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IT HAS been two years since Australia has heard the wailing vocals and sonic jams of progressive rock act The Mars Volta, but for a band this determined to have its music heard, you know that these guys haven't been resting on their laurels.

Currently rehearsing for the band's ensuing Australian tour, Cedric Bixler-Zavala tells Hit there's been "no dull moments" in the past 24 months for one of rock music's most exciting frontmen.

"I've been working on my solo stuff and I'm trying to write this short little piece of fiction that I'm trying to get published," he says.

"Two years away for the band was a necessity. Now that I don't smoke pot any more I can step up to the mantle of those responsibilities that I'm supposed to be handling. I'm back in the mix and being more present.

"I also made a record where I play drums where it's open tuning kind of Indian Raga in a punk rock setting the band is called Anywhere."

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.

"And in making it over to the good side we had to clean house and unfortunately ask certain people to leave who still had that negative energy.

"I think right now what we have so far, knock on wood, is a lot of positivity within the band and a willingness to play the game rather than be rebellious for the sake of being rebellious."

Anyone who saw the band's last Adelaide headline show at Thebarton Theatre in 2007 will remember Bixler-Zavala's frantic performance live. Climbing around the venue, stealing patrons' drinks and eating cigarettes before flagging down a taxi midway through the concert to leave the singer admits he "takes on another form" when onstage but it's something he's learning to control.

"It's hard to control and that's what stops me from sleeping at night," he says.

"It's hard to turn my internal dialogue off from that character I become but I love the fact that I can access it and that person is there. I think we all turn into something different I'm just glad that I'm aware that I've had this alter ego since I was five years old and thankfully it hasn't got me into too much trouble.

"Yet," he says with a laugh.

Stiamo attualmente lavorando con un produttore che ha notevolmente ampliato i nostri confini, possiamo ora eseguire canzoni in più generi. Particolarmente interessati alla nostra sezione ritmica, abbiamo un nuovo batterista, che rispetta l'idea di base la canzone, ma li rende diversi. Ora, può sembrare che abbiamo una drum machine. Avremo suoni elettronici, drum and bass dal vivo. Questo è un ibrido di rabbia, un suono molto strano, un misto di tutto ciò che di cui ora godiamo.