Deftones singer Chino Moreno: ‘I've got hundreds of drawings of myself in my house'
I was very excited that we were about to put out a real record, on a real record label. I was a little scared as well – we were this new band, putting ourselves out there. The label sent us physical copies of Adrenaline when it came out – I think we even got cassettes back then. It was so exciting to open it up and have something tangible to hold. But we had no sense of the longevity it would enjoy. I didn't anticipate people would still be listening to it, or even that we'd still be a band this many years later. We still have nerves, obviously, whenever we release something. But we also have a sense of confidence, especially with this new record.
Do you find your creativity burns brightest in hardship? Or can peace be just as potent? shenead
There's something to be said for both, and our music has that dichotomy built into its DNA – a lot of our songs have that yin and yang within them. There's a lot more peace than chaos in our lives at the moment, and I'm happy it's that way. A lot of our earlier records were made when life was more crazy, and we were able to capture that. But with this record, there's some of that beauty that comes with this invigorated time we're living in now. But it's always good to be able to yell and scream sometimes, right? The pandemic was really difficult for everybody, but as someone who was spoilt by having this outlet my whole adult life, to be able to tour and play shows and express myself … I really came to a dead stop during Covid. It really affected me. Making music – to be able to express emotions, good and bad – has definitely been a gift.
I work at HMV in a small town and we sell at least five copies of 1997's Around the Fur to teenagers every week – way more than Fleetwood Mac's Rumours or Nirvana's Nevermind. To what do you ascribe its longevity? DameHedwig
I would hope it's because we made some good records that have been able to transcend time, and that people of all ages find something within them they connect with. It's probably no different from when I was a kid discovering groups like Led Zeppelin. And I'm not saying that we're as great as them, but those bands were around for many years before I discovered them. I was able to connect with what they created, and it's a lovely thing. We've always made a constant decision to not date ourselves with the music we make. We were always afraid of being lumped-in with the nu metal groups that came up at the same time we did. Not that we felt we were in another league; we just wanted to have our own identity. So we would make certain creative decisions to try not to fall too deep into any category.
Deftones' Covers compilation shows a wide range of influences, including a number of British artists from the 1980s such as Duran Duran, the Cure, the Smiths and Sade. How much of an influence were they on your music? JimmyD
It's the first music that I fell in love with, and it seemed very exotic to me as a sixth-grader. When you're watching videos by Duran Duran, and they're cruising on yachts in Sri Lanka, it just seemed like this music from far away. It was the 80s, and this stuff was pop music, but a lot of my friends were listening to Michael Jackson and stuff like that. And I loved that as well, but this British music was different. I felt very … selective, that I had this music that nobody else knew about. And there's things there that I've carried over to Deftones. We're still a hard rock/metal group, but I've snuck some of those influences in. And it's not shoehorned; it's very natural, because I genuinely have an affinity with this music.
It seems your recent albums have had deeper, almost occult themes and symbolism. Is this intentional, or just something unconscious coming out through your art? Phronesis
It's unconscious. I've always been intrigued by things we don't understand. It's not me buying into any of these things at all – it's just being curious about that which I don't understand. I don't do it for shock value. When I was a kid, my grandmother would go to church, and all of us kids would go to the kids' church group, where they gave us an illustrated book of stories from the Bible. It had the scariest illustrations. I would stare for hours at these illustrations of, like, King Solomon holding up a baby by its feet. And then I'd read the story, these two people fighting over who the baby belonged to, and Solomon chopping it in half. It boggles me to this day, that it would be something a kid might read. But I've always had a curiosity about stuff like that.
What music did you listen to when you were 22? Jlimbless
I was probably touring and listening to a lot of early electronic stuff and trip-hop. I was really into Portishead, Unkle, DJ Shadow and Tricky. I still love that music. It was marrying a lot of things that I love: sample-driven music, drum-forward music. It had a lot of the elements of hip-hop, but slowed down, and there was a lot of romantic imagery within it.
I listen to a lot of the songs from Eros [Deftones' unfinished sixth album, abandoned after bassist Chi Cheng was left comatose after a car crash in 2008; he died of complications from the accident in 2013] floating around the internet – Dallas especially. Do you think that record will ever see the light of day? weavermachine
We're always asked about Eros. It will most likely never see the light of day. That would involve going back to that period and resurrecting unfinished things, and somehow bringing them to completion. Dallas is the only song that was anywhere near finished. This new album started with ideas we'd been working on alone, through the pandemic. And when we got together to actually start making the record, none of us wanted to look back at those ideas from the pandemic – we wanted to capture the moment we're in today. So going back to try to capture what was happening back during Eros, and finishing those ideas, doesn't really make sense.
Usually for me, it's the heavier, the better – but then I heard Sextape [from 2010's Diamond Eyes], which I love (and its mellower parts, especially). What inspired the lyrics, and how did it become the banger it is? danozism
I don't have any recollection of writing the words. A lot of our songs are written very abstract, to paint a picture of a feeling. There's three notes that go through the whole of Sextape, and they're very lush and beautiful – they take that side of us to the extreme. There's beauty there, in the sonics of it. Lyrically, I just ran with that emotion.
How do you separate your different creative modes between Deftones and your other projects? Mdrudolph
I don't. Each is its own thing, but I don't approach them in any different way. I react how Chino would react. What I mean is, there's no such thing as 'Chino from Deftones' and 'Chino from Crosses' and 'Chino from Team Sleep'. There's just one Chino. And I just react to what's presented to me, musically, as myself. [A pause] I don't often refer to myself in the third person. Actually, I feel like that was the first time. And I felt really weird doing that!
Your cover of the Sade song No Ordinary Love is just otherworldly. Did she ever get to listen to it or give any feedback? Lazygunn
That was sacred ground because, as an artist, Sade's unique. Even when we were recording it, it felt like a very self-indulgent thing to be doing. We weren't intending for it to come out. The demo was recorded in my garage; we really just made it for ourselves. The fact that it ever saw the light of day at all was scary, to be honest. If you'd asked me, 'Would you want to cover a Sade song, and other people are going to hear it, including possibly Sade?', I would never have done it. I'm glad people do like it. I'm not sure that she's ever heard it.
If you could go back in time and offer advice to your younger self, what would you tell him? Zack_S917
There's a lot of life lessons that I had to learn the hard way, and they created the person that stands here today. I don't have many huge regrets in life, because it all shaped who I've become. That said, it might be nice to go back to a few moments and tap myself on the shoulder and say, 'No – go that way.'
You must get a ton of love from fans, and I imagine the gifts can get pretty creative. What's one of the sweetest or coolest things you've received from a fan? StarrXperience
People often give me drawings of myself. I always wonder what they assume I will do with them. I don't even like to look at photos of myself. They're all different types of drawings – there's cartoony ones, pen and ink ones. And I think it must bring the artist some kind of joy, that I'm holding on to a piece of art they created. 'You shared your art with me – I want to share my art with you.' I do appreciate it. But because of that, I have stacks and stacks, hundreds of drawings of myself in my house.
Private Music is released 22 August on Reprise/Warner
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