Omar Rodríguez-López

Omar A. Rodriguez-Lopez

Omar Alfredo Rodriguez-Lopez (born on September 1, 1975 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico) is a guitarist, who currently plays in the rock band The Mars Volta.

Biography

Omar originally grew up in El Paso. After disowning his parents before the age of 18, he spent time travelling across America. Eventually finding himself addicted to drugs and going no where, he called friend Cedric Bixler-Zavala who brought him back to El Paso where he joined At The Drive-In originally as bass guitarist. After much change he became full time guitarist for the band. He played a Fender Jaguar while in the band.

Rodriguez-Lopez has spent most of his career working with, and often living with, his close friend, Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The pair first played together in rock band At the Drive-In. While in that band, they formed a dub reggae band called DeFacto. In 2001, the two left At the Drive-In, which they had been in since 1993, on "indefinite hiatus" to form The Mars Volta, their current focus. In addition, Cedric appears on Rodriguez-Lopez's A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume 1, the soundtrack to Rodriguez-Lopez's film of the same name. The release of this film has been postponed indefinitely.

As a guitarist, Rodriguez-Lopez is known for his very experimental, atonal and creative style, characterized by unusual and complicated chords and progressions, complex and frequently changing time signatures, highly elaborate improvised solos and extensive, restless experimentation. Rodriguez-Lopez claims to know very little musical theory, although the elaborated melodies and solo pieces on the Mars Volta's first full length album De-loused in the Comatorium show significant skill and variety. Rodriguez-Lopez is unique as a modern guitar player in terms of innovation and experimentation. His style of guitar playing shows a great likeness to that of King Crimson's Robert Fripp in that both guitarists regularly use atonal and tritonal harmonies. It is likely that Fripp has had a considerable influence on Rodriguez-Lopez. Perhaps an even bigger influence on him is Jimmy Page. Since starting the Mars Volta, Omar plays a 120 Ibanez AX.

Rodriguez-Lopez is credited for all music heard on The Mars Volta's 2005 release, Frances the Mute. He also recently finished producing the forthcoming album from L.A. band Radio Vago.