RIP Ikey Owens of The Mars Volta

Isaiah 'Ikey' Owens, founding member and keyboardist for The Mars Volta and more recently Jack White's live band, among many others, has died overnight, reportedly of a heart attack, aged 38.

Much loved by Volta fans as a wonderfully talented and humble person, according to Cedric Bixler-Zavala's emotional speech at an Antemasque show today, Ikey joined De Facto (the band that became Volta) when, at a Long Beach party De Facto were playing, he showed up to the party with a melodica and just got up on stage and played with them. Ikey's classic organ and electric piano was a critical part of The Mars Volta's sound, playing on their first four albums, and live from 2001-2010, being especially important to the sound on the debut Deloused in the Comatorium, and live, where his passionate all-in performances were loved. Ikey's decreasing prominence on later records (with Omar and Marcel also covering keyboards in studio), fan in-jokes about his low volume live, and his eventual failure to be called invited back due to no longer fitting the band's sound (for the 'electronic' Noctourniquet album) caused a great deal of consternation for Volta fans, for whom he was essential to the band, and we missed the early days of a smaller band where his parts were in the foreground. Though of course Volta is no longer together, Ikey had always wanted to rejoin (this now heartbreaking tweet https://twitter.com/freemoralagents/status/294279962737922049 ) and there had been a general belief, both by fans and to some extent from Cedric and Omar, that The Mars Volta would reform at some point in the future. For most fans, the death of Ikey is the permanent end of The Mars Volta.

Ikey also led his own band, Free Moral Agents (http://buyfma.bandcamp.com/), and became quite a prolific producer. Recently, he also joined Jack White's live band, gaining him a lot of widespread recognition.

RIP to a phenomenal, passionate humble musician and the most heartfelt hammond player of the 21st century. I still cannot believe that I am writing this.