so this past friday was the rx bandits x dredg x zechs marquise tour, and it was zechs first night on the job. the sargent house crew had granted me the pleasure of interviewing both of their bands that night, the first of which was zechs marquise. zechs is a progressive/instrumental band out of el paso, texas. the same town that birthed at the drive-in, the mars volta and sparta. coincidentally, two of omar rodriguez-lopez’s siblings are in zechs marquise.

i got the chance to get acquainted with the entire band before their set at the meridian, and they were a great group of dudes who are going to be turning heads across the country on this tour.

hit the jump for an interview, where they discussed their new album, touring and the origins of the band. say hello when they come to your town.

-grizzly’s marquise

Roshan Bhatt, weworemasks.com: Let’s say our names and positions in Zechs Marquise.

Marcos Smith, Zechs Marquise: I’m Marcos Smith, and I play guitar.

Matthew Wilkson, Zechs Marquise: Matt Wilkson, and I’m also on guitar.

Marfred Rodriguez-Lopez, Zechs Marquise: I’m Marfred, and I play bass.

Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez, Zechs Marquise: Marcel Rodriguez — Drums and accounting.

All: [Laughs]

WWM: I’m saying that correctly, right? Marquise?

Marcos: Oh yeah, man.

WWM: How does it feel to be on this tour now, seeing as how it’s your first date?

Marcos: Yes, that’s correct. [Laughs] It’s totally good to meet all the guys on the tour so we’re excited.

Marfred: It feels really good, man.

Marcel: We’re just very excited.

WWM: Considering the progressive nature of all the bands on the tour, it seems like you’d fit in with them fairly well. How do you feel about being fairly new, and the opener to the bands who are already established?

Matthew: We love it, it’s a great opportunity for us. A lot of great bands we’re able to tour with. We’re basically doing the East Coast.

WWM: You’re playing from here until the New York date, right?

Matthew: Yeah, that’s with the Bandits. Then we’re continue by ourselves down back to El Paso.

WWM: Zechs has another show in about a month here, am I right?

Matthew: Yep.

WWM: Great.

WWM: What are your main expectations for the whole tour?

Marcel: At least one new fan in each city, I mean, I hope.

Marcos: You put it into better words than I could.

WWM: I guess on the topic of your sound, you’re mostly unknown to most of our readers. How would you describe your sound to them? Actually, what would you say to get them to listen to your band is what I’m trying to say.

Marcos: I mean the obvious answer is that we play instrumental rock. I guess osme of our rock influences are Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. We do listen to a lot of jazz, soul and funk. So those influences are there as well.

Marcel: You would just want someone to come out [to the show]. What would you say? I mean, “Please come out.” [Laughs] And if they do come out, we would just hope that they would like it.

Marfred: I mean as long as they see us, they have to like something about us, right?

WWM: You’ve been a band since 2003, right?

Matthew: Yeah, wow.

WWM: Your album, Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare is just now coming out, as far as a nationwide release.

Marcel: Yeah, we released it about a year ago, but now it’s “official.”

WWM: Well, even last year. It was from 03, so what took so long for you guys to have a proper release?

Marfred: Just, recording and studio issues. You know, trying to get the money. When we finally were [recording], there were in-house problems at the studio and we lost a bunch of our recorded material.

Marcos: Plus, when we first put it out, we did it all ourselves. The only way we were selling it was our shows.

Marcel: Part of it too was that the first year and a half it was just trying to figure out the staff, like who was actually in the band. When we first started out, there were two drummers, two bass players, two guitarists, and he wasn’t in the band at the time. Then we had people where we thought, “Maybe we shouldn’t call him back” or “We don’t need a second bass player.” [Laughs] Little by little we started figuring it out and it was really up until now, where we’re actually comfortable and figured out what works. That’s what took so long.

WWM: What was the writing process for the album like?

Marfred: Well, “Magmar,” the second track on the record was the only song that was written in advance. Everything else was a result of “Let’s sit here and play for four hours and see what we get,” and then we just took that and recorded it.

WWM: How’d you guys end up working with Sargent House?

Marcel: With Cathy Pellow. She saw us play a couple of shows in LA and she really liked the band, and offered us this tour with RX Bandits and Dredg. Then, yeah.

Matthew: She put in a good word.

Marcel: Yeah.

WWM: Two of your band members [Marcel and Marfred] are related to Omar-Rodriguez Lopez, do you feel like you have to come out of that shadow at all? Because when you read about your band online, [the relation] is one of the first things you notice, do you feel a pressure from that?

Marcel: Actually, I think a lot of other people think we have to. As far as us, we’re just doing what we’re doing. If people don’t like it or think it’s too much.

WWM: Oh yeah, definitely. Also, if you’re a fan of The Mars Volta, I wouldn’t be surprised to see you become a fan of Zechs.

Marcel: Oh, for sure. For sure. There’s also other people that aren’t down with that though. They may think we’re just doing what [The Mars Volta are doing] but on our own terms. We’re just out here playing music.

Marcos: We don’t look at it as them casting a shadow or us stepping out of the shadow or anything like that.

WWM: What are your plans after this tour?

Marfred: Recording a new album.

WWM: Oh! When do you expect to have it out?

Marcel: Hopefully by the end of the year.

WWM: And this will be through Sargent House, right?

Marcel: Yep.

WWM: Alright, man. Well, that’s pretty much it. Would you like to add anything to the readers of weworemasks?

Marfred: Come out to the shows.

Matthew: Yeah, get with it.

All: [Laughs]