What’s Up: Get To Know The Neon Desert Bands

By Ryan B. Martinez / What’s Up

The buzz around Neon Desert spiked when word got out that The Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala would join the band’s guitarist and mastermind Omar Rodriguez Lopez during his headlining slot.

Rodriguez Lopez was born in Puerto Rico but raised in El Paso. Having first made his name as a teen with At the Drive-In, his constant creative churn has produced five Mars Volta records (one of which won a Grammy in 2009) and a daunting discography of solo releases.

Whether they’re called The Mars Volta or The Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group with Bixler-Zavala as a guest, it’s all the same to Rodriguez.

“It’s the same energy, the same setup, the same everything. I don’t make a separation between the two,” Rodriguez told What’s Up in a phone interview. “Other people do that. Sometimes Cedric is singing and sometimes he isn’t. The Mars Volta is my baby. I lead the band. I generate the music, our tours, all of it. We don’t play ‘Mars Volta’ songs per se. What I’m saying is it all comes out of the same place; it all comes from the same center, all the same musicians, the same vision, the same atmosphere and environment. And it’s just that Mars Volta is my most commercial project. Think of it in terms not as a rock band but as an expressive piece, as a collective. I have a collection of musicians who play my music and we do it under different names, you know what I mean?

For Rodriguez, playing the Neon Desert Music Festival has special meaning to him.

“It’s the most special thing that could happen, next to playing in Puerto Rico or something like that. It all worked out pretty great and I’m not one of these people-it was hard for me to move away from El Paso,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of people have that attitude, ‘Oh, I gotta get out of here. I gotta go to Austin or L.A.’ I did it out of the necessities of what started happening with our band and all the touring we were doing. I always love coming back here. It’s one of the most special places on the planet. It’s hard to explain that to people. People don’t understand where El Paso’s beauty lies, especially when they’re just driving through. Just coming through on the 10, they can’t perceive how much this place has to offer.

Rodriguez’s musical output is not limited to The Mars Volta or The Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group. He’s put out so many solo records that he’s recently released “telesterion,” a 38-track compilation of his solo work. Rodriguez said being able to put out all the work he wants keeps him from going crazy.

” Being able to have an expressive outlet is what keeps me from madness. I think the only true nature of the human soul and the human spirit is to express itself and, by expressing itself, to grow – which is ultimately the challenge and the goal. If I wasn’t able to do this, I’d have to find another way to express myself,” Rodriguez said. “Some people do it through writing, some people do it through cooking, helping others, through warfare – the whole gamut of how people express themselves. This is one of the ways. That’s the most important. This is one of the ways that I’m able to express myself and analyze the world around me. There are many other ways; this is the way I’m known for outside of my private life.”

Rodriguez does just limit himself to the music studio and concert stage. He has taken to scoring films and has one very special fan in writer-director Guillermo Arriaga. The two worked together on “the Burning Plain,” which was filmed in southern New Mexico.

“This guy, Omar Rodriguez, is like something between Chopin and Jimi Hendrix,” Arriaga said in a 2009 What’s Up interview. “He is very talented. “You would never imagine that it’s this guy that plays this kind of very hard rock. It was mellow and beautiful music. We tried to make it eclectic. It’s not a typical score.” “The Burning Plain” is the second film Arriaga and Rodriguez have worked on together. The first, a Mexican film called “The Night Buffalo,” was based on a novel by Arriaga. Arriaga produced the film. “We became good friends,” Arriaga said. “Now, by obligation, he has to do the music of every film I direct.”

Leonard Martinez contributed to this report.

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