Omar Rodriguez-Lopez isn’t happy. It’s 7am in Los Angeles and the soft-spoken guitarist and creative force of The Mars Volta has just flown in from Europe the day before; is still overcoming his jetlag and has several other interviews lined up. From the outset Omar is in an unreceptive state of mind, stating Los Angeles as “not a place he likes to be”.  Cautiously I tread and try to find out what’s going on in his head, his band, and playing a festival that he loves, namely the Big Day Out.

It’s clear that if I don’t make a positive impression soon the whole interview might go down in flames. I assure Omar that instead of being interviewed by just another journalist that read the press release he is, in fact, speaking to an admirer of his work. That changes his mood. “I’m barely waking up now”, he nervously laughs and seems more relaxed after this.

The Mars Volta recently selected their own line-up for the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in England, which featured such diverse acts as The Locust, Diamanda Galas, Dungen and Mastodon. “It was great, all our friends and a lot of bands we really respect were there. It was an overwhelming experience”

The Mars Volta will be heading to Australia in early 2006 as part of the Big Days Out. When asked what the band wants to do in their days off Omar replies “I’ve been working for five years straight pretty much, I might take it easy in Australia because it’s such a nice place to be”. The band also recorded parts of Frances The Mute in Sydney and Byron Bay when they were here in early 2004. “Last time on our days off we were working and recording the whole time. I think I’d just like to enjoy it this time”. When I suggest that he should spend a week lying on a deserted beach somewhere Omar chuckles “I know, that was the torturous part of our last record, we were in Byron Bay at the beach and had to go to work at about three in the afternoon”.

The Mars Volta is a band you need to see live before you can form an opinion. Many people love their shows, however at times they have been called pompous.  On the subject of live performances I ask how far do they go to put on a good live show. “It’s conscious and it’s not conscious. I don’t know if it’s a matter of trying to put on such a great show, it’s a matter of us trying to do our best at that moment and play with the feeling that we may never play again.” Omar says.

Further on the subject of their live shows Omar adds, “We’re all really disciplined when we’re playing. With other people (other bands) they can enjoy the day, drink and then go on stage and play a show, it’s kind of a side-note to everything else. For us playing is everything. We try and save our energy and respect the music. We put all our efforts towards the shows. We’re not machines either, we get caught up in this thing where people say ‘You’re a live show this and a live show that’ and then other people say ‘I went to see them at this show and they weren’t that lively, what’s the deal?’ ”. Omar bluntly states, “For people it’s just one night in their town, for us it’s months and months at a time of touring and trying to make every show the best it can be. Obviously they can’t all be winners”.

The Mars Volta is a band that is constantly evolving, two studio albums and a live album into their career they are getting increased exposure by opening for bands such as System of a Down, with whom they recently toured the US with. “We didn’t know what to expect, we weren’t expecting anything. It seemed like we won some people over and put some people asleep. It was a bit of everything”.

Omar suddenly gets excited when I tell him that Iggy and the Stooges will be playing the festival too “Ooh great, it’ll be nice to see them again”. “When we run into each other (Iggy Pop) it’s always nice to hang out”. A band that he’s not too thrilled about that will be on the bill is Mudvayne. “Oh God…” is the only response I get and I quickly change the subject.

Everybody knows the story of At The Drive-In: the group disbanded right after the 2001 Big Day Out, three members went on to form Sparta, whilst Cedric and Omar formed The Mars Volta. Recently Paul Hinojos [ex Sparta] joined The Mars Volta as fulltime bass player, thus reuniting three childhood friends. Omar explains, “Paul left Sparta to be in this band so he’s been touring and recording. He is a member of The Mars Volta”.

To further clarify his relationship with ex- At The Drive-In members Tony and Jim, Omar admits “We definitely grew up together and we were put in a situation where; in El Paso, Texas; there weren’t many people willing to quit their jobs and go sleep in a van and starve and come back home with huge debts for four months at a time. I’ve known Paul and Cedric since I was 12, but the other guys, you know it was just the situation. It wasn’t like this band where I got to form the band and pick the people. It was just a different set of circumstances. We were never really friends”

The Mars Volta’s latest release, which is a live album called Scabdates, features tracks that were mainly from De-Loused in the Comatorium. When asked what material we can expect from their upcoming tour Omar explains: “We’re pretty much playing a mixture of everything. Our live record is just one-sided because it’s the first of probably many live records I’ll put out for this band. That one had stuff from Tremulant and De-Loused, it was pieces of new stuff I threw into old arrangements and was to some degree chronological.”

A lot of artists that play the Big Day Out love the fact that they have so many days off between the festival to relax and possibly sightsee a little. “I like it when we have our time off, going up the coast is always nice. Last time we had driving trips, instead of flying, like a lot of the other bands did. But I don’t think we have driving trips this time because of the way that our solo shows are set up”.

Omar admits that he was excited about coming back. The promoters asked: “You guys wanna come back to our show, we said ‘Sure’”. It’s as simple as that.

The Mars Volta will perform at all the Big Days Out:

20th Jan – Auckland
22nd Jan – Gold Coast
26th Jan – Sydney
29th Jan – Melbourne
3rd Feb – Adelaide
5th Feb – Perth

And you can catch their solo shows at:

24th Jan – Brisbane, The Arena
27th Jan – Enmore Theatre, Sydney
2nd Feb – The Palace, Melbourne