[Music] I mean the whole album start to finish I just want to say for the record before we even begin is incredible oh thank you like you've just put your Heart and souls into this record and it is such a beautiful Soulful listen but this one just I almost had to pull a car over you [Music] [Laughter] know it just must be so lovely to be able to construct having having made music to to have touched the void so
hard with what's possible as a band and as creatives to throw yourselves into the unknown to not know what steps you're going to take on stage in a studio it's going to come out it's just going to it's going to present itself to be able to actually make something that leans into Arrangement like that has Arrangement and it so you can feel that you're stretching out trying to press all my buttons and all our buttons that
Mak sense yeah it does it must have been really nice to just give into that and I know you have in the past but to just let the song Lead You in a weird way like that well a lot of it has to do with the inspiration and vision that he had really you know I mean we've had this conversation in 2008 you know where I was really kind of still in what people know Mars VTA to be and it's a hard thing to to break out of you know
and he was talking about like well how would you feel about you know approaching it more more like a pop thing and I just couldn't have that I couldn't our our version of a within the context of what we are well you didn't
even know what that would be at that point right but just the concept is a starting point yeah you know yeah so it's nice to be able to uh years later go oh that's what you mean like oh of course most of my collection is like is
that is is that it's it's the Sunday morning record you know you really need a lot of those and they help make validate that day and those feelings and anything that kind of like takes the air out of a room and makes you feel like you're in the trailer of your own movie that's I think that's proper pop music that's so beautifully described you know I I wonder where the part of that resistance that you had early on that or
not even resistance just like inability to comprehend what Omar was saying whether I was responsible for a bit of that not to be arrogant but by by by me I mean fans by all of us we embraced Mars VTA for what you'd given us at that time and I we didn't want anything less than that do you know what I mean and the trade is weird does it kind of with your head a little bit knowing you've made something that moves us so much sometimes even you
not not sure if you can break free of it oh God it's just strange the whole relationship with the fact that someone's going to listen to it cuz I mean at the beginning it was like let's just make stuff that makes us happy and handing in like the first EP and our manager at the time John Silva was like one minute long intro of just like really and we were like yeah and to to even name check another person Gary gers who we were working with at
the time you know he was explaining like you can't really choose your audience your audience chooses you but then in my my head because I think we've grown up with so many people saying no to us in artistically it was like okay this is how you get your own audience you you be really true to yourself and stubborn and then you just get used to doing that for years and years and years and then it's like you got to take a breath and do
something different I wish i' had been able to have that communication with them earlier but here we are I'm so glad you're here and by the way sometimes opportunity is wasted on the youth sometimes you got to mature into a place where the where the music is ready yeah and and if you try to make this who knows who knows what it would have been like yeah I don't know what I would have been able to sing about back then you
know I don't think I'd lived enough I mean I'm 47 but I I'm I have a lot more living to do but uh I don't think I've experienced a lot of um I mean you know those early records deal with loss and deal with suicide and stuff like that but I think they're sort of um masked by some sort of sci-fi weird you know lyrics you know cuz it's hard for me back then to just be so vulnerable and now I just find it like the best way to really access your artst
to not be afraid to cry and be in those situations and just be you know it's it's tough It's okay to make people feel uncomfortable because that's Humanity okay it's okay and it's so funny you talk about the concept of letting go because people always describe Mars vter and some degree at the drive-in is this like experience that was all about letting go and the freedom of energy and and everything else but looking back on
it now it was more about control in a strange way right it's like how do I control this narrative how do I control this situation and when I hear in these performances is to your point you let it all out man it's like was it an emotional record for you to perform for some of these I mean that song in particular I just started with SH story is like there's some heartbreaking imagery in that yeah it's you know he he would send me CDs
and you hear the paranoia in the lyrics yeah very much so and uh that has a lot the way we operated we didn't send anything online to each other was he sent me a compact disc player and CDs and and so I that's one of the first
things I heard was that that song was just like it just took the air out of the room and I felt like there I am I can picture this is this is some sort of Cinema and it always goes back to cinema I think with this band is like this
feels like the way I want my music to sound the way movies look and that's was like H there's that song So What is the scene the scene is uh the scene really is you know someone really expressing that just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not coming after me you yeah well we exist in a world where that is more and more present um you have to do is look at the news and feel that way it's it's not like you need any major
sort of to be a major conspiracist to feel like you're on the wrong side of the table a lot of the time um you do discuss that really really eloquently and beautifully on this record um but you needed the music to happen so how did you get to this place onar where you knew that your Ambitions to to take Mars VTA somewhere else could be could come true I don't know it's just one of those things where everything just starts to
line up you know and so it feels right so everything's happening it was just a matter of like when I might make tracks I'm not thinking of one project or the other I'm just making a lot of tracks because because I'm alive and that's happening and and then all of a sudden you know it's sort of just like throwing the things throwing the music at him and seeing his reaction to it like that's all I look for really you know what I
mean is to see what he gets excited about or what or even just if he walks by he goes oh what's that or if he asks a question about like oh you had that one thing you know and I sort of just compile all those and it just like he
was saying it all just lined up perfectly to where that's what we were going to be doing I guess guess I'm not being so eloquent right now but you are beautifully and and and what what I'm taking from it is um something that we
don't focus enough on in the creative process which is relationships we talk a lot about results yeah and process we don't focus enough on friendship and what this is in front of me here is like a real lifelong friendship that goes through ups and downs and and you can't come back together and be friends when you've had them falling out unless you're real friends right that's the mark of friend what it is right right
right right but I need to kind of get with your blessing a little bit of timeline going on here because well first of all I'm fascinated by breakups at all yeah I don't quite know why bands even have to say it like right you you came out of nothing right can't you just disappear back into so what was going through your mind when you actually kind of said to us nearly 10 years ago we are no longer a band just absolute dysfunction absolute lack of
communication uh the deterioration of of my faith sort of in the relationship and letting other people sort of try to steer me into the lead singer role of no you can do this on your own you could do this and you know and and people just really trying to um get a piece of the pie that they didn't help bake right you know and just um falling for manipulation really and um and just not being mature about it really you know I mean we we have a
very strong relationship and we usually tend to talk about any of our problems you know and at that particular time I think um it is life and it is the cycle of life and the cycle of death happening at the same at the same time and uh his mother was passing away and my kids were about to be born and there's this storm happening and I just handled it really poorly you know I handled it really really poorly and um and yet he towed
the line and never said anything you know just kind of like let me be really you know and yeah and and anyone should be so lucky to have true friendship that way you know cuz I think he understood that at the core of myself that there's no way like I hated him or anything like that I was just going through some just some messed up mental stuff really at the time and I just didn't handle it well Omar at that moment in time when
you have something which has it is Perpetual you get something like Mars VTA going on it's almost must feel at times like you could take your hands off the wheel and the thing will drive itself because we're all here we love you and the industry is making money they love you and all these things are like dude you're a thing now it exists you don't have to fight so hard you have to push so hard you got to do is just
keep being yourselves make music keep touring just keep doing what you dreamt of doing well what was going wrong for you at that moment in time why did it not make sense to you at that moment I don't know everything was pretty chaotic
like how he's explaining and to lose um literally the place that I come from um to lose my mother at the time um yeah just you know it's cliche or whatever but it's just it it put it prioritized everything it made things
that weren't important just drop off to the background and um like he's saying even though he was acting crazy I just more than anything more than to my ego to be offended or to like think about those types of things I just felt concerned for him because it it seemed out of character and it seemed like just you know it seemed absurd what was happening and so I was like okay there's something happening that's I worry about
him um because yes you bring more to the foreground when you experience a death like the people you care about you bring them to the foreground and you say like okay I want to be present for this um and allow him to go through whatever he
was going through you know the unfortunate part is that part like you're saying like industry and all these things you go and do an interview like they love to tell you negative things so because I don't read things
about ourselves and I don't put my name into the machine um then people want to say like oh well you know he Serv it and how do you feel about this thing he said right so there's a lot of gotcha going on yeah there was a lot of like always trying to get something and and my posture was um so rooted in in family and faith and these things that are important to me that to me my answer was always the same and it was always simple
there's nothing you can say that he said or there's nothing he can say that won't make me love him like this is you know what I mean this is like it's all just absurd and one day that will um will dissipate right and evaporate and then whatever is real is what will be left and that's worth talking about and that's worth preserving yeah and so yeah cuz you were in the macro when you were in the micro you were stuck in the
granula and all the all the all the high frequency I get it dude it's really hard to not be in that yeah I definitely went in the direction of of the the death of his mother really showed a lot of true colors and people that were in our organization as well you know and I went in that direction of caring about their needs which was like okay yes there's this happening to him but he's the leader and we got touring we need to do this we need to
keep doing that you know because I've got my stuff and it's just always um habitual just yeah you know so you think about like that too you go oh yeah what are we going to do for the next year or whatever you know and he wanted to do his other project at the same time which I would always give him his Blessing but then at the same time I wasn't cool with it you know I didn't really truly speak my mind on it you know and even in that
Venture with with Bosnia and Rainbow I think the roots of a lot of what the songwriting is now was taking form you know and it's a beautiful thing that happened you know that was a really cool band it's really it's it's it's a time in life you talked about it beautifully when he said you know the cycle of death and the cycle of Life all at the same time and um I actually found becoming a father more challenging than I'm finding
the passing of the people that and and everyone's circumstances are different like my mother's going through something right now and it's there's definitely a lot of grief going on but I I really like becoming a dad like kind ofed me up cuz I really had to like acknowledge my shortcomings and figure out who I wanted to be not who I'd inherited you know have you been on your own journey through that kind of experience I'm
still trying to figure out I'm still trying to unlearn all the stuff that affected me as a kid and not put that and it's it's difficult it's difficult because cuz men are usually taught not to do Embrace that stuff it's seen as a weakness or something you know and when I speak of the cycle of life and death you know I I have I have twins and I think naturally with twins they bicker and if I'm going to be trying to instill
peace in the house I have to be able to show by example that Dad can be peaceful and and understanding and open with his soul brother you know and they really just sort of put it all into perspective for me you know and and and as well as as my wife you know my wife was like he had written me a letter and and I was so like in that Persona of like him no I'm not going to read it and she was like no give him a chance read it read it you know and
um then he came over I remember one of one of the first times he came over and it was his reaction to um seeing my kids sorry no man this is life and um it just solidified you know it raced everything I thought you know and um him and Terry coming over and it was such an intense beautiful moment and I'll never forget it because that's like they brought us back together this is where the music comes from in the first place and then and then and
it's real life it's real life and we don't acknowledge it enough we sit there and and we look at these these this out and these songs and we embrace it and apply it and we move on and why this music is so special is because that emotion that's in the room right now is on this record you didn't resist it you didn't reject it yeah you embrace erased it and let it come out yeah it's really moving it's it's a moving album I love
it what was the first song you guys worked on that made it onto the record where did the music actually begin I mean technically you could say it's graveyard love but what's the what's the one when you came to my the spot on Echo Park and I just gave you the that one microphone and we just shot the oh uh and it just came out ceria then the the um if the was me yeah we he was in a house in in Echo Park and it was like um you had
everything kind of set up almost on the floor and stuff and then one of the songs came on and I think within a second I was like just stop and let's record the first reaction and I always do gibberish first and then try to form it into a sentence or a word and instantly it just all kind of came out right then and there and uh it was just one of those I always use the phrase but it's just one of those alchemical
obscurities of like Ah that's that lightning in a bot how can you not believe in the magic of Art and music how can you not when something like that happens and you've experienced this multiple times in your life now what is the latest in your understanding of what that is how and there's no right answer here because you probably never come to a full conclusion what's the closest thing you can you can that you've come to in understanding
what that experience feels like when it's not in your control like it's coming from somewhere else Al together it's some sort of communion with the idea of God I don't know what that entity is what it looks like whether it's female or male it's probably none of that so to be able to pull from it and not not just say it in cliche but actually feel it you know when we we've said so many times you know a lot of times we're we're
antennas and we're a lot of that information especially for me it's it's constant in my head and so the beauty of his music is like a really good uh it it slows down everything and I'm able to go oh there like that that and then doing that I really feel a closeness with you know what I see Faith as being you know and I don't mean it in the organized religion sense because I think that's where it gets really messed
up and becomes you know consumerism and becomes just sort of like this open of the masses but I think through music when you hit those moments it's uh it's just communication with some version of God when you when it comes to making the music Omar and and you you talked before about just searching for that moment that inspires Cedric something that inspires you do you have a sort of environment in in either place that you call home that
that encourages that like do you need routine or space to be able to make the music that you that that that you make oh no no because it's more like he says like the antenna I feel like I'm just called upon and I either answer the call or I don't I either choose to sit down and write it down or or like just put it down in some way or I go eat something you know or I go or I go watch a movie or something but you know what Neil
Young said something to me once which was awesome which he said was I never don't heed the call he goes like I could be at something that is so important to the people I love the most in the world and if if it strikes me I have to just leave and go and focus on it for as long as I need to and I said man that you how do people relate to that and he's like well they know me and they know this is who I am and what's going to happen how do you like
you must just he the core otherwise you just become obsessive wouldn't you what you're missing and what's not there not really because it's just happening all the time so it's like oversaturation and it's sort of like um I don't know just family's really important to me so I can't imagine just I mean sometimes sure but in general I consider it I consider that my relationship with everyone and my father and my brothers and my mother and like
my culture like all these things are actually what opens my mind wide enough to just to receive the call and to have it be so much all the time so for me it's the opposite I think there's something really nice about saying like no I I have a life also you know what I mean and I have to live a real life because that's also I I understand his point I also think it's sort of like this mythology of um of artistry and I
also think it just the there's the the line is about uh selfishness like how can you really be a real person if all the time everyone you're around all the time has to like be on it oh no no he's got to go create it's very important you
know and like um I don't consider it's so important it's sort of like it's happening with or without us and if I don't grab the idea someone else will grab it and I'm okay with that and I figure the ones that are um that are
really uh there's a SP saying in Spanish that uh roughly translated is like uh um uh the grass that is meant for you no other cow could eat or something it doesn't sound as nice in English but but my my my point I I I want to make is is is that um that what's meant for you is meant for you and that there there's not this necessity to um consume everything all the time you know and it's a hard thing to break away from because that's
our nature as an organism that has like this self-aware intellectual part of it right that that's that mortality and all these things so it's like okay let me just consume as much as I can most of the time you have hry H H exactly right
and so like in doing that you you you lose out on a whole bunch of other things just like in worrying about certain problems you lose out on the ability to be open to like to see the solution and things like this so I
figure the more time I spend uh alive as a person with meaningful relationships and giving and taking and and uh like when you also have to like like yes I'd rather do this thing but uh but I know it's important to this person that I do this other thing so I'll go to this sacrifice right right like unless you're living a full robust life like that I think the the the amount of like your antenna or whatever just sort of starts
to close up because then it's all becoming about you and I I'm not interested in that I'm interested sort of just in the creative spirit and my relationship to it in in that way but um but uh but yeah yeah I don't know how else to explain it no it's beautiful and it makes sense as well when you trace it back to that moment when you were more concerned about Cedric's well-being than you were necessarily about like the
architecture of the band or what it was or any of that stuff that that was the least important it was like if the band went away and never happened again it would like that would just be what happened you know what I mean like that you feel the same did you feel the same way when like when you were really young like when at the drive-in broke up did you feel the same way then were you more were you as philosophical then as you
could be at that moment in your life I guess so because I don't know philosophical were but but it was definitely just this thing about uh about feelings and it just that's why the decision to leave the B it just felt wrong and it wasn't there was something that wasn't uh holistic about the experience that that what I was doing could mirror um how I was living or vice versa that how I was living was being mirrored by the experience that I was
having artistically or as a career or whatever else and so like The Human Experience and the the actual lived life experience will always come first it's so hard to explain to people who haven't got to this that point in their life's journey they can understand what we hopefully will all understand which is that yeah right but when you're young and you're like look it doesn't feel right and it's not holistic for me and
then you've got other people around you going yeah but there's so many other reasons for us to stay together it's working we're just breaking through we're getting booked there's money all these things that I've dreamed of are happening and then you sort of are like meditating through this experience going I can't do it that's kind of you got to be brave I don't know if you want to be called that but there's a bravery to it
because well 20 years ago that mental health was not a topic matter in rock music it was like shut up get up on stage you should be so lucky that people even care about that and it's like we're human you know and that's exactly what
it was we were we were exercising a rule at the drive-in had had at the time which is like if this feels like it's not there if someone's got an issue with it are you burnt out you know like mental health and we we hit the mental
health button you know and everyone around us freaked out about that because it's very true there is their perspective to consider yes you work so hard to get to this point right but I'm human you know I I'm if I'm a cell phone I have not been plugged in and recharged properly and if I get on stage that's going to live forever that meltdown and great for you guys oh on YouTube let's watch that BL moment you know right but
for us it's we're human no yeah that's it's the strongest thing to be able to say like we it's it's about here and here right now and this doesn't feel right Zay Zay in the same way it could be see sorry just the counter what you
were saying about like about uh about H what's the word you use about bravery it could also be seen as an act of cowardice as well because it was like the greatest fear is to like go down that path that you see that will lead to
self-destruction so I was like I would rather do anything else than to put myself in that position you know what I mean so you're like you can act out of fear and it can still be a positive thing as long as you've broken down the elements holy I got to drop one you want to hear it but this is a rare thing I had to drop a bomb on that because that is like like that is something I've never thought about right I'm I'm very committed to the
conversation I'm someone who suffered from mental health I wasn't strong enough as a kid to talk about it openly but I do now in any opportunity I can and have had some really amazing experiences diving into this from an artistic point of view I feel that's like like my calling now at this point in my life for 49 is to do something like that the way you just position that as cowardice is super interesting to me because we
always talk about like be brave take it hit on no it's okay to run away from that fear yes it's actually probably the smartest thing you could do yeah people always tell you like don't be a quitter don't be a quitter you know and it stays in here and you're psyching you go God God I don't want to be a quitter and look at the men in my family before then they didn't quit and they went through crazier stuff with out cell phones and
this and this convenience and all this stuff like we talk about right but that can be the best ally you have is to pay attention to that intuition that voice in your head that says take a break or just leave that's normal it's also wired in our organism right it's like our ancestors was like oh that bush is moving it's probably something that wants to kill me I'm going to run you know what I mean I'm going to go here I
heard this sound totally no this I mean still we have a I go out in the country quite often like in the middle of nowhere and as soon as I hear a russle in the bush right man it's that FAL flight kicks in distinctively it's like what am I going to do exactly it's here but it's survival it's like you know and then there's other things that are like maybe going into the cave that you feel differently about that does require a
certain amount of bravery and just saying okay I must go into the darkness to find a certain element you know that that I am afraid of but I think it's the ability to be able to break them down and to not feel um uh shame that's the
word I was and to not feel shame or guilt for that well those are the two most destructive words in the human glossery in the human vernacular of Shame and guilt those are the killers they'll kill you they'll kill you right
right like if you let them dominate your life it ends with death right one way or the other um so okay what is a band then if if we are just that organism that ultimately is still afraid of the dark and not sure what that rustle in the bushes is and we're and we're looking to try and find ways to to to grow past that what is what role does band what role does the bar the artist play what have you learned about that experience
of going into a room of 5,000 people with amplification and lights and people screaming and energy and sweat off the walls and what is that people are looking for some relief people are looking to sometimes attach something that helps
them decorate time and I think music is the best way to decorate time with you know what it also is it's an unfiltered message that can't be altered it can't be altered and dude lyrics on this record no one could tell
you what to say I mean you said some on this record right and and if if if there were PE there were a lot of people out there I'm sure who would love to have told you what to say and you didn't so it is unfiltered by its very nature and unfiltered experience you could apply that to a lot of what has happened like even from out the driveing even and to people's favorite musicians that were in the band like don't stay from from that
stay of that you know and you just got to pay attention like both perspectives are it's not working so why put me your mental health at risk so that you can have a YouTube moment and see your favorite artist have a breakdown on stage you know if people don't work it don't work but and a lot of the times people will have that really strange stereotype of like well it's the tension that works and that's what we like
hearing it's like oh that's cool foric buy we're in the bus with these people you know and if we're not getting along we're not getting along and I don't want to force I was talking to my friends who are DJs about this right cuz when I was DJing a lot for 10 years I was doing a lot of touring as a DJ and we were told the whole time you guys won the lottery you know you guys won the lottery you get to go up on stage play records get
paid you get drinks and I was saying man what what people didn't realize was that every one of those kids who shut up at a club got went back to work the next day and got back into some regular routine the DJ went off into night after night 250 shows going on at 1: in the morning and what it entails right the reality of reality the whole day the whole thing yeah you can make your bed man but you know it's it's a it's it's a heavy it's
a heavy existence and I think we have to acknowledge it because otherwise it's just an unfair trade M it's just an unfair trade real talk why did you guys I mean was it okay let me start with a positive was the at the driving reunion fun for you I think at first it was but then you know it kind of like it it had a lot of Unsolved issues from from back then mainly the main one being like we were uh following the guidelines of the
mental health rule we had placed for each other and uh some of you guys didn't really follow that and you went and sought some people sought the advice of pop stars who I had no Affinity with and those pop stars were like no stay stay the course and I just thought well there's another reason why I don't like your music or you as a person cuz you don't understand the human part of it yet your music tends to bring people
together and say hey take care of that part of your life but you know you guys stay in the job stay in the job um so it was a lot of unresolved issues and we had to come and sort of like say look like we're starting over again and it
wasn't it really wasn't easy you know because I mean especially the way we told everyone how we were breaking that band up you know there was a Jim was getting married at the time and for us it was like we had been holding on to
this like no there is a mental health issue I understand it's probably a up time to tell you this right now you're getting married but we're leaving you know like no one had our back in the band at the time so it might seem really messed up that we're doing this at this opportunity but for us we're saving ourselves here and we have to say it now or you're going to find out some other way and you know we'd rather be adults
about it so that that was still there on the table when the band got back together for sure you know that kind of like um untrustworthiness you know and um and the trauma of how everyone experienced it all around it's a trauma thing right we're actually quite simple creatures yeah and you know we we store these things and you know I'm such a fan of therapy because it just it is the great unraveling of those things you
know what I mean and and especially when you know music is is is the reason that it happened it's the magical sh that only happens when you all come together whether it's Mars of alter or you know it's at the driver and any of the the projects you work on it's the music but the people who make it we bring all of that us we we sure do and it's it sticks with you if you never resolved it and then you try to get in a room and say
like hey let's let's try to do it again like you really that was our original Hometown gang so we have to go back and be like look we don't hate each other we have had issues I think we can resolve them and it was a lot harder than it seemed and I think in trying to do that I wasn't even um aware of one of the biggest issues was between him and I really at the time you know so here I was trying to repair and help repair
these relationships and give advice and stuff when I didn't have my personal together which is really I mean he had his together a lot going through what he was going through but um it was almost like I'm going to sound like a
hippie now but it's like the universe is going no this is the time to try to repair this and it wasn't easy it wasn't uh it was fun but um and it was emotional but it wasn't easy you know it's it's a lot of rock musicians are
magnets for dysfunction you know and our therapy is is the performance and that do that's not always good therapy you know it's it's not always going to fix it Primal scream therapy only works so much yeah you know you got to try the other avenues you got to get to what happened to you as a kid yeah you got to look it's the work that's the thing and that's what you said before we talked about Parenthood right there's no there
is no replacement for the work I remember when I sat down my therapist and it was I was in the worst place ever I mean the first time I ever did therapy was awesome and I sat down and I was just broken and he said to me you don't mind me sharing D and and he and he said to me he said what do what do you want and I said I just want to go back back like I want to go back like I don't want to be here like can I just rewind and
just go back to what it was when I had while I Wasing clueless that was what was in front of me you know what I mean and he said you got you got I got good news and I got bad news the bad news is you're here there a no going back like I'm really sorry but this is it like starting lines only you know what I mean but he said if you stick it out and if you trust the process and you and you let meing help you and you do the work
I'll never forget it if you do the work Harding work straight up guy guy from The Southern States of America guy old guy called Charlie if you do the work Zan you'll come through the other side and and four years later I was like at a
point where I knew that I could actually start to rebuild and it was like it was a realing time there is no replacement for work and you're right reuniting beloved rock bands is not work it's not doing the work right it's a temporary
distraction like yay one arm scissor awesome not everyone has the money to buy a life coach like Metallica does and that's beautiful that they could do that cuz you know and then they you know at the end they end up not wanting to work with them anymore and they're like okay we we got a little more you know can we just acknowledge that that's one of the greatest documentary movies of alling time would delete that is my favorite yes
yes no one ever makes that b he would I would delete that I would say I would I I would say delete that I actually say that in my everyday life and one time I was in Copenhagen on a bus after a YouTu show we have a you our LZ is near far behind and L was on the bus with his dad and his dad just went to get up and I looked at him was I said be so proud of me I said to him I would delete that it's the most amazing reaction to
music I mean if you're ever going to be honest with someone you love do it like that yeah just straight into the point like his dad is cool we've met that guy and like he came to Volta shows dude people love the Volta hfield loves the VTA yeah that we we met them in New Zealand they came to our show and they were like are you going to play this song we're like no we don't play that anymore sorry and he's there I'm
like God we should play it for him at least did you play it no we didn't play we were very stubborn about where we were it was something from the first Records who we're like we're here now you know we understand people really
love that but we're very selfish like that that's what he would have wanted from but it was cool to meet them you know it was like wow I I was at one of their rehearsals once and they played that song they they yeah you know they
you're talking about n yeah yeah they you know how they like rehearse or just Jam before going on stage they played at the stadium like in walking distance from my house when I lived in me so they live right so they played right at Theos I think it was sorry if I got that wrong they're very particular about them uh uh but but so I walked up there got in and stuff and they inv invited me back there and then uh I could just see
them like Whispering something and yeah and then they played inertiatic wow crazy wow with L yeah crazy yeah it was it was really cool that's amazing with Lo it was really cool I mean I felt honor just to be back there cuz that's their like private time before they go on stage and the fact that they felt that they invited me yeah to be in their space was really like felt really beautiful you know and and just uh you
know we all grew up with that we all grew up with that stuff you know and it's the beauty of big day out bringing everyone together was it the best Festival it was there's no one touches that no more someone's got to do that
traveling Road show again you have two three days off he's going boat in Sydney it's beautiful man and the festival people more than anything right because they made it a point to like set it up so that you can like um spend time
together and get to know and the stages weren't gigantic and it was like you know the crowd was we would man we're good down there we love music down there and it was eclectic I mean I know things have gone more that way now but before festivals were very much one type of thing and big day was ahead of the game on that of just having all sorts of different types of artist I saw you at a big D in Orland that year and uh you
leveled the place I mean you you were I mean at that moment in time for that incarnation of the band it was like you guys were just like on the 100 foot wave I just felt like you were so and that's nice I was going to give
do my last impression I could could do my last impression so I was there when they were doing that movie I I came in to do some some EPK work for that album that was being finished I had no idea that they were doing a documentary and
they were like hey do you mind if we have some cameras around here and there's a life coach over there and I met Phil and and they only had Metallica only had two magazines in there in their kitchen one was fortune and the other one was spin I was like it's so perfect it's so perfect do we read about money or do we read about competition which one do we read about they are on that episode of billions seriously I saw that
going I don't really think that's that far off it's not a critique on them or anything of course not bro back then that's what were exactly changed now and I've met them many times since then and they are they've done the work they've done the work they've done the work they've done the work but back then they were at the start of the work and headfield would come in his dog would always roll in first and like scope the
place and then headfield would walk in it was like clock work and I remember Phil asked me if I wanted a session with him he's like you know I'm not just here for the band I'm happy to sit down talk through anything you got going on I'm like bro I don't know what I'm doing here I've been here four days I'm just waiting to talk toing rob you know in that moment and it's very different and I want to come back to this album
and the way it's going to be you know created in front of a crowd and and the whole the whole tone but when you're in that space when Mars VTA are in that space where it's all Instinct at that point on stage and it's just all feel what are you even conscious of if anything at all when I feel like your band is spiraling off into outer space from from the crowd it's what it feels like how are you even conscious of it
being a structured environment or are you just literally living for each moment each note each Nuance of what you're all doing in that moment in time waiting for to resolve itself being how is it the most present thing in the
world is my question yeah when when you were saying what is what do you I think it's just you disappear into the other person right into him into whoever is drumming it's like that you're so present and it's you're so in tune with
actually what's happening and life and actually listening and not that's the only time it works by the way right it's like you can only go there if if you're listening if you're not thinking about what it is think about your thing is right right if you're listening and you're just looking and absorbing and you're that present then you just seem to absorb with that person and once you absorb with those people then you absorb
into you know whatever all this yeah yes and then so you just be and then it's just all the zone as they say no but it's the most it's the most present you've you'll ever feel is in that moment yeah yeah it's like real life
Just Happening you know on a whole just micro level I guess or something in a way that you could sort of decipher where real life could you know become very complicated with all its nuisance I was going to say when you can then when
you come back to real life it almost must be like that's why people who that's why those great players got up all the time when they weren't on stage right that's why that's why bird that was like I can't handle it yeah like when I'm playing I'm fine I'm I'm me I'm who I am when I'm not I need which goes back to that Temptation it goes back to that temptation of just like then because you understand that then just do
that all the time and forget about being a person yeah but it doesn't work it'll catch up with you at some point or you die or you die or you die right and so you have to like be able to walk away from the thing and then and then just be a person and be present in your real life and be present for other people and not only giving your ability to be present for this be a coward yeah be a coward don't be afraid to be a coward
right yeah for sure I mean I've had that I've had that Humble Pie given to me at home we don't we don't need the lead singer the Mars volto we need we need fck dad right now real talk yeah and it it makes you it's like like ego ah you're right what am I thinking of that doesn't work for everything you know and you constructed an identity in order to protect who you really are and guess who knows who you really are the people who
love you more than anything who are just love you no matter what yeah and they're like cool you want to go and like put that cape on by all means but don't put it on here yeah it doesn't work here that is man you're lucky that's I am very lucky we are all lucky to have that in our life some people don't make it that far your identity becomes the person yeah exactly that's what hfield Wasing saying in the movie the whole
whole time and they got ripped for that film I know they got destroyed talk about being aead of the curve on Mental Health it took the hardest man in rock to say it yep right Ser the closest thing to John Wayne in the 21st
century and imagine if John Wayne came out went I don't really want to shoot you partner I'm having a mental health crisis right I don't know what I'm feeling right now I'm feeling conflicted I I know you're a horse thief but I'm
somewhat conflicted about taking your life right now and your fany getting on cold Suds And discussing it right and the whole gener of being like well we're from that generation we would just internalize it I'm like yeah but where do you think it's going to like have yeah where's it going to go though you don't want to be around when it comes out cuz that's crazy just the organism that we have been gifted the idea that
our body is able to function with a mind and feel something that's attached to a soul to create something like this music in itself is like the greatest gift in ever you must recognize now more than ever with this band like how lucky you really are you just saw me cry so yeah it's you know and it's it's just deeper than that it's just deeper than it being a band it's a it's a family this is yeah it's a friendship is a family the reason
why my mom says you know that's you know I don't think we look alike but my mom's like you look alike because we're in each we're in each other's we've melted into each other you know and it's beyond any of the people saying like they're weird they share shirts you know they blah blah blah I think at the time like when at the driveing happened the immediate critique was they are gay and on drugs say that nowadays say that
nowadays see how far that's going to get you right and it's like oh no it's a compliment now yeah yeah like it's a compliment now those two guys are G around drugs I love those guys yeah no for sure it was always two bands that b
it just was it was you two and it was the other three and I've got no other I mean I love spart and that whole thing and great awesome and when you were a band it was great and and it and actually was a beautiful thing it was
like quick and fast and to the point and out right and the reunion was what it was loved the show saw it felt really grateful felt like you were doing it for me actually that's what it felt like it felt like a gift it did it felt like a gift in a strange way but uh it was always two bands and you know like when Mars vter came like I I recognized that this was going to be the it was going to be didn't realize it was going to take
the twists and the turns and the ups and the Downs the challenges and the triumphs but it felt like you two were just felt like it was meant to be the reason why we've just always hung out with each other and why we needed something like Mars Volta where the the word no wasn't there you know with all having to justify thing with all due respect to those guys cuz I I love those guys even even if for some people in that band we
might be a bit EST strange you know like I still have love for for them like I still have have love for them you know should anything happen to any of those people uh we're on good relations with some not so much with others but I I you
know I'd hate to hear of anything bad happening to them you know and that's reason why you have such strong reactions with each other because you're friends and you say the most uncomfortable sh because you kind of
want each other to grow that's called experience it's experience over ego really if you have the experiences then no one can take them away from you right but when you when you put it into the construct of like breakdown and communication and how it affects me personally and what I think and how it makes my stomach chin and all that that's all just cerebral that's a cool thing too yeah that point about experience it's like no
matter if you're have a falling out with them like nothing changes the fact that they're that they're part of your roots correct right that we experience this whole weird thing together about having a career and like being out there and growing up I mean we were 18 like we we became adults sort of that's what I mean opportunity is wasted on the youth I mean you know there there's no other way that that band could have gone yeah and
that's why I think when you get back to this album and everyone's like oh man you know it's it's not the at the driving from 2003 gives a it's perfect Mars VTA music for now but that's such a nice perspective just cuz a lot of
people don't have it a lot of people remove the humanity part of it right which is exactly what you're describing like oh yeah there's this thing that came out of it that that I love and I've attached certain things to but these are
people and they do have a life and they do have families and they they are feeling things so you know it moves into this weird territory with with the um how someone might enjoy something like you said this album versus that album and sort of the fascism you know what I mean the artistic fascism FIS yeah that comes with that and like you know imagine like wanting to be free of that already in society as it is already as
as minorities as Queer as whatever and then and then to have it in high school and then to have it all around you and then your work and blah blah and then to go do art and think that you're free and then all of a sudden have people come
around you and be like you should do this yeah and if you don't do that you're how disappoint you I mean it's the same it's like you're back you're back in high school and you're back around bullies and you're back
around these fascists and you just have to make your your own way of like of dealing with it or of like pushing it out or you know or or of just fortifying yourself to where you just understand well that's their Human Experience that they feel okay and if you lead with your vulnerability it'll it'll make them feel uncomfortable and that's the job because it makes you reflect it or it'll make him reflect years from there going
that's what I was grappling with and I put that on to you and then and then you reach Tom York level right where that guy was just like I could give off what you want it's only this way or there is nothing here for you to listen to yeah you know and now we go back and listen to these albums that we're all scratching our heads about and it's like oh my favorite head record you it's just so funny how we catching up to the greats you are that
band too though you are thank you you've always done that you've always pushed Us in the in the right way and you've done it again it's thank you it's just beautiful man flash burs what a moment that is oh thank you yeah that's that's one of my favorite ones that's one where I would when I get my CD of the finished product I just kept playing that over and over and and and I my soul just had a smile going I could dance to this
forever and that is a whole another sort of inspiration you know not just the emotion of a lyric or something but to hear a piece of music and go I just want to get lost in this for hours and like a rave or something you know that was and then with black light shines I was about to tell when I first got that like I I jumped up in the air and I immediately started crying I was about to tell her from the other end which is like I no I
wanted to tell him that story that like s when I was uh um building that track I literally like the thought once I received it and I was putting it down the the TR the love that I was trying to give it um in my head I just kept picturing I wish I would have told that first I just kept picturing no no no I just thought of it right now as you were talking about it I just kept as I added things or was like changing things in
the ARR engagement I just kept thinking of like um what would be that combination what would make Cedric dance and also cry at the same time but I never mention it to you right did I ever mention it to you I never mention it to him sent him the CD and then like weeks later uh he calls me and he was like I was dancing and I was crying when that one track came on and that one was black light the the I was like okay then it
has to be the opener to the album and that that's what my wife said when I played her the record and she said it jokingly like she said it jokingly like that saides ain't going to know if they're going to laugh cry or dance and I thought okay well then I guess job well done then that's my favorite kind of music I remember a funny story to finish we you did a made of el session for me one time and uh it was amazing and um you
did three songs that came in at like an hour and 12 minutes which was incredible like we just we wanted to play the whole thing which I think we did play it once and then the story was like okay but we want to play one song again and again and again and the the shortest one was like 19 minutes or something and and so I said okay well I'm not editing it you can do it like if you think you're brave enough to get inside their thought
process enough to know where something edits go for your life but I am not doing that right so my friend man I can't remember what he did but it was like you guys were full Force I can't remember the name of the song you guys play time but it was just [Music] like and he just was like he had no idea I watched him all day with his headphones on scrolling up and down the audio F trying to figure it out and he just took this one moment in the song
maybe it was John must have been John just hit this like and you went back in again it just that and it was [Laughter] like sh by the way that's the best Mars Vol impression that we that's better than the Jonah hillah Jonah Hill is in Flawless man Hill was Flawless that and the um shreds oh that was I think our shreds is the best one shreds is incredible is ours is the best one hands down that felt like what it must have felt like uh
if you were a generation younger and weird out Yankovic you know what I mean like it's like okay wow that's really something happened here like someone needs to resurrect that shred there's a lot of real Prime candidates for shreds now like the new generation the mic is on but everything else is on microphone is on microphone is on but everything else is and he or she whoever does those they like really got surreal
with like really in the spirit of the B I would have L visited them in the middle of the night bring a joint be like I want to see you do this I I love the fact that they really understood like in their head what you were like
when things were going wrong like how you would have genuinely reacted to that it's like just imagine just the impression of you just like being that even when things are wrong just being like um yeah awesome um can we do this
again sometime yes please and thank you a look I loved it and um thank you for always speaking highly of us you know you uh you've helped keep the uh electricity and gas on in our homes and you know what I mean like Turned us on to to people that wouldn't have taken a chance on us through your show so thank you thank you thank you so much for that this is a that's it's my pleasure thank you thanks for coming back [Music]