De Facto (band)

De Facto
Omar Rodríguez-López, Jeremy Michael Ward, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Isaiah "Ikey" Owens
Background information
Origin	El Paso, Texas
Genres	Dub, electronica, reggae, Latin rock, salsa
Years active	1998–2001, 2008–present
Labels	Various
Associated acts	At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta, Long Beach Dub Allstars
Past members
Cedric Bixler-Zavala Omar Rodríguez-López Jeremy Michael Ward Isaiah "Ikey" Owens

De Facto was a dub reggae band which included Cedric Bixler-Zavala, Omar Rodríguez-López, Isaiah "Ikey" Owens and Jeremy Michael Ward.

Biography

The band began as small jam sessions after At the Drive-In shows. The original band consisted of Omar, Cedric, and Jeremy playing local shows around their home town, El Paso, Texas. Cedric says, "Yeah actually we used to be called the Sphinktators, that was early De Facto, just more rock." Omar was actually the singer of the Sphinktators and remembers, "We used psychedelic sounds, Cedric played the bass, Jeremy played guitar, and Ralph Jasso played drums." After their first recording they brainstormed the name 'De Facto Cadre Dub', which was later shortened to De Facto. That recording became How Do You Dub? You Fight for Dub. You Plug Dub In., which they released on Headquarter Records, now known as Restart Records. Omar met Ikey at a hip hop show. They exchanged numbers and then Ikey met up with them during one of their shows and joined De Facto as their keyboard player midshow.

After the first album the lineup was switched around. Cedric began to play drums as he had before in his earlier band Foss. Omar played bass, and Jeremy, At the Drive-In's sound manager and cousin of guitarist Jim Ward, ran samples, sang and did the sparse guitar work. After relocating to the west coast, Ikey Owens joined the band on keyboards.

Their next album, Megaton Shotblast! was released on the Gold Standard Laboratories label, and received instant success, probably in part due to the popularity of At the Drive-In. The group's general style was instrumental dub, but they also dabbled in electronica, Latin and salsa music, and jazz. These new ideas led to what would become their next band, The Mars Volta.

Influences and genres

De Facto specializes in kooky, whimsical, and very eclectic instrumental grooves, the heady dub sounds of King Tubby and Lee "Scratch" Perry just one of the many influences vying for primacy in the strange soup of their music. The others include lounge, tropicalia, straight reggae, abstract electronic, and jazz fusion. The group's writing process, not surprisingly, is improvisational, based on a fluid exchange of ideas using drum and bass rhythms as the songs' spines.^[1]

Break-up and rebirth

When At the Drive-In broke up, Omar Rodriguez and Cedric Bixler-Zavala spent more time touring with De Facto. In 2001, the members of the band teamed up with bassist Eva Gardner and drummer Jon Theodore to form the Mars Volta. In the following years, prior to the death of Jeremy Ward, De Facto played numerous shows, some featuring John Frusciante as a special guest on guitar, but did not release new material. Any future re-groupings of De Facto appeared highly unlikely due to the death of Jeremy Ward in May 2003, although the band was featured on the GSL Lab Results Vol. 1 Live DVD in 2007. However, in a radio interview conducted by Radionica Colombia on 28 October 2008, Cedric Bixler-Zavala revealed that after returning from the South American leg of the current Mars Volta tour, they will return to the United States and record new material for a future De Facto release.^[2] In the same interview, Bixler-Zavala also stated that he will be returning to the drums for the production.

Band members

• Omar Rodríguez-López – bass
• Cedric Bixler-Zavala – drums
• Isaiah "Ikey" Owens - keyboards
• Jeremy Michael Ward – sound manipulation, vocals, melodica

Discography

Main article: De Facto discography

Albums

• ¡Megaton Shotblast! (2001)
• How Do You Dub? You Fight For Dub. You Plug Dub In. (2001)
• Légende du Scorpion à Quatre Queues (2001)

EPs and singles

• "456132015" (2001)^[3]

See also

• At the Drive-In
• The Mars Volta

References

1. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
2. ^ Radionica: Cedric Bixler-Zavala interview. October 28, 2008.
3. ^ "Catalog – De Facto « Rodriguez Lopez Productions". Rodriguezlopezproductions.com. http://rodriguezlopezproductions.com/catalog-de-facto/. Retrieved 2011-07-21.