Deftones pictures, interviews, magazine scans.

[Vesanic]

Vesanic, do you know any info about the documentary they were talking about?  Who's putting it out, when it's coming out or how it's being released (i.e., internet, DVD)?

i thougt they meant this one Chi Documentary #1 of 4 "The Accident"

Yep probably..

[Vesanic]

Interview of Sergio

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91ycgBytF3U

[Vesanic]

http://www.metalinsider.net/interviews/exclusive-deftones-chino-moreno-on-playing-albums-in-their-entirety-his-side-project-covers

Exclusive: Deftones' Chino Moreno On Playing Albums In Their Entirety, Side Project, Covers

After renting a car and driving almost 500 miles to Portland, Oregon, KUOI 89.3 FM/Moscow ID station manager Anthony Saia had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Chino Moreno, vocalist and lyrical mastermind of Deftones on the third show of their U.S. tour in support of their sixth studio effort Diamond Eyes.


I heard a rumor that for last night's show here at the Crystal that you guys might be playing Around the Fur and Diamond Eyes in their entirety. Did that actually end up happening?

It didn't happen. It was exactly what you said, a rumor. In fact, I think someone from our management office had posted it somewhere, whether it be Facebook or Twitter or something like that. When we read about it and were like, 'What!?' So, yeah, I mean, we thought about doing it and then yesterday when we got here we were like, 'let's just play.' We feel like it kind of would have been – I mean, to ignore some of our other records, although it would be fun to play those in their entirety, y'know, may be a special thing, but I feel like there would be a lot of people that would be bummed because we left so much of our other records, especially our new record since we're out promoting it, but to leave out songs from White Pony and Adrenaline, y'know, if we were going to play those songs I could see a lot people being more upset than the people that would be happy with just those two. So, at the end of the day we just figured we'd play a heavy set with Around the Fur and heavy on the new record, but y'know, we'll mix it up.

Is there a plan for that in the future?

I don't know. We've been asked to do it before so we've done it. It's one of those things, if someone really wants us to do it we will do it if it's like a special thing but it's almost like we'd be going up there handcuffed since we could only play those two records. It wouldn't make for a dynamic or fun show. It would still be good, I shouldn't say that because we could make it great I'm sure but, I don't know. We really aren't making plans for it.

With that, do you feel obligated to play songs off your older records for your older fans?

No, I feel obligated to at least play stuff from all the records. Not just the older records but all of them – even though lately we haven't been playing much of the last record, Saturday Night Wrist. Some nights we don't play any of it but tonight we're going to bring some of that stuff back. I think the best thing is to always do with the set list – because a lot of people whether it be their age or when they got into us,  I mean, a lot of people, they hear that one record, whatever record that might be that got them into us, y'know? Who knows what record it could be? Y'know, a lot of people are different. A lot of kids that come have like the self-titled record and say, 'This is my favorite record' and I'd be like, okay, well, we weren't going to play anything from this tonight so we'll add a couple songs on the setlist just try to balance it out really.

So, as we've already established, the Internet is a powerful thing but I was wondering if you'd be willing to comment on anything in regards to The Holy Ghost/Crosses project.

I'm able to but I'm really not because it's one of those things where it's really fun but it's just a project. It's not like a side band or anything. It's just a project that I've been recording over the last six months or so – maybe even five months. I'll go home for like a week and I'll be there before I have to get back on tour and when I'm home, I'm restless kind of, I don't like to sit around and Shaun [Lopez] who the project is with, lives right up the street from me, so I usually just spend time at his house and just in the studio and we've just been recording, So, we do have a project, it's called Crosses and it's really cool. I mean we have like sixteen tracks and we're going to put them out in these little EPs. Hopefully the first one will be out in the next couple months  and every month or two we'll put out another one , y'know, like four EPs and that's basically it. I don't have any plans to tour on it and I don't even want to discuss what it sounds like. I'd rather just put it out and not hype it up and just let people hear it and either like it or don't but it's not something I really feel like I want to hype up because to me, like with my other group Team Sleep that I had for a while that was one of the things that didn't ruin it but it made it more difficult for me to do because it was a fun project I was just doing with my friends and all of a sudden it got so serious and had so much expectation put into it that it became like another band where I have to like maneuver and do things whether it be through the record label and jump through hoops to just get it done when it was just something for fun to do. So, this is something kind of under the radar I guess I could say and it's just strictly for listening and for the music we like and hopefully the people that like my voice and some of the music that I like will dig it.

Speaking of music that you like, we had the opportunity to chill with Abe last October and we were talking about covers and he mentioned that you weren't really into the recording of 'Simple Man'?

It wasn't that I wasn't into it. It was that I hadn't heard it y'know? I never listened to Lynyrd Skynyrd growing up, y'know? When I first got into music I was into like new pop and new wave music, I mean that was like what was coming out when I was a kid.

Like Depeche Mode, Japan and stuff?

Yeah, I mean those were like the first bands that I really got into. I mean, I listened to a lot of Michael Jackson and Culture Club and stuff before that but it was probably when I was in sixth grade when I finally got my own identity of what I really liked. At that point I really starting like new wave music, like electronic new wave and from there I started getting into Brit Pop and just a lot of different music other than just what was mainstream I guess. Then, I got in Deftones and that was kind of my introduction into metal and so I learned to like metal and a lot of different types of metal but I kind of had to, y'know, didn't do it consciously but I just morphed what I knew about the music that I like into what they were playing and it became what it is.

Today is Record Store Day and you guys have the Covers LP that came out today. How did you guys choose the songs for that?

Well, the songs were pretty much a compilation of stuff we had recorded, like that 'Simple Man' one was done in like '94 so it was even before Adrenaline when we recorded that. So, y'know, we hadn't even heard it until it came out on the B-Sides [and Rarities] record. I got sent a copy of it and I was like, 'I don't even remember doing this really' but there was something special about it just because it was cool and everything kind of just happened. Every time we record an album we always record a couple of extra songs and they are mostly cover songs and usually songs that aren't typical songs that you would expect a metal band to be doing. So, it makes it fun for us, y'know? We have a bunch of them but these are some of our collectively favorite ones and we put them in sequence and thought that it sounded pretty cool so we decided to put it out for Record Store Day on vinyl. I got one today and it's pretty awesome.

Right on. I have to say that I was little bummed not to see 'Nightboat' on there but you guys picked 'The Chauffeur' instead, any reason behind that?

It was just better. Better recorded and all that, y'know what I mean? 'Nightboat' was done during the same time we did 'Simple Man'. We did 'Nightboat', 'Simple Man' and something else and that was done a long time ago, like I said, from before Adrenaline and the quality of it was really just, it was like, if you really listen to it in comparison to others, the recording quality is really bad. It could probably be fixed and mixed and everything like that but it just hasn't been. 'Chauffeur' was done by Terry Date when we did Around the Fur so it just sounds a lot better and I love that song and I think it's a great cover so we decided to go with that one.

Speaking of producers, you guys have worked with a number of producers like Terry, Nick Raskulinecz, and others. Who has been your favorite to work with thus far or can you even name a favorite?

I love Terry but, it was also cool to work with Nick because I got a whole different perspective of a different type of producer. [Nick] is a whole different type of producer from Terry and that was an experience too but I love Terry as a person, I mean, he's a great dude and I hung out with a couple of days ago. He's kind of an older guy and he's really wise. I don't know, he's just one of my favorite people in the world so I just like to spend time with him and not only is he great at what he does but he's got so much rad history and he's worked with so many great artists but more than anything you can learn a lot from just talking to him and working with him. Yeah, he's great.

Switching gears here for a second – do you ever Google yourself just to see what it says?

No. Well, I did a long time ago and I was bummed out after I looked at it. Y'know, so many people's opinions on me and stuff. I can't live with reading what people think of me because I can read a million great things and I'll read a couple of bad things and I'm just crushed. So, I decided that I wouldn't look at anything. I look at Twitter every now and then though.

Fair enough. So, what ever happened with Chino Sox?

I still have them but it was never anything that I really put time into but the company and the dude just gave me a bunch of socks because I used to wear those socks a lot so he started giving them to me and when he started giving me the socks and when I started wearing them his company started to sell more socks so he was like, 'Here, if you want, you can have your own socks' so he gave me a bunch of socks printed out with my name on them. So anyways, I set up this simple website and did that and had one person shipping them out for me but I never really put too much time into it. I'm kind of out of product now so if I wanted to get more I'd have to order more product but I've got too much other shit going on right now to try to be an entrepreneur selling socks.

How do you feel when you hear someone remixing or covering one of your songs?

I dig that. Y'know, anytime someone makes an interpretation of our music, however they do it, is always awesome. I like actually going on YouTube and watching covers like seeing a girl in a room on an acoustic guitar or someone on a piano transposing one of our songs. That stuff is awesome and its cool to think that our music inspired someone to try and figure it out and cycle through them and do their own version of it and it's rad for sure.

A very special thanks to Chino Moreno for taking time to sit down and chat with us for a little while before their show in Portland. Also a big shout out to Cheryl from Warner Bros, Mark from Velvet Hammer and Bram from Metal Insider for hooking it up.

[vinsanity]

^^ that was a cool interview

[Vesanic]

Indeed. 

[beaverwithfishyshoes]

couldnt find this posted yet. click link for the full interview. http://spinitloud.com/?p=405

Your role in the band has really expanded. It's not a traditional position like a guitarist. Can you detail your live set up?
I play the keys, use some Apple stuff. It changes and that's why I love this band. We change it up all the time.

Does your equipment change for each song?
Yeah, there is different software and different sequences. There are different keyboards. It also changes with the advances in technology. A lot of MIDI controllers, stuff like that. I have a lot of fun with it.

How do your contributions tie in with the other band members during the song writing process?
It all depends on the song. For the most part, we all get together in a room and try to make some noise. Then we build off each other. It usually works like that, but it worked really well with this record. That's why it was done in the time frame it was. There's no formula to it, some songs come faster than others. This was the fastest since "Around the Fur". It was really spontaneous.

So Chino doesn't come in with ideas and you guys flesh it out?
No one really comes with ideas. We get together and start jamming. It could come from a bass line or a drum fill or a guitar, it something we've learned. We let it come to us. Nobody has ever come in with finished songs.

The last album was really guitar heavy. Was that a conscious band decision or just something that Stephen developed in the studio?
It may sound clichéd, but that was just the headspace he was in and what he was writing. We never have meetings and talk about being heavier or returning to a previous sound. In fact, we always try to do different things and taking chances. We're getting pretty good at it, or should I say getting better at it. That's my favorite aspect of this band, not being afraid to go from the heaviest song to the prettiest song. Those dynamics are the best part of this band.

[Penicks]

i can't be the only one who reads frank interviews with an extremely low frequency voice

[MommaBear]

That's my favorite aspect of this band, not being afraid to go from the heaviest song to the prettiest song. Those dynamics are the best part of this band.[/i]

Agreed!!

[beaverwithfishyshoes]

so this wasnt posted yet? i stumbled on this by accident.

[mono]

That’s my favorite aspect of this band, not being afraid to go from the heaviest song to the prettiest song. Those dynamics are the best part of this band.[/i]

Agreed!!

+1

[Vesanic]

Another interview with Frank

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/atoz/2011/04/deftones_frank_delgado_on_chan.php

[Vesanic]

Funny chat with Abe

http://www.syffal.com/interview-abe-cunningham-deftones

[Far away]

Funny chat with Abe

http://www.syffal.com/interview-abe-cunningham-deftones

I knew it. Thats why the giants won the WS!

[Menos el Oso]

Interview with Sergio Vega
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TswT5Dlok3Q

[Raswid]

Interview with Chino:

DEFTONES Black Carpet Interview

[Vesanic]

Cool interview with Abe from the BlackDiamondSkye tour

http://kuoi.org/music/interviews/abe-cunningham/


Abe Cunningham: Hey man, how's it going? Can I get to you anything to drink? Water? Wine? Soda? Beer? It's only light beer but we have beer?

Anthony: [laughs] Sure man, I'll take a beer.

AC: Cool. There aren't any chairs in this room. Damnit. This room sucks. Follow me.

One thing can be said about Abe Cunningham, drummer for Deftones. He is the definition of a rad dude. As we walked backstage we were passed by Sean Kinney of Alice in Chains before walking past Mastodon's dressing room where Brent Hinds and Bill Kelliher were watching a nondescript YouTube video. Brann Dailor, Mastodon's drummer was sporting a shirt with kittens and a lowrider on it. Sergio Vega, bassist for Deftones is sitting back on the couch listening to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, singing along to himself. Abe laughs and turns the music down as we sit down on a kush couch the band has in their dressing room.

A: So you guys just got done with Seattle last night. There were cameras everywhere for Alice in Chains since they were doing that video thing. Were you guys a part of that?

AC: Oh, no, that was just for Alice but there were cameras everywhere. They were shooting in 3D. It was totally crazy.

A: Yeah, for sure. Alright man. I wanted to ask, especially since you and Sergio were just enjoying some Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, what were you listening to when you were coming down for the show?

AC: Today? Last night? I was hoping that I could listen to my snores, but I don't snore. And, instead of sleeping soundly like I wish I could've, I'm fuckin' tired right now. I was listening through two doors in the back lounge of the bus to Stephen, our guitarist, watching The Hangover for the 500th or 600th time, so that's what I heard. And then when I got up to tell him to, 'Turn it down; I'm trying to sleep. I've been trying to sleep all night,' he was asleep in his bunk and it was just cranked up. Great movie but I've just seen it like a thousand times. So that's what it was.

A: Were any of you guys ever DJs for a college radio station?

AC: Nope.

A: Makes sense. You guys have been goin' since '88 –

AC: Yeah, it seems like a thousand years almost. No, actually it feels like [shrugs] five years, six years but it's been like 22. It's cool though. You know, we're friends, man. We have a blast.

A: Alright. Well, hypothetically, if you had a radio show, what would you play?

AC: There would definitely be a little Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. Ah, you know what? It would be the best radio show that ever was. Y'know, I'm just a victim of having an iPod on repeat and chock full of thousands and thousands of songs. Damnit. I can't think of any specifics.

A: For sure man, I've got your guys' six studio albums and the B-Sides & Rarities with Mastodon and Baroness in a playlist right now.

AC: We just played with Baroness. Those dudes were great. It was about a month we were together, like three and a half weeks and those dudes were so rad. Sweetest guys in the world. We just became super duper buddies, y'know?

A: Right on. I was at that first show in Spokane. You may have seen the banjo that some of my DJs brought for John. Anyways, we had an opportunity to interview Terry Date about a month ago and when we asked him what records he was most proud of, he cited that White Pony was one of them.  What record do you think most represents you as a band?

AC: I would say probably that record. I think their all obviously – I could say all of them but I think at that point and even up until now that was the best. We were just all over the place with what we listened to, all of us, and we just, we're music lovers all around. But that was the best attempt at us trying to harness all of our flavors that we like to represent but also the way, from start to finish, represent the whole spectrum but equally and it was just – we got the mix right on that one. Well, not the actual mix but the flow of the whole record. It was just one of those things that turned out super rad and I'm not just saying that because it's our record. But it's crazy. Now it's ten years old. They just re-released it on vinyl. But its funny because we've been talk about it a lot lately and people have asked, 'Why has this stood the test of time?' I don't know but it's pretty cool.

A: Now, Diamond Eyes is a little more melodic but has more aggressive tones.

AC: Kinda of Around the Furrish?

A: Kinda.

AC: Yeah, it was kind of more like where we were at. I mean, every time we do a record – I mean there are certain bands, I know there are certain bands plan out every more they make and it works for some people but we've never been that way. Every time we make a record it's just a slice of the time and space we're at in that point in time and it's there forever, for better or worse. Y'know, we've had some not so great times and records that came out during those times also but it's cool man, yeah.

A: Alright man. Lets talk the change in time with the album art, I know that Adrenaline had the baby booger grabber and Around the Fur had the woman on it –

AC: With the boobs. . .

A: [laughs] Yeah. With the boobs. Then White Pony was literal and Self-Titled didn't seem to have a meaning. Does the owl hold some visual representation for the band?

AC: Self-titled was like Guns 'N' Roses, er, no, Grateful Dead with the skulls and stuff. You know what? It's funny, because, as with some of our titles too, even titles of our records or titles of songs, there's never really a direct connection. Its usually something like, oh, that sounds cool so that became, y'know. Like You've Seen the Butcher has nothing to do with going to the butcher shop. So, I don't know. When we were getting ready for Diamond Eyes we were getting close to due dates for art and what not. So the guy, Frank Maddox who did White Pony and everything after that, our record label did all that stuff but he did all of our covers, but anyways, he just had a bunch of ideas and what took me about that picture was just the stark contrast between the owl that was so white and so pure but the background was so black but it's like – Hi Troy!

Troy Sanders [Mastodon]: Hi Abe.

AC: But it's eyes are the blackest eyes. Y'know. You could look into those eyes and never ever ever ever see the end eyes because they just go forever so y'know, it was like, you could see through the eyes, back through the background and then. . . to infinity and beyond!

A: Right on man. So, let's talk about Blackdiamondskye. How did this monster of a concert come to be?

AC: It's a marketing scheme [laughs]. Not really but we've known the Mastodon guys for quite some time and whenever we kicked it or hung we always hit it off immediately and had a blast together. We never had toured together and just ran into each other on off days. So, we became friends over the years. The Alice guys we've know for many years mainly because we recorded a lot of records in Seattle and they were in the studio at some point which is actually kind of odd because it was the last record they made – that whole time around '94-95ish when we were making Adrenaline so it was just kind of an over the years kind of thing.  Anyways, so Diamond Eyes, Nick Raskulinecz did that and they were completing their record Black Gives Way To Blue so when we were doing this new record they were stopping by, hanging, and it just kind of rekindled it all. We also have the same management too which is insane so y'know, why not? Its three different kinds of rock bands and I wouldn't say that its three different generations because we're not far off from each other in terms of time but this tour is really short and sweet. It's exactly one month long and its almost done now, but yeah, here we are and it's been really cool. Everyone hangs and its just a really good time.

A: Cool man, that actually leads me to my next question. How have the fans been at the shows since all three band's sound is different?

AC: It's been cool I wasn't concerned, I mean, I knew we would just go in and do our thing regardless, at least from our point of view. I knew that we'd just go and play and do our thing but people have been very open and accepting of Mastodon and they've been tearing it up before us. We both have pretty brief sets. Mastodon is 40 minutes and ours is 50 minutes and it's been great, man. Its been really really cool.

A: Definitely man. Although the sets are brief you guys both tear it up really well. Its like this tour was meant to happen. Anyways, lets go back to album stuff. On most of your records you guys have been known to cover a couple of songs during your recording sessions. How do you guys decide which songs you want to cover?

AC: I don't know, really. We usually try to do something that's kind of out there and wouldn't be the norm, y'know? Like the Sade thing. I mean, its not like we did it because no one expected us to do it but it was just fun. It sort of became a tradition at the end of each session to kind of whip a couple of those songs out.

A: Oh, for sure. I know that you guys had brought in Joe Fraloub out of Northern California to shred "Simple Man" for you guys-

AC: Yeah! Which was funny because when we were first starting out he owned a studio in Sacramento called Pus Cavern and him and this guy Joe Johnson – they were the two Joes. He later became a music attorney and also played with bands and all this other shit. Anyways, yeah, we actually recorded that at their studio and we needed someone who could shred the solo and he did so, yeah. That's really funny too because we did that one a long time ago and Chino was not down. I mean, Stephen and I love Skynyrd and shit and Chi was like, 'Well, whatever' but Chino was NOT down but he did it anyways, but he only did a couple passes and vocals so, yeah. I mean it came out pretty damn cool, but yeah.

A: [laughs] Awesome. Will we hear any covers tonight?

AC: Probably not. I wish. We're just going to play our hit, 'Change (In the House of Fliess)' over and over again. Twelve times. Just the hits man. I mean hit. [laughs]

A: Should fans expect another B-Sides and Rarities album in the future?

AC: Definitely, definitely. I mean we'll have to come up with some more stuff. We kind of used up a lot of what we had for that but there are still some other little nuggets hanging out somewhere but that thing actually came together out of necessity too. We were going through an absolutely horrendous time. I mean, we trying to finish a record. We were actually having a blast with each other but there was some heavy drug use and shit going on during the making of Saturday Night Wrist and it fucked a lot of shit up too. And y'know, Chino was going to leave, so when while he went to do Team Sleep in the middle of making that fucking record we kind of had to do something so I – I'm actually sort of the curator of our "museum." I have everything we've ever made. I have one each sticker when we used to make our own stickers. Our shirts. I have everything, y'know. I went around town and compiled everything. I went to these old studios like Joe's place and transferred that stuff to a hard drives and some of these tapes were still on tape and were about to die so we transferred them to a digital file. We found these old pictures and people submitted stuff. So it was like, about time, y'know but it actually turned out really cool. All the quotes and everything – it just turned out to be a really neat thing. It was meant to buy time but its great. I'm proud of that thing – but we need to compile more [laughs].

Note: Deftones will be releasing a limited pressing of 5000 copies of an album called Covers on record store day this year.

A:  Right on man, well, I look forward more. So, let's talk about the future. After this tour you guys are going over to Europe and hooking up with Coheed & Cambria. How did that tour work out and can U.S. fans expect to see that tour on U.S. soil?

AC: Yeah, they're going to come out with us for a few of those dates. I don't know if we're going to do that tour though. I don't see why not. It just depends on what those guys are doing too, y'know, but this kind of just work out cool since they're going to be there and we're going to be there too so it was just kind of one of those things like, 'Hey, want to come with us?' and they said 'Yeah'. But yeah, those dudes are rad and you never know, man.

A: That would definitely be a show to see. Alright man, how about we talk about the state of music. There are a lot of bands right now that are switching up members all the time. In this state of musical chaos, what advice do you have for these guys since you guys have kept rolling for over twenty years?

AC: Tons of member changes, man. I noticed that. I mean, there's ton. Y'know, we started out as friends. We're buddies, man. I mean, we certainly don't know everything but we learned a lot along the way and what a great way to start something out as friends, y'know? We were just buddies and we're just trying to write music and it pretty much comes down to this: Enjoy who you're doing it with and I guess that's about it [laughs], honestly.

A: One final question: If you could fight anybody, who would you fight?

AC: Fight? [laughs] I'm a lover, man.

A: But if you had to fight someone?

AC: I'm a lover but I'd probably shoot them, y'know. It'd be a waste of time fighting and stuff [laughs]. That's fucked up! Definitely a good question though. Um [pauses]. I'd shoot them in the face. Fight over. I'd be done and moving on with my day.

Special thanks to Abe Cunningham for taking the time out of his schedule to hang out and chat with me – even if I did keep him from his dinner. He's definitely an awesome guy as well as all the dudes hanging out backstage. We even got to see Brann Dailor's (Drummer for Mastodon) La La Teletubby costume he bought in British Columbia. Rumor has it that he's worn it one stage a few times. That's metal.

[RoyalDeftonicBoy]

I might get fired if they found out if Im posting this so here goes fast

DEFTONES frontman Chino Moreno tells Billboard.com that the band is planning to spend the next few weeks working on material for the follow-up to 2010's "Diamond Eyes".

"We're going to have a month off [from touring], but in that month we're talking about going in and starting to write again, maybe even two or three weeks in a rehearsal spot just recording ideas and keeping it going," he said. "[The process will resume in September] so if all goes well hopefully we'll have some product for early next year."

Regarding what the new DEFTONES material might sound like, Moreno said, "Everyone has their own kind of little recording devices and are putting down ideas, but with a band like us we find that when we actually get together in a rehearsal spot where there's no distractions and we can work together cohesively as a band, that's really when we're writing songs. Even at sound check we'll jam and do things, but it's not like we ever stop and say, 'Okay, let's keep going on this,' because there's so many distractions. So we're not that good at working on the road. When we get home and we actually seclude ourselves in a little room, that's when it will start."

When asked about the status of "Eros", the album DEFTONES was working on with Chi Cheng before the bassist's November 2008 car accident which left him in a semi-conscious state, Moreno said, "We still have yet to even sit down as a band and listen to where it was left. There's a lot of great music on it, I know that, but... there's a lot of emotion and stuff around it, obviously. It'll be something we'll put out just out of the blue, when we feel the time is right, but I don't think that will be any time soon. Right now we're definitely going to write new music and put out a new record before we do that."

Read more from Billboard.com.

[Crazylegs]

why would you get fired. If it's in an interview from billboard.com i mean.

[mono]

true, this interview is all over internet now. thanks anyway!

[iceache]

Early next year will turn to mid 2013. XD