“Metal Hammer” – 1997 // Chino and Max Interviewed

Metal Hammer,
September 1997

Chino and Max comments about "HEADUP"...

"Then of course, there¹s the track Deftones did with their close pal Max
Cavalera. Moreno explains the genisis of that special tune: ³It¹s a crazy
ass song. We all sat around and wrote in the studio and jammed some stuff
and came out with a really good song.
 ³The lyrics are all about his stepson (Dana Wells), who passed away not to
long ago. He was a good friend of mine, so it¹s a heay ass song,² he
explains. ³We don¹t have a name yet. Me and Max were talking about it
yesterday. The working title is called ŒHead Up¹.
 We decided before we did the song what it would be about be about, and I
think we¹re going to dedicate the record to Dana. We¹re both singing on the
song, we kinda switch off lines, answering, yelling back at each other. It¹s
pretty cool. It was intense in the studio, just the aura that was in there
was beautiful. That came out really, really good.²
 Max says about the song: ³The song we did together (³Head Up²) was very
special. They¹d lost a friend too. When me and Chino recorded the vocals we
were both on the floor and emotions were going everywhere. It was almost as
if we had Dana in the studio sitting between the two of us. We were raging
so hard, and I remember looking up and seeing Chino had smashed his nose and
there was blood all over his face. He had this expression on his face which
said, ³How much more energy can you put into a song?² It was unbelievable!
When I Put that song on I get goosebumps.²
 Chino on Max: ³Man, he¹s one of the coolest guys in the world. He¹s just
inspiring. ³ŒHead Up¹ was the fist song we actually did vocals on. I hadn¹t
done any vocals yet and they were still doing the music, and he came up to
Seattle where we were recording to do it. We did it live with him before he
had to leave. Doing that just inspired me completely. He has so much
presence and spirit, you know. Everything he does is real and he just has
this certain thing about him, this aura, that he throws out, like ³This is
all me². When we were singing together I was like, ³Man, this is what I
wanna be able to do. I wanna show emotion like he shows it². It¹s raw and
it¹s for real. He¹s an all-round good person to be involved with². (MH Nov
1997).
³As soon as I get done with mixing this record. Me and Max are doing a
record together. We¹re going to start in the middle of July. I don¹t know if
it will be an EP or a whole album, but we have a few songs, and we¹re going
to record them with (KoRn producer) Ross Robinson and just put Œem out.
 ³It¹s kinda mine and his project, but we¹re getting all kinds of different
people to be on it - it¹s going to be a big thing, but basically our songs.
I don¹t want to say the peoples names yet, but it¹s going to be the shit!
It¹ll be way different than Deftones stuff. I want to do some real moody,
slow stuff, because people wouldn¹t expect that of me and Max. They¹d expect
it to be straight up and hardcore. So I wanna change it up here and there."

(MH Sep 1997).

Thanks to Sly