The Mars Volta: Undercover Part 2

(Undercover.com.au / June 2008)
Part 2: The lyrical content and not wanting to over-intellectualise music.

[@MaSoisSoful]

After being a fan of TMV for more than 15 years, I think Cedric’s lyrics are direct. They serve as scenes for us to imagine. They are indeed musical equivalents to movies.

[@chrishaas1511]

1:03 Omar doing curls with the mic 😂

[@pearljamm3636]

i must admit, ive never even tried to conceptualise what their songs are about... they just sound cool.

[@ismellleaksmoke]

Cedric is wise as fuck, also.

[@JB420mikehunt]

Fuck, I shoulda just enjoyed the god damn relationship xp

[@Potatoenfuego]

lol at those mic curls

[@nicouh]

i love their attitude to the bands vocals. i find that way so perfect, i couldnt have said it better.

[@dfilmes1]

*omar unpluggs the mic* interviewer looses concetration "let me start that whole question again HAHAHAHAHAH LMAO! Omar is so fucking hilarious he makes the guy lose concentration so easily

[@reckmo5542]

I’m glad this is the explanation they give for the lyrics, cause i have no freaking idea what they are saying and I’ve just been enjoying the music how he says to enjoy it.

[@TheGainsWizard]

I fucking love Omar. He is such a goof.

[@loki210]

I think it's strange of Cedric to say lyrics are an afterthought when so many of their albums are concept stories. There has to be meaning you're putting into those words from the onset of writing them to make the thread of the narrative. I mean De-loused was not only a tribute to a friend, but also a full-on story that they even wrote a small book for. They had to have had that mostly structured as it went on during the writing process, not "years after it came out."

[@firstlast-wg2on]

+LemurBro Well... It's like having something on your mind alot and through the expression just comes a recurring theme.

[@kerilyndesiree6188]

maybe you dont understand how lame doing interviews is

[@livestreamcentral7409]

This Reminds me of My Mom When She Talks During Movie's.!

[@patrickcarroll1754]

Excellent interviewer.

[@pishauko]

Omar thinking in 1:03 - 1:10 : "No pain no gain"

[@spikedbasser5]

haha he takes apart the mic thats so un pro i love it

[@dfilmes1]

Omar working out with the mic was the best! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@mars71mustang]

Robert Fripp of King Crimson has or had a similar philosophy on music production- I think

[@TheFencingFox]

Cedric💚

[@Bizdet]

and the left and right side of my brain are connected so i think its wholly possible that thinking about things is an instinct. sorry that i got frustrated

[@merrymadi]

Woops! I'll go change that now, cheers.

[@kerilyndesiree6188]

theyre roasting this guy

[@StromboliKicks]

i'm not try to judge you, or something like that, but why do you say that? I think they are very honest with the fans and the people who listen them. And it's not their fault if they do things that nobody do, and stil sound fresh and great,

[@mrdonovan213]

haha omar is hilarious. good to see that they're cool people, always gets me bummed when my favorite musicians turn out to be cocks

[@Bizdet]

well fuck me for spending any time durin my life to think and ask why. sometimes i can't help it its not like im trying to "intellectualize" maybe we all have intellect and just cant help but have a guttural intellectual moment sometimes. this interview is just that, for example. oh, and i do always make sure to tell my girlfriend I love her because words are a form of communication of feeling and just because i say it often doesn't mean i dont mean it as much as i can mean it every time

[@123mysweetvoice]

CEDRIC!!! i like you alot

[@Bizdet]

@parallelogramammoth yeah i guess i did. its stupid to throw it out huge black and white definitions of things. Like some other people have said on here - they cant help but sometimes analyze things. i kind of feel that when i instinctually analyze lyrics or other details, that i get an even deeper emotion from it then. like if you think about philosophy, you start to feel really really deep and thats an emotion too. . . animals do think , so they intellectualize too.

[@ismellleaksmoke]

I think Omar is just high, haha.

[@KwameNewton]

@ctaylor252 Omar's genius moment at 1:02

[@StromboliKicks]

Strange.. because when I started to watch TMV interviews I felt that but in relation of omar and never with cedric. But now, i can see I was just trying to "judge him", for whatever reason, maybe because because I'm jealous of his talent. :P Anyway, I'm not saying that's your case. In the end I think they complement each other very well, and I mus agree that omar has a "bigger head". cheers

[@Tanga26927]

while Ced talks, Omar is getting bored...

[@cillycilla1985]

geez, they couldn't get another mic!? lol

[@thestormlscoming]

lmao, it's like talking through sex

[@alexhennigh5242]

Holy shit how many people are going to ask them that first question? There are more interviews with someone asking them that exact question then there are bibles on the planet

[@jamestwix]

Iff you doing analyze the details your obviously missing the intire experiencie. To compreende the harmonic and melodic relationships between the instruments, each bassdrum note, the reverb of the voice, the wah of the guitar, trying to comprehend the recording complexity behind it...i mean...you HAVE to at least repeate some individual parts sometimes to get that kind of fisical form of music into your head. I've always seen music to be inside the head and not in the ears

[@cdrumz]

que torta...omar is comedy... hes like no me hoden con entrevistas...

[@JSuelto1]

@bungbung13131 pretentious like alot of good artists

[@bungbung13131]

they're geniuses, but they're pretentious as hell

[@bungbung13131]

its not that... bixler-zavala just has this air of "im better than everybody else and they might not understand me but thats because im a genius" about him rodriguez-lopez doesnt really, its just bixler-zavala and hes not even that good of a singer or lyricist, its rodriguez-lopez's production that makes him good

[@grandpasoldier8580]

Literally nothing they said was like that, they were asked questions and they answered it thats how an interview works. If anything you are coming off as someone who thinks their smart and arent appreciated for it. This comment was over a decade ago so you might not see this but i hope you changed