“www.thedeftones.com” – June, 2000 // Abe and Frank Interviewed

Abe and Frank interviewed by “thedeftones.com”
July,2000

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thedeftones.com: What does the White Pony symbolize?
Abe: To me its our stand on the way things our these days.
It’s a proud triumphant stand.

Frank: It could mean a lot of different things. Like when we
came up with the initial idea we were just sitting around drunk
and Chino was like “why don’t we call the album White Pony” and we
were like alright and this is while we were still on the road and
hadn’t written any songs. So we decided fuck it! We’ll put up a red
backdrop like a flag. Its like us putting up our flag and saying here
we are, this is the white pony man, you cant fuck with it. You don’t
even know what it means but you’re going to want to know just for the
reason you’re asking is why. It can mean anything just like our songs.
It can mean anything to anyone. It really doesn’t matter.

thedeftones.com: People are saying this is more of a “softer” Deftones.

Do you think you’re alienating the harder scene that has supported you?
Abe: I think we’ve given everyone just what they need, this is the
record we finally feel comfortable making and we’ve wanted to make a
record like this for a long time.

Frank: Abe said it well before and it may sound selfish but we make
albums for ourselves, you know what I mean. It just so happens we have
fans that are really into what we do and that’s a good thing. I look at
it like the band are in a car and if you want to ride with us get in lets
go! Because who knows where we are going to go or going to stop. Why do we
have to keep recreating stuff where we’ve been or done already?

Abe: I like to think that our fans have grown with us and are ready to
except something new. Our fans are smarter than the average rock fan…
You know what I mean. A bit more open minded.

Frank: If your looking for your simple, easy aggression song then theirs
plenty of bands who can offer that. We are offering you what I think is a
little bit more and if you take that in I respect you as a fellow music
fan who is open to everything.

thedeftones.com: Looking back on your first two albums, how do you
perceive them in contrast to the new album?

Abe: Its funny. Just the other day I listened to Around The Fur and I was
like Fuck this is pretty good! And then one record I hardly ever listen
to is Adrenaline and I put that shit on and I hadn’t heard it in such a
long time and its pretty cool.

Frank: We are proud of our albums man. I think ATF is a fuckin great album
and at the time it came out it was overlooked by a lot of people, which is
good I think as it put us in the position to make this album. If Around The
Fur blew up, we probably wouldn’t have made this album the way it is. We were
in the position to do anything we want and we knew it. We were still on
this level where we have this great fan base but as far as the masses or MTV,
we knew they hadn’t touched us yet so we did anything and everything and I
think that’s a great position. You don’t want to be in a position where you
feel you have to keep making the same song over and over again just to stay up.
We don’t have a formula basically and after a while you see that a lot of
bands have this formula. If you take one song off White Pony and play it to
somebody you can’t say this is what the new album sounds like. Because each
fuckin song is different and how many albums can you say that about.

thedeftones.com: Did you seriously consider adding a new guitarist to the band?

Frank: We talk a lot of shit and it can get out on the Internet. It’s kind
of like the Chino changing his name thing. It could have been done but as
long as Chino feels comfortable. He was more worried about being tied down,
but it’s only a few songs in the set.

thedeftones.com: So how does Stef feel about Chino picking up the guitar
for some of the songs?

Abe: He hated it at first! It was the times we were going through.
He fuckin hated it but if Chino hadn’t of picked up the guitar we wouldn’t
have made this record.
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