A new trailer for upcoming documentary Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird has been released, showing glimpses of the friendship behind the bands The Mars Volta and At The Drive-In. Watch it below.
The clip, issued yesterday (October 31) by Oscilloscope Laboratories, comprises a montage of archival footage from the vault of Mars Volta co-founder and guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, with narration about his close and prolific – though stormy – relationship over the decades with Cedric Bixler-Zavala.
“I’m glad that God has put us in the same place and the same time,” he says. “At least this time, I guess.” Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird is set for theatrical release in the US on November 20.
The official description for the film reads: “A film that charts the artistic and personal relationship between two era-defining artists, Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala (At the Drive-In/The Mars Volta), told almost entirely through hundreds of hours of self-shot footage filmed by Omar over the last 40 years.”
The Texas-formed band released six studio albums between 2003 and 2012 before splitting due to a falling-out between founding members Bixler-Zavala and Rodríguez-López. In the years that followed, the pair formed new group Antemasque and resurrected At the Drive-In for a new record in 2017.
“I spent hours on the phone with Omar Rodríguez-López in February 2020. He told me the story of his and Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s life together. It blew my mind,” Omar and Cedric: If This Ever Gets Weird director Nicolas Jack Davies says in a press statement.
“Before the end of that month I flew to meet Omar in Puerto Rico where we chatted for another day and my excitement to bring to life such a story as a film grew exponentially.”
The decision to return to The Mars Volta was because “it’s family,” Bixler-Zavala explained to NME in a 2022 interview. “It’s an old family friend that we wanted to start communicating with again. It just took some time to get it right.” Re-releasing their previous material in 2021 “helped us close the door on the past and usher in the future,” he added.
The Mars Volta released their self-titled comeback record in September 2022. The return effort scored a glowing five-star review from NME‘s Andy Price, who wrote: “‘The Mars Volta’ is a record that seizes the attention instantly, peppered as it is with arresting top-lines. But it also demands – and handsomely rewards – repeated listens, by virtue of its meticulously assembled arrangements (just bathe your ears in shining third single ‘Vigil”s luxuriant mix).”
