Anyone who is a friend of mine, knows I’m a huge Deftones fan. Therefore, as soon as I found out that they were playing a couple sporadic Canadian dates on the west coast this month, I decided to email Warner Bros. and see if the band was interested in doing an interview. As a fan, I can tell you it is hard to remain objective when speaking with a band you are a fan of…to make things more difficult, the band’s bassist Chi Cheng has been in a coma for almost a year now following a severe car accident. For more information, or to help out you can go to www.oneloveforchi.com.
Anyways, my point being, it wasn’t the best of terms to be walking onto a tour bus to interview your favourite musicians…nonetheless, I was granted permission to speak with the band, and bought my plane ticket to Calgary.
If you are a Deftones fan you will be happy to know that their new stuff (the Untitled sessions) sounds amazing live. They opened the show with a song I had never heard before called “Rocket Skates”…and all I could do was watch in complete awe. Despite the situation with Chi, the band has perhaps sounded the best I’ve ever heard…the new stuff is going to be off the hook. Can’t wait. All I could find on Youtube for anyone who is curious is this footage of the song.
Don’t let the quality fool you, I can’t stress how good their set was…
Here’s my conversation with Chino Moreno and Stephen Carpenter of the band prior to their opening set for Slipknot at The Calgary Corral. They were nothing but positive the whole time I got to hang out…always a good feeling when you get to meet an artist, and they end up being cool.
Thanks for the interview guys.
Sully
mike@exploremusic.com