DJ Delgado of Deftones puts it all in the mix
By: Frank Gatto
So you’re about to embark on the two month long Taste of Chaos tour. While I know doing lengthy tours is nothing too new for you, how do you generally feel the few days prior to beginning a tour of that length?
It’s ironic, I was just thinking about that before you called. My psychic intuitive side told me that something like that was going to come up. I knew it, but I was thinking about it myself, that’s why I said it to myself. Anyway, it was ironic, I was saying to myself, “you know, it’s those three days before the tour, where you’re like, if you’re about to go on any trip or some shit like that, you’re stressing on it and making sure you’ve packed everything and all that kind of stuff. That’s all it is. I think anyone can relate to it. For me, the touring part, that’s easy. That’s fun. But I think it’s just that stress of making sure you don’t forget anything.
Not long. I can probably pack what I need to take with me in less than an hour. I’m really just making sure I have my camera and my computer and all the right cables with me. You know, “do I need to order parts for my guitars,” or anything like that. For my personal, I don’t have much to take with me. I only roll with like, a week’s worth of clothes, and we get our laundry done every day so it’s not like I have to have a massive stash of clothes.
And plus, when we go out on tour, I try to take nothing with me because I always end up coming back with stuff. So, the lighter I keep it going out, the easier it is coming back.
Well, Thrice, we’ve actually toured with them, and I’ve met the Story Of The Year guys; those guys are pretty cool dudes. I feel like I’ve met a lot more but it’s just going to be fun to go out with a lot of bands. I think those are some of the most fun environments to play in, when there’s so many different people playing. So many different angles couldn’t cover it.
I’m really not in the know on that. My recent path has been all about still working on our record and finishing it up with Chino and just rehearsing the last couple of weeks to get it together.
Isn’t it kind of like the Warped Tour? Isn’t that the basis of it? The winter Warped Tour?
I mean, it’s like the same scene, it’s just the Warped Tour is during the summer and the Taste of Chaos is during the winter. Isn’t that it?
Oh yeah, it’s a miniature version of it, but that’s because it’s only the second year of it. Give it a few years, you watch it. Motocross at midnight…
Right. I don’t know, mix it up, have fun. That stuff’s all cool. It’s just growing. The Warped Tour was a lot smaller when it started out compared to where it is now.
Yeah, we’re going to play some new stuff.
I can’t apply more aggressive to any of it. I think that’s funny when people say that. I wish. Hey, I personally wish it was more aggressive.
Yeah well, more aggressive for him, maybe. If we busted out some blastbeats and double bass, then I’d definitely be glad to take it to the next level, but that’s asking too much right now.
Uh huh, they’re the best, though.
You know, we’ve never really had a concept on any of them. The way we all explain it is it’s just a part of our lives, that period of time and where we’re at. I don’t think anyone sits down with any plan in mind, it just ends up becoming what it is. It’s almost like the artist and the canvas. He might have an idea, but once he starts going, that thing can morph a million ways.
No, not yet. We’re not sure about that, yet. Like I said, I’ve been busy with this, so our goal is to get something recorded with that later this year. But who knows.
I had met B-Real a couple times before them, but I’ve known Christian since 1995, and we’ve been talking about jamming forever. I moved to Los Angeles in December of 1999 and I wanted to get it going when we had time. We were going to be down here working on “White Pony” at that time, so, we started jamming and we pretty much jammed for a couple months every year, for the first couple of years. Then everyone’s schedules were flipping all around and stuff, so it’s just been more of a time issue at the moment, but later on this year we should have some more time to get something going. It’s a matter of it being convenient and respectful to all things going on. We have so much on our schedule and Fear Factory has got all their stuff going on, and B-Real’s always working. Either paintballing or working on his solo stuff, or even with Cypress Hill too.
I know, the thing that I love about their new stuff is that they play it as a band. They’re actually playing in it now, and it’s fucking tight.
I agree.
I’m doing some drum n’ bass stuff with Bobo from Cypress Hill, and then I’m going to mix it up and do some stuff by myself. But it’ll be like, metal, definitely, but it won’t be all metal. But I really like the faster stuff. It’s just something I’m doing on the side. I want to do a drum n’ bass album, but I want to play guitar as well, and I want to mix it up. Instead of having a lot of the keys being there, I’ll use guitar and the zillions of effects I have to make all those crazy sounds. What I’ll probably end up doing is hooking up the music, programming some beats, DJs, whatever, and start it from there. Then start layering some stuff up and making some crazy stuff. The hot hit tracks in the clubs.
No, really, my goal is to be number one in the PGA.
I started to. I started about five months ago, but I pretty much went every day.
Um, I was the number one Tiger Woods golfer online on the Playstation.
Yep.
I follow the tour all the time. The things I enjoy are golf, watching all the golf channels, all the Nascar shit, that stuff’s great, and I listen to a lot of talk radio. I’ll listen to anything on it, really.
Yeah. It’s just other people’s opinions. You start to see where a lot of people fall in line together and where people clash. You can learn a lot of things from it, I believe.
[laughing] I don’t do any reading.
I don’t feel guilty about it. I can talk, and I can communicate as best as I can, and if I have any issues or difficulties with making those communications I’ll try to figure out another way or I’ll politely excuse myself from the situation. Be like, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand, I’ve gotta go. That one’s just above me.” You know what I mean? Why lie? Just like, “I don’t understand what you’re saying, I’m sorry.”
I agree totally. It’s amazing. I don’t watch a lot of TV because all I have to do is look around. Get some people around you for a couple of hours. You’ll find it equally, if not greater than, TV.
Wha? For what? Wha…what’d you have to do?
[laughing]
[laughing] I hear you. It’s gotta be something you can get something too, I guess.
Valentine’s Day. It’s such a racket.
Nikol: Hi!
Drew: I’m doing an interview. I’m on the phone with the guy from Deftones.
Nikol: Oh. I got you some socks.
Drew: Thank you.
Nikol: Happy Valentine’s Day!
Drew: Happy Valentine’s Day.
Yeah.
Make sure you print that.
[laughing]
Yeah, I would have gave you some trouble too, man.
[laughing]
[laughing]
Moving on.
You know, I gotta say Frank. He’s a DJ. He’s got everything.
Well…you know.
Oh yeah. There’s definitely times where I gotta leave the room. I think we all do that to each other, though. It’s a good way to get some privacy. Put on some music that you know no one likes. They’ll just go the opposite direction, quick. It’s a polite way of telling someone to fuck off.
Well, I was talking about that, but I don’t think it was about losing my faith.
Hmm. I wonder if that was just edited. I’ve never really had anyone get really religious with me or anything like that.
I definitely still believe that.
No, I wouldn’t say I’m into conspiracy theory. I’m just like anyone else. I’m just trying to sift through all the bullshit that’s fed to us daily. I’m trying to make my own logical conclusions as to what lies at hand. What you can actually see and what is tangible, you know what I mean? Otherwise it’s just all hype. Have you ever looked at the sun satellite website?
It’s a satellite that monitors the sun and it’s going 24/7.
Well, it’s been talked about for a long time. I haven’t looked at it for a long time because I’ve already seen enough to know what I need to know. Like, yeah, basically, there’s eight different filters on this satellite, and one filter really shows physical objects. There’s an object in space and it wasn’t a photo, but you could totally see the shit. That filter, man, every day, for as far back as you can see, there’s activity going on at the sun at an impeccable rate. Something is happening at the sun with something. They’re impervious to the effects of the sun. Completely impervious. Stuff that is just…massively huge. You’ve never seen anything that huge before. And it was in the pictures, man.
Hold on, I’ve got my computer right here, I’ll tell you if it’s on. Every day. Every day. I heard it on Coast To Coast, this program at night…
Yeah. They had this guy, he’s a meteorologist, but he did this other stuff on the side. This whole thing was all about every day our weather is being manipulated.
It’s the…uh…I have a picture on my computer of it. The HAARP system.
I’m not into the conspiracy of it, like I said, I’m just basing my opinions on what I can see for myself. So here we go, for instance. Right now, I’m looking at the sun. I’m telling you, if I had this thing counted out, I could count you out a good dozen things that you couldn’t tell me what they were. And they’re massive.
Yeah.
Just go to nasa.gov and then just do a search for Soho on their search. There’s eight different lenses and filters. There’s one where the entire picture will be blue. In the middle of that picture, you’re going to see a dark blue circle, and in the middle of that circle, you’re going to see a white circle. The white circle in the center of that blue circle is the actual sun, how big it is. That circle is roughly about a million miles wide. The sun is about a million miles wide. If you look just right above the blue circle, there’s a huge white streak there. These pictures, if you’ll actually look on there, there’s different sizes of the pictures you can look at. What you’re looking at normally, it’s zoomed out a million miles, you know what I mean? But they have the raw images on there where you can zoom in on the image. You can actually look at that shit.
Go for it. But look at that shit, you know what I mean?
And since you’re on there, do that mpeg of that very same filter. Let it play. It’ll basically show you a sequence of all those frames over the last hour or the last day or something like that. Watch it and watch how much shit flies in and out of that picture. [laughing]
Usually there’s just not a lot because, I don’t know, I’m not really Mr. Big Interview. I’m not really…I just…you can only say so much. I’m not really a big hype person. I don’t really want to hype myself up. “Oh, go see my band, buy our record, blah, blah, blah,” you know? I’m trying to do it, I’m trying to have fun, and I’m very thankful for those who enjoy our stuff and provide a living for me. It doesn’t get more simple than that, and that’s where I live, all the time.
Nope. Not enough hours of the day for me to get around on all those.
Yeah, I always hear that. I just think it’s funny. It’s just people using the web and having a good time.
Rock on.
Most boards and most forums, they’re all very immoral.
[laughing]
The internet is cold as ice!
It’s a digital comic book, you know what I mean? You can be anyone you want on it, you can be real or not. There’s just so much on there. It’s like anything, it’s up to you to decide what’s right, wrong, true, or not. It’s up to you to accept things the way they are or to change them for the way you want them to be. You know how it is.
It’s kind of just like, we’re all dealing with something. Everyone of us has problems, but I think just in general, the internet is an escape where you can go look at someone else’s problems, where you’re like, “ooh, look at that.”
It’s a big, giant, digital, bulletin board. I didn’t go to college, but I rode my bike through it all the time when I used to go down to the river, and there was this bulletin board that I used to go by. And that’s what it is to me. The modern age version of that. There’s no need for that bulletin board except for in that little community where people will be walking by, otherwise people will go to the internet for information. Who buys encyclopedias anymore? You don’t need no encyclopedia, buy the internet.
You’ll have it all. And then all the porn you’ve ever dreamed of.
The internet really is just porn. 95% porn and 5% productivity and information.
Kids got cell phones now, not even in high school.
I was in school right before the pagers came out. When I got out is when the pagers were coming out.
It’s wild times. We live in wild times. There’s no question about it. You can really pick your topic, it doesn’t really matter, because everyone’s living to the extreme now.
Exactly. Everybody’s on The Dew.
You had to put it between two and three…
Yeah, you had to get that channel knob to stay right there in the middle and not flip to the next one. I don’t know what channel that was on, it wasn’t no channel that you knew of.
Floating around in the ether.
Yeah. [laughing] It’s out of control. Everything you ever wanted on there. Everything in life that there is in life that we all know about, it’s on the internet. If we don’t know about it, as soon as we do know about it, it’ll be on the internet.
Nah uh, but I wouldn’t put it past reality.
My girlfriend says it doesn’t look very good, but still, the fact that they can make anything and still refer to it as an “invisibility cloak” is mindblowing, even if it isn’t perfect.
That’s dope.
I’m just waiting for our generation to kick in and take the hardcore nano-research and take it to the public and make it all happen. Like, I know at some point I’m going to have to deal with all the years of fast food that I ate, and I’m going to need me a pill that’s going to put two-trillion little nanobots to go in and just coarse through all my veins and destroy all the enemies in my body. Okay, meanwhile, while doing so, give each cell an injection – a boost, to resuscitate it back to its youthfulness…
Exactly.
Yeah, it’s crazy. I know one thing’s for sure, I never thought I’d ever imagine us really having to be worried about nukes blowing up. But we’re going to have to worry about that sometime soon. People is crazy.
Um…
Hah, no, I really don’t.
I mean, if you really slipped me the sodium-pentothal, I still wouldn’t have an answer for you.
I actually…I’m familiar with him being drunk with Patton, but it wasn’t at a meeting of the artists, it was at a show we did in Holland. They were having a drinking contest, only Patton was tossing his drinks over his shoulder while Chino was killing his.
[laughing]
Needless to say, Chino lost that battle.
Yeah, no, I’m not aware of that.
Yeah, that happened. It wasn’t a fight with us, it was more like, one of their members tried to jump on Chino, and I didn’t really see what happened when he did it, but there was just a big scuffle and that was it, really. There was no fight, really, there was no one really kicking anyone’s ass.
I never really had beef with them, hah. I think that was more generated by people around than it was with us and them.
I don’t really keep up with it on a day to day basis, or even month to month for that matter, but I’ve got friends who are always listening to it, and they always turn me on to some stuff, and if I like it, I’ll put it in my Itunes and I got it there to rock later on. But as far as following who’s the hottest and doing what with the sickest stage moves and all that…I don’t really know.
Yeah. I’m a devoted Meshuggah fan.
Um, there are, but I don’t really know a lot of bands names. Like I said, I hear them here and there. I like Chimaira a lot. Then there’s this band that my friend Christian’s doing, they’re called Threat Signal, they’re pretty fucking good. I think they’re from Toronto or something like that. They’re fucking massive, dude, it sounded really good. I can’t think of anyone else at the moment.
Yeah, Chino always takes them out of the set-list.
Yeah.
Yeah, because he doesn’t play guitar on any of that stuff, and he wants to play guitar.
Yeah, he’s terrible.
I love him, but…
He’s not terrible. I’m just saying, he needs to practice.
If I had to, I probably could, but no, I don’t normally. Nor would I try to.
No, I heard that from somebody recently too, and I laughed. I was like, “are you kidding me?” I’m saying, it’s not impossible to do, I’m just saying I don’t.
I may have done it once or twice, but it’s not a regular event by any means. That’s just plain too much.
If, I say…in a day maybe, two or three grams. Not a lot.
No, just, it’s always the same. Just, you know, like I said, thank you very much.
