before switching to guitar. After several years and two more critically acclaimed albums, for a variety of reasons, Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala left At the Drive-In and the band went on "indefinite hiatus". The remaining members, Paul Hinojos, Tony Hajjar, and Jim Ward went on to form Sparta while the duo focused on other projects. On January 9, 2012, At the Drive-In announced that they were reforming for a tour. The band released their fourth album In•ter a•li•a in 2017 before going on an indefinite hiatus in November 2018. The Mars Volta (2001–2012, 2022-present) They refocused their efforts on the dub outfit called De Facto, which also included Jeremy Ward and Isaiah "Ikey" Owens, and which they had started years before while still in At the Drive-In. Eventually the same collective of musicians in De Facto would be expanded into Rodríguez-López and Bixler-Zavala's new band, The Mars Volta. Once again starting from scratch he wrote and toured with the band which consumed almost all his time and money. On May 25, 2003, less than a month before the release of their first full-length album, De-Loused in the Comatorium, bandmate and close friend Jeremy Ward was found dead of a heroin overdose. This event, coupled with the memories of the suicide of his friend Julio Venegas years earlier, finally convinced both him and Bixler-Zavala to quit using opiates. Since then he has been clean and credited his newfound musical work ethic on his new lifestyle. The Mars Volta's second album, Frances the Mute, would later be dedicated to Ward. During the early years of the band he also worked on a low budget movie called A Manual Dexterity which starred Jeremy Ward. The soundtrack A Manual Dexterity: Soundtrack Volume 1 was released in 2004. The release of the second volume, which was originally planned for Spring of 2005, and the film were both delayed indefinitely due to legal problems. Conflicts over ownership of certain footage and Rodríguez-López's reluctance to revisit the project which featured his late friend Jeremy Ward were both cited as reasons for the delay. However, Rodríguez-López stated that he does intend to release both Volume 2 and the film at some point in the future. On February 8, 2009, he and his fellow Mars Volta bandmates won the Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. On January 23, 2013, the Mars Volta officially announced that they had broken up, following