Cedric - Fall 2002

The Mars Volta is:
[Cedric Bixler Zavala] - Vocals
[Omar Alfredo Rodriguez-Lopez] - Guitar
[Jon Philip Theodore] - Drums
[Juan Alderete] - Bass
[Isaiah Ikey Owens] - Keyboards

"We're a rock'n'roll band who wants to be a salsa band" - Omar

When [Cedric Bixler] and [Omar Rodriguez] left At the Drive-In, there was never a question whether or not they'd keep playing music together. They wanted to expand their dub side-project, De Facto, with more of rock influence. They teamed up with De Facto keyboardist [Ikey Owens] and De Facto engineer [Jeremy Ward], as well as drummer [Jon Theodore] and bassist [Eva Gardner] to form The Mars Volta.

On their first tour in the fall of 2001 they got very mixed reactions on the sound and the material. Some people expected another ATDI, some just wanted to see what the buzz was about, and a whole lot of people wondered who the freaks with the afros were and why headliners, The Anniversary, weren't playing yet. With a less than apparent "sound", more often improvised than not, and without clear beginnings or ends of songs, The Mars Volta was a disappointment to some, but won the hearts of many more.

Original lineup - April 2002

After the band toured Europe in spring of 2002, they teamed up with producer Alex Newport (who had produced ATDI's Vaya) to record what was to become the Tremulant EP. By early 2002, the buzz was going around that The Mars Volta was like a bomb ready to explode. After the successful European tour and a quick trip to Japan, Tremulant was released on Omar's label Gold Standard Labs, and most skeptics were quickly silenced. With the three song, 19 minute EP, The Mars Volta made a clear statement of what they were all about, and what was to come. They also laid a clear connection between the EP and an upcoming LP.

This Aint No Picnic - Oct 2002

Not much was heard from The Mars Volta during the following summer, but the fans were still adding up. The band played at Goldenvoice's Coachella Valley Festival in May, which was to be the last show with the band for [Eva]. [Ikey] also took a break, but would rejoin later.

The rest of the summer was spent writing new tracks, the band signed an album contract with Universal Records for their upcoming LP, De Facto was seen playing with The Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Fruiscante, Omar finished up a film project, and a short tour was scheduled for the fall of 2002, including Goldenvoice's This Ain't no Picnic Festival in Irvine. For this tour, [Linda Good] filled in on keyboards and [Ralph Jasso] played bass.

After the short tour, [Ikey] was back and the band entered the studio with Rick Rubin (Red Hot Chili Peppers, Run DMC, System of a Down) for their debut LP, De-Loused in the Comatorium, due out June 24th, 2003. The album would have [Flea] playing bass on all tracks (exluding Televators) and would even feature John Frusciante playing guitar on Cicatriz ESP. After finishing the record, the band supported the Red Hot Chili Peppers throughout the spring of 2003. [Jason Lader] played bass on the European part of the tour, but [Juan Alderete] took over after they landed in the US.

Jeremy - Spring 2003

During a break from the Chili tour, tragedy struck the band as [Jeremy Ward], sound manipulator, was found dead in his apartment on May 25th, just under a month before the album release. He was 27 years old. The Mars Volta canceled the second leg of the tour and took some time off to spend with their families and friends. The album was released on schedule. However, they were back on tour by the next week with their old friend Paul Hinojos from At the Drive-In filling in for Jeremy. All summer of 2003 was spent touring. The hype was relentless. Their only break from touring was spent putting the finishing touches to their book, written by Cedric and Jeremy, that explained what De-Loused in the Comatorium was based upon.

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