On the heels of their creative resurrection with 2022's self-titled comeback record, The Mars Volta's latest project finds its two co-stars, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala exploring their personal history. A documentary, which was first released last year and directed by Nicolas Jack Davies, reveals much about their origins and the struggles that the two encountered on the road to forming preceding band, At the Drive In, before re-emerging as prog-metal monolith, The Mars Volta.
The documentary, named 'Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird' is currently showing at select US cinemas from the 20th November with UK dates to follow. In an interview with The Guardian, Bixler-Zavala says; “Most music documentaries just tell you, ‘They made this album and then they became famous and then tragedy struck, this documentary is about the humanity behind all of that. It shows people being honest about their insecurities and vulnerabilities and how that affected the way they treated each other.”
A major facet of the documentary is the pair's cultural identity, with Omar Rodriguez-López's Puerto Rican origins and Cedric Bixler-Zavala's Mexican family heritage being instrumental factors in the pair bonding. It was pivotal in them forming a band in the first place, and suffused their genre-melding music. It's a must-watch for fans of the band's sterling back catalogue.
In the documentary, the pair also discuss the difficulties of fitting into an alternative rock scene which back then had some - in their experience - unfavourable characteristics; "Coming up in the punk scene, there’s this promise of hope and joy, but we found the world we were in to be very sexist and homophobic. Back at that time, Rolling Stone was promoting Limp Bizkit and Korn, two overtly misogynist bands," said Rodriguez-López
The duo weren't fans of the aggressive slam dancing that many in their audiences engaged in either, “I found myself in a space with the kind of dumb jocks I tried my whole life to avoid," Rodriguez-López bemoaned. The documentary also touches on the duo's fall-out and Bixler-Zavala's membership of the Church of Scientology which complicated their relationship, before re-uniting for their triumphant sixth record.
Though a fascinating insight into the band, the documentary is haunted by the loss of no less than 16 of their friends, band and family members, many at very young ages. On that subject, Omar is sanguine; “People say, ‘Oh my God, there was so much loss in your life when you were young. I’m so sorry,' I say to them, ‘why sorry? I got to know these people, if only for a short time. And, from them, I got to know very early the value life has.”
Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird is currently playing in select US cinemas, with UK dates to be added. More information can be found here
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