THE MARS VOLTA ITALIA forum: "In Thirteen Seconds"

Interviste e articoli di carattere generale, sui TMV, ovviamente!

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CAT_IMG Posted on 16/1/2011, 15:57

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breve intervista al NAMM da parte dello staff Ibanez, credo.



La Warner Bros detiene i diritti legali sul nome The Mars Volta, questa è bella...
 
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Arañas
CAT_IMG Posted on 16/1/2011, 17:49




sta lentamente diventando un guro,
fra un po' si da al sitar (altro che ibanez) e a monodie nenianti,
cosa che non mi dispiacerebbe,
basta che faccia uscire 20-22 cd l'anno
 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 18/1/2011, 16:11

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http://guitarinternational.com/wpmu/2011/0...opez-interview/
CITAZIONE
Matt Warnock: Why do you play Orange amps as opposed to say Fender or Marshall?

Omar Rodriguez-López: It’s not really something that I can put into words. I tried out a bunch of different amps and Orange sounded like a real amp to me. Everything else sounded like it was missing something. Because I don’t know a lot about the technical stuff, it was just a feeling thing. Orange just sounded like me.

Matt: How much does tone influence your writing, as compared to notes and rhythms?

Omar: I think it influences expression, not really writing. I think that writing in its basic form is just an arrangement of notes. So really, they just come out in how you want to express that particular composition, and tone is more about expression.

Matt: With the high level of energy and creativity in your music, how do you see the Mars Volta fitting into today’s music scene, which seems to be leaning more towards Radio Pop than creativity?

Omar: I don’t really think about it in those terms. I don’t see myself as having to fit in or out of anything. I’m just a guy trying to do his thing. Eat healthy, play healthy and be outside as well. I’m just kind of doing my thing.

I don’t really think about what’s going on outside the band. I mean, there are groups that I think are great. I’ll hear a group and it’ll influence me to get in the studio and have fun, but I don’t think about it as me in contrast to something else.

Matt: Because of the experimental nature of your music, how much was jazz an influence in your playing when you were coming up?

Omar: Oh yeah, jazz was a huge influence, because jazz was an influence on Salsa music, which is traditionally where I come from. So, once the Puerto Rican musicians went to New York they started influencing jazz records, especially in the early ‘70s with the hardcore Salsa movement, which was a big influence on my playing.

Matt: Where are you in the writing process between now and the release of your next album?

Omar: I wrote our next album a year and a half ago, I’ve just been waiting for Cedric to finish his lyrics. Actually I’m here and I’ll record him, then we’ll wrap it up.

 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 23/2/2011, 13:28

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http://www.nochelatina.com/Articles/8701/I...Rodriguez-Lopez

CITAZIONE
Q&A Sessions: Omar Rodriguez Lopez
by Rob Perez
02.22.2011



Omar Rodriguez Lopez wants you to be initiated. Disputedly the most prolific artist in music today, Rodriguez has been the creative force behind two influential bands for the past 15 years—At the Drive In and The Mars Volta. When Rodriguez performs, he channels the electric spirit of Jimi Hendrix, the smooth guitar rhythms of Carlos Santana, as well as early punk rock sensibilities, ‘90s teen spirit angst, and today’s social unrest. With Telesterion—a collection of 38 songs that offers a taste of Rodriguez’s music—it is the quintessential introduction—or initiation as he puts it—to fans just discovering his genius. Be warned: Rodriguez’s complex musical arrangements, wailing vocals, and pounding rhythms can be too much to take in at first, but it will keep you coming back for more. We spoke with the world renowned artist about his new album, the meaning behind his music, and the future of The Mars Volta.

nocheLatina: I know I’m going to mispronounce the album title, Te-les-te-ri-on. Is that correct?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Yeah, Telesterion. I wouldn’t know either. It comes from the Greeks, so I’m not even sure how to pronounce it.

nocheLatina: No worries. I do know that its meaning in ancient Greek is ‘a building in which religious mysteries were celebrated.’ Can you explain what the correalation is between the Greek meaning and your album?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: The whole album happened because our Japanese distributor had the idea. I was told, ‘Listen, I’d like to put together something concise. Someone just finding out about your music could be overwhelmed because there are so many records. I’d like to put together a collection from all the different records. Let’s do that.’ My partner Cathy, from the label, loved the idea. She thought it was important for us to do it. Then, my art director put together the order of track listings and everything. I just thought the whole concept of it should be a place where people can come and discover what it is that I do for fun. That’s why I took that title. It’s part of my love for Greek mythology and literature. The title, Telesterion, is a place of initiation. That’s what it translated to in my head when they were saying, ‘We want a record where people can get an overview of what it is you do.’ I thought, ‘Oh, like an initiation. I get it.’ I immediately thought of Telesterion.

nocheLatina: So the album is like a celebration in a way.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Yeah. Everything I do is a celebration. The idea of this album is a place where people can get a general understanding of that ritual. It’s not something to be taken so seriously. It’s what I do to enjoy life. It’s what I do for fun. It’s how I communicate with my family and friends. It’s exactly that. It’s a ritual. It’s a celebration.

nocheLatina: Can Telesterion be considered a ‘best of’ album?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: No, not at all because that has nothing to do with celebration. That’s judgement. That’s putting value on something that I do. Again, I didn’t choose the songs. I said, ‘Cool. Go with it. If you want to create an overview you go do it because I don’t have that objectivity.’ I can’t pick songs that I think are better than others. I just have fun. It’s not that serious.

nocheLatina: You’re certainly one of the most prolific artists today. There are 40 albums, 25 solo albums, and the stuff that hasn’t been released yet. How do you keep coming up with new music? Where does the creativity come from?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: I don’t edit myself. I just express myself. It’s simple. I think artists have bought into the rules made by business people. There’s a whole set of unspoken rules, like only put out a new record every two years or you need a hit on an album in order for it to be worth putting time into it. These are all rules that were created by the industry, not those who are trying to express themselves. It was created by people who are trying to sell the expression. Now, I’m not going to complain about that because I’m in the fortunate situation where I make a living off of having fun. But what I’m saying is that at the heart of what I do is exactly that—discovering myself and enjoying it. When that’s the center point, it really frees you up. I’m not living by other people’s rules, so I can just express myself all the time. It’s like having an opinion. We have opinions all the time. Therefore, my records are just opinions. They’re notebooks, journal entries, or Polaroid pictures. It’s a big scrapbook of me discovering life and all the beautiful things in it, all while learning a lot of lessons.

nocheLatina: Is it a challenge to keep it fresh?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Yeah. I just challenge myself the same way I do in life, which is to be open to new influences and ideas. At the end of the day, I think, everything I do kind of does sound the same, unfortunately (laughs). Meaning that, it’s coming from my inner vision of the world, so I definitely have a certain type...I’m me. I have a personality. When you strip it all down I think a lot of it is very similar, but it’s all a matter of how you perceive that similarity. For me, I want to get to the truth. That’s been my biggest goal in life since I was little. It goes back to that time when my mother explained to me what her concept of God was. I’ve been searching for what that internal truth is and how it relates to the entire universe. For me, the music is a way to get there. But, I have to make it clear, it’s not separate from when I cook dinner for someone. It’s not separate from my relationship, how I love my woman, and how I understand her needs. It’s not separate from my brothers and my best friend, Cedric. It’s not separate from sex, writing, or any other activity I can possibly name. It all boils down to the same singular concept, which is, ‘How do I become better? What is the truth?’

nocheLatina: How would you describe your music?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Searching. My music is just searching. I’m just searching. That’s it. I want to become one with God. I want to be God, if that makes any sense. I’m just searching for how to better express myself. All my life I’ve had problems with controlling my anger. Slowly, but surely, I searched how to do that. Music is a tool because I let out that aggression. When I was younger I used to break into houses, trash windows, deface statues, and spray paint. Then, I found a more constructive way of releasing my frustrations. Anyone can destroy, but not everyone can create. There’s a hundred different ways to break a glass cup, but there’s only one way to make that glass cup. I started becoming more interested in that. That became the search of myself and my place in this world. Maybe it is experimental, I don’t know. I’m just constantly looking for that thing beyond my reach. I’m trying to paint this picture that I can’t put into words.

nocheLatina: You’ve mentioned God a few times. Would you say there’s also a certain amount of spirituality in your music?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: It’s all that. That's the root of everything. The world is a mental creation, so there’s nothing else. Understand when I say God I don’t mean any form; I’m not talking about some man. I’m talking about that instinctive thing that lets you know you pertain to something. There’s something greater that bounds it all together. Even if that greate for you is chaos, violence, or whatever.

nocheLatina: You also mentioned control. Are you still very controlling or have you learned to let go a little bit?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: I’m still very controlling and yes, I’ve learned to let go. I’m glad you brought this up. This is a perfect example of searching and the role of music. It’s exactly that. I don’t want to be that way forever. That is an extension of my personality. It’s not just music. I’m that way in my daily life. That’s me and I want to get rid of that because what is that? That’s only neurosis. It’s a lifelong process. I wasn’t born that way. I want to rid myself of all those things and go back to the original form that I came in. That’s the most important thing to me. So yes, the process of creating music is my search for finding this type of happiness and letting go. In that sense, I’m a very sick person and I’m really trying to heal that.

nocheLatina: What’s the future of The Mars Volta? When can we expect to hear new music?

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: The record is done. Whenever the record label decides to put it out that’s when we’ll hear something new (laughs).

 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 1/3/2011, 15:44

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Intervista vatonegrica:



qui il pdf: www.mediafire.com/?w5t6wevlbjtcltz
 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 3/3/2011, 12:32

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CAT_IMG Posted on 2/4/2011, 16:19

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Ce ne son un po' da postare risalenti agli ultimissimi giorni ma questa mi par decisamente la più meritevole di nota, buona lettura:

www.jambase.com/Articles/Story.aspx?storyID=49216

CITAZIONE
Telesterion is a heavy title for an album. A place of mystery, prophecy and insight to the Ancient Greeks, Telesterion is also the title of the first comprehensive anthology of the voluminous solo work of Omar Rodriguez Lopez outside of the official Mars Volta catalogue. It’s cheeky yet oddly fitting that a place closely tied to the Eleusinian Mysteries serves as the jumping off point for a carefully assembled, lovingly herky-jerky expedition through some of the most blessedly gnarly, wild ass music made in the past decade. Telesterion, the anthology, arrives on April 16 (Record Store Day), and serves as a concise place for people to begin exploring Lopez Rodriguez’s genre obliterating, rock infused muse. Rodriguez Lopez Productions creative director Sonny Kay picked the songs and sequence because, as Rodriguez Lopez says, “I have no perspective on how to give someone insight on me having fun.”

We pulled up a chair with Omar and dug into God, creativity, the music industry, Afros and more in anticipation of this killer-diller compilation (full track details here) in a conversation that highlights that Rodriguez Lopez is one of the most fearless, open-minded and downright enlightened cats making music right now.


JamBase: The overriding impression your solo material gives is that you’re having a blast just seeing what you can get into and seeing what interesting sounds and musical byways you can explore. As much as I love The Mars Volta, there’s an immediacy to your solo work where the ideas feel like they’re being born in real time.

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: That’s really what it is, my ideas unrefined. I’m just going through my ideas and putting thoughts together. It all started not because I wanted to do solo records but because my contract with Universal bought my Mars Volta name. I’m only allowed by contract to put out one record a year under The Mars Volta name. For someone that composes 300-400 songs per year, it’s pretty brutal to be allowed twelve songs per year. And that’s them compromising! So, I got a [clause] put in that allows me to put out music as a solo artist under my name. But really for me, there’s nothing inside or outside Mars Volta. Mars Volta is my heart and soul. It’s my baby.

So, I have a lot of ideas, and out of those I choose twelve to expand upon [in the official Mars Volta capacity] and the rest I can put out on solo records, where I don’t really go in and scrutinize or judge these ideas as much. For some people, it’s like, “Well, these are just leftovers [laughs].” I don’t see it that way. People will always make judgments. Even other musicians have judged me because they think I put out too many records. They think it’s me being arrogant. I think, “Don’t you play music? Isn’t that what you do in your life?” They say they edit themselves, but I don’t have that in me. I was raised in a much different way. I was raised to speak my mind. I have two loving, forward thinking parents. I’m from Puerto Rico, Latin culture, where there’s a set way to do things. So, raising a kid on meditation and vegetarianism makes you the village freaks. That’s very, very different from what was happening in the First World in the 60s & 70s, especially in England and the United States.

JamBase: I find your perspective, as an artist in general, is a few degrees left or right (or wherever you want to put the angle) from industry norms. The fact that anyone, especially other musicians, would give you grief for putting out more than one album in a year means they’ve internalized that bullshit thinking. A band like The Beatles put out three albums plus singles in a year, and that was the norm!

Omar Rodriguez Lopez: Creative people have bought into the rules that business people set, business people who say this is how a song should sound and this is how long it should be, etc. And that dynamic just keeps getting more refined, if you can call it that [laughs].

JB: In your process, how do you decide which ideas are going to be Mars Volta pieces and which are going to end up on solo albums or even the cutting room floor?

ORL: In Spanish there’s an expression that means “whatever you crave.” It’s like one day you wake up and think, “Mmmm, Indian food for dinner tonight!” and other days it’s a dilemma. It’s as simple as that. I’m not going to block the sun with my finger and pretend there’s not a part of me, having made a living off of just playing music, that doesn’t listen when someone says, “That part is really catchy. You might want to use that for Mars Volta.” But for the most part, it’s just answering that craving. The mind narrows it down for you. Sometimes during the process, I realize I’m wrong or the craving changes and I’ll put this one in that pile and move that one back into this pile and use that one to fill in a gap. It’s like I have a storage place full of stuff and I’m constantly putting it into piles and moving it around [laughs]. People have this idea of what a traditional process is and that’s just not what I do.

JB: Your work always keeps the conversation with the listener interesting. You don’t dumb down that conversation for anyone, too. One sees that right in the title of this upcoming anthology, which is the kind of word that sends folks scrambling to Google. I love that you raise the level of discourse with your work.

ORL: I have to point out that I only do it because it’s fun. I’m not trying to please or challenge anyone but myself. I love history and literature. My senses go off and I start imagining things, all the great things that are out there in books. Making music takes on a whole new dimension when you’re interested in EVERYTHING. I’ll be walking down the street and I see a funny phrase or see a sentence or catch a word as someone passes by, and I record it in my mind. It sticks in my mind even if I don’t know what it means. If it sparks off an image, then it’s worth using. That’s all being creative is – pulling from yourself and others and what’s happening in life.

JB: The best art is that which overlaps in multiple places with other disciplines. Film is a more obvious example of this because it’s clear you have writers, cinematographers, sound design people, actors, etc. pooling their creativity for a shared goal. Music isn’t as obvious in this way.

ORL: People perceive that things are separate but they’re not. Anything and everything can inspire notes and those notes become songs. It’s all out there happening all the time. My only craft, if I have one, is being able to translate what the antenna is receiving. My antenna is always on, and I’m able to receive and translate that into music. But we’ve all been dumbed down and conditioned by society to not listen to that antenna. We’re conditioned by society, some of us are conditioned by our parents, and then we’re conditioned by school, relationships, etc. I’ve been VERY fortunate to have parents who from the start said, “Listen to that antenna. Always listen to the inner voice.”

My concept of God is much different than someone who was raised to see God as someone to fear and obey. From a very early age, it was made clear to me that the inner voice is God and I am God. God only means – after being raised by my mother – what you shape it to be in your mind. Whatever shape you give it in your mind, that’s what it is. It’s knowing that you pertain to something, that you are part of something and it’s not just the “I” - there’s something bigger you’re connected to. By experiencing the love between my mother and I, the day I realized I came from her and that she bled to have me, that day I found God. I found God in the violence it took for her to give birth to me. When you think of the world in those terms, the world becomes beautiful and everything becomes inspirational, everything becomes great.

JB: Sadly, that’s not how many, many people see the world and one another. Many are raised in a way that nurtures an appetite for fear and distrust and judgment on others. An organization like Fox News just stokes all the darkest parts of human interaction. That’s not the world I see when I wake up each day, but it is the landscape inside a lot of people’s heads. I think what you’re talking about gets to a much older notion of God. In the Gnostic gospels for Christianity, for example, the depiction of Jesus’ Last Supper is very different than the hierarchical depictions by the church. In the Gnostic telling, Jesus says, “He who drinks from my mouth will be me and I shall be him.” The apostles then drink wine directly from his lips, and the understanding of the God-Man relationship is more Buddhist in nature. It’s a direct answer to sky gods and authoritarian religions. But I digress [laughs].

I do think there’s a spiritual element to what you do. From the first time I heard your music, it was obvious that you are seeking to create something more than product.

ORL: Definitely, without a doubt! The end result is not even an issue. That’s why it doesn’t matter whether someone likes or dislikes what I do. The end result is not the thing. The thing is the process, what you have to do to create what you’re discovering. That’s just a superficial metaphor for life and spirituality, but the thing is not where you end up, it’s what you learn during the process, it’s how you look inward and how you find yourself through everything you’re doing.

The first principle of the Bhagavad Gita - which my father and I read at a very early age – is think of the work and not of its fruits. That is the lesson. So, if someone’s thinking, “I want to be enlightened, I want to be enlightened,” they’re thinking of the wrong thing. The work, the process, what you’re doing is the thing. The little micro IS the macro. For me, music has never been a means to have a record and then a record deal and so on. That’s never been the point. Yes, those things happen along the way, and these superficial things, I might add, were manifested by the intent and the process. The process is what got us there. We wanted to play music and express ourselves and reach deep inside and push out all the sickness and things we reject of society and ourselves. And we love music, so we used that to push these things out. And we love travel and we get to do this healing thing, and we get to do it everywhere, all the time. I feel blessed that I get to do this for a living. I can’t be upset about anything [laughs].

JB: There’s something powerful about recognizing the gift of your existence.

ORL: It’s become a trend for bands to complain all the time. I think, “Man, have a sense of humor! Think about the fact that you get paid to travel around the world and play your music.” The concept [of complaining] is just silly in that situation. I work, I don’t have a job – there’s a big difference.

JB: I like that you bring up humor because you often get labeled as a serious artist. I think your music is very playful and flecked with humor. Maybe a bunch of people just don’t get your sense of humor.

ORL: That’s the best compliment I can receive. I’m really glad when that comes through, but it usually only happens with people who know me; when you’re talking to a much broader audience around the world, that doesn’t always come through. If you’re open to it, you can receive. I have a very dark sense of humor, and I have a very sarcastic sense of humor. A lot of the time I’m making fun of myself, or even someone else or a phrase I’ve heard. It’s all very lighthearted but I guess it doesn’t come off that way. I don’t know why [laughs].

I think a lot of it is unfortunate, but it’s part of the program of what you have to be to be blessed enough to play music for your living. It’s part of what we’re doing now – media – but at least we’re actually talking so I’m able to impart some of my character. Then that has to be filtered through you, then you have to filter it through an editor, and then your words are on a piece of paper, and then someone interprets them…

JB: When I speak to a musician, I want to get past the latest album, the new tour, etc. and get down to operating principles, the stuff that drives them to make music, what fires them up to do this in the first place. I want to collaborate with artists to communicate something revelatory and fun and pleasurable about what they do.

ORL: The thing that’s wrong with media is that what you’re talking about isn’t usually the goal. That word you use – collaborate – doesn’t come up a lot with most media. The new record, etc. is just surface stuff, but do you have a philosophy? What is the point? That’s what we should be talking about, if anything.

The other side of media I’m trying to appreciate more is when they take an image. Image is - at least from my experience - is created by other people. I know a lot of artists want to project a certain image, but image, from my experience, is something people put on you. You can’t really control that. Coming from At The Drive-In, this thing that’s just normal for me – having my hair be natural like anyone from where I come from – gets made a big deal of. When I was younger and used to shave my head and color my hair all different colors, and my mother would say, “You have such beautiful hair, why do you do this to it?” So finally, I did it for my mother and for myself, truly. Then, all of the sudden, people are writing about the Afros and not our music, and what it has to do with style and how it relates to the MC5. No, man, it’s just that my mom likes it when I grow my hair out natural [laughs].

So, for a while, I was standoffish for a while because there was a lot of unhappiness there. Through the years, I’ve tried to relax in front of the camera. I like being behind the camera though, and I realized that photographers are generally trying to get at something that’s just superficial and they go for that. Photographers are either too shy or too nice or too superficial to get anything real out of you.

JB: It’s the rare photographer than goes further than skin deep.

ORL: This creates a situation where we just want to get a [photo shoot] over with. And then everyone just uses the serious pictures, even when we have a session where we’re laughing and having a good time. For some reason, the editors don’t choose those pictures.

JB: That observation cuts to the heart of a problem with the perception of you and your music. People come in with preconceptions and they’re looking for confirmation of their them, which bars them from seeing what actually is.

ORL: Without a doubt. I find most writers have their story written before they speak with you. Normally, when I do interviews I feel the writer is trying to get to some point in their head, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it speaks to that idea of having a preconception and trying to prove it. That’s not a great tactic with me.

 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 13/4/2011, 11:11

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Da un'intervista in ispanico nell'ambito del concerto dei Vato Negro in Messico due mesi fa, un estratto tradotto in inglese. Intervista completa: www.elfanzine.tv/?p=13006

estratto:

CITAZIONE
About The Mars Volta, after the curse that struck Bedlam In Goliath, how conflictive did recording the follow-up, Octahedron, turn out to be? Is this the reason why the new The Mars Volta's albums are taking so long to come out or is there anything planned?

Oh yes, I finished the new The Mars Volta's album. The thing is, like I said, the album is really the result of the process, and here's a good example. While making Octahedron, we were recording and suddenly Cedric and I had an argument. He told me, "I can't work at this rate; we're making an album every year and I feel pressured to be at your level and I can't do it, I'd like to take some time to do my stuff". I didn't know that, but it's a beautiful thing, because now I understand him and he understands me. So I told him, "oh ok, let's finish Octahedron and after that, I'll handle what's going to be the new album to you and for the first time I won't tell you anything" And what happened? It's been a year and six months, so now he understands me; we know we can't do it by my rate and neither by his. We have to find a middle point, that's what's nice. So the new TMV album, to me, is not a new album because I recorded it two years ago. We're waiting for this guy to finish his lyrics (laughs). But I don't care; the important thing is the process, that we understand each other another way. He finally told me something that was hard for him to say, because he didn't want to disappoint me. And now I see it is difficult, especially with a dominating person such as myself. So now I can be a better person for that. It's important to really live, and not carrying on the illnesses that really come from our families. Though it's not an ilness, it comes from my father.

Bedlam In Goliath was a much more aggressive album while Octahedron you called almost acoustic. This new album, which isn't new, where would you place it in this spectrum?

Fuck, I don't know. The new old new old album of TMV (laughs), I don't know where to put it. It was really a beautiful moment because I learned something new about my relationship with Cedric. It was also the album that I made with the drummer I really wanted to work with, Deantoni Parks. I hired him just after I fired Jon Theodore. And I love Deantoni as a person, which means that as a drummer, he is my drummer. But Deantoni couldn't make any commitment, because he was doing other things. So we used Thomas Pridgen, but for me he was never the right one. That's part of the reason that it was so difficult to make Bedlam In Goliath. So even though Thomas Pridgen was our drummer then, and we were touring Octahedron, I was already recording with Deantoni Parks, because I was going to fire Thomas and begin working again with Deantoni. So there was a very relaxed atmosphere making this record and you can feel it in the music. Totally different to Bedlam and Octahedron. In two days we recorded 27 songs because he gets my language and where I want to go to. I like it a lot. Because it's an album I recorded two years ago, normally I'd be bored by now, but since the process was so incredible and full of light, I listen to it and go "oh, cool, I can actually tour this album".

 
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Arañas
CAT_IMG Posted on 14/4/2011, 08:12




daje, ce semo, le componenti ci son tutte: colpi di scena, scambi di personaggi ed agnizioni finali, menzogne e tradimenti, confessioni imploranti e benevoli comprensioni, intreccio lungo e perverso, rivelazioni e malattie ereditarie, amori pudici e nascosti e momenti passionali travolgenti, ed ovviamente il
finale a sorpresa

i maschioni - me compreso magari - del forum, ben aizzati da video caldi e sudati, si disputeranno briciole morali di tour lontani e poco convincenti, ma il deus ex machina se ne frega, e tira dritto e rovescio.
 
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Inno Minato
CAT_IMG Posted on 14/4/2011, 15:11




CITAZIONE (Arañas @ 14/4/2011, 09:12) 
daje, ce semo, le componenti ci son tutte: colpi di scena, scambi di personaggi ed agnizioni finali, menzogne e tradimenti, confessioni imploranti e benevoli comprensioni, intreccio lungo e perverso, rivelazioni e malattie ereditarie, amori pudici e nascosti e momenti passionali travolgenti, ed ovviamente il
finale a sorpresa

i maschioni - me compreso magari - del forum, ben aizzati da video caldi e sudati, si disputeranno briciole morali di tour lontani e poco convincenti, ma il deus ex machina se ne frega, e tira dritto e rovescio.

Epica risposta, degna di descrivere la penetrazione anale continuata e prolungata a cui ci costringono e costringeranno.


mi piace.
 
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Fountainandfairfax
CAT_IMG Posted on 18/4/2011, 14:29




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CITAZIONE
If Omar Rodríguez López never wants to talk to me ever again, I completely understand. Not because I offended him or because he’s some prog-rock heady diva, not at all. He’d be prone to try and forget my existence because he might think I’m going to go all Misery on him. Admittedly, I’m a fan. Admittedly, The Mars Volta’s De-Loused in the Comatorium is one of the reasons this little San Juan schoolgirl became a music journalist. Admittedly, it’s Omar’s guitar playing and composition skills that made me think of music in a different way, after being so violently saturated by reggaeton and La Mega my entire life. Admittedly, I’m a little obsessed. And all of this was admitted over the phone, gushingly and with no regard for the art of cool, to Omar Rodríguez López, as I interviewed him prior to the release of what feels like his gajillionth album under his solo moniker, the mammoth Telesterion (out April 16th, Record Store Day).

He’s pleasant, well mannered, assertive yet soft spoken. He’s everything I wanted him to be. It wasn’t like meeting mall Santa when you’re 7 and realizing he’s a dick and has an alcohol problem. It was like having a nice conversation with a nice person. Omar talked about his roots (both Boricua and now Mexican), his will, and what he is and isn’t.

I wanted to ask you a little bit about your upbringing, going from Puerto Rico to El Paso. How Latin would you say your upbringing was?

My upbringing, in reference to our culture, was 100 percent Latin. I don’t think I had a friend that was outside of the Latino community until I was about 13 or so. I was born in Bayamón and then we moved from Puerto Rico to Puebla in Mexico. I lived there for five years before eventually going to El Paso, which is, as you know, mostly Hispanic. We were being taught to speak English, but we weren’t allowed to speak it at home. And the food was the same at home, even when we moved to the States, we lived as if we were still on the island. That was always something that was really important to my mother and my father, also in the way that things played out for me. I got along more with the chicanos, and the Mexican culture, and whatnot.

What kind of music did you listen to growing up?

There was salsa and The Beatles, pretty much.

Was it influenced by your parents or was it mostly you?

To me everything comes from my parents, there’s nothing that I’ve learned as an adult that wasn’t already put into place for me at some point as a child by my parents. Parents are single handedly the biggest influence on the human spirit. As the spirit enters the body, the very first trauma that any human being can experience is “Does my mother want me? Is she afraid of this pregnancy, does she welcome this pregnancy? Am I wanted?” And from there on out, after your parents would be, obviously, society, school, church. But that having been said, that was the music that was around me. That’s what everyone around me listened to. That’s where I came from. So people like Héctor Lavoe were big stars for me and the only English-speaking music I was exposed to were things like The Beatles, and eventually when I moved to the States I found punk rock. But even that I wouldn’t say I found on my own. Because, again, my parents placed me in a situation where those are the people I ended up meeting and my father was the one who took me to the record store. I am blessed to have a very solid family system and to have been wanted from the moment I was conceived.

You were talking about making the transition to the U.S., was it hard or were you so young that it felt natural?

No, it was an awful transition. For me it was the one defining moment of self awareness. You know, I wasn’t actually aware of myself or of the things I chose to do, or the color of my skin, texture of my hair, or my features, until I moved to the U.S. We moved first to Columbia, South Carolina, which was at the time a very, very divided place, and full of racial tension and overtones. And so I was completely surrounded by racism and because I wasn’t white I was thrown in with the black kids. It was the first time I ever heard the word “spic,” it was the first time I ever realized the food I brought to lunch smelled funny or that I smelled funny, or became aware of the color of my skin, or that my hair was curly. Our move to the U.S., in that way, was very, very marked. In another way, as I said, we were completely insular. Even in South Carolina my parents found a Puerto Rican community, so we ate at Puerto Rican restaurants, we had Puerto Rican friends, and all the festivities were Puerto Rican. In fact, I was only around English-speaking people at school.

Do you think if you wouldn’t have had that hardship, that tough transition, you’d be the person you are today, or the musician or artist? I mean obviously, we’d probably all be different if things were different when we were young…

Like you said, everything influences who we are and what we will become. But, I think at the core of my being, like all of us, I’m a perfect representation of the universe. I was born perfect. My entire goal in life is to shed all the layers that have been put on me by society and eventually get back to that. So I think, at essence, I would have always remained the same, regardless of my environment. Because my particular goals in life are that of getting back to the essence, back to everything that is around me. Regardless of what life would have thrown at me, my will would be the same. My will to accomplish that and to go back to the womb and where I came from, it still [would] have been an obsession of mine. Again, because it’s handed down from my father, and my father’s father, and my mother, and my mother’s mother. I’ve had all these concepts from a very young age. I will say, this is how I perceive it now, maybe I would have had less obstacles. I just feel like I had the obstacle of self loathing, because of moving to the U.S., and how I interpreted peoples’ words and actions toward me. And so, that caused a lot of anger, and self loathing, and blah blah blah, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. I wonder if I would have gotten to where I am now at 35 at 25 had I not had that anger come into play. For whatever reason it’s what was handed to me.

You’re playing the Puerto Rico Indie Fest soon. Do you still feel rooted when you go over there? Ever since At the Drive In and The Mars Volta, you’ve had a big following in Puerto Rico. What’s that reception like now when you go back? Does it feel like home or home away from home? Or foreign?

It feels like going back to the mother ship, you know? I’ve been away from it for so long…it’s sort of when you see a true friend that you haven’t seen in a long time. It’s never awkward, even if you haven’t seen them for 10 years, when you have a true connection with someone you pick things up as if you’ve never left. The majority of my fan base is still in Puerto Rico, my older brother is still in Puerto Rico. That’s where my spirit is. I don’t get to go back that often and I’m way more surrounded by the Mexican culture. I live in Mexico and my wife is Mexican. My fans are Mexicans or chicanos. And so I go back after I’ve taken on the Mexican dialect and I use a lot of words that don’t exist in Puerto Rican dialect. My family is always making fun of me, saying I’m a wannabe Mexican. And the Mexicans always make fun of me because of my Caribbean accent. There’s always that struggle, or that need, to find your place within any structure. The closest structure, or the home structure.

________________________________________________________

I’M NOTHING AND THAT ALLOWS ME TO BE EVERYTHING.
________________________________________________________

You’re a Mexi-Rican! You just mentioned your wife and we’re obviously huge fans of Ximena [Sariñana]. What is it like collaborating with her, she does come on stage and collaborate with you a lot. What is that dynamic like?

What’s it like? It’s like…oh what’s it like…it’s like when you sit down and you eat food. It’s like when you decide to walk from one point to another. It’s like when you’re thirsty and you drink water. It’s like when you have a thought and then you speak.

So it feels natural?

Yeah, it’s nothing special. It’s something and yet it’s nothing special. I try to explain it this way and I think people misunderstand me because of the word “special.” What I try to get out is that I feel like it was always there and that’s the way that it’s supposed to be. This is what I mean by saying we eat and it’s nothing special. But if we don’t eat we die. And we drink water and it’s nothing, but water is the most amazing, wonderful drink you can have. That’s how it feels to work with her, to be with her, to be around her, and to know her. It’s absolutely nothing special, it’s exactly what it’s supposed to be.

Tell me about Telesterion, it’s coming out on Record Store Day [April 16th]. It’s kind of a beast of an album.

Telesterion is a compilation album. It happened because our distributer in Japan came up with the idea. He said, “I’d like to put something together where they [fans] can go and check out the different music, a lot of people are overwhelmed because there are so many records and they don’t know where to begin. I’d like to make a record where they can go check out the different music and within the record you can see where the songs came from, and then you can decide which of the albums you like.” I thought that was a good idea and everybody on this side of the river thought it was a good idea. I had very little to do with it, I didn’t choose the songs. I have no perspective on those types of things, but I understood the concept quite well. It seemed completely pragmatic and a smart thing to do, so we did it. For me it wasn’t a normal record, I didn’t have very much of my hands in it. It was more of a record about me, than a record by me.

Which is flattering, I’m sure.

Yeah, it’s pretty cool.

I wanted to ask you about “Calma Pueblo” with Calle 13. What was that collaboration like and where did it stem from?

That was like most, if not all, things in my life, very natural. It just happened. I’ve known those guys for a long time, obviously them being my paisanos and from tour. It happened that I was on the island because my grandfather was turning 100 years old and we were making a party for him. And then I got the track from Eduardo [Visitante], but I was flying home the next day. He told me to feel free to do whatever I wanted to do but they needed it by tomorrow night. So I sent it out the next morning. It was very spontaneous.

Tribeca is coming up and I remember you had The Sentimental Engine Slayer screening last year. Do you have any plans to film anything new?

We made another film in Juárez [El Divino Influjo de los Secretos] for the fall festival season, and we shot another, Los Chidos, in Guadalajara.

If you weren’t a musician or a filmmaker or an artist of any sort, what do you think you’d be?

People see me playing guitar and call me a musician but I don’t relate to musicians. I love to cook but I’m not a chef. I take pictures but I’m not a photographer. I’m nothing and that allows me to be everything. I’m not a musician. This is only one calling to awaken to the truth of everything, to become perfect again. By Paola Capo-Garcia

 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 7/7/2011, 14:41

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Decisamente, dopo i post su youtube e fb, Cedric ha ancora voglia di parlare:

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/entertainmen...u-1226084932884

CITAZIONE
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.

Inoltre due interviste per siti russi, non le copio/incollo ma posto link e relativi google translate:

www.timeout.ru/music/event/241630/

http://translate.google.it/translate?js=n&...ent%2F241630%2F



www.afisha.ru/article/the_mars_volta/

http://translate.google.it/translate?js=n&...e_mars_volta%2F

Googletranslato:

CITAZIONE
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.

Un nuovo produttore?!
 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 20/7/2011, 23:33

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Entrevista en españolo a Cedrico


Intervista a Omar, spunti sul versante squisitamente tecnico di chitarre e affini:

CITAZIONE
The Methodical Madnesss Of Omar Rodriguez Lopez
Barry Cleveland




Omar Rodriguez Lopez is no pussyfooter. In the past seven years alone the 35 year-old guitarist and composer generated enough music to fill six albums by his band, the Mars Volta, and twice that many solo albums, as well as numerous collaborative projects with artists as diverse as Damo Suzuki, John Frusciante, and Lydia Lunch. During that same period, he also produced more than 20 albums and made numerous guest appearances, and that’s not to mention the dozen or so albums he made with various bands previous to 2003. Rodriguez Lopez is also a skilled vocalist and plays drums, bass, and keyboards; writes, scores, and directs films; and is reportedly a badass chef.

The Puerto Rican-born maestro began his career in 1990, singing for El Paso, Texas-based punk rockers Startled Calf. After taking a year off to dharma bum around the States, he returned to Texas to join his friend vocalist Cedric Bixler Zavala in the band At the Drive-In. Originally the band’s bassist, Rodriguez Lopez soon switched to guitar, earning a reputation for conjuring cosmic sounds from—and brutalizing—his instrument throughout the band’s often orgiastic sets. Rodriguez Lopez and Bixler Zavala also helmed a dub-reggae side project called De Facto, the members of which solidified into the core of the Mars Volta in 2001.

The Mars Volta retained much of the pugnacious attitude and hard rock energy of ATDI, while evolving a broader musical aesthetic embracing ’60s psychedelia, ’70s art rock, and ’90s electronica, with traces of free jazz, musique concrete, Latin, and myriad other idioms providing additional color. Frequently categorized as a “progressive rock” band by less-than-imaginative critics, the Mars Volta is one of the few contemporary groups thus pigeonholed that actually do progress, as illustrated by their latest album.

While Octahedron [Warner Bros.] is still replete with the rapid-fire angular riffs, tricky time signatures, disturbingly warped tonalities, torrid solos, and brilliantly effected tones that characterize the Mars Volta trip, those elements occur within more concise and tightly scripted structures, and pieces such as “Since We’ve Been Wrong,” “With Twilight As My Guide,” and “Copernicus” are downright halcyon compared with the sublimely chaotic din of 2008’s aptly named The Bedlam in Goliath (containing the song “Wax Simulacra,” which scored a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance). The differences embody Rodriguez Lopez’s newfound desire to play fewer notes with greater finesse, and the influence of more acoustically based artists such as Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen, and solo-era Syd Barrett.

But as fans are still wrapping their minds around Octahedron, the creatively restless Rodriguez Lopez has already journeyed parsecs down the line. In addition to releasing a magnificent solo album titled Xenophanes (featuring members of the Mars Volta with Spanish lyrics penned and sung by himself), he was already at work on a new band album when he his creative soul searching lead him to rethink the way he produces records—an approach calculated to deliberately introduce discomfort by not allowing players to hear the music before a session, yet expecting them to quickly grasp and execute their parts anyway, often without listening to other key tracks while recording.

“I made a record right after Octahedron that I thought would be the follow-up, and it was nearly finished when I realized that it really wasn’t—so I shelved it and started from scratch,” he explains. “I’ve gotten comfortable with my way of dealing with musicians and the compositions. So I’m struggling to discover something new to make me uncomfortable.” Any wagers he’ll have found it by the time this goes to print?

You once said that you hate the guitar but were warming up to it. How’s that relationship going?
It’s going well. What I meant was that after 17 years of playing, I had accepted that the guitar is the instrument that I can communicate my ideas on most quickly. I just always wanted to be a piano player because my brothers and uncles are all really good at piano, and it seemed like an easier instrument to compose on. But I enjoy playing the guitar very much. Part of my discomfort also stems from the fact that I consider myself to be a very brute player. I’m not a guitarist with a lot of finesse or warmth, and I’m always awed when I hear those qualities in the playing of others. Most of the time I’m so much of a brute that I pull the strings out of tune. My mixing engineer [Rich Costey] always says that he can tell when he’s hearing a Mars Volta record because the guitars are slightly out of tune.

Nonetheless, there is a lot of subtler guitar playing on Octahedron.
Yeah, that’s what I’ve been focusing on. I want to figure out how to play less, and more subtly. I’ve gotten to the point where I’m most interested in my weaknesses— another one of which is that I don’t compose in major keys. I don’t know why, because I don’t really understand theory. Writing in major keys just isn’t something that comes naturally to me, or that my ear finds appealing, and I want to figure out why.

Octahedron also features a lot of acoustic guitar.
There is a lot of acoustic guitar, though some people were expecting it to be an all-acoustic record because early on I said that it was going to be “acoustic-inspired,” and people interpreted that one-dimensionally. They thought that because I said I had been listening to Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen and Syd Barrett that my record was going to sound like those artists or even be just acoustic guitar and vocals. But what I meant was that everything about those artists and their records influenced me.

You have released many solo albums in addition to albums by the Mars Volta. How do you decide which songs go where?
I don’t make a distinction between a solo song and a Mars Volta song when I’m composing—it’s all my music and it’s my band. I’m just writing and trying things constantly in the studio, and then at some point I get a big check from the record company, which means that I can get more time, assistance, and other resources that will enable me to up the production. At that point I look at everything I’ve written or experimented with and select the best of the best. Then I refine it, which mostly just means that I get to butcher it more and say, “Okay, I’m going to take this little snippet out, and that one, and let’s get in some of these so we can put them over here,” etc.

Do you take that same approach once you have the songs recorded, or do you try to record them pretty much the way you want them from the beginning?
I do both. I try to get the form I like from the start, but I’m never opposed to altering my way of seeing things. It’s very much like working on a film. You can have things scripted one way and then you realize when you’re in the cutting room that it’s not working. At that point you can decide to take scenes out or add scenes or put things out of sequence because it makes a stronger picture. I’m not precious about anything. I’m very much in favor of creating in order to destroy in order to create again.

When crafting guitar sounds using effects, do you start with a sound in your head and try to find the right pedals to achieve that sound, or just experiment until you find sounds that are useful?
0.00gp0210_covTrejoUsually I have a clear idea of what I think something should sound like, and the process of finding that sound is fairly quick because I have a good understanding of what the pedals do. I’m not saying I’m an expert, but as far as my own little bubble and what it is that I like, I know exactly how to get a sound I’m imagining. Then, I apply that sound and the record either accepts it or rejects it, and if it rejects it I have to keep looking.

Do you swap out the pedals on your pedalboard depending on what you’re doing?
In the studio I do, but I also definitely have staples. Like, I can’t ever seem to let go of the Electro-Harmonix Deluxe Memory Man and Frequency Analyzer pedals, or the early Boss Vibrato. But when I’m beginning any new project it’s like, “Yeah, let’s get these new toys and see where we can apply them,” and that becomes an inspiration for recording.

What are a few of your other essentials?
There’s a Moogerfooger Ring Modulator, a Boss DD-5 Digital Delay, an MXR Phase 90, an Ernie Ball Wah, and a Russian pedal that somebody gave me when I played there. Everything on it is written in Russian so I had no idea what it was until I got it home. It turned out to be the most amazing delay pedal I’ve heard in a long time, so I’ve been using that quite a lot.

Speaking of delays, would it be fair to say that you have a particular fondness for tape delays?
That would be quite fair [laughs]. I have about five Echoplexes, all of which have unique qualities—but my favorites are the Roland RE- 101, RE-201, and RE-301 Space Echoes. I own eight RE-201s and people ask, “Why eight?” But each unit has something different about it. I also buy “broken” ones that I’ll never fix, because to me they each do something that none of the others will do. Somebody will be like, “I can get that crackle fixed for you,” and I’ll say, “Are you kidding? When I need a little crackle, that’s the one I go to!” I also used a Pigtronix Echolution on one song on the album and that thing is really great.

Wah is an effect that you also use a lot, and you mentioned the Ernie Ball. Is that your favorite?
That’s a great wah, and the one that I mainly use live. The other one I like is the Ibanez WF10 Fuzz Wah that they made back in the ’80s.

Are you mostly playing your Ibanez ORM-1 signature guitar?
Yeah. I have a lot of other guitars, though, and every once in a while a record will reject what I’m doing with the Ibanez and I’ll try something else. But I’m not really picky about guitars, because I mostly change the tone with pedals or by adjusting my amp.

What amps do you use?
On Octahedron I mostly used a Vox AC30 and the Orange reissue amp that I use live. I’ve been using the AC30 since we recorded Bedlam, and before that I mostly stuck to my Harmony 2x12 and Supro Thunderbolt and 1606 combos. I don’t know much about guitars and the equipment. I just go into a store and if something sounds good I’ll take it home. I’m not a snob, or one of those people that say, “No, these pedals are better because they’re analog” or whatever. I love the Roland Space Echo but I also love, say, the Guyatone Micro Digital Delay because it can do something that the Roland can’t.

Do you track with effects?
Always, because I like being stuck with what I’ve done—no turning back!

What did you use to get that ’60s-style distortion sound on “Since We’ve Been Wrong”?
I don’t recall, probably because I wrote and recorded that song so quickly. I had just moved to Brooklyn and was setting up my studio, and I came up with that song while we were testing gear, just playing parts to make sure that everything was working. The whole song from beginning to end other than the drums and bass—all the acoustic and electric guitars and the Mellotron—I did in just a few minutes. It was one of those things that just came out naturally.

On that song there is a cycling chord progression with a long pause between each cycle, and it is difficult toidentify the time signature. What is the count?
I forget. Because I’m not versed in theory, at first everything comes down to how I count it. Then when I show it to my band they laugh and say, “No, this is the way that we would count it traditionally.” I may have been playing in four with a three feel, or three with a four feel, but I know that after I played the last note I counted to five before starting again. I wasn’t trying to be tricky, and I don’t even know why five rather than some other number. That’s just what felt right at the time.

There’s also a very synth-like sound. Is that an Electro-Harmonix HOG or POG?
I definitely use both the HOG and the POG, though I’m not certain about that particular sound, as I also use filter pedals for those types of effects. I have loved those sorts of tones since early on; anything that would make my guitar not sound like it was a guitar. For example, people think there are a lot of synths on our first album [De-Loused in the Comatorium], but all of those sounds were generated using guitars.

How did you get that pixilated modulation sound on “Teflon”?
That’s a Menatone Pleasure Trem 5000 with the Depth control turned all the way up, and probably some other effect like a phaser or a filter to give it a different feel. I can’t always remember the specifics of how I got particular sounds because I have so much fun doing what I do that I’m usually just rolling through relying on my instincts and not being cerebral at all. It’s like, “I’m looking for this— there, I found it—okay, problem solved.”

There are also some intense echo effects on that song that sound like you are just soloing the echo returns. Is that a tape echo?
Yes. And I very rarely blend the sound. Usually a guitarist or other person will blend the echo sound with the dry sound—but my setting is “10”! Like I said, I’m a very brute player. There’s very little finesse or sophistication in my approach.

There are lots of interesting textural things going on at the beginning of “Halo of Nembutals.” Can you recall how that section came about?
Yeah, there is a sequence happening there, along with some guitar swells run through backwards reverb and other stuff. A couple of those sounds are also made with synths.

Are you using a volume pedal to get the swells?
No, I always use my finger for volume swells. I don’t ever use volume pedals. I can’t wrap my head around them.

On “With Twilight as My Guide” there are what sound like modulated, swelling, reversed, slide, and half-speed guitar parts. Do any of those ring any bells?
Yeah, all those things ring bells. That song is a good example of my trying to do less, because for the first time I mixed those sounds into the background where they are just sort of swimming around. Normally when I was mixing a record I would put all of those sounds out front really loud.

To get those reversed-reverb sounds are you just playing into a reverse reverb with a long predelay so that it is repeating afterward, or are you actually flipping the recording around?
I do often record and then flip it around, but another thing I like to do is just the opposite: I record it, flip it around, add reverb, then print that, then flip the whole thing back around. That way you get the reversed reverb up front before the dry sound.

The half-speed parts sound like the same lines that are being played alongside them at full speed, creating halftime, octave-down harmony parts.
Yeah, I love doing that!

How are you getting the super-heavy guitar tone on “Cotopaxi”?
That’s the Orange. My preference is to get distortion from an amp rather than pedals, particularly on rhythm parts, and I prefer smaller amps when recording. I mostly just use fuzz or octave-fuzz if I really want to push something over the top.

You get some gorgeous modulated clean sounds at the beginning and end of “Desperate Graves.”
That’s a good example of where I actually used a different guitar because the album rejected everything else. That was a ’64 Fender Mustang through the Harmony amp. I had hoped to use my Dunlop Rotovibe on both sections, but it broke after I’d recorded one of them—I can’t remember which—so I used a Boss Vibrato pedal for the other section. The guitars are layered, which produces a 12-string-type effect.

There’s another nice clean sound on “Copernicus.”
I recorded that in Australia while we were on tour there, and just used whatever amp they had at the studio. On tour I don’t really have days off—I just check into a studio and work when we aren’t playing. I also have a special hotel laptop rig for working while touring. I used to bring everything with me, including a Neve 8301 Kelso Sidecar, AKG C12 microphones, and a little amp that I would put in the bathroom. Needless to say my gear took a beating, and I also got lots of complaints from different hotels, so I joined the digital age.

There’s a little slide playing on Octahedron.
I used to play a lot of slide back when we were making the first record, but I haven’t done it in a while, and it felt really nice to get back into it. The slide thing is part of the Barrett influence.

Have you experimented with non-standard tunings?
Not yet. I get asked that question frequently because people think particular songs must be in some special tuning—but I can barely handle standard tuning. Maybe that’s another weakness that I need to work on.

You play with a pick and your fingers. Do you do those things individually or using a hybrid approach?
For some of the quieter parts I slide the pick to my pinky and use my thumb and first two fingers.

What picks and strings do you use?
I like the orange Dunlop Tortex picks and I use Ernie Ball strings gauged .013 to .056 with a wound third.

Wow, is that why you don’t use a lot of vibrato?
Maybe. I never realized my strings were so heavy until other guitar players were like, “What the f**k are you doing?” When John Frusciante realized I had them he was amazed and kept asking me if I was really doing all those bends using those strings. But if I use lighter strings I really pull them out of tune, because as I said I don’t have a gentle touch— and that also affects my vibrato. Someone like John plays with a lot of finesse, so you can hear all those little things that he does with the vibrato and everything, whereas my playing is sort of bulldozer-esque.

Speaking of Frusciante, what were his contributions to Octahedron?
Besides being a very close friend of mine who understands what I’m trying to do, John is another musician that I utilize to execute my compositions. What I look for in a musician is the ability to learn and memorize horribly fast, because I’m impatient. And they have to be able to do it without fear or reservations, and to play with all their heart and soul so that their personality comes through. In filmmaking terms, I’m the writer and director and the musicians are actors. They learn their lines and say them, and then we share the bigger story together.

In what ways has he influenced your playing?
He’s the reason I don’t have the affinity for the guitar that I should: because I know that I’m a phony. John’s one of those people that I’ve always wanted to be. He picks up the thing and there’s no separation between him and the guitar. Every single thing that he plays has finesse and beauty to it. He’s a natural, whereas for me it has come through a lot of playing and stubbornness, and thinking that the guitar and I are stuck with each other so we’d better make the best of it.

You’re a pretty good guitar player.
Thank you. I’m not feigning humility, I’m just facing reality. Some people need a reality check. I play rock music, which is like the lowest common denominator [laughs]. There are lots of truly extraordinary guitarists all over the world and the music can get really deep. To be hiding behind distortion and loud drums, and delay pedals has its charm and you can definitely do cool things that are interesting and exciting, but if you take all of those things away and put me in a room with an acoustic guitar and ask me play for a few people I will be terrified and clam up every time. I’m very flattered and proud to be perceived as a good or interesting guitar player, but it doesn’t define me.

How do you get into the right headspace when working?
For me “working” is really playing. And it’s all part of living, because I don’t really have a life outside of it. I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, I don’t smoke pot, and I don’t smoke cigarettes. I like to be up early, I like to meditate in the morning, I like to eat a great breakfast, and I enjoy food and watching movies and recording my music and making my films—it’s all tied together. If I’m doing those things then I’m doing what I need to be doing to make music.

http://www.guitarplayer.com/article/the-me...iguez-lopez/274


E qui un'altra intervista a Omar, in audio: http://thefusionmag.com/omar-rodriguez-lopez-interview/

Qui una in spagnolo: http://www.mtviggy.com/interviews/polaroid...ce=home_oneline
 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 4/12/2011, 21:30

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Tour in Australia in arrivo ed ecco un paio di interviste a Omar fresche fresche, non ci sono novità sull'album però, molte cose già lette e stralette ma si leggon comunque volentieri. Nella seconda, in particolare, si dice qualcosina sui film nel cassetto, pare ci siano pronti anche documentari su atdi e de facto, inoltre una domanda sul rapporto con Cedric su questo ultimo disco dei TMV.

www.yourgigs.com.au/interviews/?interview_id=223313

CITAZIONE
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez - A separate reality

Caleb Goman talks music, magic and alternate realities with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

Don't let 20 minute songs scare you — Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is as down to earth as they come. No stranger to Australia, the man has gone from punk rock pioneer in At The Drive-In to prolific experimental rock virtuoso with The Mars Volta and his solo project The Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group. He's also an accomplished director, artist and producer. Not bad for a self-proclaimed "rowdy Spic from the equator".

Caleb Goman (CG): You've toured Australia a bunch of times with At the Drive-In and The Mars Volta, but this is the first time you'll be here doing solo shows with the Omar Rodrguez-Lopez Group. Can you give us a hint of what to expect?

Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (ORL): Oh you know, just more music. Just more music. I never know what to say when people ask what to expect. If you've seen us over the years, you know we never have any big, spectacular shows; it's just people on stage playing songs and music you know.

CG: I'd say some of the Mars Volta shows I've seen were pretty big and spectacular.

ORL: Oh you know, it's not like we have pyrotechnics or costume changes. It's nothing special, just old fashioned guys on stage playing music which is fun for us, and we hope that it's fun for other people as well.

CG: How many members in the group this time?

ORL: We try to and make it different and change it up each tour. It's a three-piece at the moment, that's just where I am right now. I've played with everything from a five-piece, sometimes eight- or nine-piece band and now I'm just playing as a three-piece.

CG: Is there much improvising?

ORL: No, it's all composition. We never really improvise. There's jamming on sections but that's all planned, you know like "once we get to this bridge section we have 32 bars where we can be expressive but we've got to come back in on the pre-chorus". It's all very planned out but if it's done right it feels natural and it should feel to the crowd that it's happening in the moment, otherwise it's too uptight, you know.

CG: For all of your releases over the years you've overseen pretty much all the aspects of an album including production, artwork and video clips. Is that something you strive for?

ORL: I just love doing it. It's that simple. It's really fun and I love doing it so what else can you do? I have friends that have kids and some of them have full time nannies and they go and do their thing and the babysitters take care of the kids and they come home at night and kiss their kids and put them to bed and that's enough for them. Other friends take their kids everywhere. They spend all their time with their kids, they take them to the studio and the park and they want to be around them all the time. It's like that with me. I can't help it. It's just so much fun and I absolutely love what I get to do. Simply put I'm a very, very lucky individual and I don't want to ever take that for granted. I get to do the same thing I did in my dad's garage as a kid and I get to do that now as an adult and that's pretty cool.

CG: One person you do trust with your kids is artist Sonny Kay, who's been doing a lot of artwork with you over the years. Can you tell me a bit about your collaborations with him?

ORL: Yeah we've had a very interesting relationship over the years, we used to run a record label together and have done all sorts of stuff. We have a lot of similarities but we're also completely different people, which is always a good thing if you are creating art.

CG: In what ways?

ORL: Completely different cultures. He comes from an English background and he's a very proper gentleman, very well spoken and knows proper grammar and I'm just a rowdy Spic from the equator and I'm not very proper at all. Latin culture is very loose, very improvised, very much the opposite of the English culture with the "don't put your elbows on the table" things. I'm constantly butchering the English language and having bad etiquette and it drives him crazy and it drives me crazy that he could be so uptight.

CG: Sounds like a good balance.

ORL: I think that's part of the chemistry. We work really well together. It's good to have tolerance and remind yourself that it's a great big world out there and there are completely different kinds of cultures and culture clashes.

CG: You've mentioned before that you were a fan Carlos Castaneda and his books on shamanism and what he calls "non-ordinary states of reality". Have they influenced your creative work at all?

ORL: Yeah, well it's my reality. That's what I was raised with. That's the type of household I was brought up in. He calls them "non-ordinary states of reality" but for me it's my reality, it's the way I view the world. Some people are raised believing that you die and the worms eat you and that's your reality. I'm Latino, I was brought up with Latin culture and I was brought up with magic and spirituality and meditation and vegetarianism and rituals my whole life so that's just where my heart is.

CG: You incorporate that a lot into your art. There are lots of magical sigils in your artwork and references to occult and esoteric knowledge.

ORL: For me its things I grew up with and it's not because I read about them in some book. It's because I lived them and I've seen them work. It's what I was brought up with and it's just family tradition for me. The same way as eating fried plantains and beans is family tradition. Rituals were always a big part of my upbringing: sun rituals, moon rituals, rituals for healings or for opening your mind.

CG: And you're able to tap into that for creativity?

ORL: Yes of course. Everything is a way of transmitting energy and expressing yourself. Everything you do is an expression of yourself, whether it's the way you move your body or the way you form sentences. So all of your music, lyrics, if you film something; everything is symbolic and has a double meaning; even the most superficial things. That's the beauty of it. I have a close friend who's the exact opposite, he's very straight and down the line. He says, "Why does everything have to be something?" That's his joke with me. It's just two different ways of viewing the world.

CG: I was thinking about you being a left-handed guitarist and as a left-handed musician too it got me wondering if it sets you up to a different approach because you are playing from a different hemisphere in your brain than most people. Any thoughts on that theory?

ORL: S---. I hadn't even thought of that! That's a good question. You know since I was a kid someone grabs my guitar and goes "oh it's backwards" and that's the normal comment I get but that's their reality. In my reality it's like "oh my god all these other guitars are backwards and mine is the only one that's correct!" It's just a matter of perspective. It seems so normal to me that all guitars should be left-handed!

Catch the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group on their Australian tour with Le Butcherettes this December.

Caleb Goman
30 Nov 2011

http://conversationswithbianca.com/2011/12...e-butcherettes/

CITAZIONE
Omar Rodriguez- Lopez is one of my favourite musicians. You might know him from At The Drive-In, The Mars Volta, De Facto or his 20+ solo records or you may know him for his films (his most recent The Sentimental Engine Slayer – trailer at end of post). He is incredibly prolific and offers beautiful insight into creativity and life through his eyes. Whenever we catch up we always have the most thoughtful, inspiring chats. I’m super excited about the Australian tour that kicks off on December 9th…I’m even more excited he’s bringing the Mexico/Los Angeles band Le Butcherettes he signed to his label. He will also be joining them on bass! These shows are not to be missed. Seriously.

What’s life been like for you lately?

OR-L: It’s been mellow. I’ve been taking time off and just being around my family.

That’s lovely, family is so important.

OR-L: Definitely! Without a doubt.

You live in Mexico now these days?

OR-L: Yeah. I’m in the process of moving. I’m actually going to move back to Texas to be with my family.

What inspired your move to Mexico?

OR-L: Just being around my culture. I’m Puerto Rican so I like being around Latin culture. I was raised in Mexico as well. We went from Puerto Rico to Mexico and then to America. I just wanted a higher quality of life than what America has to offer.

Do you play music and create every day?

OR-L: Yeah pretty much. In some form or another, yes, I express it every day.

Do you have a daily routine at all?

OR-L: Yeah to a certain degree. I wake up, I eat, basic things like that. It’s not like when we spoke last time and I pretty much had the routine of at 11am to midnight I’d be in the studio. It’s just laid back now. My priorities are waking up and eating right and figuring out the day from there.

You’ve said in the past that your records are just opinions, notebooks and journal entries; you discovering life and beautiful things and learning lessons – is there any important lessons that you’ve been learning lately?
OR-L: Oh sure. There’s a lot. If I had to simplify it and boil it down to its most common denominator it’s that there is nothing more important than love. There is nothing more important than love whatever that is to you—family love, people… everything else has to come second to that. I’m a romantic and with most romantics it’s easy to fall under the illusion that love is enough and that love will fix everything—it’s not enough! Love is an art form, love is a craft, love is like anything else. If you want to be a good piano player you have to practice playing piano. If you don’t play piano for 20 years you’re not going to be a very good piano player. Love is the same way. You can’t just think because you love your mother or you love your father or you love your woman that that’s enough, you have to refine it and you have to work on it every day. What the means is that because it’s a craft and an art form it has to come before anything, it has to be at the top of the list. All things being equal, if love is an art form and if guitar is an art form, painting is an art form, it comes down to you have to decide which art form is more important to you because that is the one you are going to excel at. If you spend most of your time painting you’re going to excel at painting. If you spend most of your time playing piano, you’re going to excel at playing piano. I want to excel at loving and I realise that everything else is secondary. It is the root of everything. If you’re great at loving you’ll be great at playing piano or painting. Everything else becomes so small in comparison. It goes back to why spending more time with the family and doing things outside or whatnot it important.

You’re an avid journal keeper, is that something you’ve always done?

OR-L: Yeah since I was very little. Like any kid, you have your notebook where you draw your dragons and space monsters and whatever else comes to your mind. It’s a way of creating your own personal world. I love keeping a journal.

What’s one of your first musical memories?

OR-L: It would have to be my father and my uncles and my mother, just basically being at home. It’s just part of my culture and my upbringing. Puerto Rican culture revolves around music and food. Everybody plays something even if they are not musicians. Music is used as a language, it’s a second language. Before I ever learnt English I already knew the language of music because it was what was most spoken at my house besides Spanish, those are my musical memories. In other cultures, in America say for example, they have Christmas songs… when Christmas time comes around – I say that because it’s almost Christmas time now – there are a lot of communal Christmas songs that everyone knows and sings, they have that thing where people go door-to-door singing, well, Puerto Rican culture is like that all the time, it’s not just Christmas, it’s everything. There are songs that talk about the food you’re eating, there’s songs that talk about what it is like to be Puerto Rican. There’s songs that talk about what it’s like to be like from this village or that village—it’s just inherent in the culture. For me I’ve never thought of music as something separate from life or family life. I’ve never been cognisant of music like when people ask, did you ever think you’d end up being a musician? It would be like saying, did you ever think you were ever going to eat rice and beans with fried plantain? It doesn’t enter the consciousness when it is something that is around you all the time, it is just something that is there.

It’s like breathing.

OR-L: Exactly!

You also film lots of things. You’ve been filming since the beginning of At The Drive-In and documenting your journey as a musician; why do you feel you have such a need to document everything so avidly?

OR-L: Because I can, because it’s there. It’s another brush stroke and another colour on the palette of paint. I was born in era where the average person can walk into a store and buy a video camera. Thirty years ago that was only something that was there for rich people. We live in an era where you can get a couple of hundred bucks together and you can by a camera and document things. Going back to it again, it is how I was raised. When we moved to America and my father starting doing well with his business, one of the first things he did was by one of those VHS camcorders. He used to film all of our family outings (pretty normal stuff, families film their family outings) that was always stuck in my head. When he first brought a camera he showed me how to use it and I started filming right away. I’d make little short films. It felt very natural. My dad didn’t film family vacations in the normal way, he always turned it into a narrative somehow. There was always a narrator. He’s always would turn it into this big fun event that would involve everybody, so then everybody wanted to play with the video camera. Being the second oldest son I was allowed that luxury. It’s just there in your subconscious or the makeup of how you do things. When I grew to be an adult and At The Drive-In started making some money, one of the first things that I did was go and buy myself a video camera. I filmed stuff because I thought it would be a cool thing to show my mom back home and eventually my children.

Do you think the footage will ever come out to the public?

OR-L: I’m sure parts of it will, yeah definitely. I have about three films in my closet/vault, together with unreleased records. I imagine at some point as the years pass by I won’t care and I’ll just put it out. Over the years they’ve just been journal entries. I cut together a small film of my experience of At The Drive-In. I cut one together about my experience in De Facto. I started to cut one together about my project The Mars Volta, about what became very, very long. You also start to lose interest after a while and you start to film other things or become interested in other things. I imagine at some point parts of it will come out definitely.

I know that the new Mars Volta album has been finished for a while, the musical parts were finished for a very long time while awaiting the lyrics/vocals. In an interview recently when someone asked you about what the record sounded like you said ‘The first thing that pops into my mind is that it sounds like me and Cedric finding answers and insight into each other’s spirits.’ I thought that was really beautiful. I was wondering what insights you found?

OR-L: It runs pretty deep so it gets tricky. Off the top of my head some things would be like, I never realised how much my controlling-ness or my dominate personality affected him. I just always saw it as I was doing it for the greater good of us both. I never stopped to think about how it affected him and in inadvertent ways. I was able to see that during that process. It’s hard to get into because it is so layered and a lot of it is so personal which is why I usually just try to speak in general broad brush strokes. You learn a lot about yourself when you do a project and you learn a lot about whoever you let into that project. At the end of the day that’s the only real reason to do anything – to make records, movies or anything else – it’s to learn.


I know exactly what you mean. I learn so much from each conversation I have/interview I do. Our last chat taught me so much.

OR-L: Exactly. I remember it well.

You are bringing Le Butcherettes (pictured above) to Australia on your tour. I’m so excited to see them! I read an interview with Le Butcherettes’ frontwoman Teri Gender Bender and she said that you discovered them when you went to a show they were playing. She went on to say that the power went out and that they keep playing regardless. What was it that you saw in them?

OR-L: What I saw with them is something that is undefinable. When you talk about it you can only use general terms like, I saw that spark or that spirit. It’s so abstract in a way. You see that thing in people where you know that it is honest, you know that they are doing it because they have to do it, you know that it’s a primordial type of urge.

There’s people that like entertainment, there’s people who like playing music and then there are people that are searching for God. God not being… I’m not talking about Christianity or Judaism or anything like that, just in broad terms for whatever the fuck you want that to be. Those are the three different sections that I found when you talk about art: entertaining, people that are being expressive and that want to play music, that love to play music and there’s people that are trying to communicate with God—they fell into that category and that was what I was able to see very quickly. Like you were saying, the electricity went out but they still played! Somebody else would say, well what’s the point of playing with no electricity? Another person would say, because they absolutely have to, this is how I’m trying to communicate with God. God could be me, it could be myself, I could be trying to get to know myself—the point being, it is absolutely vital. That’s what I saw in Le Butcherettes.

 
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CAT_IMG Posted on 3/1/2012, 00:44

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Omar Rodriguez Lopez & Teri Gender Bender interview from Australian Musician magazine on Vimeo.



www.beat.com.au/music/omar-rodr-guez-l-pez

CITAZIONE
It was a peculiar feeling preparing for my interview with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, leader of my favourite band The Mars Volta. I had likely read close to a hundred of his interviews since 2001 and I knew the generic answers he had stockpiled for common questions about his music . What he didn't have, however, were generic answers about himself as a person , and it was through ignoring his musicianship and instead questioning him about himself that not only was the intrinsic connection between his life and music revealed, but also just how insightful, humble and erudite he had grown since the birth of The Mars Volta ten years ago.

"My biggest aspiration is to be more open, and that's why I think collaboration is a road to that. Years ago I thought, 'I don't want to collaborate because it means my ideas won't be as pure, it won't be my ideas only'. Through that journey, I realised that really was a false front for the real issue, which is my insecurity, that I'm afraid that if I collaborate with people that they won't like my ideas. How you get rid of that is you create a world where you're at the top and you're the leader and nobody can challenge you. But that really just comes from insecurity and so that's exactly it - my biggest challenge or the thing that I want to do most is I just want to be open and I just want to believe in myself because that's just one of my biggest problems on a personal level. It's why I don't go out very much, it's why I have a hard time meeting people, it's why I'm shy or uptight about how others might perceive my shyness and all that type of stuff and I don't want that anymore in my life. I don't want to keep being this neurotic person that I've been; I don't want to be 60 and still be the way that I am, or have been now at 35 which is reclusive and scared to go out in the public and be around people and feel that everyone's laughing at me. This is all stuff that's left over from your adolescence, stuff that was left over from coming to America and being laughed at for my name and colour of my skin and all that stuff, and so I just wanna throw all that away. I wanna go back to how I was when I was a kid, when I was just myself everywhere and I liked going out around lots of people and liked going to a party or something - that's what I need to get over".



Rodriguez-Lopez was until recently infamous for his dictatorial approach to recording, where he was even once tongue-in-cheekily dubbed by vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala as "little Hitler". However, just as the band is known and appreciated for their commitment to evolution and progression in creativity, Rodriguez-Lopez learned the importance of implementing these ideals to his own recording process along with the significance of unifying his personal and musical philosophies.



"I haven't even done any recording for a while now because of [that change in process], being able to step back and have some breathing room for myself and give myself space to grow and the change - it's my nature to control everything and write all the parts and that was cool, it was cool for ten or eleven years doing The Mars Volta but now definitely I'm more into collaboration…Eight years of At The Drive In and by the time I was done with those eight years I said, 'Forget it. I don't ever want to collaborate again. I just want it all to be my vision because it could've been better, so I did that for ten years. And now I'm like, 'Forget it!'" he laughs. "Being in control of everything is not the answer. Happiness becomes real only when shared with others.



"That's where it got tricky because in my in my expression, life was exactly that. I was doing the opposite of interaction which was just dictating and saying how it was gonna be there and controlling everything. And I had this false notion in my head that you can live your expression or art one way, and you can live your life another way, and it doesn't really work. What ends up happening is that when you do your art or your music in that sort of controlling way, that eventually, no matter how hard you try, it seeps into your normal life as well - your everyday life. You find yourself controlling everything - without noticing it - you're controlling everything in life, your interactions. Going to dinner - it's gotta be here, it's gotta be this way. So it starts to seep into your life because it's really hard to separate the two...now I only want to collaborate; musically it's more in harmony with how I see myself living my life".



This conception was obviously influenced by his experiences, but for an individual so interested in books and film, I wondered what was most important in shaping his worldview - ideas found in art or his own personal experiences and lessons.



"It all comes from intuition and experience. I mean I love books and everything as much as anyone else but when we talk about books for the most part, 99 per cent of the time we're talking about intellectual knowledge, and intellectual knowledge is completely useless unless it penetrates the heart. It's the stuff that you know in your heart, that's when it becomes real knowledge. You can say to yourself whatever. If you're a drug addict you can say, 'Drugs are bad and it's ruining my life' but if it's just an intellectual thing and you're saying it in your mind - you're never going to get off drugs. The day it seeps into your heart, the day that same information, the exact same information goes into your heart and you say, 'God, drugs are bad and it's really hurting my mother, it's really hurting my father', once it quits being an intellectual thing and starts to come from the spirit and the heart and it's emotional - then it's real knowledge and then action proceeds with real knowledge. So yeah, most of my experiences, if not all my experiences come from people, from this life and this knowledge seeping into my heart...also learning through example, when you watch someone be themselves and be giving and be courteous, and be great to their fellow human beings, that stays with you more than any book you could ever read."



Rodriguez-Lopez was last here in August when The Mars Volta debuted new material that was only previously played by Rodriguez-Lopez in his solo shows at SXSW. Whilst his tone is laden with deep affection when talking about the "paradise" of Australia, Rodriguez-Lopez's newfound philosophies prevent him from being able to explicate what fans can expect from his solo show.



"I haven't made a setlist yet. It'll probably be some newer songs, some older songs. It's all just music...At the time that we played those songs, they weren't Mars Volta songs at all. There's no separation, Mars Volta's my baby and I write music so I made these songs, Cedric sang on them, we went on the 'ORL' tour. It went really great and our fans were really excited about and writing that they loved it. And so we said, 'Oh you know what if they liked it so much then let's make those Mars Volta songs'. [the last visit to Australia] was just a point in our lives that Cedric and I both were just a lot more laid back about those types of things and really tried to discover ourselves. Life starts to get more and more intense and before you realise it…I forget that I'm 35…I don't feel 35, I still feel like I'm in my 20s, but when I realise I'm 35 I realise that this next part of my life is happening now…I don't want to be the 60 year old who's still afraid of water and a germaphobe and doesn't like to go out in public, that's not the life I want from myself. When I leave my body, I wanna know that I was at peace with my existence as a human being and so when you look at it that way then things start to loosen up a lot more. That's the thing - before I would've planned for months this tour in Australia. I would've planned every little detail. But now I haven't even picked the setlist yet, what songs we'll play, and when I do I know it's whatever sounds fun to play or if Juan has a certain song in mind he wants to play or Deantoni, I'm open to all those suggestions that I wasn't open to before and it's just a funner way to live.



"Before I would've freaked out and made my life and the people around me miserable trying to control that…and now, it's just music. It's not real problems. That's the thing in general in the entertainment industry, everybody takes them so serious and gets worked up about this stuff, but none of it's real. These aren't real problems. Our record's getting pushed back to next year - big deal. Before I would've freaked out about it, now my perspective is different, that's not a real problem. Taking care of my mum, that's a real issue, that's a real concern. Me having a better relationship with my brothers after all these years living in the cave and only caring about what's going on in my world, that's an important thing to worry about. Whether or not my record gets pushed back, it can be frustrating for a couple of minutes and then I remember it's not a real thing. I'm a lucky, blessed individual. I get to travel to Australia because I did some stuff that in my bedroom in my father's house when I was a kid and now as an adult I'm lucky enough that people show up and support what I do and they think what I do is beautiful or striking…taking time out of their lives to drive down to the club and stand and watch it for an hour, and for me that's mindblowing".



Rodriguez-Lopez expresses to me his fondness of creating music, but it's clear that his recording paradigm has changed, and with this shift comes a different level of output from the man who comfortably used to release multiple albums in the space of a couple of months.



"It's something that's very fun to do. It's something that's interesting and magical - the whole process. No matter how planned out you have things, there's always surprises and twists and turns and a lot of synchronicity. To me, music is already magical and especially when you try to capture it someway like the recording process. It's just the closest thing you can teach to magic or the universe being personified in an action. It's just utterly exciting. And also beyond that, you learn something every single step of the way about yourself, not just technically…it stares back at you; it's some form of therapy because of that. You constantly learn about yourself and it's a pretty amazing tool in that sense".



"There's a rough plan [for the future] but it's very laid back again. I want to play shows that make sense. I have another film coming out next year and so we just turned that into the film festivals, so I'd like to go do that and travel with the film and present it at the festivals and see what other collaborative projects come my way. At the end of the year I'll probably put out a couple of records that were sitting on the shelf but from this moment on, next time I step in the studio, it's not gonna be to do my composition, it's gonna be to do compositions with other people and to collaborate. That's my only real plan".

www.tonedeaf.com.au/features/interv...iguez-lopez.htm

CITAZIONE
Omar Rodriguez-Lopez started out learning bass guitar at the young age of fourteen, but switched to primarily playing electric guitar as he desired more strings. Fifteen years later, this Puerto Rican native is the composer and guitarist for both progressive avant-garde band the Mars Volta as well as his own band the Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group. Rodriguez-Lopez will be taking his band to Australian shores in December, as well as bringing along Mexican punk band Le Butcherettes for the opening slot.

Hey Omar, thanks for taking some out and speaking with us. How was your Thanksgiving?

Good, thank you. I just spent it with my family.

As you compose all songs for both the Mars Volta and your own band, the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group, it seems like you’re essentially a full-time musician. Is this the case?

I wouldn’t really consider myself a musician at all. I think that would be a little insulting to actual musicians who have vast knowledge of music theory. It would be like calling myself a chef because I know how to cook. I just see myself being a full time expressionist. I like expressing myself a lot, and music is one of the many vehicles of expressing myself, along with my filming and photography. Music is just what I’m known for in the exterior world and because of that I’m received as a musician though I’ve never thought of myself as one.

That sounds like a pretty humble view of yourself.

Yeah, but it’s just the way it feels. I’ve been lucky enough to be blessed with being able to do this for a living and have the opportunity to play with real musicians and have real musicians play my compositions, so I can easily see the difference between myself and a musician.

You released ten records for your band in 2010 alone. Is that because you and Cedric Bixler-Zavala had decided to slow down the Mars Volta’s album creation rate?

There was no rhyme or reason for it, really. On average I make about fifteen records a year but don’t release all of them. There are some that I keep for myself or give to my friends as gifts. Sometimes people will say something like “oh, why didn’t you release that record? That was a really nice one!” And then I might decide to have another listen to it and think about releasing it. I guess that in the exterior world it seems like fifteen records per year is a lot of music to produce, seeing as most artists release about one album every two years. People may see creating all this music as some sort of intensive labour and I’m always hard at work, but it’s just me playing music.

Seeing as you have such a large discography, is it difficult to choose what pieces to play for a show?

It just depends on what I crave. Whenever I sit down with my band and plan our sets it’s usually us saying things like “Oh, we haven’t played this one in a while” and “Oh we‘ve never played that one; that’d be great to play.” It’s a very intuitive and relaxed process.

What are the differences between playing with the Mars Volta and playing with your own band?

There’s none, really. The main difference is that the Mars Volta is more of a corporation and because there’s a bigger budget, there are a lot less limitations. It’s the same method for both bands when we rehearse and set up before a show. I write the compositions for both bands so they’re both really special to me.

I wanted to ask you about your old band De Facto. You guys re-released De Facto’s debut album Megaton Shotblast. Do you plan on re-releasing any more of the old records?

Absolutely! We plan on re-releasing all the albums and also putting out a documentary of the band made up from a journal and some film I took when De Facto was active.

I have heard that you record a lot of band footage. Naturally, a lot of your fans are going to want to see a lot of your recordings – when do you plan on releasing it all to the public?

Hopefully around some time next year. I’ll probably start to go through my footage when it feels most natural to work on it. Unlike a lot of artists, I don’t really have an agenda so what I do from day to day depends generally on how I feel.


You’re bringing Mexican punk band Le Butcherettes as an opening act on your Australian tour while also filling in for their bassist. Are they excited on going on their first overseas tour?

Oh, are you kidding? They can’t believe it! You can never believe your first overseas tour. When you’re first in a band and you tour interstate for a while it’s fun, but when you first get invited to go overseas then there’s nothing quite like it. It’s really good that Le Butcherettes are so enthusiastic about this tour because it’s really good to be around energy. It’s really all they’ve been talking about.

- Tom Gaffney

 
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