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| In mezzo a tutti i suoi messaggi su youtube, fa piacere leggere un'intervista dei vecchissimi tempi, era Tremulant: CITAZIONE Interview with Cedric Bixler, Mon 24.03.2002, Leeds Cockpit.
People:
CB - Cedric Bixler
MR - Mike Randall
DA - Dicky Allen
MR - To start off with, I know you must get asked this a lot, but what happened with the whole end of At The Drive In? How did it happen?
CB - Well, it basically fell apart in the Vera in Groningen; that was our last show, and we kind of played a really lacklustre show, in which Jim got off the stage and called the At The Drive-In six-month rule, and we all decided to take six months off because at that point nobody was playing like they used to play. So, we had gone through so many problems in Germany with, like, the crowd, you know, and arguing with people and trying to do the whole anti-slamdancing thing and blah-blah-blah-blah-blah. And we went through Australia with that as well where we walked off the stage and played four songs only, and got a lot of shit for that everywhere we went, and I think the fact that we had overturned our van and almost died in Sterling, Colorado was an indication that we should have stopped, and we didn't, and we kept touring, and we drove all the way - well actually flew to Seattle and kept going. And I was one of the only people that wanted to stop and take a break. We kept going, did Japan, did Australia, did Europe, and at that point - then we played the Astoria, and it was a really shitty show - and at that point we needed a break but no-one wanted to take the break for fear of whatever it was anyone was afraid of, and a lot of us were asking for breaks. Jim had lost his grandmother in Italy but didn't wanna go home; he was still into being gung-ho about it, and so all of that built up at Vera in my opinion; this is just solely my opinion. And so we decided to take a break, we took a break, we jumped on our Defacto tour, which we had planned, like, a whole year before; it wasn't this off-the-wall thing; did it, and then we had gotten news from our manager that we had dates to make up because the six-month rule didn't really apply and so now it had basically become that At The Drive-In was a job. So at that point I was really fed up with our management, which was one person, and I got fed up with the decision-making of the band, and there were also a lot of personality clashes and there were a lot of musical clashes as to where we wanted to go as a band, and all of that said it had been six to five years and I thought firstly, from my standpoint, I didn't want to do it any more. So Omar and I talked about it, and Omar and I are probably the tightest out of At The Drive-In because we've known each other for a long time and been through a lot of bullshit and we decided we wanted out and the news came out and for financial reasons and, you know, to save certain people's asses, we decided it would be called a hiatus so that we wouldn't be thrown back into the sixteen interviews a day from Japan, Australia, England, you know, Ohio, New York in one day and we just wanted to keep our personal lives quiet and we called it the end of a day. And thats what happened.
MR - So the start of the indefinite hiatus was actually a split?
CB - It was a split. It was a split the whole time. It's just politics. It's just shaking people's hands and kissing babies. Thats the way it goes with this kind of lifestyle, and when you have that much attention on you, thats the game you play. The reason we didn't just say, We're gonna break up, is that we'd have had this enormous storm that we just got out of and we didn't wanna get back into it and at least - and I'm just speaking for Omar and I basically - I wanted out and for financial reasons we decided to call it a hiatus and let time do the talking. And then after a while Jim and everyone started talking about how it was over so thats when it was kind of officially over; when they kind of started admitting it. But thats what happened, you know. Sad, but, like anything else, like any relationship with any friend you have or any marriage or any business partnership you have, nothing really lasts forever. It's really depressing; we went through a lot of nights of totally re-evaluating our decision and crying and laughing and it was hysterical and just complete craziness but thats what we needed to do to keep ourselves happy or there would have been a lot of At The Drive-In shows that were fake, and we would have just disappointed a lot of people.
MR - Is it true that you've cut all ties with the other three guys now?
CB - Well, lets say you're going out with a girl and you really love her, and you break up. It's really hard to fucking see her at a party; its really hard to see her anywhere, you know? So right now we're just going through that, you know? Right now they're doing their thing and we're doing our thing and I think with time and hopefully with maturity we'll be able to talk later on. But it's just a little hard right now, you know? Some people make it out to be a competitive thing, and I think the musical styles make it inevitable that both bands are completely doing two different things. It doesn't mean that one band is better than the other. We're not trying to outdo them, and I hopefully think that they're not trying to outdo us because I don't really care what they do, you know? Its like, let them do what they wanna do; its fine. In due time, we'll all kiss and make up. Thats just the adult way of looking at it, I think.
MR - Whats it like starting out a new band but having the media spotlight on you the whole time, and kind of being pushed to be like At The Drive-In; some established, absolutely fantastic band when you're really just starting out, and having to play in front of enormous crowds when you've been practicing a few months and only just written the songs.
CB - Its hard, totally. Its definitely hard. Thats why we were going to do a tour with The Locust, and then we lost our drummer, and then we had to get the drummer which we have now, John. So its really hard because we knew, and we always know that all eyes are gonna be on us, you know? Like we did Defacto, and not a lot of people liked that, and thats fine because Defacto was, like, it was fun, and all these people were like, "Oh thats what you're doing afterwards? It sucks! I don't get it! I don't like it! Theres so many better dub bands!", and thats fine. Its just its a matter of putting your roots where your mouth is, and my roots, where my mouth is is not really giving a fuck about what a magazine talks about, you know? And I didn't really care if Rolling Stone or Spin magazine reported that our ex-manager was starting shit with Ikey our keyboard player. It didn't matter to me; it's just all drama.
MR - Was there actually any truth behind those rumours?
CB - No! No, no. I wasn't there for any of them, but I know that they're totally fake, you know...I don't know, it's just weird. People want...NME wants juice. You know, we just did this thing with the NME and they're claiming that, like, we hate the other people in the band, and then they print this thing that says "fucking losers" after mentioning them.
MR - The NME does seem to be trying to feed the whole band rivalry thing.
CB - Yeah, its a tabloid, totally. Totally. That and other people that are around them, and around us sometimes try to feed that but I just wanna have fun. Thats why I left the band, because I wasn't having fun. I don't wanna be thrown back into a job again, you know.
MR - There was a lot of talk when At The Drive-In were around of the music being connected with the El Paso roots. Do you think that the music you're making now is connected with moving to California?
CB - I think what it has to do with is, Omar and I played in bands before At The Drive-In that are a lot like The Mars Volta, and before we did At The Drive-In we were listening to a lot of, er, I guess you could call it psychedelic music or whatever from the 60s and 70s, and we've always listened to that stuff. We've always listened to early Syd Barrett, and its something that not everybody else in At The Drive-In understood and/or got. There was a lot of times we'd be on tour and people in At The Drive-In would say they didn't understand or get Tom Waits or they'd just kinda make fun of the fact that we were listening to things like Charlie Palmieri, you know, and thats fine. They don't understand it and thats cool, but we wanted to explore that area. We wanted to take punk rock influence and mix it with that because to me that is punk rock, you know. And being from El Paso and not having a lot of venues or outlets to buy certain kinds of music, I think The Mars Volta is far more El Paso-based than people realise because I think At The Drive-In is far more DC-based than more people really want to think about. I mean, At The Drive-In really sounded like Drive Like Jehu and a lot of Fugazi stuff and, you know, we grew up on that stuff and we did it for fun and people noticed it and it was weird and it got big. But I didn't really ultimately after a while believe in it myself, you know? But theres certain songs that I did believe in and theres certain songs that I didn't believe in, and thats just the honest truth. With The Mars Volta, thats what we've always been into. We're, like, closet Syd Barrett fans and closet, you know, like, we're the punkers that fucking listened to Blue Cheer and MC5 when it wasn't cool, you know, when people didn't like that stuff, and they didn't understand what that was and they just thought it was a bunch of hippies wearing bell-bottoms when it was like, no its a precursor to punk, you know? But thats our bread and butter, you know?
MR - A lot of your lyrics seem kind of abstract. I, to be honest, can't actually work out what the majority of the At The Drive-In and Mars Volta songs are actually about at all. Are they deliberately written as abstract lyrics, or do they all have a thread to them and a meaning to the individual songs which is known only to you?
CB - Well, certain songs are known only to us, and then certain songs have an obvious meaning to them, but now I write stuff with Jeremy. Jeremy does our the vocal effects, and hes a fantastic writer and hes a ... hes one of the spirits from El Paso that I learned a lot from, like theres a lot of people that we used to hang out with in, like, 1993 when we were experimenting with a lot of drugs and stuff, and when it came to experimenting we experimented with a lot of different writing techniques as well, it wasn't just music. So I've been in a band with Omar and Jeremy for a really long time, and it just changed different names the whole time, so its ... sometimes the way we write now can be deliberately like "decipher your own message", and sometimes it can be like, we have a song called Concertina, and that song is about one of the people who should probably be in The Mars Volta right now who passed away. He took his own life a long time ago, and it deals with, not necessarily the whole emo thing of "oh I miss you", but this certain friend of ours, his name is Julio Vanegas, he took his life for a certain reason, and someone pushed him over the edge to do it, and I know that person, and this song, to me, is a way of calling out that person and its basically accusing them of killing our friend. And so, its like, there are some songs that are just blatant and there are some songs which don't make sense to people, but thats the way we write them, you know.
MR - Does that person actually know that the songs about them?
CB - No. That person actually used to play in At The Drive-In and we kicked him out mid-tour.
MR - Oh, was that Ben? CB - Yeah, it was Ben. He had a mental breakdown, and a lot of people questioned us for kicking him out, a lot of people thought we kicked him out because he was bigger than us, and everyone thought that At The Drive-In had this weight agenda, and it was ridiculous. The same kind of thing that The Locust go through. But he knows. I let him know when we kicked him out, but hes a little mental, you know, hes on drugs and psychiatric help and he understands and there were a lot of people around when that whole incident happened that don't really wanna touch it.
MR - You took him off the El Gran Orgo list, right?
CB - Yeah, we didn't list him. We didn't list him, yeah. It was our way of ... it was our way of saying "fuck you" to him, basically. I mean, thats my ... thats where I come from. You can ask everyone in At The Drive-In and they might tell you something different but thats why I didn't want him to be listed on the album. Because theres a lot of fucked up ... er ... I mean, theres sociopaths and theres psychopaths, you know, and he was a sociopath. Concertina is about the sociopath, and to me its about calling him out for what he did. And I lost a friend over it. I lost a friend over it and to this day we miss him immensely, and we have a song about him and he taught us everything you need to learn about art. He taught us what it was like to be an artist every day, whether you shit, breathe or fucking just do art. I learned it from Julio, you know, and I think its appropriate that we celebrate his spirit, you know.
DA - So how did the Mars Volta line-up get together?
CB - Well, we were just kinda doing Defacto and we wanted to expand on what Defacto does, but in a rock sense, and take it a little further, and not just keep it dub-orientated, which can only lead you to so many places. And so Ikey, our keyboard player, introduced me to Eva. Eva was in the process of graduating from UCLA, and she has a degree in Ethnomusicology, which is all, you know, I'm sure people reading this will be like "so what?", but to us it was a big deal because she understood the guajiro salsa. She understood a lot of what we were looking for.
MR - Shes got fantastic rhythm.
CB - Yeah, exactly. And on top of that it was especially important that she was a woman, you know, and it was especially important that Ikey is black, and its especially important that the people we play with are from ethnic backgrounds. It was very, very important. It wasn't a calculated move, but at the same time, the fact that they were naturally coming in the band, I felt like it was important, like it was something special that was happening, and we couldn't just let it go.
MR - So it was kind of to mix everything up?
CB - Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we listen to Sly and the Family Stone, you know, and that to me is an important influence, because sometimes musically I don't like them, but when I see them; I saw what Sly and the Family Stone did, and it was very, very, very important at the time, San Francisco, where they're from, blah blah blah, where we're from, what we're doing, you know, I think its very important that Eva liked what we were doing. The first time we played with Eva everyone improv'd for about two hours straight; like two hours straight of just pure improv. It was like going, "Hey, what's up? My name is so-and-so, I'm a blah blah blah, I like this, I like that.", but musically, and I haven't done that since our friend Julio was alive. So it was important to touch upon that again because I wanted to do that again and bring back a natural organic dance rhythm and a natural organic rock, you know? So Eva really clicked well, and we ended up talking to her more and more. She has such an amazing history already, you know. Her father was bass player for the Birds, the English Birds, her father was bass player for the Creation, her uncle is the engineer for Led Zeppelin albums and shit like that, so shes kind of like British rock royalty, you know. But she keeps it very low-key and lets her playing do the talking and the most we ever get out of it is to hear cool stories about her growing up and having these people around, the more and more I think about it, and the more and more I listen to like Biff, Bang, Pow or, you know, Making Time ... anything by the Creation, anything by, like, the Birds, you know, its like, I have my Nuggets box-set, I'm just like, "God damn, Eva, you play so much like your dad." And its an honour. Its a total fucking honour, because on our first tour her father passed away, and so she had to fly home and everything, and I was like, for her to come do this, she was doing what her dad was doing at that age, and its really important for her to do it now because her dad told her. Her dad was like, "Go. Do what I was doing at that age. Don't worry about me." And I felt like, I just felt honoured that we're in a band with her, because in a way shes carrying a torch for that, you know, and its really important. Because I listen to that shit, you know, and then she lets it on like, "Oh, by the way, my dad is blah blah blah", and we're like, "Oh my God! Thats awesome!"
DA- You've listed a lot of bands that have influenced you. What would you say are your main influences, to get you writing music right at the start?
CB - Currently we watch a lot of movies by Werner Herzog, and I think collectively at least [four out of six people?] that we play with right now are really into Werner Herzog, and we watched this documentary called My Best Fiend, which was about the relationship between Klaus Kinski and Werner Herzog. Theres a movie called Fitzcarraldo about this guy, who is played by Klaus Kinski, who tries to get this boat over a mountain, through a pulley system, using the local natives. And when I see that movie I just think of our band and I know it sounds pretentious but there are such fireballs in the way they acted every day in life, off screen and onscreen. They were completely, completely mental, and they would just capture it on tape. And I think our band is a lot like that, and so when I see that stuff, and I know our drummer John is really into it, we totally, I totally get inspired. I get inspired to write. And people like Saul Williams, or a lot of different spoken word artists coming around. And I'm really inspired by Tim from Les Savy Fav. Hes a super player with words, you know?
MR - Hes an amazing lyricist.
CB - Oh completely. And the fact that we're on tour with them now, you know, it just ... it makes sense to me, but, you know, Werner Herzog inspires me.
MR - After The Mars Volta started out with a lot of improvisation, do you actually carry that into the live shows? Is there much improvised in there, or is it all set in stone now?
CB - I think there are certain parts that we take that are like, you know, we need to improv on this part, and then some of it is structured. And sometimes John will say, "Well, let's do this on this part tonight," and we'll say, "Okay, let's see if it works, and if it doesn"t work tonight...", its a gamble, its a complete gamble, because there were some nights where it didn't work at all, and we were kinda left naked in front of everyone.
MR - But when it does work its fresh and exciting...
CB - Right! Its fun, its fun. Thats why I wanted to do this, because I couldn't do that with the previous band, and these guys have this natural kind of feeling to them, you know?
MR - Yeah. Where do you see The Mars Volta going in the future? Do you have anything planned for the near future? Do you have a game-plan for the next couple of years?
CB - Well, I think for the long term we're just learning from our mistakes in the past. I wanna take it easy, but at the same time I want to be able to tour extensively, but without driving everyone into the ground and making it a day job. I think so long as we're just open-minded to different kinds of music I think it will be okay. As far as the future goes, I think we're just gonna do what a band does and record albums. But I don't wanna record them like everyone thinks we're gonna record them, and I wanna make albums that ultimately make the people that like you kinda question what it was they liked about that album and then when they hear the next one it kind of makes them scratch their head, you know? Just for the sake of ... it makes the band last longer, you know? And theres so many influences in the band right now. Like since Eva graduated from UCLA she has extensive knowledge of Balinese music and stuff like that, so we are in the process of experimenting with that. So when you hear our full-length, it may not even be remotely what it sounds like on stage, which was what we used to brag about with At The Drive-In, "Okay, this album was gonna be blah blah blah", and then it never ended up that way. This time we kind of put our money where our mouth is and actually do it, but I just want to be able to bring shows which don't ultimately revolve around all rock acts. I wanna be able to help other people that are coming up or whatever that aren't necessarily accepted by the indie rock crowd or the mainstream rock crowd. I mean, I've been to shows where I've seen stand-up comedians that resemble Andy Kaufman more than they do Richard Pryor, and its very awkward but its such a beautiful moment, you know, every night its a different thing, and I wanna do things like that. Or bring a puppet show. Theres this act I saw in El Paso called Mr Quintron, and we had an old band who opened up for them in a backyard, and he played and there were all these Mexican skinheads and they didn't know what the fuck to make of it, and I thought that was beautiful and I just want to be able to ... if this band ever gets big I wanna be able to ... I wanna do that for a larger audience. Its better to make people scratch their heads than to kind of feed them with the chorus/verse/chorus, you know? Thats my opinion.
DA - Didn't you once open for some German polka band?
CB - Yeah, that might be cool. That would definitely be cool. I've seen street acts in Poland, on the street, that are far more subversive and underground than, you know, anyone preaching about communism and mod fashion.
MR - Is it true that you've signed with Universal or something now?
CB - Well, we're in the process of talking to them, but ultimately we're playing the game by our rules, and if we do go with them, they'll have to be like Universal/GSL, which is why Omar is helping GSL. Because a lot of those bands have made such steps and strides that they can't go any further just being indie and they need another launch and another step, you know?
MR - So its for the distribution?
CB
- Yeah, its for the ... yeah, stuff like that, and, you know, I don't mind making a living off what I do. I don't wanna be like, "I can't make it to practice because I've gotta be flipping burgers", you know? Because I've already done that for about five years.
MR - You can't go to being serious about a band while you’re in a day job.
CB - Its true. But I have balanced it. I've been able to do it for a while, but it takes away, it really does. When you're working until the last day of tour, it doesn't work. You should really be concentrating. There should be working on the dates, there should be someone working on the T-shirts. And if you can't do that as a band, and lord knows our band can't be like that because we're all a bunch of lazy people, we need someone to help us. Thats why we're flirting with the idea of a major or something.
MR - I've been curious, actually, about all your tattoos. I've noticed you've got a lot and I was just wondering if there was any meaning behind any of them.
CB - Well, see this one [left wrist]? That one deals with our friend who passed away and he invented that logo and its really, like ... I traded, like, a hit of acid for this. Its really shitty. I need to have it re-done. But it means los tres ojos, the three eyes, and he always used to draw this on all his paintings that he did, and theres three eyes, and its always about concentrating on ... you know, focussing on what you're doing in life and not letting the outside things trip you on your way up ... or on your way down, whichever way you're going. Its just about focussing and not letting things distract you, you know, which ultimately he was a victim of. So I got that for him. And then this one [further up left arm] is ... it was like a "wear your seatbelt" ad, but I was really fond of it. I really like it a lot. In the distance was like the 50s family chasing after their kid, like they didn't wear their seatbelt. Then I have the Salvador Dali elephant right here [even further up] with the stilt legs. And then I got a Shogun warrior in Australia. This girl got me a little Shogun warrior die cast doll in Japan, which was weird because I grew up on that and I collect them, so I got a tattoo of it. And this one [atom on left arm] the roadie from Hot Water Music gave it to me. He did it for free. He was over at my house once and he gave it to me. I always liked it and he did it for really cheap ... he did it for free and I paid for another one for my girlfriend. And then I have one on my neck which is like the 45 for vinyl. you know, like you put ... theres certain vinyl that you have to put a circle into it. Which is like our firm belief in always doing records on vinyl.
MR - Always doing records with the big holes in the middle.
CB - That, and just keeping vinyl alive. I believe in that.
MR - [puts on chunky prescription glasses and anorak] I'm a vinyl collector myself.
CB - Definitely, which is a drag because we don't have our shit ready on vinyl over here, because the whole release was kinda last-minute, you know.
MR - Yeah, I thought that it was coming out on 12" or something.
CB MR - So are you a fan of coloured vinyl then?
CB - Oh definitely. I'm a total record collector geek like that, all the time. Thats why I'm a really big fan of GSL. We did this record because GSL has always done interesting vinyl, whether it be a Locust album in the shape of vomit, or Le Shok album thats half black and half pink and looks like they've fucked up on it, you know? Oh, and like, five-inch records and stuff. I love that stuff! Its great!
MR - Like the little three-inch tour cds?
CB - Yeah! Thats a total GSL thing! Southern did it, but that is so GSL. GSL has been doing that for a long time.
MR - So was it a deliberate thing when you did the split on Thick Records with Burning Airlines as a picture disc?
CB - No, that was ... it just happened, and they just happened to say that like ... it was weird because I'm a big fan of the guy that did the artwork. He was in a band called Trenchmouth, and I looooove, I love Trenchmouth. If you take a Vaya record and compare it to a Trenchmouth record, its the same cover, we just never realised it. Its just like, they had a radio too, but they broke up and they were like, they were a very cool band. I've always loved them. So Damon was like, "Well, I'm doing the record cover", so then he did our Relationship record cover too, so that worked out. I've always liked that cover.
DA - So what bands or musicians are you listening to at the moment?
CB - Right now, Can. I'm listening to a lot of Can. And Shuggie Otis.
DA - Yeah! MR - We've got a big thing about Shuggie Otis.
CB - Yeah. Yeah, you know, Ikey did a show with him. He played a show at the El Ray theatre. Shuggie Otis was getting together, going to do a comeback show.
MR - Really? Is he still playing?
CB - Yeah, but its not good. He got all these people together. Got a band together, called Ikey, Ikey was like, "Yeah! I'll play with Shuggie Otis, fuck yeah!", and he gets there, they haven't rehearsed any of the material, Shuggie Otis is just calling out fucking covers while they're playing, you know, nothing was good about it, it was just shitty. Everyone was trying to improv and trying to fall in with it like, "Oh fuck! This song?", you know? So ... theres that, and of course we listen to a lot of Led Zeppelin, and, um, I can't think of anything else off the top of my head ... um ... Suicide, I love Suicide, definitely.
MR - Oop, theres someone at our back, so I guess we'll have to wrap it up now I'm afraid. Thanks a lot for doing the interview.
CB - Yeah, no problem. |
