Omar Rodriguez-Lopez is a well renown multi-instrumentalist who has created countless albums as a solo artist and as well as with At the Drive-In, The Mars Volta and Antemasque. This year he has released Sworn Virgin and Solar Gambling, the first two of 12 total albums before the end of 2016. He has now released the music video for song “Running Away” which is featured on his most recent album Corazones. In an unexpected turn of events during the video you see Rodriguez-Lopez continuously get punched or drop-kicked in the face by famous people. He takes it like a champ as John Frusciante, the Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, singer Teri Gender Bender (Lopez’ bandmate in Bosnian Rainbows), artist Aura T-09, bassist Eva Gardner (Lopez’ former bandmate in the Mars Volta), Tatiana Velazquez and photographer Robin Laananen punch him in the face once he offers them flowers.
Perhaps the flowers are a symbol of his mother’s unfortunate passing– which could be interpreted as the punch in the face– since the album was inspired by the grieving of his late mother.
“It was a really interesting process to go through,” he recently told Rolling Stone. “And the difficult part came when everything I turned in, they wanted it to be simpler and more straight-ahead, especially with the lyrics.”
“For me, that was a huge challenge because emotionally you’re writing a certain way that’s particular to the images in your heart, but [simplifying things] really exposes you. But it was the best thing that could have happened to have to put it in black-and-white terms, and to be that exposed and that raw about it. It’s almost like these childlike nursery rhymes.”
On a lighter note, the talented musician also tried his hand with film, as he has also become a successful actor and film director. In 2010 Rodriguez-Lopez made his feature film directorial debut.
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