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 followed in 2009. ~ James Christopher Monger, All Music Guide