Antemasque’s Sah-weeet Riffs
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Jumping Jalapenos. Antemasque is a new blues rock prog outfit with members of Mars Volta and At The Drive In, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & Cedric Bixler-Zavala.
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ARE you pro-Antemasque?
The reviews for their self-titled debut album have been up and down. It.s a 3.5 star record, some absolute highs and some rote rock lows. More than anything it’s just nice (dear) to have them back for good.
When Mars Volta stagnated and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez was moonlighting with other bands,
Cedric Bixler-Zavala complained of feeling like a “progressive housewife” who was OK with seeing their partner, ahem, go off with other bands. Nice double-meaning use of “progressive”. Then the two of them came back together. “It’s a simple thing, it’s the cycle of life.”
“Next thing you know we’re playing music together, that’s healing language, then we got into a room, kicking out songs and next thing you know we had a record,” he recounts.
The longstanding, always-moving duo were joined by Dave Elitch (Mars Volta) on drums and Flea (RHCP). “We needed time away from each other,” says Bixler-Zavala before “explaining” how they got back together.
“Well he sent me a singing telegram, it was a police officer and he wanted to arrest me…then he started getting naked and it’s weird because I didn’t recognise him at first and then I’m like ‘What the f—!?’ it was Omar and then we realised it was time to start making music together,” he says, almost straight-faced.
In many ways, Antemasque is the album Mars Volta fans earned. It’s a record more meliflious than meddlesome. Flea’s jangle-funk basslines give it levity. It’s got FM Rock moments on it that never feel contrite and it’s plain to hear they were in a good place. Physically, it was recorded at Flea’s studio with the RHCP and Atoms For Peace bass-slapper plus old padre Dave Elitch (Mars Volta) hitting the skins drums. “4AM we did first,” Bixler-Zavala says of the bluesy surf cut that opens the record. “That had a really cool tone to everything. The rest was even easier.”
Ride Like The Devil’s Son has shades of Tool and Led Zeppelin as “crows knock knock knocking at my door” sings Bixler-Zavala.
“Omar had some f–king sah-weeeeet riffs, I had some old lyrics that didn’t work with another song and I put them to this one. Simple.”
As for studio fun, these YouTube clips show you the funny buggers they got up to.
“It’s really fast, there’s just good chemistry there, when everyone’s laughing the takes get even more fun to do. You’re not beating yourself up over something. It’s as easy as a band should be easy,” he extends.
Many avid fans will remember At The Drive In playing their “first Big Day Out. I remember meeting PJ Harvey and The Go Betweens. Everyone was flying from gig to gig and we rented a van and went down the coast. Another time we were playing in Adelaide and I ran outside the venue while we were still playing and I almost got hit by a car.” What brought that on?
“Oh y’know, the spirit.”
“Someone at Splendour In The Grass left an old ragtime hat on stage and I put it on and I was being a total smart-arse,” he says. Your scribe was lucky enough to see that performance, Bixler-Zavala did some vaudeville improvisation too, step right up STEP RIGHT UP.
For Soundwave Festival, they’re stepping up to the plate once more, ready to confuse and confound and confront as well as kick out the jams like Providence from their debut album.
“We stretch out Providence live, it’s great for that, it’s an incantation,” he says.
“Omar’s brother is playing bass with us, he’s kicking ass.”
Antemasque are fans of San Francisco’s finest genre-hoppers, also on the Soundwave bill.
“Oh Faith No More. Yes! We met Mike in San Francisco a little while ago and he was an adult man with the spirit of a little kid. He was awesome. The surprise came when they asked us to open for them. I’ve never seen them live before,” he says.
Some bands feel a healthy competition on and off stage, not Antemasque.
“No no. That makes it like a sport. When people start thinking that way, that hurts your art. I’ve unfortunately been around bands that have done that and walked off stage and said bullsh-t things like (bozo tone) ‘Follow that!’ I got into music to get away from all that. You realise there’s a lot of a$ $ holes in music.”
Antemasque seem to only be competitive with themselves. A worthy adversary.
“Well we’re currently working on another Antemasque record, I don’t know how many songs there are,” Bixler-Zavala says, before Rodriguez-Lopez chips from the background “ELEVEN!!”
“And there’s two more songs we left off this record that we’ll probably sell for a million dollars each like the WuTang Clan. That’s it! There may be Japanese releases,” he says.
And song titles, tell us some song titles, you VaudeVillain. “There’s one called Domino Rain and another called Hung In Effigy.” Apart from those f–king sah-weet riffs, what has Bixler-Zavala been listening to?
“A little bit of Harry Nilsson, some more Harry Nilsson and then even more Harry Nilsson.”
he says.
Everybody’s talking about the duo again.
They can cop that.
SEE: Antemasque, Soundwave, Flemington Racecourse, Sun, noon, $ 132; Olympic Park, Sydney, Feb. 28, $ 132, Brisbane Showgrounds, March 1, $ 132, soundwavefestival.com
