Free Moral Agents bring collaboration, improvisation to Bourbon tonight

Wouldn't it be nice if co-workers could be replaced?

For a short time, they can. Just ask Isaiah "Ikey" Owens or any number of the musicians who branch out to take on side projects.

When Owens established Free Moral Agents, his main group of the psychedelic outfit Mars Volta was forced to let Owens go on tour now and then.

Tonight at 8, Free Moral Agents will come to the Bourbon Theatre to play with Zechs Marquise and local group The Machete Archive.

The Daily Nebraskan spoke with Owens about how the project came to be, how collaboration factors into his music and how the Huskers can baffle an outsider.

Daily Nebraskan: How has Free Moral Agents made it to where it is now?

Isaiah Owens: About six or seven years ago, I made a record called "Everybody's Favorite Weapon." It was an eight-track record I made at my home and attempted to go play that recorded live. I called up some friends of mine – well, I shouldn't say I called them up (laughs). We kind of found each other over time.

Rather than keep playing that record, we just wrote a new one and tried to play that one. Rather than getting a bunch of people to help me interpret my solo record, I decided to make a real band. It's always best that way.

DN: Where do you see the band going in the near future, and how will you divide your time between it and Mars Volta?

IO: We're going to keep touring. We've got a record done, and it should be out in the spring. And I'm not sure what Mars Volta's schedule's going to be like next year, so hopefully we'll be touring and active then in the spring.

When I come home from tour with Mars Volta, I work on this. And they also practice while I'm gone, so that we don't really ever miss a beat.

DN: In addition to Mars Volta, you've worked with Mastodon, Sublime and Saul Williams, to name a few. How does collaboration compare with music you create independently?

IO: For me, just the fact that you play music, someone else has to hear it. It's best when it's a collaboration of people, the personalities and people around me I love and respect. That, to me, is where the good music comes out of.

No one really does anything by themselves. They might say they do, but everybody needs somebody, and the more quality the people around you, the better the music.

DN: In particular, how was it collaborating with Tony Allen, Fela Kuti's old drummer?

IO: I sent him the vocal, and he sent it back with all this amazing music on it. It was an honor that he said yes and was willing to do it.

I sent it to him in Paris; he has a production house out there, and it came back really, really good.

DN: How would you have connected with him if it weren't for the Internet?

IO: I would have mailed it to him (laughs). Yeah, I would have mailed it to him, and he would have mailed it back to me (laughed). It would have taken longer, but I just sent him the vocal, and he sent the remix.