The Mars Volta Chat To I Like Music

The award winning collective The Mars Volta centres around two key figures, guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. Musicians tend to come and go, but it is this pair that have kept the music, creativity and spirit alive within the group since its formation in 2001.

The roots of The Mars Volta can be found within the band At The Drive In. Due to creative difficulties Omar and Cedric left the group in 2001 to pursue another project, De Facto. De Facto was soon changed to The Mars Volta and four albums, a Grammy Award and a 'Best Prog-Rock Band of 2008' from Rolling Stone later, they release their fifth offering Octahedron.

With numerous frenzied live shows to their name and a combination of progressive rock, jazz, funk and latin influences intertwined into their music, a Mars Volta album is nothing short of a musical feast, laced with hidden intracies musically, lyrically and within the stories, ideas and methods behind the process and development of the record itself.

Octahedron makes a bold statement in The Mars Volta discography as with it, Omar chose to adopt a new strategy. Once the tracks were cut he decided to step away, rather than feverishly adulterating the tapes with the mosaic of overdubs and FX that typically aid him in the realisation of his concepts. He also pared the band down to a 6-piece lineup, asking Hinojos and Terrazas to leave, both of whom did so amicably.
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