De Facto (band)

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See De facto for the Latin expression.

DeFacto
Image:Defacto03.jpg DeFacto: Jeremy Michael Ward, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Isiah Ikey Owens, Cedric Bixler Zavala
Background information
Origin	El Paso, Texas
Genre(s)	Dub, Reggae
Years active	1993–2001
Label(s)	Various
Associated acts	At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta
Former members
Cedric Bixler Zavala Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Jeremy Michael Ward Isiah Ikey Owens

De Facto were a dub reggae side project of Cedric Bixler Zavala, and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of At The Drive-In, keyboardist Isaiah Ikey Owens, and soundman Jeremy Michael Ward.

The original band consisted of Omar, Cedric, and Jeremy playing local shows around their home town, El Paso, Texas. Cedric says, "Yeah actually we used to be called the Sphinktators, that was early De Facto, just more rock." Omar was actually the singer of the Sphinktators and remembers, "We used psychedelic sounds, Cedric played the bass, Jeremy played guitar, and Ralph [Jasso] played drums." After their first recording they brainstormed the name 'De Facto Cadre’ Dub', which was later shortened to De Facto. That recording became How Do You Dub? You Fight For Dub, You Plug Dub In, which they released on Headquarter Records, now known as Restart Records. Omar met Ikey at a hiphop show and they exchanged numbers and then Ikey met up with them during one of their shows and joined De Facto as their keyboard player midshow.

Their next album, Megaton Shotblast! was released on the Gold Standard Laboratories label, and received instant success, probably in part due to the popularity of At The Drive-In. The group's general style was instrumental dub, but they also dabbled in electronica, Latin/salsa, and jazz. These new ideas led to what would become their next band.

When At The Drive-In broke up, De Facto became The Mars Volta along with Eva Gardner and Jon Theodore (At first, they practiced with Blake Fleming for a short time).

Any future re-groupings of De Facto now look highly unlikely due to the death of Jeremy Ward in June 2003. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is also now more occupied with The Mars Volta and other side-projects such as his own & his collaboration with John Frusciante and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.