DEFTONES // Everything Counts in Gored Amounts

Deftones mass popularity reinforces their mystery. Not every day a brooding metal album goes to #1 in Australia, is it?

Australians love these gloomy Cali-dwellers. We’ve had them headline over and over, called them to the Big Day Out three times (2003, 2011 and 2014) and urged them to head up this year’s broken-down Soundwave Festival. Eight albums down despite a near-breakup in 2006 and the loss of brother and bassist Chi Cheng in 2013, Deftones seem to be growing larger, like a shadow gaining on us in the dark of a tunnel. We love our surf and sun here in Australia, but we’re enamoured by the flipside. Nick Cave and Dead Can Dance is the go-to soundtrack when cricket and ice creams don’t fill the void. In a way, importing Deftones’ melancholy is just as crucial. Bassist and sometime DJ Sergio Vega gives his best explanation from his apartment in Manhattan, New York.

Hysteria: Australia has a soft spot for Deftones. Have you ever wondered why?

Sergio: Definitely feel like a good connection with people in Australia, and listeners and stuff. I think they like the fact that we’re having a good time. We’re passionate about what we do. We’re not too pretentious. We’re not too heavy handed in our opinions or anything. We’re just really passionate about music and what’s going in our heads and our lives and stuff and constructing things. We put a lot of good energy forward. It’s one of my favourite places to tour. Because it’s just really fun going out and just meeting people. There’s so much quality in terms of the food and terms of just places…things to do. Also, the coffee is really great.

It’s easy watching Gore go to #1 over here. It connects with people on a darker level.

It’s what drives us. We kind of talk about it a lot like how there’s so many different ways people approach writing music and making music. So many different parameters people put on themselves. Ours is very basic. Our thing has to have five people excited. It has to have five people really connected with the song to get finished. It’s like a fate album for good times and bad times and everything.

If we’re happy, it’s reflected in what that person might be playing that day. If we’re sad and we’re upset…everything that we are gets funnelled, or channelled, to our writing. We have several people writing. We’ve got three guys with guitars who are writers. We have Abe [Cunningham] on drums, who’s a great collaborator. Frank [Delgado, synths/turntables] brings a lot to the table.

It’s like the songs have a weight to them that is more than just a heavy riff or a light riff or whatever.  Because it’s charged by the fact that we’re pouring ourselves into it. Outside of that, we don’t really feel like, ‘Oh it has to be fast … slow … It’s got to be like this.’ Never think about that. I think that is important because we’re not boxed into what something should sound like. We have to really feel something about it. We have to feel it enough to finish it.

Deftones’ journey is one fans have latched on to as well. Each album is different. We don’t know what you’re going to do next.

My perspective is that the people that I come across that are really into Deftones understand that. They understand that the band isn’t selling a product and they’re not pitching something and they’re not buying what’s hot now. We’re not chasing trends or anything. People see all that. What they’re getting is an honest expression. I think that’s what had people ride with the band from Adrenaline, after to White Pony to when they kind of had hard times during the self-titled and Saturday Night Wrist and then it climbed out of that starting with Diamond Eyes.

We have to really feel something about it. We have to feel it enough to finish it.

[SERGIO]

Is that because you’re not trying to be authentic, you guys just are…as is? Take it or leave it?

Yeah. When we’re live, they see that we’re present and really care about every show and each other. We’re really into what’s happening.  We appreciate it. The people who really get Deftones, get that. I think what’s happening is there’s good chunk of people who are casually connected to the band. That’s cool because that’s that. There are people I’ve come across who have been like “Oh I don’t know what you’ve been doing between Diamond Eyes and now, but I like this new album.” So they’re back to the fold. It gets nice because I’ve always kind of believed that that was what was important about music.

But on the flipside, you need to be a crowd pleaser and a trend-follower when you’re DJing. Is that a hard shift?

It’s not about any given band. It’s not about any given song. It’s about the soul, this tapestry you’re weaving. You try to layer songs on top of each other to keep people kind of excited. There’s more expectation of giving people things that they enjoy and things that also that get the crowd moving.

A lot of people have the radio on and hear songs throughout the day. You have to play something that’s hot now. You have to understand that they’ve heard it fifty times that week. They’re like, ‘what are you guys doing?’ You have to give it this other lift, give it something special so you aren’t just playing stuff that’s a hit now or were recent hits or whatever.

There’s a lot of room to be creative in doing something like that. It really does help with coming up with different ideas. It’s not about tracks that I think are cool, but tracks that actually have an impact on people who want to play over, or play with or play that day. I feel like watching people listen to this music. You learn a lot, that reaction of something.

Sometimes songs make people move and before they realize that they don’t like that artist, or they don’t like the song, they are kind of tapping their foot and nodding their head. It’s interesting.

WATCH: Deftones video for Prayers/Triangles

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DEFTONES AUSTRALIAN TOUR

With guests Karnivool and Voyager

PERTH – Tuesday 8th November – Metro City (18+)
megatix.com.au or oztix.com.au or 1300 762 545

ADELAIDE – Thursday 10th November – Thebarton Theatre (All Ages)
ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100

MELBOURNE – Friday 11th November – Festival Hall (All Ages)
ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100

SYDNEY – Saturday 12th November – Hordern Pavilion (All Ages)
ticketek.com.au or 132 849

BRISBANE – Sunday 13th November – Riverstage (All Ages)
ticketmaster.com.au or 136 100