goes onto explain that the spirits inhabiting the soothsayer had no intention of their shameful story being told, so the board began to impart its will. A seeming curse was set and presumably causes the following string of evens to greatly delay production of the album, The bands engineer suffered a nervous breakdown, accused the vola of "making music with evil intent" stole some tapes and left the band. Rodriguez-Lopez apartment flooded twice (when no other unit in the building got a drop) Bixler-Zavala preexisting foot problem blew up to the point of needing surgical repair, and audio tracks began to disappear from the studio mix.
Paranoid and totally freaked out Rodriguez-Lopez broke the board in half, wrapped it in cloth and went someplace he'd never find his way back to and buried it "the act of finishing the record" says Rodriguez-Lopez "became obvious as the way to reverse the bad luck"
A skeptic may glance sideways at Rodriguez-Lopez stare into his thick rimed specs and tell him this all seems a bit much. He just smiles and shakes his head "most people have never seen God but they dont rule that out, I'm from the caribbean I've grown up with with Sanataria, that's a very normal thing, a normal part of our culture, Mexican culture celebrates death, if I do an interview in South America or something in the Caribbean they glance over this and its not even a question for them. For them its more. 'what were you thinking why would you play with that. Because thats their culture, its very accepted. The same interview in Germany they're very scientific and they go 'I think its a nice fantasy'"
Fantasy or reality these two believe. As we talk about the soothsayer they are noticeably uncomfortable, refuse to give details and even knock on a wood post. Bixler- Zavala slowly begins to divulge deeper meanings about the lyrics on Bedlam "the strongest theme I would say is solitary confinement, of the tricks the mind can play on you" he says
Revered for its complex albums which sell remarkably well considering the challenging nature of of the material its the bombastic onslaught of the mars volta live show that ultimately provides the most draw. On any given night the band generally freaks out over the course of five to ten songs for about two hours. As Rodriguez-Lopez crafts angular patterns and chicken scratches over his guitar using any of his million effect pedals its not unusual to see Bixler- Zavala do mule kicks and rip up one of the giant stage lights and swing it over the audience. "its being overcome by the spirit" says Bixler-Zavala. adds Rodriguez-Lopez "as much as someone might enjoy the record it can never come close to what we do live."
Talk turns to a particularly potent show from last year in Berkeley, California. Bixler-Zavala remembers slithering across the stag on his belly, picking up the mic stand with his teeth, climbing the rafters, jumping into the crowd and running to the back of the theater to hump a speaker. What brought on this spectacle "it was inspired by the fact that our new drummer has injected this new blood" he says "we feel his age Im 33 im looking for the fountain of youth. I was always wondering how I could do it without ginseng or cocaine"
Thriving with a new drummer, performing at a peak and lifted over their victory with the Soothsayer, The Mars Volta refuse to slow down their evolution. Rodriguez-Lopez is constantly recording solo albums, Volta songs, soundtracks and has filmed almost every moment of The Mars Volta for a movie that he will one day release. As the band tries to figure out how to play Bedlam live, Rodriguez-Lopez already has the next two albums laid out musically and is knee deep in production on the follow up to Bedlam. "its a mellow album" he says "the last one was our most aggressive. The next one we keep calling our acoustic album."
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