Tales of hex and drugs
AMERICAN prog rock band The Mars Volta has warned Australian fans about playing with black magic.
On the eve of an Australian visit, founding member and frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala says the group has encountered some "very bad experiences" after messing around with a ouija board bought in a curio shop in Jerusalem last year.
"I don't advise young Australians to mess around with that kind of stuff," he says.
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"Do not get involved with it blindly. We did and something bad was born."
According to Bixler-Zavala, after using the ouija board the sound engineer working on the band's album, The Bedlam in Goliath, refused to hand over new recordings and then suffered a mental breakdown.
"In addition to that, the studio that we were working in suddenly flooded twice and then songs just somehow disappeared off existing tapes," he says.
"Lots of weird unaccounted-for stuff happened."
The Mars Volta was formed in 2001 from the remains of the band At the Drive-in and is generally classified as a progressive rock act.
These guys certainly do not play by the rules and use elements of jazz, punk, psychedelic, funk, metal and Latin music in their distinctive sound.
Indeed, The Mars Volta rocks hard and is widely known for its wild, energetic, over-the-top and improvised live shows, as well as its usually concept-based studio albums.
The band's first album was the bizarrely titled How Do You Dub? You Fight for Dub. You Plug Dub in.
Other interestingly titled albums from the prolific eight-piece include De-Loused in the Comatorium, Frances the Mute and Amputecture.
Bixler-Zavala says the act got its name from a book by noted movie director Federico Fellini about the art of film-making.
Indeed, The Mars Volta seems fascinated by movies - the music that the group uses to introduce live shows comes from the spaghetti western classic A Fistful of Dollars and the cult film A Clockwork Orange.
The band plans to release a big-budget movie about its on-the-road exploits soon.
"I hope most of all that our sense of humour and love of fun comes out in it," Bixler-Zavala says.
"In a lot of ways people don't realise we are really like that pretend band Spinal Tap.
"Many times we have been lost backstage at a show trying to find our way to the stage."
The singer says he is a big fan of Australian films.
"I really liked the film Rabbit-Proof Fence and Chopper," he says.
"Nick Cave's film, The Proposition, was a classic.
"I would go to see any movie that guy wrote. He is a huge inspiration for us in The Mars Volta with his music as well."
Bixler-Zavala says he is also a longtime fan of television time traveller Doctor Who.
"We incorporate characters from the show in our backdrop on stage and play the show's theme song all the time at the end of our concerts."
The frontman says the band hopes to avoid using a big record company to release their next CD.
"I hate that whole thing where the record companies tell you which day is free for your album to be released," he says.
"As if music fans care what day it is released.
"To be not allowed to release an album because it does not fit into the major spending plans of a leading supermarket chain really sucks.
"It destroys all the creativity and joy that goes into making it.
"Fitting in with the corporate structure really stops the momentum and the whole project can turn rusty and flat very easily. We are seriously looking at our options at the moment.
"The way music is sold nowadays, who knows what format it will come out in?"
At one stage of their career various members of The Mars Volta had severe drug addictions and alcohol problems and were widely known for their "risky" behaviour.
While on tour in the US with close friends the Red Hot Chili Peppers, band member Jeremy Ward was found dead in his hotel room from a heroin overdose.
Bixler-Zavala says The Mars Volta members now steer well clear of hard drugs.
"We don't touch opiates any more and actually exercise all the time," he says.
"Now, honestly, one of my favourite things to do is just go skateboarding after the show."
The members of The Mars Volta are keen to get back to doing live work after spending considerable time in the recording studio.
"We have not toured solidly for about two years now, so we are all really fired up to play well. Australian audiences have always been good to us," he said.
The Mars Volta plays the Forum on June 23. Tickets on sale April 16 on 132 849.
