| Cedric Bixler-Zavala | |
|---|---|
Cedric Bixler-Zavala in 2008 |
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| Background information | |
| Born | November 4, 1974 Redwood City, California, U.S. |
| Origin | El Paso, Texas, U.S. |
| Genres | Progressive rock, post-hardcore, art rock, psychedelia, punk, alternative rock, dub |
| Occupations | Musician, songwriter, singer, drummer |
| Instruments | Vocals, drums, maracas, tambourine, guitar, keyboard, bass |
| Years active | 1993–present |
| Associated acts | The Mars Volta, De Facto, At the Drive-In, The Fall on Deaf Ears, El Grupo Nuevo de Omar Rodriguez Lopez, Anywhere |
Cedric Bixler-Zavala (born November 4, 1974 in Redwood City, California) is a Grammy Award-winning Mexican-American musician known for his work as frontman and lyricist of the progressive rock band The Mars Volta, and previously as frontman and occasional guitarist of the post-hardcore punk group At the Drive-In. Cedric has a High Tenor vocal range, spanning from the G above Low C (G2) to Soprano C (C6). He has also played drums for a number of acts, including the dub act De Facto and recently Big Sir.
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Bixler-Zavala is fond of Frank Zappaesque humour and writes in English, Spanish, and Latin. “I love to take common sayings, pervert them, mutate them a little. So you think I am singing one thing, but when you read it, it is different.”[1]
Bixler-Zavala is renowned for his on-stage behavior. He frequently does somersaults on stage, swings his microphone (once unintentionally hitting band mate Ikey Owens in the head), throws objects such as cymbals, microphone stands, and trash cans into the audience, salsa dances, adjusts Omar Rodriguez’s effects pedals and occasionally plays the maracas.
Bixler-Zavala has been very vocal on and off-stage about audience behavior, including moshing, crowd surfing, slam-dancing, and throwing items on-stage. He walked off stage 10 minutes into an At The Drive-In performance at the 2001 Big Day Out festival in Sydney after previously having asked the audience to calm down and observe the safety rules ("Let's dance, rather than beat the shit out of each other..."). After their refusal, Zavala told the crowd, "I think it's a very very sad day when the only way you can express yourself is through slamdancing!" then after pointing at an audience member crowd surfing saying, "Look at that... You learned that from the TV! You didn't learn that from your best friend!" and finally stating to the crowd, "You're a robot, you're a sheep!" before bleating at them several times, finishing with, "I have a microphone and you don't! You're a sheep, you watch TV way too much!" and leaving the stage.[2] Later that same day, teenager Jessica Michalik was crushed to death in a mosh pit that took place at a Limp Bizkit set later on that day at the concert. Bixler-Zavala has not spoken of Big Day Out since then.
He has displayed a dislike of fans' smoking cigarettes at Mars Volta shows.
Bixler-Zavala played the drums in the experimental dub reggae group De Facto and occasionally played guitar and drums with At the Drive-In.
Under the pseudonym "Alavaz Relxib Cirdec" ("Cedric Bixler-Zavala" backwards), Bixler-Zavala contributed a two-song single to the GSL Special 12" Singles Series, released in December 2005. Closer to the dub of De Facto and the ambient experimentation shown in Omar Rodríguez-López records than the prog-rock of The Mars Volta, the two songs Bixler-Zavala has produced under this alias are entirely instrumental, with the exception of samples of speech that can be heard on "Live Private Booths." "Live Private Booths" is a funky Fela Kuti-style jam featuring flute, drums, bass, guitars and samples, while "Sapta-Loka" is a more ambient exploration of eastern-style drones, with subtler instrumentation.
Bixler has stated that he is working on a solo album with current Mars Volta drummer Deantoni Parks[3] even though he doesn't like his own work. Additionally, late 2011 saw the release of the first 7" record from Bixler's new project Anywhere, a collaboration with Christian Eric Beaulieu of Triclops and Mike Watt of The Stooges/fIREHOSE/Minutemen[4].
In 2009 Bixler-Zavala married actress and model Chrissie Carnell. He lives with his wife in Los Angeles and since getting married has become a Scientologist.
Bixler-Zavala frequently used drugs until the death of Jeremy Michael Ward in 2003, which convinced him (along with The Mars Volta bandmate Omar Rodriguez-Lopez) to quit using opioids. He has since shown disapproval of recreational drugs as a whole, adding that they are not beneficial to the creative process.
Cedric's life has been heavily impacted by the deaths of people who have been in close association with him, several of which have become themes for his lyrics.
In 1996, two of his fellow bandmates of the group The Fall on Deaf Ears, Laura Beard and Sarah Reiser, died in a car accident.[5]
Also in 1996, a close friend and band-mate of Cedric's named Julio Venegas committed suicide. It is said that De-Loused in the Comatorium is about Venegas.[6]
Shortly before the release of De-Loused, in May 2003, their sound engineer, Jeremy Michael Ward, was found dead of apparent heroin overdose.[7] Ward coined the term Amputechture which is TMV's third full-length album, and Frances the Mute was based on a journal Ward had discovered.[8]
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