CITAZIONE
haven't translated the whole article, but everything Omar said is here.
The interview took place in Stockholm when TMV played there last month.
THE MARS VOLTA – A CHANNEL FOR CHAOS
Omar and Cedric have known each other for nearly 20 years now, and have been making music together for over ¾ of this time. Their first significant band that recorded was the much praised punkrock group At The Drive-In. Do you think you could have skipped that experience and started making more challenging music already in the mid 90s Texas?
- That’s a good question. Hmmm… Music, I mean composing and performing, can only really be learnt by composing and performing. So maybe we couldn’t have done this back then. Something like The Mars Volta could’ve been created with the musicians we played with before ATDI. El Paso is such a small place that you can’t find that many interesting musicians you can say to: “ Listen, let’s go play somewhere else for a change. I don’t know whether we’ll get paid or where we’ll stay. We’ll probably starve and sleep at the back of a van. And don’t expect anyone to turn up to see us because nobody knows anything about us.” We got lucky when we found three guys who thought that was ok. And that’s how ATDI got started. But then we were stuck with them. I and Cedric had to turn our backs to musicianship in order to find band mates with whom we could get out of El Paso.
Omar thinks that the situation would’ve been different if he and Cedric had been born in Los Angeles, San Francisco or New York. He thinks that in a way what happened before ATDI culminates in TMV.
- Before ATDI we played with musicians who were a lot more advanced than us, but they had other stuff going on. They taught in the local schools, played gigs locally etc. Nowadays I and Cedric are often being asked whether we’ll ever write pop songs. Most people don’t understand that we’ve been making music together for such a long time. We’ve made pop, noise, structurally very tight music, dub, everything. We were combining jazz and salsa a long time ago. When you’re young you want to explore everything, but you get bored. First you write those three chord love songs and then you start thinking, what next. And now all of that is channelled through TMV.
Diligence is very characteristic of Omar.
- The live dvd as well as the documentary dvd are nearly finished. At least I hope so. I edit the documentary every month so that the pile of raw material won’t grow too high. I have eleven music projects from the last couple of years, and they need mixing. If I don’t do that soon I’ll never finish them.
…..
After the sound check is finished, Omar’s brother Marcel decides to take off his silly blonde wig. Two airsoft guns that look like Uzis turn up and soon a relentless chase round the back of the stage is taking place. Omar is shooting at Paul who is chasing Adrian. What we have is two old ATDI members shooting at each other. Ikey is preoccupied with his mobile phone looking absent minded, Juan is shaking his head and sneaks upstairs where the dressing rooms are. The chaos dissolves for a moment when the main men are being photographed by Sweden Rock Magazine. The situation is relatively serious, but when someone quips that they could hold hands the dominos start falling. Joking starts.
- But we’re not dating anymore, Cedric whines and pretends to be crying. – Omar turned his back on our love because the band supposedly means so much to him.
…….
It’s been vital to TMV to have been able to support classy bands on tour. Especially RHCP seems to have taken a godfather-like attitude toward the band: when De-loused was being recorded with Rick Rubin in California 2002-2003 and there was no bass player in the band, Flea rushed to help. Also guitarist John Frusciante has been a guest in the studio and on stage several times.
- When we met, I hadn’t really been listening to the band and I didn’t know them as people at all. Obviously I was flattered when they invited us to tour with them in 2003. It was a great experience, because for a megaband they are a special gang of people. We’ve become great friends, especially with John. I learnt a lot from him.. I wouldn’t want to use the word theory because I still don’t really understand anything about it… but let’s say… about the round things along the guitar neck. John has been trying to teach me theory, but apparently my mind isn’t big enough to picture it. So he has come up with ways to tell me about things in simpler ways and I’ve been able to get a hunch. We also jam together a lot.
In addition to their love of music, Omar & co. also had other thing is common with members of RHCP.
- We were able to identify with each other on many levels. Like us, they started from the bottom, they lost a good friend and a band member to drugs like we did. It also turned out that we like the same books and... by the way, this is very relevant. There’s nothing more tiresome than to be on the road with a band whose members talk only about music all the time. I can’t stand people like that, and that’s why we’re touring by ourselves right now. I’m perplexed by musicians who are not also interested in literature, architecture, arts, movies etc. To be honest, most rock musicians are a bit dumb. Like it’s inbuilt in this culture that you can only be interested in a limited area of music and sex and drugs. And note the order of things in that saying. Sex and drugs and rock’n’roll. Music comes last! I’m so sick of that.
So which is his favourite god, Apollo representing rationality or Dionysus representing drunken ecstasy?
- Definitely Apollo, I’m definitely on the side of rationality. But… on the other hand, also on the side of the body. After all, your mind can’t function properly if your body isn’t well.
...
Omar moved to Amsterdam more than two years ago. Amsterdam seems like a strange location for a man who has a history with drugs.
- Not at all. I had already quit drugs back in 2002 when we started recording De-loused. I haven’t touched them since.
He now lives in Brooklyn, New York but found inspiration in Amsterdam and ended up composing and recording lots of material there. Just the stuff we were talking about in the beginning and that has been released under Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quinted or Group.
- It’s difficult to analyze what different places mean to my work now, but I think in years to come I’ll be able to better realize certain things and connections. I’ve already noticed certain superficial stuff: I know I’m nowadays quite competent in recording things in a limited amount of time and with restricted equipment. This is the result of having been working in so many different studios. I can get the best out of every situation and turn a difficult starting point into something positive. This is a good skill to have. There are many musicians in the world who spend far too much time complaining. They show up and start complaining how “the last place was nicer, here there’s only this and that many compressors and this and that microphone.” Wherever I go I see beauty and different opportunities. I haven’t always been like this. The way I see it now is that I can go to any studio in the world and record something that will last.
Amsterdam was a culture shock although Omar assumes that due to his puertorican background he felt at home from the start.
- The quality of life in Europe is much better than anywhere else in the world. And that covers everything from the structure of society to how people treat each other. When I first went to a grocery store in Amsterdam, I noticed that people only bought what they needed. I still had the typical American hoarding mentality turned on. “A dozen of those, five gallons of that”. Letting go of the tradition of consuming was a healthy thing to do. Another little thing was that everyone brought their own shopping bag. I soon started to do that too and I begun to wonder how stupid it is to waste paper, or even worse, plastic every time you shop. So I always take my own bag with me even though I live in New York. I think it’s great that in Europe people actively take part in things and making decisions. They want the freedom to decide on certain things that have got to do with them, but they are also ready to take part of the responsibility. This is completely strange for Americans. They want more privileges but they don’t want to take responsibility for anything.
The thought of moving permanently to Europe is not something Omar denies. Actually it already almost happened once.
- I might be living in Amsterdam right now if I had found a good place for a studio. The problem was that as a foreigner I wasn’t able to rent big enough space. I should have bought property, that is, to invest in the Netherlands. And I couldn’t afford to.
There’s space in Scandinavia unlike the more densely populated countries in Europe.
- Too cold! I could move here if it was a bit warmer. It was almost too cold in Amsterdam. If I was to move to Europe I’d have to go to Spain or thereabouts. I’m a warm-blooded puertorican.
…….
Omar says that the next two TMV albums are coming along nicely.
- I’m the type of person who needs many overlapping things in order to function. If I’m working on a single project things don’t progress or stay in the perspective. I also get bored very quickly. There are days when I go to the studio and I just can’t be bothered to work on the same song that I didn’t finish the last time. So it’s great to have other music or film projects as well. This is very efficient too. A couple of hours doing something and then a couple hours doing something else. That’s how you stay fresh. That kind of working method suits me because it’s important for me to experience not only the feeling of progress but also a certain “holy shit, this thing could start falling down in any direction any moment” –thought.
Chaos is a thing Omar says he could talk about for a long time. Maybe because the situation described is very essential in his creative work.
- My friends have always called me a magnet for chaos. But other people as well have been talking about this. When I went to see an astrologist and a tarot card reader they said the same thing. Apparently I’m channelling chaos. I thought that sounded good. So the chaos comes to me, not the other way round.
TMV as a group and Omar as an individual have accomplished a lot in a few years. Omar sees things a bit differently.
- You have to remember that when I broke up ATDI, I and Cedric made lots of enemies. The other members of the band said we’d never accomplish anything without them. Back then we also were junkies. Jeremy died suddenly in 2003 and there were money problems. Personally, I’ve gone bankrupt three times. It may seem from the outside that a lot of things have happened in five years. The way I see it, is that the seven years with ATDI also need to be taken into account. The way we saw it back then was that we carry on but we change certain players. And the name. And actually the style of music as well. People thought we were completely bonkers. Everyone thought that it would be easier to carry on with the old name. I guess so. Of course I could still be playing One Armed Scissor. Even that would be easier. But what if we’re not interested in “easier”? What if I and Cedric want to feel that we’ve accomplished something just by ourselves. Everyone else wants pittances. We don’t.
TMV has always been different. The band records for the biggest record company in the world but the music is not commercial. Does Omar ever think that he’s about to wake up soon?
- Hahaha! Yeah. A little bit differently though – due to my background. Just a couple of days ago I was saying to Cedric, what if I wake up and I’m at home on the couch on my way to ATDI rehearsal, with drool dripping out of my mouth and a crack pipe fallen in my lap from my hand! Sure this is strange. I have no idea how things can work so well. However, I try not to think about that too much. It’s a bit like falling in love. You don’t want to break that feeling into components. If you fall in love, the man will first cross that river and then travel on to the neighbouring country, if the girl is so lovely.
dal comatorio, divertente.
