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Background: Deftones stood out from their cohort from the start and White Pony remains a personal favorite album from the era and beyond. It’s been great to see a new generation discover the group and also Moreno’s various side projects, especially Crosses, which showcases many of the then-unlikely-seeming influences (Sade, Radiohead, The Cure) he mentions in this concert preview piece I wrote when they were coming through Cleveland in 2000.

Deftones: Moreno’s Multitudes

By Robert Cherry

“I have a lot of different personalities and moods within me,” admits Chino Moreno, woken by a late-afternoon phone call in his hotel room on a recent tour stop in Philadelphia. “I think everybody does, but I’ve found interesting ways of blending them all into one song.”

Anyone who’s heard Deftones’ latest album, White Pony, wouldn’t doubt the singer on either of those counts. The Sacramento quintet helped kick start the new-metal movement with its 1995 debut Adrenaline, but subsequently denounced the critic-created tag as too limiting.

Released last year on Madonna’s Maverick imprint, White Pony explains why they distanced themselves from the testosterock hordes. The album has as much in common with the moody, experimental work of British art-rock band Radiohead, as it does with the aggressive dynamics of new-metal poster boys Korn.

“[The disc] showed people that we’re a band that’s going to continue to expand what we do musically,” explains Moreno. “We’re able to take our influences and put them into songs in ways that aren’t forced. That’s the fun thing about making music—there are no boundaries.”

In a band of complex personalities—guitarist Stephen Cunningham, bassist Chi Cheng, drummer Abe Cunningham, and turntablist Frank Delgado—Moreno is perhaps most responsible for Deftones’ evocative, bi-polar sound. He possesses a feral scream, but also a sleepy croon that draws in a listener before a song’s imminent ear-splitting climax.

And though his band is currently sharing a co-headlining tour with would-be Black Sabbath successors Godsmack, Moreno’s musical taste might surprise fans of that bludgeoning metal act. He recently caught performances by Sade (“Her voice is real soothing, but it has this grime to it that’s just sweet,” he assesses. “A couple tears dropped from my eyes”) as well as Radiohead (“one of the best concerts I’ve ever seen”).

He’s also putting the finishing touches on a side project called Team Sleep. Working with friends Todd Wilkenson and DJ Crook, as well as a diverse crew of guest stars ranging from former Faith No More belter Mike Patton to ex-Helium singer-guitarist Mary Timony, Moreno combines hip-hop beats with dissonant effects and blue moods on the album, due early next year.

While the singer might enjoy softer music (“people get mad at me on the tour bus ‘cause I’m always listening to dreary stuff”), he maintains a hard lifestyle on the road. The physical demands of touring recently sidelined the group for a few dates when Moreno lost his voice.

“The doctor looked at me and said, ‘Do you want to keep singing? Then you need to change some things,’” he recalls. “They put this camera up my nose and down my throat, and they showed my vocal cords on a video monitor while I was singing. One of them wasn’t working.”

Fortunately his voice has fully recovered, thanks to rest and a heavy dose of antibiotics.

“Basically I had to chill out, and not drink, smoke or stay out late. So I did that for the time being.”

And now?

“It was a concern when I was real messed up,” reasons Moreno. “But it wasn’t as big a deal as people made it out to be. Now I’m back on tour. I can’t sit like a prisoner in my hotel room. I gotta be out doing stuff. That’s how I’m inspired to make music.”

Whether or not it’s good for his voice, that inspiration has already produced several new songs for the band’s next disc, due sometime next year. And lest fans think Moreno’s dark, abstract lyrics are all autobiographical, he admits that a lot of his latest songs are based on his imagination.

“Music to me is exciting, and I don’t like to blend boring reality into my lyrics,” he concludes. “With a lot of our earlier songs I’d have something that was on my mind and I’d feel like I had to get it off, so I’d sing about it. Now it’s the last thing I want to do. I sing about things to get my mind off of reality.”

©2000 Robert Cherry, all rights reserved