Secrets of the Guitar Heroes: Omar Rodriguez Lopez : Rolling Stone

You were born in Puerto Rico and originally wanted to be a salsa pianist. Where is the connection between the extreme prog metal you write and play on guitar for the Mars Volta and the salsa and traditional Hispanic music you heard as a boy?

A lot of what I play is in minor keys, so it has the feel of our folk songs. Chords that sound good to me always take me back to my childhood. “Asilos Magdalena,” on [2006’s] Amputechture, started as an exercise. My dad played guitar with the thumb and first finger on his picking hand. I wanted to play like that and turned it into a song.”*

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