There is only days left until Crosses debut album drops and I can tell you that it’s a killer. These guys are a must see at Soundwave! Rolling Stone caught up with Chino Moreno and had a chat about Crosses as well as what the future holds for Deftones.
How would you describe (Crosses)?
By listening to the music, you can tell that a lot of the influences come from the new-wave era. That was basically the scene that I came up on. I just happened to wind up in a metal band when I was 15. I’ve always had a deep passion for a lot of early electronic and sampled music.
A few songs seem to represent times in your musical development. For example, there’s a song called “Nineteen Eighty Seven.”
[Guitarist] Shaun [Lopez] named that track, but that was a coming of age for music for me. I got into a lot of music like Depeche Mode and my whole concept of music changed. Before that, I was just listening toMichael Jackson, maybe some early rap like Afrika Bambaataa. Then, my sister gave me a Depeche Mode tape in a Christmas stocking. Depeche Mode to me were awesome. They had a lot of the same drum machines, a lot the same sounds as hip-hop, but they had a lot of melody and mood and dark tones. I liked the beat, the dance part, but I also liked the melody.
What’s next with the Deftones?
We just finished a tour, so we’re gonna take the rest of the year off. We’re gonna start writing some music early next year. I just moved to Oregon and Stephen is down in L.A. and Abe and Frank are in Sacramento, and Sergio is in Europe. The idea is to just get together. The last couple records, we just threw ourselves into a small room and started playing. We just work organically, which I think works better than me writing a song and saying, “Hey guys, learn this.” Hopefully in February we’ll spend a couple weeks together, and just kind of get together and write music.
Deftones bassist Chi Cheng recently passed away, after spending several years in a semi-comatose state. Is your healing process still ongoing?
[Pauses.] He’ll always be thought about on a day-to-day basis. It’s not something that goes away, obviously. I think that when he did pass, it was very hard. It was five years where he was in a state where he couldn’t speak. He was existing, but not existing. He was here, but not here. It was very hard on us and it was really hard on him. I feel like with his passing, not to get back into the supernatural, he is more with us now then he was in the five years when he was stuck in that sort of in-between space. It’s a little bit of a relief because I know that he’s not suffering. There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him.
Read more at Rolling Stone
