The Mars Volta News?

Rollingstone.com Interview with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez

I wondered if they were done even after the announcement a few years ago. It does sound like Omar and Cedric have a lot ahead of it in terms of priority, namely his solo records and a new At the Drive-In album, which I may check out, but still don't have huge expectations or hopes.

The Volta? especially if Jon Theodore is back, certainly intrigues me and many others.



You mentioned Mars Volta earlier in your list of projects you'd like to revive. Do you have plans to put out another Volta album eventually?
At some point, we'd love to do [Mars Volta] again too, you know what I mean? There's so much to do there as well. Obviously now we're focused on At the Drive-In and making this record great and touring. Jon Theodore is doing Queens of the Stone Age right now. There are only four surviving members of the real Mars Volta, which is Eva Gardner, the original bass player who gave us all our soul but unfortunately had to leave the band because her father died on the second tour; Ikey Owens, who, of course, isn't with us anymore; Jeremy Ward, who isn't with us anymore; and Jon Theodore. Jon and Eva are still alive, and we're so grateful for that. And any true fan of the band knows that's the real chemistry right there. Whenever we get to that time, we hope that it all lines up with whatever Jon's doing and whatever Eva's doing, because she's been touring with Gwen Stefani. I just have a feeling it will. Life has a funny way of working out that way. 

Fans were very excited about Antemasque, since it brought you and Cedric back together. Could you talk a bit about how that project actually started? It seemed like a very quick transition between Cedric tweeting about the death of Mars Volta to you guys coming together and making the album in what seemed like a very spontaneous way. Then the project seemed to fly under the radar.
Obviously I'm biased, but I think it's a great record, as well. The most important thing is the fact that it got made and we did it and went through the process. Like you said, there was him tweeting or something, and not long after that, we got another band together. Because we're brothers. We're brothers of 25 years, and we had our very first disagreement, and unfortunately it happened to be in the era where arguments can be made public. But having one disagreement in the span of over two decades, you're not going to find that anywhere else. When you look at musical pairings throughout history – Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page – usually like 10, 15 years is their limit, then they go their separate ways. Ours is much deeper than that. We didn't end up in a band together because we were looking to form a band. We ended up in a band together because we hung out every day and played music every day, so the next logical thing was to take a band out on the road. We had one disagreement about me not wanting to do Volta at the time, and it turned into that. 

The Mars Volta - TBA (2011) (1.0)

7/10/11 6:04PM

Check out this video, namely about 5 minutes in. Wow. Uh, as I have said before, these guys have a wealth of talent, and hearing stuff like that totally supports that. I suppose I can say I have a bit more optimism about this album now (while still trying to avoid being burned by them).

edit: here's an except of an interview I just saw from an Australian zine.

Combined with a new Mars Volta album due out "hopefully later this year", the band will be bringing the majority of the new songs to Adelaide next month.

"It's about 80 per cent new material," Bixler-Zavala says.

"For the most part it's showing a lot of the new side of Mars Volta." When asked what this "new side" is Bixler-Zavala is more than happy to explain.

"I personally describe it as future punk," he says.

"We definitely go off in tangents live but it's the polar opposite of Bedlam in Goliath, that's for sure, and Octahedron wasn't really successful in trying to capture it so this new stuff is hitting the nail on the head for us." That said, Mars Volta has been dusting off some older, more familiar songs for the tour.

"There's some stuff that does translate and some stuff that doesn't," Bixler-Zavala says. "We're giving some things a modern take.".Last time Bixler-Zavala was on the phone to Hit the singer was having trouble coming to grips with the band's "evil spirits" that had been contacted via a ouija board during the recording of The Bedlam in Goliath but the singer is past all those "scary times" now.

"Yeah, we made it over to the good side," he says.


4/14/11 1:00AM


the upcoming album will feature thirteen songs of what Rodriguez-Lopez describes, "is a simplified version of what we've done before".

Cedric Bixler said recently about it: “Sorry no spanish [sic] on this record, no Zeppelinesque voyages, no Santana like flourishes or vishnu accuasations [sic]. No congas, no Hammond organ stabs, no 30 minute songs, no drums that sounds like mosquitos buzzing in your ear. Just future punk. That’s the only way to describe it from my point of view.”

There's I'm sure a lot more out there. I'm pretty guilty of not even reading the Volta section on The Comatorium message board.

But with these guys, instead of being a band I want to check-in with weekly or more often, I know it'll come out before I know it. They've already recorded not only this upcoming record, but likely the next 2 or 3. At least they've written enough. But these quotes do give me a little optimism that they mean to go in different directions, much like 2009's Octahedron was to a point.

Maybe this new album will be a bigger comeback? Maybe it'll have some of their At the Drive-In style riffs/energy etc?

Deantoni Parks I guess is their new drummer. Has been since 2010. He probably is best known for playing with Omar's solo band/projects.

Or maybe it'll be completely different from the previous Volta albums and ATDI as well? Color me a little more intrigued than I would have guessed. More to add when it's available.