"Our original feeling was that anything was possible and now, once again, it is"

"The most revolutionary thing we could do would be to make a pop record", says Cedric Bixler-Zavala of prog-punk luminaries The Mars Volta, in conversation with John Doran for the Guardian. He's not wrong.

For partner in crime Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the creative process seems to be driven by an active desire to alienate the audience rather than play to the gallery: "Losing 'fans' is baked into what we do. I don't know a greater happiness than losing 'fans'. A true fan is someone interested in what's happening now, and then there's everyone else trying to control what you do or project on to it. I have an aversion to that. That sounds like school. That sounds like the government. That sounds like the police. And unfortunately that's what a lot of people who think they're fans end up thinking like."

A statement like that deserves a bit of unpicking.

On the one hand, he's of course right that artists shouldn't feel (or be made to feel) creatively imprisoned by the expectations of anyone beyond themselves. Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez are clearly very wary of soullessly conforming and repeating themselves for cheap applause and easy cash. As was the case when they briefly revived At The Drive-In a few years ago, they were only comfortable resurrecting The Mars Volta if there was new material to perform. As Bixler-Zavala comments, "Omar said The Mars Volta can be whatever we want it to be, which was refreshing as it sets the parameters of us not being a heritage act that relies on old songs. We can redefine what we are and move forwards." In an era of bands reforming purely to trudge through the back catalogue for another pay day, that attitude is laudable.

And yet Rodriguez-Lopez's aggressive disdain and disrespect for those who have previously funded the band's existence is a little hard to stomach. Perhaps this is how a lot of artists feel but very rarely admit. Artists should be entitled to pursue whatever path they choose - but fans are equally entitled to choose not to follow them. Rodriguez-Lopez appears to relish seeing people fall by the wayside, but I'm not sure I believe in his ideal of a "true fan" who laps up everything an artist does with enthusiasm and an open mind. Perhaps he's just as guilty of imposing unrealistic expectations on others.

Bixler-Zavala and Rodriguez-Lopez are in many ways a classic creative partnership - frequently divided by personal differences and tensions, sometimes toxic (see the shared heroin and crack habit that in part brought At The Drive-In down), but continually drawn back together by the prospect of writing and performing anew. The fact that they declined to be interviewed together is intriguing - a sign, perhaps, that this reunion may not last long.