Isaiah "Ikey" Owens


Randolph Isaiah "Ikey" Owens was an American multi-instrumentalist and producer who played keyboards, piano, organ, synthesizers, guitar, drums, melodica, clavinet, and effects pedals. Known for his work with The Mars Volta, Jack White, De Facto, and Free Moral Agents, he also played in and produced an array of bands from the Long Beach and Denver music scenes.

Biography

Ikey Owens was a member of a number of local, Californian ska, punk, and reggae bands in the early to late 1990s such as Reel Big Fish, The Aquabats, One Eye Open, Slightly Stoopid, and The Hippos. He started the ska band Pocket Lent with his brother, Aaron Owens, in Southern California which attracted a cult following in the local area. The funk-reggae-jazz fusion group released their first EP in 1994. Owens had two brothers, both of which were also musicians. He also performed as a member of Long Beach Dub Allstars, which featured members of Sublime.
In a 2024 tribute post on Instagram, previous collaborator Cedric Bixler-Zavala stated that Owens walked up to him and his band at a party in Long Beach and Owens plugged in his keyboard and amp. Bixler-Zavala claimed that's how they "basically" met. Furthermore, in 1998, an encounter with Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodríguez-López of At the Drive-In at a concert in Irvine proved to be fateful. In 1999, Owens lost his job at a financial management firm in Huntington Beach that "helped handle billion-dollar accounts for Disney and the Catholic Church," but he eventually received an invitation to join the dub reggae band De Facto, replacing Ralph Jasso. He began touring Europe with Rodríguez-López, Bixler-Zavala, and Jeremy Ward shortly thereafter. Owens would contribute to three De Facto EPs and one studio album. One notable performance came on January 3, 2001, at The Smell in Los Angeles which was eventually released by the band as a live DVD. Ward's melodica and vocals and Owens' keyboard were at the forefront of De Facto's sound.
After At the Drive-In broke up, Owens was invited to join Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala's new project, The Mars Volta. A founding member, Owens was one of the longest tenured members of The Mars Volta having continually recorded and performed with the band since their 2001 inception through the majority of 2010. The Mars Volta shows during this period were characterized by their high-energy, frenetic performances, due in some part to Owens' keyboard playing and "controlled chaos." He, along with the rest of The Mars Volta, won a Grammy award in February 2009 for Best Hard Rock Performance for Wax Simulacra. He was not asked by Rodriguez-Lopez to accompany the band on their 2011 summer tour. Reasons for the decision are speculative, although on July 2, 2011, then-current Mars Volta bassist Juan Alderete claimed that Owens was currently "producing bands these days." Alderete later noted, "He had some conflicts in his scheduling, and then it all just naturally evolved into what it is today. Ikey is awesome. I miss dinners with him."
Owens was also quite active outside of The Mars Volta. Beginning in 2002, Owens wrote and recorded solo material under the moniker Free Moral Agents, releasing a vinyl-only EP on Pete Records, as well as a GSL split 12-inch with Subtitle. They released their full-length Everybody's Favorite Weapon in 2004. Momma's Gun Club Vol. 1, their second record, was released in 2006. Free Moral Agents released their third full-length album Control This in the fall of 2010, the first album with the group's expanded line-up. Chaine Infinie Plus was their fourth and last studio album. Owens was active with Free Moral Agents until his death in 2014.
Along with Pocket Lent, he played with Teen Heroes and did session work and/or live shows with Sublime, El-P, Run the Jewels, Dave Sitek from TV on the Radio, Shuggie Otis, Blowfly, Barrington Levy, Mastodon, Gravy Train!!!!, Born Jamericans, Wailing Souls, Radioinactive, Heavens, Prefuse 73, Bob Forrest, MIJA, poet/spoken word artist Saul Williams, and many other bands. He also served as Lauryn Hill's band director for a time.
Owens worked with 2Mex to form the band Look Daggers in 2006. He produced and was responsible for the music in the hip-hop group, while 2Mex was responsible for the vocals. Owens described the band as a "new outlet" for himself while 2Mex stated that working with Ikey changed his musical direction.
In 2007, Ikey produced First You Live by Orange County progressive-folk band Dusty Rhodes and the River Band.
Owens was also seen playing with the Long Beach experimental band Crystal Antlers. In 2010, in demonstrating his versatility, Owens was pulled from the crowd of Spaceland in Los Angeles by Money Mark and the two performed a keyboard solo before Ikey departed back into the crowd. He also contributed to the album Disfrutalo! by Disfrutalo!. Owens produced, mixed, mastered, and performed on the record. When the band had gathered the artwork and was ready to release it, Owens passed away. The psychedlic rock album features the keyboardist on the track Dreamtime.
Owens later became part of Jack White's all-male backup band The Buzzards, playing keyboards, organ and piano. He took part in the world tour in support of White's album Blunderbuss, and later performed on White's second album, Lazaretto. Owens played on the title track of the album which won a Grammy for Best Rock Performance in 2015. He was in the middle of the supporting tour of the album at the time of his death.
Owens produced and performed with a prolific number of local Californian and Denver bands, including his own groups and solo material. His second studio album, which he completed shortly before his death, was finally released in 2024 with the help of his friends and former bandmates. The record, eponymously titled Ikey Owens, is owned by Unit E Records and features seven tracks. The solo album was previously disseminated among musicians and friends under different versions, but the definitive track listing was eventually discovered in emails and files. However, its release would have to wait another ten years due to challenges among those involved in the project.

Death

On October 14, 2014, Owens was found dead due to a heart attack in his hotel room in Puebla, Mexico, aged 39. Two remaining concerts in Mexico in support of Jack White's album, Lazaretto, were cancelled. The band had played in Mexico City three days earlier, in Puebla one night before the incident, and were scheduled to perform in Guadalajara the day of his death. Pearl Jam would honor Owens with a performance of their 2000 single Light Years on October 16, 2014 in Detroit.Jack White dedicated his November 19th show of the same year and specifically the song Love Interruption to Owens.

Discography

Solo

With De Facto

How Do You Dub? You Fight For Dub, You Plug Dub In EP 456132015 EP Megaton Shotblast LP Légende du Scorpion à Quatre Queues LP

With Free Moral Agents

With The Harms

  • ''She Turns''

With Jack White

Live At Third Man Records Live In New York 2012 Lazaretto Live From Bonnaroo 2014 Acoustic Recordings 1998-2016 Live at the Masonic Temple
  • Jack White / Witch / Dinosaur Jr. / Mudhoney – ''Third Man Live''

With Look Daggers

With The Mars Volta

With MIJA

Jeminism II – EP

With Milk+

Venus Breakdown
  • ''Band On Wire''

With Omar Rodríguez-López

With Philieano

  • ''Holy Homework''

With Pocket Lent

Pocket Lent
  • What's Left?
  • ''Verve''

With Rubedo

Massa Confusa
  • ''Love Is The Answer''

With Various Blonde

  • ''Summer High''

Guest appearances

As producer

  • Bank Of Brian – Leave Your Flaws At Home
  • Various artists – The Radiolistener Remixes
  • Gravy Train!!! – Hello Doctor
  • Free Moral Agents – Everybody's Favorite Weapon
  • Subtitle / Free Moral Agents – Leave Home / Instinctively Intact
  • Free Moral Agents – The Special 12 Singles Series
  • Look Daggers – The Patience EP
  • Dusty Rhodes & The River Band – First You Live
  • Look Daggers – Suffer in Style
  • Free Moral Agents – Free Moral Agents
  • Mode – A Future to Kill the Habits on the Witch's Tongue
  • Crystal Antlers – EP
  • Deeskee & Escape Artists – For The Birds
  • Greater California – All The Colors
  • Free Moral Agents – Control This
  • 2Mex – My Fanbase Will Destroy You
  • Wolf Magic – Family
  • Wolf Magic – Wolf Magic
  • Crystal Antlers – Two-Way Mirror
  • MIJA – Jeminism II
  • The Terrapin – Innermachine
  • Meladora – Houses of Joy
  • Mode – Store Bought Roses
  • Chase Frank – Smile Trials
  • Melvoy – Midnight Makeup
  • Boyfrndz – Boyfrndz
  • Ape Machine – War To Head
  • Rubedo – Massa Confusa
  • Holophrase – Horizons of Expectation
  • True Aristocrats – Mary Amygdala
  • Milk+ – Venus Breakdown
  • Wild Pack Of Canaries – In The Parian Flesh
  • Ape Machine – Mangled By The Machine
  • Rubedo – Love Is The Answer
  • Milk+ – ''Band on Wire
  • Wild Pack Of Canaries – Agua Amarga
  • Boyfrndz – Natures
  • The Harms – She Turns
  • Various Blonde – Summer High
  • BLXPLTN – Black Cop Down
  • Buzzmutt – Strange Planes of Surveillance
  • MMXV – SoCal Tennis Pros
  • Disfrutalo! – Disfrutalo!
  • Rudy De Anda – Ostranenie
  • Wheelchair Sports Camp – No Big Deal
  • Ikey Owens – Ikey Owens''