Deftones Interview
Broadcast 27th Mar 2001
Chino Moreno and Abe Cunningham from The Deftones took a break from their UK tour to join
Mary Anne late one night on the Rock Show to talk music, play some of their favourite tracks,
and answer some of the questions you e-mailed in for them.
Click here hear the whole interview, or read the highlights below and click on the questions to
jump to that section of the interview.
You are half way through a tour, how’s it been going?
One of them, the Hamburg show, was the lowest point of the tour. We all just broke down, missing
our family, it was the only bit of the tour I can think of that was sad….We started drinking
at 10 in the morning – it was bad. Ever since them it’s been getting better.
So how to your recover from that?
I don’t know how. We bounced back pretty good, the shows have been getting better and better.
You cannot predict how you are going to feel. I love music and I love to play music, but to do
it every day as a job you look at it differently.
Tell me about our support acts Tap Root and Linkin Park
Honestly, I don’t listen to their music at all. But, I think our fans, especially the younger
ones, dig it. Whether those bands will admit it or not they are the epitome of Nu-metal. They
are good bands, I’d take them over a lot of other stuff. If you listen to the stuff I listen to
it’s different.
Track 1 – Howard Jones ‘No-one Is To Blame’
The story is Abe and I had a crush on the same chick, and I thought it was my song with this
girl, and Abe thought it was his song with her.
Chino, You liked to impersonate Morrissey as a teenager.
Morrissey is so damn swarve, I don’t understand why people cannot see that. People think I’m
joking about that, but I straight up love that man….I went to school in the 5th grade dressed
like Boy George. It was a predominately black and Mexican area where I went to school, and
people were looking at me like ‘what the hell is he doing’. I love his persona and his
boldness, and I love that about Morrissey.
Which is your favourite Smiths song Chino?
I’ve got a lot of them. My favourite Smiths album is ‘The Queen Is Dead’ and a song off it
is ‘I Know It’s Over’
Track 2 – Quicksand ‘Dining Alone’
We took them on tour with us in the States, we got them back together as a band. That was one
of my favourite tours of all time
You’ve collaborated with so many people in the past, but there is rumour that you are going to
collaborate with Mogwai.
The first time I heard that band I was imagining what it would be like if I could sing over some
of their songs – obviously a lot of their songs don’t have vocals. They are just really lush and
pretty songs, I could hear tons of melodies over them. At the Leeds festival last summer I met
one of the band, he came over and started talking to me. I didn’t know who he was and he told me
he was in Mogwai, so I just like fell to my knees and said ‘I love your band’. A couple of
months ago they sent me a track of a song they want me to put vocals on.
We’ve had many e-mails asking why are you supporting Limp Bizkit at their Milton Keynes gig,
when you are the far better band?
I don’t look at it like that. I look at it like we are playing a show. People don’t admit they
like Limp Bizkit, I said something to the crowd last night (in Manchester) about Limp Bizkit and
everyone stated booing. But I know for a fact that all those kids would go to see Limp Bizkit
play, and they probably own a Limp Bizkit album, they have to – why do they sell so many
records….I don’t dislike Limp Bizkit’s music, the same way with Linkin Park, it’s very
formulated and predictable and I think it’s good for what it is. It’s like a party youthful
record, and I look at it like that. I haven’t actually heard their new album….If I had a
choice I’d much rather play Milton Keynes with Tool, a band I do listen to, but I don’t think
it’s a bad thing we are playing with Limp Bizkit, I think it will be fun.
Track 3 – Kool Keith ‘Sly We Fly’
Chino, tell us a bit about Team Sleep, your side project
I need to finish it because I’ve been working on it for so long…The closest thing I can
compare it to is the song ‘Teenager’ on the album ‘White Pony’…It’s real mellow, something you
can put on your headphones and fall asleep listening to.
Everyone wants to know when are you going to record new stuff?
It’s really important when we put out music that it’s really good. We were asked to record
tonight’s (live) show and put it out as a live album, but that had no interest for us…
So when we go home we are going to start writing as much stuff as we can before the summer.
Then hopefully in the fall go in the studio and start recording
Track 4 – The Cure ‘The Catch’
