“On the outside, Sacramento’s DEFTONES are all pummeling rhythms and high anxiety, but delving
further into the music turns up some surprising nuances: traces of post-punk pop, tinges of rap,
a pinch of industrial grit. Chino Moreno rants, sobs, croons and even works some Middle Eastern
overtones into his vocals, while Stephen Carpenter’s guitar shifts from coarse outbursts to
crisp Helmet-ine precision. A bracing blend of extremes.”

–Sandy Masuo,
Los Angeles Times, January 1996
(three-out-of-four star review)

“Influenced equally by Helmet, Pantera and Smashing Pumpkins, the band is a ferocious contrast
of harmony and discord. Their debut album, ADRENALINE (Maverick, ****), pitches between
gloom-saturated melodies and explosive riffs, lashing out like a sleep-deprived paranoiac
awakened by noisy neighbors. The rhythms are crisp and crafty and the vocals resonate both fury
and sensitivity in a way that’s similar to, but far more blatantly metallic than Nirvana.”
–Jon Wiederhorn,
Pulse, December 1995

“For those who prefer their rock on the foul-mouthed side, the DEFTONES deliver. The band’s
solid style crosses the rawness of the Red Hot Chili Peppers with the cheeky vocal of British
poppers EMF.”
–Larry Flick,
Billboard, January 1995

“An abrasive mix of tortured screaming and edgy guitars that are set up with lulling passages
not unlike the calm before the storm.”
–Paul Semel,
Bikini, March 1996

“Though Moreno can bellow and howl with all the anxiety and anger of a Trent Reznor or Kurt
Cobain, he is also capable of a distinct melodic lilt that’s reminiscent of Robert Smith. All
in all, the 11 tracks are adrenaline.”
–Sandy Masuo,
RIP, December 1995

“Flesh-peeling, tuned-down riffs form the backdrop for vocals that range from cryptic whispers
to bone-chilling screams.”
–Don Kaye,
Request, November 1995

“The aptly titled ADRENALINE (Maverick), (guitarist Stephen) Carpenter and his band lay down
the law with undeniable authority. A hyper-dynamic collection of angst-ridden sonic booms, the
album is a 40-minute primal scream, built on Carpenter’s percussive riffing, judiciously applied
bursts of dissonance, and delicate, if creepy, open chord patterns.”
–Tim Kenneally,
Guitar School, April 1996

“Sledgehammer power chords, swirling textures, and relentless riffs.”
–Chris Gill/James Rotondi,
Guitar Player, March 1996

“The Sacramento, California band shifts deftly between nerve-shredding hysteria and subdued
calm–yet they manage to sustain their intensity throughout by using tons of tension and
sinister atmospheres. (Chi) Cheng’s insistent 16th-note ostinatos highlight the quieter moments
of songs like ‘Minus Blindfold,’ and he’s adept at navigating the band’s frequent shifts in feel
and tempo.”
–Karl Coryat,
Bass Player, April 1996

“If this is what heavy metal is evolving into, it’s a damn good thing. The DEFTONES’ powerful
debut is full of aggro riffing, low-end rhythms, and heavy guitars coupled with genuine
melodies…Categories aside, DEFTONES have undoubtedly produced one of the better, ‘heavy music’
debuts to pulverize the world in a while.”
–Katherine Turman,
Car Audio, January 1996

“There are many bands these days that lay claim to a diverse section of influences. But no one
band is as subtly boisterous to about their eclectic mix as are DEFTONES. Blending together
everything from funk to metal, rap and hardcore, DEFTONES’ coalesce these different energies
into one coherent electrical stream of sound. DEFTONES’ course is piloted by vocalist and
frontman Chino Moreno, who expresses his smooth, melodic lyrics emotionally one minute before
giving way to abrasive, maddened screams the next. Backed by the serene and apocalyptic guitar
of Stephen Carpenter, this Yin-Yang formula keeps DEFTONES’ debut ADRENALINE progressively
contagious.”
–Tomas Pascual,
LiveWire, June/July 1996

“ADRENALINE is one of the year’s most jarring and intense releases, mixing (Stephen) Carpenter’s
corrosive riffage with the seething rhythms of Chi Cheng and Abe Cunningham–topped off by the
cryptic, cathartic wail of Chino Moreno. Picture Korn duking it out with Pantera and you’ve got
DEFTONES in a nutshell.”
–Peter Atkinson,
F (Foundations), November 1995

“It whispers. It cries. It roars. It sighs, screams, bleeds and it buzzes. Loud. It can’t be
ignored. Once it’s in your ear it’s in your face. It’s about a rush of ADRENALINE. Of sonic
berserkery, of crippling angst, of boredom channeled into something beautiful. It’s what it is.
And nothing more: DEFTONES, a band of skate kids who do it for fun, whether at a backyard
barbecue or a 20,000-seat arena. A band that not only attracts your attention, but demands it.”
–Sue Nolz,
Metal Maniacs, August 1996

Stef interviewed by Stu Gotz (Entertainment Ave!)
© December 4, 1996

<—————->

I first met Stephan Carpenter of Deftones after a KISS show here in Chicago.
He was just hanging outside his tour bus while Chino was on a tirade spouting out about what
rock and roll really is all about. Wedge, Deftones tour manager, was also hot and vociferous
about the treatment they received from KISS. There were all these people standing around
bitching and amid them all stood Stef just chilling out with some bottled water and not saying
much. I struck up a short conversation with him and thought him to be the shy and quiet type.
I guess he was just tired then because when Deftones came back through Chicago, about a month
later, Stef had lots to say…

S.G.: We’re talking to Stephan from the Deftones. Let’s take a look at my notes here..

STEF: You don’t have your notes memorized?

S.G.: No. I’m not that professional.

STEF: Oh no.

S.G.: I know this is a cliché of a question but I gotta ask it… Tell us about the name Deftones?
How did you guys come up with that?

STEF: It pretty much came out of nowhere. I was just at work one day and thought of it and that
it was cool, that’s about it really.

S.G.: So, it just came off the top of your head?

STEF: Well…, like, its got a story, but I mean it’s not that big a deal.

S.G.: Nothing profound?

STEF: It all depends on how you wanna look at it. Like one day, I was at work. I used to work
at a pizza place and I rolled the dough basically and so, I was all off by myself all the time,
right, and had my headphones on and I’d just be rockin’ out. But I listen to everything.
I listen to a lot of rap, rock, R&B, you know, rap, I said rap twice didn’t I?

S.G.: Yeah you did.

STEF: I listened to a lot of rap at the time, but, I always imagined being in a band but I
could never pick out a name. I was like, “how do bands just pick their names?” You know, some
bands, you got these metal bands that try to make their name all ugly and whatever. I wanted to
pick a cool name, something that would just stand out but you know, not be all cheese-ball at
the same time… Well, I was really into old classic music, like from the 50’s and shit like that…
I was like, “Tones,” you know there’s a lot of bands from that era that has “The Tones” in it.
And “Def,” just cuz I listen to a lot of LL COOL J, Public Enemy, you know, like Def Jam and
all that. Then I thought, “Deftones,” that would be kinda cool. Def would be mean “cool” and
Tones would be like… the sound of the old days but being vague… cuz we didn’t do just one kind
of music. It was pretty heavy, but it has never been focused on one particular style of music.

S.G.: Well, going along with that, some people, I’ve read, have classified your music as kinda
being thrash and others just don’t know how to describe it. What would you say the Deftones are?

STEF: I just say – We’re us. I mean, the bottom line is it’s metal, cuz it’s heavy but, it’s
not. I can’t even say it’s not typical metal cuz you know it’s typical metal for where we’re
at in our point in time. As far as I consider, when most people are afraid of being metal cuz
they don’t wanna be compared to all the so-called metal bands of the 80’s, like Metallica,
Anthrax and Slayer…that’s what metal is as far as I’m concerned. I mean, there was hard rock
and has progressed up into that – that’s the way I always viewed metal… It’s so diverse now,
it’s not just solid metal anymore. Not even Pantera is just metal. They’re the heaviest band on
the planet but they’re not straight metal, you know what I mean?

S.G.: All right, going back to the cliché questions, how did you guys get together as a band?

STEF: We all just knew each other from growing up really, that’s about it. We just all used to
jam together. It was never like, “Hey, let’s make a band.” We all used to play and we became a
band really. It just happened.

S.G.: The last time I saw you was back in October. You were here in Chicago and were opening up
for KISS. Care to share any stories about that whole tour?

STEF: Yeah, it sucked.

S.G.: Why so?

STEF: I mean, we were playing for people who weren’t even in our own generation… there were
fans of ours that were out there and they were great cuz they knew what they were coming for…
but the majority, they had no idea who we were – they had no reason to even care who we were.
They came to see the explosions and the lights and Gene spit blood and it wasn’t like, let’s go
check out the opening act, you know what I mean. They were paying hundreds of dollars to see
KISS, let’s go see KISS.

You know, Chicago stands out because it was our last show and at no show did we ever got booed
and we did that night. We got fuckin booed! I was like – these people are so hard. I couldn’t
even believe it. I think they were doin’ it just to see if they could rile us up and we were
crackin’ up. I remember Chino was talking a hell of a lot of shit and called them all “Sorries”
and it was beautiful because we’d go up there and he’d be like telling the audience “Hey, were
KISS’ favorite band, you better fuckin’ act like you like us so they don’t get mad.” And people
would be like, “YEAH!” – they’d be trippin’… shows like that we’d always do like,
REO Speedwagon, you know what I mean. It’s the only thing these mother fuckin’ people even
know. I mean, they’re not going to recognize us. Yeah, let’s play something new…, they’d be
“YEAH!” They’re all happy and I’m like, “Yeah, Shut-up.”

S.G.: So how did that experience differ from your Pantera and your White Zombie experience?

STEF: I think the difference would be obvious.

S.G.: Let’s have it in your words. How was that experience then? Tell me about Pantera and
White Zombie.

STEF: That’s my best experience ever. I love Pantera, not just as a band musically.
You know what I mean, but just as people. They’re all just great people and fun to be
around -full of life and not like – “Oh, I hate this shit…,” they’re having a good time
and livin it up, you can’t go wrong there. It was a blast. We had a blast every day.

S.G.: Well, definitely a better experience.

STEF: It was just more exciting. Musically, it was more fun to hear them play than it was
to hear KISS. I loved KISS, that was my favorite band when I was a kid. I don’t think anybody
didn’t like KISS when they were kids. But, I mean, I don’t listen to KISS now, ever…
I watched them every night on that tour, except for Chicago because I was hangin’ out with
everybody… But like, I only had a few highlights from that whole show that I wanted to see
and that was like, “Black Diamond,” cuz that was like, my all time favorite KISS song and it
was just, every night, that song was sweet. And then it was great watching Ace and Gene do
their solos.

S.G.: A lot of musical artists have political causes. On what political soapbox do you stand on?

STEF: Fuckin’ none. I got no time for politics.

S.G.: How about the members of the band? Anybody?

STEF: Nah, we don’t got no political views that we need to even convey across in our music.
That’s for clowns. Let people fuckin’ have a good time – they get pummeled enough by TV and
the news – they don’t need some band that they fuckin’ like, or their music telling them how
to live their fuckin’ lives. You know what I mean. I’m not saying people can’t do that cuz
obviously people have their right to do what they want, but I think that shit should be left
at home. …but when you write music it should be about fun, you know, things that are fun,
things you like, happiness, sadness, but you don’t have to be like, pound your opinion on other
people because the reality is kids hear their shit from their favorite bands and they’re like,
“Oh, I better go out and do this,”…just cuz the band is doing it. If anything… it should be
people teaching people how to be their own individual selves, how to make choices for their own
and I’m sure in a round-about way, that’s what they’re trying to say, but when it comes to
politics, you know bands do it – I don’t need to name names. But, they’re out there and it’s
not interesting for me. It ruins the music for me. I don’t like it.

S.G.: Now, as far as the politics of music, not necessarily the government politics but as an
industry, I understand that the music industry is getting very political these days. Did you
have to do a lot of ass kissing to get where you’re at today?

STEF: No. I think it’s not so much ass kissing. I know what you’re saying. There is definitely
people out there who kiss some ass. Like, as far as, you do favors for people if you want
something, you could help somebody out, but its gonna come around and you don’t even have to
do things to get people to do it. If you just do cool stuff, people come back and it comes back
around later on, you know, you’re just nice and it always come back around basically.

S.G.: OK, going back to record labels, I have a little scenario here for you. Lets say a record
label or whoever is having a big party just for you guys – The Deftones. You’re there, just
hanging, when some big stuffed shirt walks up to you out of the crowd, doesn’t recognize you
and he starts asking you questions like: “Oh yeah, those crazy Deftones, what do you think
about them?” How would you respond to a question like that?

STEF: I’d say “They rule man, go buy their records” Ha-Ha. (laughs)

S.G.: I’ve read through some of your press releases. You guys did a couple of songs that showed
up on movie soundtracks. One was “Crow II-City of Angels,” and another from “Escape From LA.”
Did you get a chance to see those movies, and were they the right kind of movies for your
music?

STEF: “The Crow” music, I saw that movie and that was definitely right for the song. I mean
the song was good in the movie. “The Crow” is really based around music… the soundtrack made
the movie just that much better, you know. “Escape from LA”… I never even seen “Escape from
New York” all the way through myself…. I’ve seen commercials for “Escape from LA” and it seemed
down right cheesy. I didn’t even want to go see that movie.

S.G.: I know I grew up idolizing rock stars and wanted to be a rock star myself. What are some
down sides of being in the music scene that people wouldn’t think about?

STEF: Without making it sound like a complaint, cuz it’s not, I mean, the only down side that
I can say is that the more popular you get, as far as the public knows, the less respect they
have for you as a human, as a person. … You know what I mean. If you start making things happen
in your own life without being in a band, nobody would say anything. But if you’re in a band
and you start making things happen, you know, people start thinking you’re a rock star and they
forget that you’re a person. And you get that label. Once people say that you’re a rock star,
even if you ask for just a little thing here and there, it’s like, “OK rock star, blah blah
blah.” I personally listen to it and laugh at them and say “whatever.”

But, the biggest misconception with the whole thing is that people tend to forget that people
out here are real people doing this. People can’t really understand unless you live it. It’s
not like you go to your job every day, you come in, you work and you hang out with everybody.
You’re all employees and stuff like that and you’re all friends but you’re at a job so you
don’t think much of it. Out here, everybody thinks it’s a big party and for the most part, a
lot of it is a good time – you should be having good times and partying as much as you can,
but, every day is still a job and there are things that have to get done every day. You know,
there’s deadlines to meet, there’s all kinds of things that people don’t see. They just see
the band on stage, they just see the band on TV, or they hear them on the radio. They don’t
know about everything else that goes on behind it, you know. That’s the biggest downside for
me, I mean I have no complaints at all other than I wish that people would understand that,
and I know they can’t, and for the most part, most won’t ever understand that, so it’s not like
it’s a complaint, it’s just an observation of it all. I can deal with it. If anyone wants to
call me a rock star cuz I want or do whatever I want, you know, I’m totally fine with that
because I would do it even if I wasn’t in a band and I don’t care what people say about me
in that way. I’m sure there’s people that think that, and anyone that knows me, knows I’m not,
so it’s people that don’t know you that would give you those kind of labels, and I don’t really
worry about that too much. I love the whole thing, everything about this, the traveling, the
playing, the getting up, I love doin’ all the interviews, I love doin’ everything about it –
I’ve got no complaints. The only time I complain is when I gotta go home, It’s like “NOOOO!.”
But I mean it’s great – it just gives you time to get something else done. Years ago I would
never have been focused. This has helped me be focused on a lot of stuff, see things that I
would have never saw, like different opportunities for everything. Things you can take and do
with your life.

S.G.: How has this whole experience changed? I mean how long have you been on the road first
of all, and prior to that, compare yourself to now and then, what are the big changes in your
life, do you think?

STEF: Well, like I said, the big changes in my life are just my mental outlook on everything.
I’ve become a more positive person than when I was younger, years ago. It’s made me realize
that,… when you don’t deal with your bad stuff when it happens, it just gets worse so it makes
you handle problems and I just got more control of myself. You know what I mean. I can see
where I want to go – I know all the different avenues I want to explore and that’s why I said I
hate going home cuz I love doing this, but when I go home, going home gives me the time and
space to explore the other avenues that I want to do. It’s good. There’s just so many things
that I wanna do. It’s like I could start forty things at once but I’m gonna be creeping along
at every one of them so I’m just trying to focus on one or two things here and get those things
going so I could have that stuff going and maybe branch off to do another thing. It’s not so
much even music, more or less, it’s just, like, musically, I love doin’ what I’m doin’ in this
band. I love to jam with other people…, but I just want to get into art and stuff like that.
Not like paintings. Like graphic arts, stuff like that.

S.G.: Pardon me while I grab a list I here… Some people E-mailed questions, just in general,
and some of the people from our staff came up with these goofy questions, so forgive me if
they’re a little stupid. I didn’t necessarily write them. (pause) What do you remember most
about your first car?

STEF: I never had a car, ever. I ride a bike when I get home. I ride the bus, get a ride from
friends, or ride my bike or skate. I never owned my own car, never even thought about having
my own car. I still don’t to this day. I have no need for one. Maybe one day I’ll get one.

S.G.: Are you more of a club, pub or bar person?

STEF: I’d rather hang out, like, in a small bar and shoot some pool.

S.G.: So, when you’re hangin’ out, what’s your drink of choice?

STEF: Captain Morgan and Orange Juice.

S.G.: Can you finish the following line for me-Never leave home without…..?

STEF: Money.

S.G.: Here’s a question that was E-mailed to our advice column. We had two people answer this
on staff but lets get your answer to this. Is it OK to lie to someone that you love, in order
to avoid hurting their feelings?

STEF: Yes.

S.G.: Wanna expand on that?

STEF: There’s a lot of people in life that can’t handle the truth. You know? It doesn’t mean
they might not be able to ever, but sometimes you don’t need to tell the truth all the time.
I mean, it’s great, telling the truth is a great thing, and maybe you should tell the truth.
Maybe a person who couldn’t handle the truth, maybe they should get it, that way so they can
learn to deal with it. I don’t know. Everybody lies and for anyone to think that they don’t is
insane. To live in a truthful world is a big wish. I myself am too honest. I tell the truth
almost all the time – so much, it drives me crazy. It drives me crazy because I know so many
people around me don’t and it’s like, it kinda gets in the way of communications as far as I’m
concerned, you know, cuz sometimes I don’t wanna deal with people because I don’t wanna have to
deal with lies and when I do deal with lies… it bums me out. But I mean, I’ll lie. I’ve lied
before. I think why it bums me out is because when I was younger, a child, not like a kid but a
teenager, I went through a phase where I lied about everything I did so I wouldn’t get in
trouble all the time. I learned how to lie so I would never get in trouble, and no matter how
much I lied I always got in trouble. I kept getting in trouble then I was like, “Fuck, I need
to just start busting loose and giving out the truth cuz I mean, I’ve got nothing to lose.”
I’m fuckin’ getting everything taken away so I just changed. I eventually got rid of most of
my bad habits of lying. I have, on occasion, slipped out and got a good lie in there, but it’s
for more entertainment value than like anything that has to do with my life.

S.G.: All right. O.J., guilty or innocent?

STEF: I used to think he’s innocent, but I don’t really know. I really think both, I think he
coulda did it, but don’t think he really did cuz, well you know, we could debate about that
forever too.

S.G.: All right, fair enough. Your last question here… Tonight is your (the Deftones were the
headliner) show, do you have anything special planned now that you’re headlining, making any
changes to your set, doing anything special just for yourselves?

STEF: You know, I don’t think we have anything special just for the fact that in the past two
years we’ve never had time to sit and practice – we’ve never had time to create anything.
Pretty much were going to go play our set, have a good time with people and just get everybody
juiced up with us, you know. That’s about it. We got a lot of stuff we want to do but we need
to actually sit down and try it all out. When we come back out next year, it’s gonna be just so
much more fun – we’ll have so many things that we’ll try and we could add to the set and just
make it more entertaining. I think it’s entertaining enough now but, I just want to take it up
another level.

S.G.: Great, thank you very much for your time.

STEF: You know, if you want, you can print our E-mail address for people if they ever want to
ask us that too. They can ask me that direct cuz I answer all of our E-mail.

S.G.: What’s your address?

STEF: It’s deftones@wbr.com and I get all the E-mail. On the road I’m kinda slow getting back
to people cuz I don’t get a chance to plug in very often but when I’m at home, I’m on and
answer all the time.

S.G.: You have a page set up or is that just for E-mail?

STEF: Just for E-mail. Anything people want to know or just say comments, questions
suggestions, whatever. You know, someone will want to call in, write in, talk some shit.
I love it, I’ll talk some shit right back.

S.G.: Thanks for your time.

Stage Fright
Desert Sky damage put at $150,000 after besotted musician allegedly incites riot
By David Holthouse
The mood was surly in a dressing room inhabited by the Deftones, the ninth of
ten bands scheduled to play at the 1996 U-Fest, an annual rock festival that erupted
into a riot, causing a reported $150,000 in damage to Desert Sky Pavilion on October 5.

The Deftones, a rap-flavored heavy-metal band from Sacramento, California, had
been touring for 16 months, and were scheduled to stay on the road through December.
The band members complained bitterly to their manager about the backbreaking schedule.

Singer Chino Moreno–the man TV news reports would later blame for inciting the riot-
-was feuding with drummer Abe Cunningham. “Everyone’s nerves were obviously frazzled,”
a source close to the Deftones says. “Every time Chino came in the room, you could
feel the tension.”

The musicians were also drinking heavily. Several sources said that the four Deftones
and two roadies went through a fifth of Malibu rum, a liter of Captain Morgan’s rum
and “a cooler full of at least 30 Budweisers” in the hours leading up to the band’s
disastrous, three-song performance.

“They were in no condition to walk onstage,” says Joel Grimes, a critic for an online
music magazine who went backstage just before the Deftones began to play. “Chino was
pretty polluted.”

From all reports, their playing was well below par. “They sucked,” says Patrick McCleary,
36, an “old-school punk rocker” who was near the stage. “The lead singer was so wasted
he was stumbling, and they were sloppy. But I wasn’t that interested in their music .
. . I was more concerned with the crowd at that point.”

Paid attendance at the U-Fest, which is sponsored by radio station KUPD, topped out
at 11,228, and the crowd got rowdy early. About three hours before the Deftones went
on, teenagers in the grassy “cheap seats” set several fires during a set by the Hunger.
(The U-Fest is infamous for crowd behavior. Last year, several dozen people stripped
naked, and several bonfires were set during a headliner performance by the band Korn.)

During the Hunger’s set, a member of the band called for the kids in the cheap seats
to hop the metal barricade separating them from the reserved seating and VIP areas
beneath the pavilion’s canopy.

“Hundreds surged over the gates and made it to the front stage area before security
could get the crowd under control,” says local music writer Emma Tenney. “People in
the VIP section were waving and encouraging the gate crashers to join them.”

About 30 minutes later, a gang of teenagers launched a raid on a concessions tent
and ran off with a keg of beer. The drained keg was soon seen being “crowd surfed”
in a mosh pit close to the stage.

McCleary says many among the mostly under-21 crowd were obviously intoxicated.
“I’ve never seen so many shit-faced teenagers . . . except for maybe at a
Rolling Stones concert 15 years ago.”

The Deftones went on at 9:45 p.m. and muddled through two songs before
Cunningham stood up from his drum set, kicked over a cymbal and stormed offstage.

Moreno took the drumsticks and played a meandering percussion solo for several
minutes before Cunningham returned and the band launched into its final song.
During that number, a fan climbed over a wooden barricade and tried to get onstage.
A security guard–one of more than 160 that Desert Sky officials say were on hand-
-tried to drag him back, but Moreno ran to the foot of the stage, grabbed the mosher’s
outstretched hand, then helped pry the security guard’s grip loose.

A sound man cut the Deftones’ power, and all hell broke loose. According to a
written statement by Desert Sky Pavilion, the stage monitors were turned off
because “. . . the Deftones had performed their entire prearranged 30-minute set.
It is customary at the conclusion of a band’s set to turn off the stage monitors
in anticipation of the set change.”

Moreno didn’t see it that way. “He yelled, ‘Fuck that shit, we’re going to keep
playing,’” says Grimes. “Their manager was trying to get them to just get off the
stage, but [Moreno] wouldn’t leave.”

What happened next is the subject of debate. Evidently, the stage monitors were
cut off–so the band couldn’t hear anything onstage–but the main speakers were
still on. Grimes, who was on the stage, and Tenney, who was in the crowd, both say
they heard Moreno yell something akin to, “Come on and help us trash this place.”

But McCleary, photographer Craig MacNaughton, and Joey Nugent, a former Deftones
roadie, all say they heard Moreno yell something like, “Okay, these guys are being
assholes. Come help us show them what assholes we can be.”

In any case, the kids stormed the stage–a few dozen at first–and began kicking
over monitors and gesturing wildly for more to join them. More did.

“That second wave stretched from one side of the stage to the next,” says Grimes.
“It looked like a horde of Mongols coming over the wall.”

The Deftones manager grabbed the mike and tried to calm the crowd. “He said,
‘Listen up. Please, everybody, get off the stage,’” says Nugent. “And then he told
the sound man, ‘If you don’t turn the sound back on, there’s gonna be a riot.’ But
the sound stayed off.”

By this time, the stage teemed with teens. The Deftones started to play again,
without monitors, and some of the kids got off the stage. But the band quickly gave
up, grabbed its gear and ran.

Someone lowered the stage curtain. “That did no good,” says MacNaughton. “They
just ripped it down, and it was pretty much anarchy from then until the cops showed up.”

Once the kids took over the stage, Nugent says, “It was pretty obvious they were
going to destroy everything they could. They started picking up monitors and throwing
them, and jumping up and down on speakers.”

McCleary says there were 20 or 30 security guards near the stage when the rioting began.

“They were way outnumbered and really scared,” he says. “You could see it on their faces.
They were thinking, ‘This is not worth five bucks an hour.’”

Witnesses say they saw several security guards crouched in a section reserved for
handicapped patrons, watching the action around them and making no attempt to intervene.

McCleary and MacNaughton both say they saw one red-haired security guard beaten with
folding chairs. Amateur video taken from the stage shows kids ripping up seats,
setting fires, throwing water coolers, scaling ladders to catwalks and mooning a
Phoenix police helicopter that hovered overhead.

Witnesses say 20 or 30 minutes of mayhem elapsed before a 20-member Phoenix police
“quick response team” in riot gear arrived and dispersed the crowd with tear gas and
pepper spray.

Detective Mike McCulloch, a Phoenix police spokesman, says seven people were arrested
and cited for disorderly conduct. McCulloch says no serious injuries were reported. The
case is still under investigation, he says, and will be referred to the Maricopa County
attorney, who may charge Chino Moreno with inciting a riot.

Rock-concert veteran McCleary doesn’t believe Moreno is guilty of that charge.

“I was watching those kids all day,” he says. “And they were primed for this sort
of thing. That guy [Moreno] didn’t say any more than I’ve heard a lot of other
assholes say onstage.

“The problem was the people running the festival let the momentum for violence build
up too high. They should have stopped it earlier. Instead of all these condescending
announcements to settle down, they should have just sprayed the crowd with water and
tossed out seven or eight giant beach balls. That usually works.”

After the crowd was dispersed, MacNaughton says he was taking photographs when he was
approached by three security guards and a man who identified himself as general manager
of Desert Sky. MacNaughton says the man demanded the film from his camera and,
when MacNaughton refused, ordered the security guards to strip his camera of film.
The guards grabbed MacNaughton, put him in an arm lock, and did just that.

Asked about the incident, Desert Sky director of marketing Mike Styles replied in a
written statement, “Our standard venue policy requires that film from unauthorized
photographers be forfeited.” MacNaughton, however, had a press pass for the event
that he says he showed the security guards. (As the photos accompanying this story
attest, MacNaughton managed to escape with two rolls he had shot during the melee.)

Even after things calmed down at Desert Sky, the Deftones could find no safe haven.

Chino Moreno, Joey Nugent and other members of the Deftones’ entourage had adjourned
to the Purgatory, a Phoenix bar at 24th Street and Van Buren, when members of
the goth band Type O Negative, which had been scheduled to follow the Deftones
onstage at the U-Fest, came into the bar with their road crew.

“It was crazy,” Nugent says. “All these guys with long black hair walk into the place,
and one of them points out Chino, so Chino gets up and comes in front of the table,
and he’s like, ‘What?’ And Type O Negative’s drummer [John Kelley] goes, ‘You’re a rock
star, you act like a rock star, and you’re a fucking pussy.’ And, wham! He just hit Chino
in the throat and everyone started fighting. [Inside info tells me that Kenny hit the guy,
not Johnny. JG]

Nugent says Moreno ran out of the bar with Kelley in pursuit. He says band members
fought for about five minutes. “There were bottles flying. Punches flying. It was
insane,” he says.

Through a publicist, the Deftones have refused to comment on any events before,
during or after the U-Fest. The band has also canceled all scheduled interviews.

KUPD is not commenting, either.

Asked whether Desert Sky planned to sue anyone, Styles replied in his statement that
“KUPD and Desert Sky are still investigating the incident and we have not yet
ruled out litigation.”

No word yet on the lineup for U-Fest 1997.

Chino and Chi interviewed by Flavir
©July, 1996

<—————->

Flavir: Chino, your band is quite fat. Your vocal style is unique in that you’re not
constantly barking. I like it. How was that inspired? When and how did you decide to use
this style?

Chino: I think the style just came from the music I listened to when I was younger …
I had a lot of different types of friends. I never fell into one click. I liked everything.
I was really into punk-rock, Morrissey and The Cure. Lyrically, I’m really influenced by
more of the new wave stuff. I like more of, I’d say, love stuff. Even our music now revolves
more around love. You probably wouldn’t think so. The actual vocal style wasn’t inspired
by anyone. It was just sort of natural. I didn’t feel pressure from any certain style of
music. When we first started out, I didn’t sing. I was just friends with Abe and Stephen.
I actually introduced them. They found Chi and asked me if I wanted to sing. I didn’t know
how to sing but, hell yeah, I wanted to do it. I was pretty sorry, but I was passionate and
just kept doing it. One influence would probably be Perry Farrell because he was one of the
only singers to take you from here to here (high to low, hard to soft) in a matter of seconds,
in one song. He’ll draw you in.

Flavir: Would you say that your lyrics, which are poetic and seem to have taken serious
thought, had an influence on your vocal style? Did you want to be certain that people
could understand what you were singing?

Chino: Nah, not so much. When people sing along, that’s the greatest thing, but I’m not
really trying to say, “Hey, I’m a singer and this is what I have to say.” It’s not like that
at all. I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing that. I like singing and getting my emotions out,
which is the best part about being in this band. The people who do understand what I’m,
saying, that’s cool. I don’t want to force myself or come across as insincere. The way I
write songs is the only way I know. If I tried to write any other way, it would probably come
out all wrong.

Flavir: Chi, you’re the bass player in the band. I read in your personal liner notes
(thank you’s) that the first person you thanked was, “The Almighty Spirit That Moves Through
All Things.” Could you take some time to explain your religious philosophy?

Chi: Hmmm. I don’t know. A guy named Tom Brown Jr. studied under an Apache elder.
instead of categorizing under one God-head, he saw that everyone was going to have their
own interpretation of God and a sense of harmony. So, “The Almighty Spirit That Moves Through
All Things” refers to the harmonious nature of whatever you chose to call God, as it moves
through everything, even down through sub-atomics. The way Tom Brown summed it up was the
best. He didn’t have any prejudices when talking about The Spirit That Moves Through All
Things. He wasn’t’ being judgmental. He was describing the harmonious, underlying thing,
which kind of rolls everything together. Actually, I don’t know what it means … I just
want people to think I’m cool (laughs). No, he was just a really cool shaman that described
things in a way which was more applicable to everyone.

Flavir: What kind of tour support does Maverick give you?

Chino: Basically, the money to get out. We don’t ask for anything extravagant.
The bus is probably the nicest thing we have. We’ve done a lot of tours in vans and it
(the bus) makes you more sane. With the last tour we were on, we were out for three months,
and we were in a van. Spending three months in a van with the same people every day,
no matter how good you are as friends, it just gets crazy man. In the bus, everyone has
their space and time when they can be by themselves. That’s probably the most glamorous
thing we have.

Flavir: How did you hook up with The Crow II movie soundtrack? Is the song in the movie or
just on the soundtrack? (Featured song will be “Teething”)

Chino: We’re actually in the movie, playing. Our manager used to manage Rage Against
The Machine and they did a thing on the last Crow record. The producers asked our manager,
“What can you give us this time?” and our manager said, “Well, I’ve got something for you.
” We gave them our CD and they loved it. They said they wanted us to not only play the music
but actually be in the movie. It’s (the part of the movie deftones appear in) actually a
Spanish-Mexican celebration. It’s called The Day of the Dead Festival. I guess they have
it in Mexico, but it’s in downtown LA (in the movie). We’re laying in the festival.
The song, “Teething,” was recorded as a demo and put on the B side of a “7 Words” single.
They (the producers of Crow II) really liked it. We’ll be in the movie and on the soundtrack.

Flavir: I wanted to talk about your lyrics because they’re extremely abstract. I like
your writing style, you lead the reader well. It seems that you’re providing an explanation
which you’re just about to complete, then you shut up, leaving us to figure out the rest
for ourselves. I think it’s a tough style which meets the music well. Is your abstract
style intentional or is it just that your brain is moving faster than your pen?

Chino: Sometimes it is that (brain faster than pen). Sometimes I’ll sit down to write
something and I can’t, everything comes out really blunt. I don’t like to be so blunt
sometimes. Some nights I’ll just be laying in my bunk writing, just to state some things,
whatever I’m feeing. When we go to make songs the melody and everything usually comes together.
I throw in my abstract ideas and then I’ll put something very blunt in there, in the middle
of everything. It sticks out more. I’m basically explaining something to you. A lot of
people don’t pay attention to lyrics, but the people that do,it’s cool because they trip out
on it. I like that a lot, it makes me feel good.

Flavir: In the beginning of the song “Root” you use a pretty tasty guitar riff.
It’s melodic and belligerent. How does the music tie to the lyrics?

Chino: It’s weird because not one of our songs means one certain thing. I don’t know,
it’s a trip. I can’t really explain it.

Flavir: Can you explain the general emotion?

Chino: That’s one of the first songs we ever wrote, when Chi first joined the band.
There are feelings of love, feelings of trust. Just wondering what’s going on around you.
Morrissey really inspired me in one song when he said, “God come down if you’re really
there, when you’re the one that claims to care.” It’s like, “Where am I in all of this?”
It’s like, giving up my feelings and what I get in return. That kind of thing. it’s a
pretty metal song but i try to throw some sweetness in there too. That’s basically the
concept of our music. it’s sweet, ruthless music.

Flavir: I’ve been looking for this type of music for quite some time.
I’ve been looking for the right mix of lyrics and vocals with this type of music.

Chino: There’s another band which has come out. They’re called Far. They’re from my hometown
too. They have a real hard edge. The singer has a really, really beautiful voice. He has a
beautiful voice but he also screams, he mixes it up really well. They just got signed for
a record that came out on Immortal. You should check that out.

Flavir: You said you were born in Sacramento, CA. Could you explain the environment
around you as you were growing up and how it affected you and/or your music?

Chino: Where I grew up, it made me strong, I think. I grew up in a shitty, shitty
neighborhood. There was a lot of gang stuff going around. For some reason I didn’t get
into anything. I got into break dancing when I was about 11. Then I got into skateboarding.
There were probably only like five of us, in a three mile radius, that skate boarded.
We got together and hung out, did our own thing. We didn’t really get caught up in all
that stuff, the bad things that we could have easily gotten caught up in. But the cool
thing was that I still had a lot of friends who were involved in all that shit but never
treated me like I was, ya know, a pussy. They respected me, never made fun of me. It was
cool like that. I made some cool friends growing up. It made me strong because it made me
think I could do what I wanted to do … and people still respected me. That’s good because
I made my own decisions.

Flavir: I read that you paid particular attention to the sound in the studio. I remember
reading about “7 Words,” how you sang the ‘suck’ part in a foam tunnel. What pats did you
record live to tape and what parts did you need to do individual dubbing for?

Chino: A lot of the stuff that I recorded wasn’t with distortion on the microphone.
It’s just distorted now because we recorded live and they had me compressed to hell.
The band was playing live around me and I had monitors in front of me.

Flavir: Who was your producer and how were they an asset?

Chino: Terry (Date). He was really supportive. I was tripping ya know, pretty scared to do
this record. We’d never recorded anything besides those little two song demo tapes.
And especially with the major label, big studio, big producer … I was a little scared.
He (Terry) was really cool. Sometimes I’d be in the studio and get frustrated. I think it was
on “Bored,” that part where it comes in with ‘GET BORED.’ That part, I could not do.
I couldn’t come in at the right time. I was just so out of it. I was trying to fix that
pat because it just didn’t sound right. I was trippin’ and just about crying. I was like,
‘I cant’ do this Terry, I can’t do it!’ He was like, “It’s cool, you can do it. If you want,
go home and chill and we’ll do it tomorrow.” He didn’t let me get too frustrated after that.
I wanted to quit a couple of times, just because I was so frickin’… nervous. I felt like
I was failing sometimes. That’s the main thing that I like about Terry. You said I was
real particular. I wasn’t real particular. I trusted him (Terry). If I liked it and it
sounded good to me, he would be like, “OK, cool.”

Flavir: Obviously, people mosh at your shows. What else do you want them to take away besides
bruises and that “I just got out of a war” type of feeing. I mean, that’s definitely a
good, healthy drain, but do you try to convey a specific message or emotion?

Chino: Nah, not really. I mean, I like people to have fun at the shows.
Basically they’re getting out whatever they have to get out at the show. They’re having a
good time, I’m having a good time. I don’t want to be the only one up there having a good time.
I want everybody to join, it should be a fun thing. People also have to realize what they’re
doing and if there’s a small person in there, don’t trample on ’em … It’s cool if they
leave the show really tired, but still feeing better than they did when they walked in.
There’s a lot of bullshit that comes along with all of it too. Sometimes, it hasn’t really
happened a lot lately, you’ll be laying a slow song that’s more mellow, but kids are making
it their goal to see who can get the most stage dives. It’s like, I wish the people would
just feel it more, rather than just doing it (moshing) all the time.

Flavir: That’s what I was driving at. Do you think people are missing a deeper message?

Chino: Not so much now. It’s getting so much better now that people now our music, more
of what it’s about. They know it’s not just a place to mosh. It’s cool to sometimes see
people not mosh, to see them nodding their heads and watching the stage. Then you can
tell they’re really getting into the music. People can slam to, ya know, Alanis.
It doesn’t matter what it is, anything.

Flavir: What are you looking forward to most about the Raskilde Festival in Copenhagen,
Denmark?

Chino: Well, I’ve never been in Europe before, so it will be a trip just to be in a
different country. Probably Sepultura. I haven’t seen them in a couple of years and now,
with their new record out, I want to see them really bad. Cypress Hill, looking forward
to seeing them.

Flavir: You are going out on so many tours. You’re national one now, then The Warped Tour,
then with White Zombie and Pantera starting in August. Are you truly happy or what?

Chino: Yeah, (laugh) I’m pretty happy about it. It’s just getting better. Everyday it’s
just getting better. The Warped Tour will be pretty cool. The only thing with it is that
you get shoveled in with so many bands. You get to the show and see the band schedule and,
well, kids could miss your show. This year they have more of a schedule to check.
Last year, we played like five days of it, and it switched off every day, so you didn’t
know which band was playing, or when, and you could miss something. I think that’s really
cool (Pantera, White Zombie) that Pantera is letting us tour with them. A couple of them
(guys in Pantera) came in to see us while we were doing our record.

Flavir: I see some of this style music becoming more popular. Some groups are really
catching the mainstream. Is that good or bad? Does it piss you off? What about Korn?

Chino: Nah, man. It’s a beautiful, beautiful thing. This type of music needs to start
getting out. That’s just the radio people starting to get involved. Before, you would never
hear that type of music on the radio. this type of music in general, raw type music, has
been around for a long time and the radio, the big top 40, have ignored it for so long.
Finally, people are starting to realize that. Korn’s record didn’t go gold for nothing.
There are people out there buying it. It (radio) helps out a lot with fan base and record
sales. Plus, ya know, I think it’s cool to hear yourself on the radio. It’s not like selling
out or anything. Like with us, we have this record, but what if we decide to make our next
record a record of hits just so we can get on the radio. That’s different, you know what I
mean. As long as we stick to our own shit, and they play it, that’s only good for us. We’re
doing what we want to do and they’re supporting us. Korn’s pretty much, I mean, I’ve got
nothing but love for them because they’ve helped to pave the way for this kind of music.
I feel like we’re a band who is trying to pave the way for others, too.

LIVEWIRE
June/July 1996

Def Jamming
Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno and guitarist Stephen Carpenter
explain the origin of their band’s funk/metal/pop/hardcore blend.

By Tomas Pascual

www.deftonesowrld.com
*——————-*

There are many bands these days that lay claim to a diverse section of influences. But no one
band is as subtly boisterous to about their eclectic mix as are The Deftones. Blending together
everything from funk to metal, rap and hardcore, The Deftones’ coalesce these different energies
into one coherent electrical stream of sound. The Deftones course is piloted by vocalist and
frontman Chino Moreno, who expresses his smooth, melodic lyrics emotionally one minute before
giving way to abrasive, maddened screams the next. Backed by the serene and apocalyptic guitar
of Stephen Carpenter, this Yin-Yang formula keeps the Deftones’ debut Adrenaline progressively
contagious.

Originating without a classification per se, The Deftones got their start playing gigs with the
West Coast’s Primus-inspired funk-metal scene. Stephen explains: “We’ve been together almost
seven years right now and when we started to play our local scene consisted of the funk-metal
thing. Primus was just getting big at the time, and there were a lot of those types of bands
around. We never actually played with them, but we wanted to. We liked the bands, but we just
wanted to play out, rather than become part of some scene.”

“If there was a scene I wasn’t in it,” says Chino, joining the conversation. “When we played
we did kind of get thrown into the funk category for some reason. This was back when Primus
first came out, and since we’re from Sacramento and we’re close to the Bay Area, every band
out there was doing that sloppy bass kind of shit. So we got thrown on to all those bills
because we weren’t just straight metal, or straight punk. We always stuck out. What ended up
happening is that we just started doing our own shows headlining.”

One band that started out around the same time as The Deftones whom they are always getting
compared to is Korn. “It doesn’t really bother me,” says Chino. “It gets annoying sometimes
when someone talks to me and that’s the first thing they ask me about. They’re a great band,
and we’ve been around as long as they have. I didn’t know anything about them at all until one
day, they got a hold of our demo tape and we got a hold of theirs and they asked us to play
with them. When we played with them that first time I remember thinking ‘what the fuck?’ We had
never seen each other play before, and there was a lot of similar shit going on. I remember
thinking they were really good and hoping this style of music would go somewhere, with another
band going out there and doing this shit.”

Chino’s unique vocal style is one of The Deftones’ most distinguishing characteristics, part of
which he attributes to a strong influence HR of the Bad Brains. “I just started singing. That
is how I learned. I listened to a lot of new wave stuff, bands like Depeche Mode and stuff like
that. So I was really inspired to want to really sing. At the same time, my roots were in rap,
so that just came out without me consciously trying. That was a trip. I didn’t get into Bad
Brains or any punk rock until after that. I was more into new wave and then I got into punk
bands like The Misfits, and then for me came the Bad Brains. I tripped out when I first heard
them. They really inspired me, HR especially, because of his honesty. Maybe lyrically I’m more
inspired by Depeche Mode, and execution wise I’m more influenced by HR and Bad Brains. Now I
can look back on a record and see a lot of the different things that have influenced my style.”

Alternating smooth vocals and abrasive ones can bee a chore to many vocalists, but for the
hard-drinking Chino it flows like liquor down his throat. He explains, “It’s not really that
difficult for me. I am a real moody person, I can be in a good mood or act like an asshole and
that is exactly what comes across in the music. Everything pretty much revolves around love and
hate – those two moods. All the songs on the record have a lot of feelings of love, or feelings
of hate. I’ll go through both of those moods in one song many times, so it just comes out
naturally in the music for me. I don’t write about one particular subject, so much as just
talking about how I feel at the moment. I think there are one or two particular songs where
I talk about a specific incident. But mostly I’m just talking about how I feel at the moment,
and the transition that I’m going through, that the music is making me feel. The must that the
band makes trips me out and gets me thinking about things. Like ‘7 Words,’ for example. I was
really pissed when I wrote that song. If I wasn’t pissed, even though it’s a heavy song, I
would’ve been singing about something sweet.”

The Deftones have hit the road in a heavy way in support of their debut, jumping on a variety
of tours including an aborted Bad Brains tour, Monster Magnet, CIV, Anthrax/Life of Agony, and
the Ozzy tour, before going out headlining on their own. Chino comments on the diverse crowds
they’ve played for, and their reactions. “Well it is weird now because Korn is starting to get
big now, and a lot of their crowd was at the Ozzy shows. But mostly the people that were at the
Ozzy shows were there to see Ozzy. You can’t blame them for that, they’re there to see him and
he’s great. It’s not that they were disrespectful, but in between songs during our set they’d
be chanting “Ozzy, Ozzy!’ But, other than that, we never got booed and overall we had a good
response from most of the shows we’ve played. I think the best tour we’ve been on is this one
right now. We’re headlining and all the kids that are showing up are coming because they’re
into what we’re doing. It’s not like the kids who saw us on the Anthrax tour, who hear power
chords and immediately begin slam-dancing, without paying attention to our music.”

The Deftones are looked upon as an “alternative” band by many, and their video for “7 Words”
recently aired on MTV’s 120 minutes. But really the band’s driving guitar-based sound shows a
lot of metal influence. Stephen explains, “If I had a label to our music, I would describe it
as Deftones music. The only way you could categorize us is from our heavy drum and guitar
sound, so that would make us heavy. But there are too many styles involved to just call us one
thing. I listen to a lot of heavier stuff, Pantera, Sepultura, Down, Helmet, but I listen to a
lot of other stuff as well. But that’s where my influences come from. But even though I play
heavy there are other things involved in Deftones.”

The Deftones will be doing The Warped tour this summer so check out the band’s energetic live
performance, even if you don’t bring out a board, you assuredly will not be “Bored”.

Chi at the Warped Tour in Denver, interviewed by Eric Nielsen (loudside.com)
© June, 1996

<———–>

Q: When are you guys going to go into the studio to record the next album?
A: Hopefully in January. We’ll tour up until December and take some time off.

Q: Will any of your old demo songs that didn’t make it to Adrenaline make it to your next one?
A: No, those songs are sooo old. Those songs are like 6 or 7 years old.
Q: Do you plan to re-release them?
A: No, we let all our old songs die.

Q: What’s your favorite color?
A: Green. Why what’s your favorite color?

Q: What’s with Chino’s hair?
A: Oh, how he shaved it? He wanted to look more like… A MONKEY
Q: Really?
A: Yeah, I think he’s achieved that ChimChim look. I think it looks really good.

Q: Do you plan to head to Europe sometime soon?
A: Hopefully. As soon as we can head over seas we want to.
Q: Do you have anything in the works?
A: No, we don’t even know yet. Right now, we’re just doing the Warped Tour and then
Pantera/White Zombie in August. After that, it’s all up in the air. We’d like to tour with
Sepultura, because we’re really good friends with them. Ideally, that’s what we’d like to do.

Q: What’s your musical influences?
A: Me personally?
Q: Yeah.
A: Reggae music, old blues, jazz, that’s about it. I really don’t listen to anything heavy.
Q: What about Weezer?
A: We all like Weezer. We know the whole album. We’re fans. We’re WEEZER GROUPIES. We wanna
meet Weezer.
Q: Is Weezer your favorite band?
A: No, I’m really into an artist called Taj Mahal.
Q: Big Blues guy…
A: He’s the bong. He’s definitely my favorite artist. Otherwise, strictly reggae music.

Q: There’s a lot of people wondering how the Deftones got put on a supposedly PUNK ROCK tour
thinking that you guys are more of a “metal band.”
A: I think it’s cool. There’s a lot of variety on the tour, which is cool. CIV’s got alot of
really cut-the-rug grooves. We’re pretty heavy. I think, it’s really cool. We did five dates
last year. I think it’s good. It makes us stand out sometimes. But, I think all the bands are
unique.
Q: Are you having a good time on the tour?
A: Yeah, we’re having a great time. We like all the bands on it. Everyone’s really cool.

Q: How long have you guys been together?
A: 7 years.
Q: Did you guys know each other before?
A: Well, Chino knew Stephan and Abe from skating and he hooked Stephan and Abe up playing
together. And, they needed a singer and he singed Danzig or some shit like that, so they
asked him to sing with them. And, I joined a year later.
Q: Didn’t you hook up through the paper or something?
A: Yeah, my brother had put an ad up for a band and Stephan tried to call him and ended up
hooking up with me.

Q: So, what’s the origin of this whole Screaming Cat logo? Is there some sort of signifigance
to it or is it some sort of marketing ploy?
A: It’s a random cat. We saw the picture and we were really into it, so we started using it .
Looks like the cat is peeking at a yawn.
It’s rad.

Q: Did you start using that before or after you got on with Maverick?
A: Someone at Maverick came in with the logo. Someone had a picture of a cat and we were totally
into it.

Q: What was your favorite band to tour with?
A: Bad Brains… we did the Bad Brains last year. That was the best tour we had done for me.
Just because that is one band we are all really big fans of. We were really honored to tour
with them. The band’s been around for so long. It was incredible to tour with them.

Q: What did you think about the buck show you did for KBPI in Denver a couple months ago?
A: I thought it was great. I’d like to do more under 2 dollar shows. When we open up for bigger
bands we can’t control ticket prices or shirt prices or anything like that. Whenever we have a
chance to keep costs low, we try to do it.

Q: So, what are the dynamics of sound writing for the band? How do you go about writing songs?
A: We beat the shit out of each other. We fight the whole time. We fight alot.
Q: Does one person kind of come up with a riff?
A: Pretty much we all write. Someone will come up with an idea and then everyone will write and
expand on it. There’s really no one song writer in the band. Chino does the lyrics. We come up
with the music, he’ll come up with the melody, and then do lyrics for it.
Q: Do you write songs on the road?
A: Well, we haven’t really come together since we’ve been touring, 12 or 14 months now. We all
have our own songs that we’ve written. We haven’t come together to write as a whole yet, so we
need to start doing that. I have a drum machine and a bunch of guitars and basses at home so
I’m trying to record a bunch of stuff. I know Stephan has a bunch of stuff, and Chino and Abe.
We’ve a ll got stuff. We just need to come together and put it together, because they’re not
really songs until all of us contribute our own styles to it.

Q: I heard you played Slayer the other day and you played Weezer today, any other covers you
guys are known for, or is it just spur of the moment?
A: Yeah, spur of the moment. We did at some college a Steve Miller song, 4 times in a row to
irritate the crowd. I forget which one it was, but they were knocked into submission after that. It was pretty cool.

Q: You mentioned some of the other guys are into skateboarding. Do you see yourself fitting
that whole niche of being in snowboard/skateboard videos? Are the guys really into the
snowboard/skateboard scene at all?
A: Yeah, we’re trying to get some snowboard endorsements right now, so we can start
snowboarding in the winter, but Chino and Stephan have been skateboarding for quite a long
time. So, they’re still really into it. Chino’s the best skater among us. Touring is alot of
downtime, so it’s good to have other endevours that you can actually pursue while you’re
touring.

(side note: the next time the Deftones came through with Orange 9mm and Downset, there was a
kegger held for the band after the show and a skate area was set up. Who was out there first?
Chino, of course.)

Q: You have a track on the forthcoming Escape from LA soundtrack, right?
A: Yeah, it’s called CAN’T EVEN BREATHE. We wrote it in like 45 minutes, recorded it, just
FINISHED it. It’s slower than our other stuff. It’s real mellow. It’s our power ballot. It’s
our FREE BIRD song.
Q: What’s on the Crow2?
A: Teething’s on the Crow2, Can’t Even Breathe is our power ballot for the radio. The Crow2 was
cool, we got to be in the movie.
Q: What did you do in the movie?
A: We just played. We just rocked out.
Q: Like in some seedy bar?
A: No, it was in the final scene at the day of the dead festival.
Q: Were you wearing that hat?
A: No, I only wear this hat when I assume my Rayden personality.