Myrtle Beach Online intervjuar Cedric
Breaking old patterns
The Mars Volta shaking convention for its sound
By Krystin Dean – For The Sun News
In a time when overly formulated cookie-cutter pop-rock bands dominate the airwaves, it is rare to encounter a band that completely sidesteps the commercial trap and forges an identity all its own.
The Mars Volta is one of these exceptions, which means its progressive sound is ever-evolving as the band constantly continues to experiment with and push its musical limits.
The band, with guitarist/producer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and lyricist/vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala, keyboardist Isaiah Ikey Owens, bassist Juan Alderete, drummer Thomas Pridgen, percussionist Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez, woodwind player Adrian Terrazas-Gonzalez and guitarists Paul Hinojos and John Frusciante, recently returned to the U.S. for a 17-city North American tour that began April 1 to promote its new album on Universal, “The Bedlam in Goliath.”
The band has released four distinct albums to date, but promoting a new album with a noticeably different sound on tour can be challenging.
“For a little while, a lot of people just looked at us with blank stares because they don’t know the material really well. It’s difficult to actually repel fans as well as attract fans, because we have a lot of people that are still kind of old-fashioned with the way they look at the band. They want us to play all the old material and to sound like we did four years ago, which is difficult for us because the whole nature of why this band started is so that we could always shed old skin,” said Bixler-Zavala.
The band released its new album on Sept. 18, which debuted at No. 3 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart, making it the band’s highest-charting album to date. Bixler-Zavala attributes the album’s initial success to the band’s faithful fan base.
“Our fans remind me of people who are fans of ‘Lost’ or part of some kind of sci-fi geek convention, so it’s nice to know that they’re coming out in droves to support us,” he said. “When I heard about the charts, it was nice news. I’m a high school dropout, so it’s kind of like bringing home some sort of progress report or report card or even a diploma so that I can show I’m actually doing something with my life,” Bixler-Zavala said.
The band was recently named “perhaps the most musically adventurous act currently signed to a major label” by The New Yorker. Bixler-Zavala, who formed the band in 2001 with guitarist Rodriguez-Lopez, is modest about the band’s accolades and critical acclaim.
“I guess it gives hope to other people who want to make music that’s not easy to digest but can actually pay some bills. I never thought we’d be able to pay bills or be comfortable at all doing what we do, because I know what we do can be difficult for some people sometimes,” Bixler-Zavala said.
According to a document released by the band in November called “The Mars Volta’s Descent Into Bedlam: A Rhapsody in Three Parts,” there were many mysterious obstacles for the band during the creation of “The Bedlam in Goliath.”
The main complication for the band came in the form of bad experiences with a Ouija board purchased by the band in a curio shop in Jerusalem, which plagued recording and production and may account for the more edgy sound of the album.
“We sound really aggressive. I don’t know how to describe our stuff to people. I just know that people should have patient and adventurous ears to listen to what we do. For the most part, it is still in pop format and songwriting structure, and we are really flirting with pop music in a weird way,” Bixler-Zavala said.
While on tour, The Mars Volta is already preparing to begin production on its next two follow-up albums, one of which will have a mellow, acoustic feel, marking a strong departure from the hardcore “Goliath.” Bixler-Zavala has expressed an urge for this next effort to not be released on a major label.
“It would be nice to utilize the parts of the machine that you do need and just drop everything else that was kind of not necessary, which can be taxing on your spirit. To break away from them would make me feel like less of a car salesman,” said Bixler-Zavala.
Rodriguez-Lopez and Bixler-Zavala thrive on having their hands in numerous projects at once, as well as being part of a large ensemble band that obtains much of its unique sound from its unlikely combination of various instruments.
“We want it all. We want to put everything in there. It’s always been fun to throw a gigantic mess on the wall, walk away from it, and say ‘That’s what we meant to do,’” Bixler-Zavala said.
The Mars Volta seems to have found the key ingredients for this formula, and Bixler-Zavala says the band is now in a place where everyone wants to keep making music and moving forward.
“Everyone’s faithfully blind, and we like it that way, and it works because that’s the way we’re structured. We have people who like to crack jokes and have fun, so we’re all a lot closer than we ever were before,” he said.
