Omar Rodriguez Lopez

Composer, guitarist, and producer Omar Rodriguez-Lopez was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico, in 1975. He spent his formative years in South Carolina and El Paso, TX, setting up camp in the latter and forming the hardcore band Startled Calf at the age of 15. He joined post-hardcore outfit At the Drive-In in 1993, a gig that lasted until the band broke up at the peak of its popularity in 2001. Rodriguez-Lopez formed the Mars Volta the following year, as well as an instrumental side project called the Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Quintet. He composed the soundtrack to Jorge Hernandez Aldana's El Búfalo de la Noche in 2005 and has released four solo albums - 2004's Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack, Vol. 1, the eponymous Omar Rodriguez in 2006, and Se Dice Bisonte, No Bufalo and The Apocalypse Inside of an Orange, both in 2007. Rodriguez-Lopez would continue his double releases in 2008 with Calibration and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and Jeremy Michael Ward, a collaborative effort that was recorded prior to the formation of Mars Volta. Old Money, Megaritual, Despair, and Xeonphanes (which was sung completely in Spanish by Rodriguez-Lopez and his duet partner, the Mexican singer/songwriter Ximena Sariñana) all followed in 2009. The guitarist and composer contuinued his prolific pace in 2010 with the release of Solar Gambling, Cinzana De Los Amores and Tychozorente.