Isaiah Owens

Isaiah "Ikey" Owens (1 December 1975, Long Beach, California — 14 October 2014, Cholula, Puebla, Mexico) was an American keyboardist, musician, producer, and elder brother of Aaron Owens (1977—2015) and Brandon "Eugene" Owens. He played in The Mars Volta between 2001 and 2011, the longest-standing tenure member on par with bassist Juan Alderete de la Peña, and co-founded several acclaimed projects, most notably Free Moral Agents and the hip-hop duo Look Daggers with Alex Ocana/2Mex. He worked live and studio with countless renowned musicians and bands, including Shuggie Otis, Blowfly, Barrington Levy, Mastodon, Gravy Train!!!!, Crystal Antlers, EL-P, Dave Sitek from TV On The Radio, Born Jamericans, Wailing Souls, Kamal Humphrey/Radioinactive, Heavens, Prefuse 73, Bob Forrest, Kenneth Brian, and Saul Williams, to name a few. After parting ways with The Mars Volta in 2011, Ikey Owens joined Jack White's backing bands, The Buzzards, on the "429037" tour. In 2014, he recorded keyboards on White's sophomore studio album, 695372. In October, amidst the Mexican leg of the tour, 39-year-old Owens died of a sudden heart attack. Ikey had just completed his debut studio album and already sent the masters to Third Man Records; for various personal and contractual reasons, however, the project was unreleased for over a decade. In November 2024, Unit E Records finally premiered "3674850," available as LP/digital album with several colored vinyl limited pressings. Born and raised in the Long Beach area, Owens began playing and recording with various Californian ska/surf/punk/reggae bands in the early-to-mid-1990s, such as Reel Big Fish, The Aquabats!, One Eye Open, Slightly Stoopid, and The Hippos. In 1994, Isaiah "Ikey" Owens co-founded his ska band, Pocket Lent. Later on, he joined the Long Beach Dub Allstars. Circa 1998, Ikey met and befriended Omar Rodriguez-Lopez from At The Drive-In at a local show. The following year, Owens joined his recently-formed dub/reggae band, De Facto, where Omar played with his closest friends, Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Jeremy Ward; Ikey replaced Ralph Jasso, who quit in the early days. After At The Drive-In went on "indefinite hiatus" in March 2001, De Facto soon became the primary outlet for Omar and Cedric. Before the year ended, the quartet dropped two albums and two EPs. In the fall, the group teamed up with bassist Eva Gardner and drummer Blake Fleming to form The Mars Volta. Ikey Owens continually recorded and performed with the band since its debut October 2001 show at Chain Reaction club in Anaheim, California, and on virtually every tour, except for Linda Good's brief July-October 2002 tenure, until the summer of 2011. He contributed to all five studio albums and other studio records, as well as two Rodríguez-López solo albums: his debut CD/2×LP soundtrack in 2004 and Arañas En La Sombra (recorded in 2008 but only released in 2016, as part of Omar's digital-only series on Ipecac Recordings, with LP reissue in 2024 on Clouds Hill). In February 2009, Owens shared the "Best Hard Rock Performance" Grammy award for 219906, beating other nominees: 291814 by Disturbed, Judas Priest with Visions, Mötley Crüe's 864193, and Rob Zombie's Lords of Salem. Before the "421982" tour, however, Owens didn't get an invitation from TMV management, replaced by Omar's brother Marcel Rodriguez-Lopez and Lars Stalfors on keyboards/synths. In later interviews, Ikey claimed he was abruptly cut off from any further work and recording sessions with the band. Presumably, Owens was fired due to scheduling conflicts and increasing involvement with other bands and solo projects; at the very end of the "139576" tour, he missed two dates in South America to perform with Free Moral Agents. In July 2011, when asked about Isaiah's absence on his Twitter, the Mars Volta's bassist, Juan Alderete, claimed that Owens was too busy "producing bands these days."