- Deftones, prepared for all kinds of weather
In the 15 years since they formed in Sacramento, Deftones have upped their game with each album. Other less-complex bands they were lumped in with have sold more records, draw bigger concert crowds, and are more visible (we’re looking at you, Korn and Limp Bizkit), but Deftones expanded their sonic palette over the years to include everything from primal rage-fueled rockers to quieter, more introspective moments. None of those other bands can claim that. And most of those groups have either receded far in the background or become ghosts of their former chart-topping lives in the past decade.
While those bands spent more and more time mating rapping and scratching to occasionally scorching guitar riffs, Deftones went down different paths. Their second album, 1997’s Around the Fur, hinted at the direction they were headed toward. By 2000’s White Pony, they were being hailed as one of the most important bands of the new decade. A self-titled album from 2003 and 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist cemented Deftones’ reputation as one of metal’s most experimental combos.
“The interesting thing is, at the core, this is a band that does what it wants to do, regardless of what others think,” says bassist Sergio Vega, who joined the band after original member Chi Cheng was left with a brain injury following a 2008 car accident. He’s still recovering.
Deftones had a new album ready to go before Cheng was injured. They scrapped the songs, recruited Vega, and wrote a brand new batch of tunes for Diamond Eyes, which came out in May. “There was a lot to digest when I heard what happened to Chi, but the guys were able to compartmentalize things,” says Vega. “The guys would be talking about Chi as we worked. He’s always on their minds, but they wouldn’t stop working. They made a difficult thing into a positive experience, and it speaks volumes that they embraced me as part of the band.”
(Deftones’ show at House of Blues tonight is the final night of its headlining tour before they head out on the road with Alice in Chains and Mastodon.)
Unlike the band’s previous three albums (which each took at least two years to complete), Deftones wrote and recorded Diamond Eyes in just two months. It was released a mere four months later. Despite the accelerated schedule, Vega says the experience was like “summer camp.” “We’d be jamming together, while [producer Nick Raskulinecz] documented everything we did,” he recalls. “In two months, we had an album.”
This article appears in Aug 25-31, 2010.