Off the dial intervjuar Cedric, del 2

Tydligen har dom hunnits spela in lite grejer redan.

Cedric of the Mars Volta Speaks of the Rude Fans, the Music Industry and More!

In part one of our interview with Cedric Bixler-Zavala of the Mars Volta, he spoke of the theme and inspiration behind their latest album “the Bedlam in Goliath”. For the second half of our interview, we decided to talk about matters of a different nature.

While Cedric Bixler-Zavala had many interesting, controversial things to say about the theme of their latest album, “the Bedlam in Goliath“, the Mars Volta vocalist also spoke with us about the state of music today, pirate radio and some people’s lack of respect for musicians at concerts.

At a gig this past January, Cedric and the band allegedly cut the show short when fans refused to stop smoking after being asked to. He dismissed the report but did speak about the respect issue. “I try to ask people nicely [to stop smoking]. I don’t mind if people are smoking pot, that doesn’t bother me but cigarettes can bother me. We didn’t stop it because of that, I think we’d be complete total wusses if we did that. I just think more people should have respect. They pay a bunch of money to come see you supposedly kick-ass yet they wanna throw more obstacles at you which I don’t understand.” A completely understandable sentiment.

“My favourite story is the Melvins coming out and playing, and I don’t know if it’s true but, they come out and say, “Hey, we’re the Melvins and we’re from Olympia!” and then some asshole in the crowd says “Why don’t you go back to Olympia!” and they go, “OK” and they pack up all their shit and they leave. I think that’s awesome, and it’s great, just to show people.” He explained how it goes beyond intentional attacks as well. “There’s people who mean well, but they don’t realize they’re being rude. Last night when we played, there was this kid who held up a sign that said ‘We miss your old drummer but we still love you’ and that’s kinda like showing up a an ex-girlfriend’s wedding and saying ‘I was the better half but good luck on your wedding!’ Sometimes when you put people in the big crowds, they can become dumb as a gigantic amoeba.”

Having recently watched their performance on the Henry Rollins Show, I asked Cedric how much they enjoyed the freedom of performing uncut on television. “Thank god people like Henry have their shows. He kinda looks out for people like us and it’s good that he does that because then you can show some other people that there’s different ways of approaching playing music. Hopefully it can wake up some more people that are in charge of running TV shows and show them that time is just a plague in general when you have to deal with music. I just wish there were more poeple like Henry doing that.”

Considering that, it was interesting to hear his views on commercial radio. “It’s irrelevant to us. I think everyone understands that radio in general needs to get a late pass with anything. I think by the time anything hits radio and TV it’s long past the word of mouth stage, then it suits just jumping on what they think young people want.” His views on podcasts, pirate radio and illegal downloads was equally interesting. “Illegal downloads are just what cassettes were for me in the 90s. It doesn’t really matter. If you’re gonna get it out there, get it out there. In Russia, our music is sold widely in bootleg markets. At least it’s out there. Maybe later I can ask some of the people that work for us to go try and get us paid because we don’t run on fumes.”

“I don’t have a problem with pirate radio stations, illegal downloads. I just wish things like YouTube would pay us. It’d be nice to get paid for it because then we can come back even stronger with even more elaborate ideas; do what people are attracted to in the first place. I just wish there was sorta like an Orson Wells of rock and roll music out there to pull something off and manipulate all that. It would be nice.”

When asked what was on tap for the Mars Volta (aside from the current tour, obviously), Cedric had some very intriguing news to pass along. “We were just cutting some new songs in New Orleans when we were there. There’s a bunch of stuff that we finished already after we did this album but we’re just saving it, kinda hoping we can do it on our own when it’s time to put it out,” he revealed. When pressed on what that meant he continued, saying “It’d just be nice to go back to a time to when we can just pick and choose what we want from the machine. We’ve already got our foot in the door and the name’s out there already. It would be nice to get back to our roots of being influenced by the ethic and aesthetic of bands like Fugazi. Being involved with the whole machine tends to kill the ‘umph’ of the record.”

It certainly leaves us with plenty to look forward to from the band. As if they didn’t already have enough to tempt us with.