Deftones are one of the most innovative hard rock bands of the past 20 years. Their early albums Adrenaline, Around the Fur and White Pony went platinum in the United States and were also critical successes.
In November 2008, tragedy struck when bass player Chi Cheng was injured in a car crash in California. He has been in a coma for four years. They abandoned the next album Eros, but came back stronger with Diamond Eyes which was a return to old glories. They have followed it up with the new album Koi No Yokan which is out now. It received a five star rating in The Irish Times and was chosen by Revolver magazine as the album of the year. Ronan McGreevy speaks to Deftones lead singer Chino Moreno.
Your new album is called Koi No Yokan. Can you explain the title?
It is a Japanese term which roughly translates as love at first sight, but there is no literal English translation of it. It is a powerful term and something that a lot of people are lucky enough to experience in one way or another. It is always hard when you have to describe a record with a name or a phrase. A lot of times our titles do not mean anything, but this one has some meaning to it. The record is not a concept record at all, but the notion of it is very powerful. I think we made a very great record with a lot of very powerful emotional songs that people can relate to. We feel pretty good about it.
The first single, Tempest, is getting a lot of rave reviews. How do you feel about that song?
It is hard for me to pick favourites. It’s like children in a way. It is not my favourite song on the record, but it is great that it has got such a brilliant reaction. Now there is so much more to come for those who are interested in the record. It is a very diverse batch of songs.
I detected a hint of Mastodon about that song. You toured with them in the United States. Were you influenced by them?
Most definitely, I love them. They are great friends of ours and great musicians. There are few metal bands that stand out from the normal, straight-down-the-middle aggressive metal. They have so many different influences that they bring into their sound and I really appreciate it.
I know that people say we are a metal band, but individually and collectively, we are influenced by so many different types of music that it would be hard for us to put a wall up and say that we’re just a metal band and that’s all we are.
Luckily, my parents played a lot of music in our house as a kid and I grew up listening to the likes of John Coltrane and Miles Davis that are so disconnected from heavy metal.
Your last album Diamond Eyes was really successful. Are you hoping the new album will follow on from that?
We had a really pleasant work experience on that Diamond Eyes record where we refocused the way that we work. It was a very immediate record. It was written all together in one small room. It really captured that moment in time. We took the same sort of approach with the writing of this record. We set these hours aside in the day and we locked ourselves in a room and just played and had fun doing so. For that reason I feel we captured another moment in time. Once you get complacent it stops being interesting and fun.
Your drummer Abe Cunningham has said that you’ve grown up a lot and are more disciplined in your approach to recording and touring. Would you agree?
Most definitely. Being more responsible in general in life is a learning experience. It is sad that it took so long to do it. I didn’t really start being responsible until about six or seven years ago. I realised that I was only hurting myself with my lack of discipline.
You’ve said you got your mojo back after a difficult period in the mid-2000s. What do you attribute that to?
It’s just growing up. The main thing is learning some appreciation for what we do. Music is one of my biggest hobbies: creating it, listening to it and researching it. The fact that I’m able to have a job doing it is something I really appreciate. One of the catalysts, which was really sad, was when Chi (Cheng) the bass player had his accident and just life in general. It made everybody sit back and realise that those little things don’t seem to matter so much anymore. It’s just music, it is not the be all and end all, but it is a gift and we appreciate it. Everybody got into a really good head space and it made us all close together. We started to appreciate and enjoy it more.
It is a phenomenon in hard rock that so many bands have created their most successful music after tragedy ‑ AC/DC, Metallica, Mastodon and Avenged Sevenfold. Why is that?
It is nothing that anybody hopes for. It is just life in general. A lot of people deal with things that are bad. Once you’ve been through something, you grow from it and you take a lot in. You can always turn it into something positive.
Do you ever see a time when Chi might pull through?
Yes, I think so. That’s what keeps us going. It will be four years since his accident. He’s still alive, he’s still fighting, he wants to make it through this. It has happened before in a lot of cases. We do keep positive and hopeful. It helps us to carry through and keep going. It could be the case that he never wakes up, but the best thing we can do is keep a positive mental attitude about things.
Do you think he would like what you are doing right now?
Absolutely. Some of the best times in our lives have been together as friends making this music together and he’s a very big part of it. I’ve been friends with him for most of my life. I think he would appreciate what we are doing now.
Koi No Yokan is out now
