Last night Cedric and Omar from THE MARS VOLTA flew up to record string tracks for a song on their forthcoming album. I met the bass player, Juan, at one of their concerts a few years ago and got talking ... and that's how this session happened.

The string tracks were written by the amazing Nathaniel Stookey, and conducted by yours truly. It was a cool rock/classical intersection. The guys from the band were clearly amused by our liberal use of Italian during the session (fermata, diminuendo, etc.), but seemed to really appreciate our work. What really seemed to seal the deal is that we were all able to improvise, which is not something rockers expect classical folks to do. Omar, the music director of the band, has eclectic musical tastes. On the classical side, he's really into Varése, and is digging a CD of Xenakis lent to him by John Frusciante, lead guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I wish this kind of stuff would happen more often -- who knows, maybe it will.