RC: Yes indeed Rock Circus has come here once again to Club Laga,
we've been here so many times. We're here to chill with the
lead vocalist of this band, The Mars Volta, a band I've really
been digging. The CD is great I'ld like to congragulate you
guys on such a good job, it's really fresh stuff.
Cedric: Thank you very much.
RC: You've worked hard towards this. I kind of read about the CD
title, De-Loused in the Comatorium, which I found kind of odd.
But it's a tribute to a friend of yours that passed recently,
or a few years back?
Cedric: A few years ago.
RC: One of your members just died recently?
Cedric: Yeah
RC: I'm sorry to hear that, my deepest condolences.
Cedric: Thank you.
RC: Jeromy Ward
Cedric: Yeah
RC: So tell me about your friend that just passed, what made you
write a CD to tribute him? I mean what kind of a person was he
to influence you like that.
Cedric: He was our mentor. He taught us everything that created what
we are today basically. I think our asthetic as far as artists
are concerned, the applification of the non-musician and the
true definition of what we believe to be punk rock music. Which
means to throw out all the rules and not to have a uniform and
not to copy what the bands look like, but to have them
influence you and not be carbon copies of what's out there.
Which is what I think is a lot of the problem with rock music
today, is that people don't know how to take influence and
influence them. They become exactly what they see, they become
parodies. And our friend Julio, he taught us that anything from
Lenny Bruce to King Crimson to The Swans to Andy Coffman to
Sylvia Plaft, is pretty much considered, it's an example of
punk rock music.
RC: Not so much the American version that everybody gets caught up
in. You kind of stepped out with that with your former band At
the Drive-In, but I read that you guys didn't want that kind of
stamp so you just kind of threw that aside and came up with The
Mars Volta. Which was really cool.
Cedric: Julio is just an example of a starving artist, someone who
was always struggling. And when your struggling I think your
art shows, and he was a living walking embodiment of what art
is or it should be. So therefor it is our going away present to
him, and what better way to give someone a present than to have
a whole album about them.
RC: It's a great tribute. Kind of reminds me of Pink Floyd, when they
did their thing for Syd Barret, Shine on you Crazy Diamonds. Was
that a little bit of the idea, that you got?
Cedric: Well he's our Syd Barret. But yeah, Syd Barret's an
influence so definatley, but we don't want to rip off Floyd or
anything.
RC: Oh you don't, by no means is this a rip off of Floyd. You guys
are very original, very inovative, and probably the most
prolific band to come out this year, and that's no bullshit.
I'm serious, this is some good stuff.
Cedric: Thanks
RC: You went to Rick Rubin's place to record, how did that happen?
How did you hook up with Rick, what kind of a guy is he like?
Cedric: He's a sweetheart, very soft spoken human being, who knows
how to criticize you without hurting your feelings. Most
producers kind of tear you apart and you never wanna play music
again. Rick's just a gentle man and we met him cuz he was a fan
of At the Drive-In. He started coming to shows and he wanted to
help out. We got to know him at his house and we asked if we
could do it at the old Houdini house.
RC: Which is supposedly haunted from what I read.
Cedric: Yeah
RC: Did you feel a presence or something there? Did you see anything
wierd?
Cedric: Just the opening of doors by themselves, and windows, and
vibrations are there on the album.
RC: Yeah, it kind of comes through. What's the story behind that,
does Rick know?
Cedric: Does he know about what?
RC: The ghosts
Cedric: Oh well, Houdini's house is across the street and his wife's
house is the house where we recorded it at, and where I did all
the vocals. It's where they had all the seances every Halloween
to try to...
RC: To bring Harry Houdini back.
Cedric: So that's one story. But also it's a house that Hendrix,
Beatles, Zeppelin, The Doors, The Band, you know everyone has
probably stayed there cuz of the whole area of Laurel King, so
it has a lot of rock history.
RC: Oh yeah, very cool. You brought in Flea and John Frisciante to
play a little on this. Did Rick bring them in or are you guys
friends with them? He's in the video.
Cedric: Yeah, we're friends with them and they just helped us cuz we
needed someone last minute. He did it all in three days, John
just got off the plane and...
RC: He just played on one track?
Cedric: Yeah he played on one track. He does like on Ciciatriz ESP,
when it breaks down in to this ambient part, he does a lot of
the affected parts. And he also does a dueling solo, it sounds
so funny dueling solo, but he does like a dueling thing with
Omar on there.
RC: Like doubles it out?
Cedric: Yeah, he just got off the plane, came over, and I watched
them do it. It was fun.
RC: Is it fascinating to watch Rick work with the board and pull
stuff out of you guys? were you really floored as opposed to At
the Drive-In stuff, was this stuff that really took you over?
Cedric: Rick is more a preproduction guy. There was other people
that were behind the board, but it was primarily like Omar
behind the board. It was a colaberation of producers really.
RC: Which is quite good if the label lets the guitar player do some
production.
Cedric: Well he knew what we wanted and Omar is just very good with
a lot of that stuff. So Rick's very good with preproduction,
organization of the song, telling you if the paintings crooked
or not from the back of the room. I mean he's really good with
the vocal stuff and kind of honing the common man's ear in to
what we do, or every song would be fifteen minutes long.
RC: That's one thing that I wanted to mention, your songs are a
little longer than rock standard format now. How do you plan to
overcome that barrier? Do you think that the music will just
eventually soak through or will you release radio edits like a
lot of other groups do.
Cedric: Yeah, we do radio edits simply just to keep the powers that
be happy, keeps the money flowing for us, for whatever money we
need. But live that's our medium you know, and everything
stretches out. It always changes, the songs don't sound the
same and that's what keeps it interesting, and that's why every
show is an individual show on to itself.
RC: Is your label Golden Standard?
Cedric: That's Omar's label. He runs it with this guy named Sunny K.
He was a silent partner at first and then he bacame more
visible, and now he and Omar Rodriguez run it.
RC: A lot of acts on there. I was on the site today, I saw The
Locust, and a bunch of other cool acts.
Cedric: Kill Me Tomorrow, Pow Pow Pow's (!!!'s) first record,
Outhud's first record, Defacto record, a bunch of other stuff.
I can't think off the top of my head, Go Go Go Airhsart, a lot
of great bands. A lot more of the underbelly of the not so
popular side of post punk and any other style of punk music I
guess.
RC: Stuff that don't sound like Blink 182.
Cedric: Stuff that definately has nothing to do with those bands.
RC: When you see those bands is there..., do you give them like dirty
looks, I wonder?
Cedric: No, no, you know they're people too, they do their style.
RC: They sold their sole.
Cedric: (smiling) They do their style and we do ours. I could spend
all my time with negative energy saying insults about their
music but that's fine, that's what they wanna do, at least
there's that you know. But we just provide a different choice
for people.
RC: Which is great. Are you pretty popular in the UK, in the Eastern
hemispheres.
Cedric: Some parts
RC: You hit there first, I would imagine, right?
Cedric: We did states first with this band on our own, we did a band
tour. We didn't sell anything no shirts, no stickers, no
anything, it was just music. We just wanted to get to know
eachother musically, see who worked in the band or not. Did it
in the band and then jumped out with a band called Asabi Fab in
Europe, and another band called The Apes from DC and did a
European tour in a van. When we did the Red Hot Chilli Pepper
dates we got in to a bus and did it with a bus and, with this
round we have a crew and people helping us.
RC: How were you recieved by the Chilli Pepper fans.
Cedric: Europe is good, the states is different, the states is...
RC: People got that kind of arrogance, we're here to see the Chilli
Peppers...
Cedric: Well yeah, it's umhhh..., when you're a popular band of that
magnitude you're always gonna attract the spring break, Daytona,
Real World, Road Rules, type crowd.
RC: Europeans are more open.
Cedric: Way more open.
RC: I think that's part of the problem with the radio monoploies that
are going on in the United States right now. I know the station
in town hates me so I don't really care, but I say what the
truth is.
Cedric: We totally dislike it or are disgusted by Clear Channel but
it's hard to get around them.
RC: You can't.
Cedric: You can't, it's like the McDonald's of rock music, and
they're as evil as McDonald's, if Nazi like. They're a
completely horrible organization, they're very mob like. If you
ever realize it, but songs like Imagine or Bullet to the Head
are not allowed to be played because they want people to be
frenzied, in a state of war. That's Clear Channel you know.
It's a lot of right wing, I wouldn't be surprised if they had
ties with the KKK. But you know it's impossible to get around
that because they own everything, you know.
RC: You see I think they're a little more arrogant, I just think
they're neo-nazis and that's that.
Cedric: Minus the sheets right.(laughing)
RC: Yeah exactly. The first video you did off of this was
Inertiatic ESP, why did you pick that track? Was it just
because it was the lead off track or was that the favorite
track of the band, or the suits?
Cedric: We didn't, it's the suits.
RC: What's your favorite?
Cedric: Drunkship of Lanterns
RC: I like that, that's a nice one. So when you're out doing the
vocals or the lyric, do you have the lyrics already written
before the music or does that come as you hear the music, track
by track?
Cedric: Yeah, I always add-lyb. I don't ever sing anything concrete
until it gets closer to the deadline and we have to do the
stuff. Omar has everything written pretty much and then we take
it to Theodore, John Theodore our drummer, and he disects it
even more. And then it becomes its own little walking monster.
But yeah, it's always music first, and then the story got put
together bit by bit, even when the record was finished. It's
easier to put all the gaps in, put the cement between the
bricks, so music first.
RC: So you think you're boys smiling on from beyond, here's my boys.
Here it is the name of the CD is De-Loused in the Comatorium,
which I think I've been a few times, I'm not sure. I'ld like to
thank Cedric for coming on the show, wish you the best of luck,
we dig the CD.
For More Info Go To www.themarsvolta.com
For More Info Go To www.goldstandardlabs.com
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