The Mars Volta

Cedric Bixler-Zavala:

In these songs, there are more direct expressions of what you’re supposed to be feeling. On a lot of other Mars Volta records, you’ll have that every once in a while. But more often you’ll have this total sci-fi riddle. Now I’m speaking about just the things that are happening.

—via The New York Times

Omar Rodríguez-López:

Being on tour with At the Drive-In for three years, playing way faster than we even do in Mars Volta and more aggressively, you know, it’s all the same frequencies, right? Two guitars, the cymbals and Cedric’s voice are all in the same frequency, fighting all night long, every day. With the exhaustion of the tour, I just started making tracks, and as I was saturated with this other thing, I wanted to do something else. For me, the most exciting new direction is something we haven’t done: to cut things down, to do our version of pop.

Once you give yourself the discipline to limit certain things, other things open up inside the track. Not everything needs to be playing all the time.

—via The New York Times

Omar Rodríguez-López:

We’ve been warning you guys, we were saying ten years ago that the most revolutionary thing we could do was make a pop record. We’re in our mid-to-late 40s and you can’t just still be doing the same shit, expecting to wear an old t-shirt that doesn’t fit any more.

—via The Quietus

Cedric Bixler-Zavala:

This is a heavy record. It’s therapy. I’m lucky enough to have someone like Omar in my life, to spearhead that and make it all happen. His patience and tenacity are so key to all this. I’m constantly in awe of how he does things.

—via Bass Magazine

According to Omar Rodríguez-López, the self-titled album is supposed to mark “a clean slate”.

Yes, Apple Music features animated artwork for this release.