Mars Volta's Isaiah Owens Shifts Focus to Free Moral Agents

With Mars Volta's Omar Rodriguez-Lopez about to embark on his first-ever solo jaunt in the United States (as Spinner previously reported), looks like Mars Volta is taking a breather. But, as their fans know, nobody in that band really rests for long. In addition to Omar's endeavors, Volta fans craving a fix can look forward to various projects from keyboardist Isaiah Owens -- including, most prominently, a new album by his band Free Moral Agents. The album, called 'Control This,' drops October 12 and the band plans to tour heavily behind it.

"People will definitely be surprised," Owens tells Spinner. "Mars Volta has definitely been a huge influence on me as an artist. There are elements of some of that kind of thing there, but it's also a pretty big departure from Mars Volta. From my experience of touring with Free Moral Agents, it seems like people do react to it as something that is different, but also kind of familiar... which is good."

Owens insists that, with Mars Volta "on hiatus to the best of my knowledge," Free Moral Agents takes top priority this year, for him. That said, Dave Sitek (TV on the Radio) has his own side-project in the wings, called Maximum Balloon, and while Owens doesn't seem to know much about its status at this time, he does allow that he laid down some exciting tracks for the album. It's a collaboration that came out of some shows that Free Moral Agents opened for TV on the Radio a few years ago.

"We got to hang out then and we're pretty like-minded in terms of the way we create music," says Owens. "So, basically, he invited me to come over and play keyboards on some music he was working on and they were probably the easiest sessions I did in my life. We have a very similar way of working and it was really fun. I haven't heard the whole record yet -- it's been awhile since I even heard the tracks that I contributed to -- but it was just really fun, energetic music. I think it's going to be a pretty good party record."

A party record? Sounds like a departure from Mars Volta indeed... except, of course, that both projects are all but guaranteed to rock. Hard. And that, of course, is something that every Mars Volta fan can relate to.