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Orange Pop: Experimenting with Free Moral Agents

The Long Beach group is Detroit Bar's Monday-night resident act this month.


By KELLI SKYE FADROSKI

The Orange County Register


It's tough to be fired from any job, but for musician Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, losing a role in one band ultimately provided a window of opportunity to experiment and expand on his sound in another.


In 2002, Owens was fired from his keyboarding duties for the out-there prog-metal outfit the Mars Volta, so in his newfound free time he started a home recording project he dubbed Free Moral Agents.


Owens rejoined the Mars Volta in 2003, and today he says there were no hard feelings about the firing or rehiring. Nonetheless, the break from that group enabled Owens to develop his psychedelic home experiment into a full-fledged side project.


By 2006, Free Moral Agents (as they are now known) finally came together: Owens along with vocalist Mendee Ichikawa, drummer Ryan Reiff, bassist Dennis Owens, guitarist Jesse Carzello and keyboardist Reid Kinnett. Since then the Long Beach group has performed in numerous venues on its home turf, Los Angeles and Orange County – and the Agents are Detroit Bar's Monday-night residents all this month.


Owens explained during a phone interview earlier this week that the band's name isn't just some clever moniker signifying nothing. It essentially spells out the group's basic philosophy: that every player has a choice to do what they want or don't want to do.


"In that sense everyone is a free moral agent," Owens says. "I've always liked that idea. In the band, it's important artistically that everyone be able to make their own decisions; you don't want to be in a group where people can't (do that). Everyone in this is an artist unto themselves, and that's what's really cool about this lineup. We could break up and start six different bands that sound nothing alike.
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Although collectively influenced by artists like Miles Davis, Björk and numerous dub, reggae and West Coast hip-hop artists, Owens says the band is perhaps most heavily inspired by Sonic Youth.


"I think they are a huge influence," he says. "Out of all of those other groups, it keeps us in the rock realm, so that's a big one for us.
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The group is also into a lot of new music, especially from the likes of Animal Collective and CocoRosie. Yet, though they all bring their own musical ideas to the table, Owens says this is the first band he's been part of where the difference in taste among members is much smaller than what they have in common.


Owens says his past decade of creating and performing has left him feeling like a student of rock. The wisdom and insight he's gained, he says, is what he brings to Free Moral Agents.


"Everyone in the band, obviously, puts their own stamp on the music, but this is the first band where I feel like the statement it's making is most uniquely mine. This is by far my favorite band I've been in.
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But how does this busy keyboardist and producer find time to squeeze in all of his gigs?

"I just run my life effectively and keep a calendar," Owens says. "I schedule time for myself to rest and take a day off to breathe, because it enables me to work longer and do better work. (The Mars Volta) have another record coming out next year so we're resting up now and getting ready to come back with it in late 2009 and into early 2010.
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The Mars Volta is also up for a Grammy this year for best hard rock performance for "Wax Simulacra," from the album "The Bedlam in Goliath.
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It's not the first time Owens has been nominated for having played on someone's record, but he has yet to take one of the golden statuettes home. And if he wins Sunday? He'll put that prize on display safely at his mom's house.