Weird, spooky, brash - and that's just the bandmates. Scott Kara reports
Cedric Bixler-Zavala may sing about a smiling hangman, guillotine smirks and bed sores on The Mars Volta's latest album, but his main muse is Helen Mirren.The 62-year-old actress is the inspiration behind the progressive-art-metal-funk of the song Ilyena (taken from her real name, Ilyena Mironov) off The Bedlam In Goliath, the band's fourth and most aggressive album yet."I called it Helen Mirren because of the kind of Gregorian chant type vocals I was doing and they reminded me of the way it sounded when she was in Excalibur ... or Caligula, which is great too," says the singer from Venice Beach, in Los Angeles, where the band is based.While he's more inspired by her early roles, he also rates Mirren's Oscar-winning portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II in 2006. "I know a lot of people just know her from The Queen, which is great, she kicked arse in that, but there's things like Excalibur and The Long Good Friday.
"She's just always someone whose work has struck me really deeply, like The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover, she's phenomenal in that and I hope we can make our music move someone the way she has moved me with her performances."The Mars Volta, whose core members are Bixler-Zavala and guitarist and producer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, return to New Zealand on June 26 for a show at the Logan Campbell Centre in support of their fourth album, The Bedlam In Goliath.Typically, and as the album title suggests, the band combines metal, rock, funk, noise and improvisation into a crazed mix - like the fractured nine-minute epic Cavalettas, the exotic Soothsayer and menacing opener Aberinkula.Besides Mirren, Bixler-Zavala - a devoted movie fan who often draws inspiration from films - says his other influences include actress Joan Crawford, skateboarder Mark Gonzales and oddball movies.His latest discovery is 1970s Filipino film For Y'ur Height Only."The main character is a dwarf and it's probably the best comedy I've ever seen. He's called Weng Weng, his acting is horrible, but he gets the girl, flies through the air and jumps out of the window with an umbrella and he's, like, the man." For Bedlam, there was a more sinister influence and it wouldn't be a Mars Volta album without an elaborate tale about how the album came to fruition. Debut album De-Loused in the Comatorium, from 2003, was written about the life and death of artist and band friend Julio Venegas; 2005's Frances the Mute was based on writings from a diary a former bandmate found in a repossessed car; and Bedlam's story starts when Rodriguez-Lopez bought a ouija board in Jerusalem as a present for Bixler-Zavala.
