For almost 30 years, Californian alternative rockers Deftones have established a name for themselves, creating emotion through aggressive metal and popularizing themselves amongst dedicated fans worldwide. Not many bands can say that their sound can create a feeling of wanting to mosh to a gritty riff whilst simultaneously inspiring the listener to just want to feel the music and experience the euphoria and magnitude of their raw and real lyrics.
Their latest album Gore, sums up the juxtaposition style that Deftones have made their own. It’s been four years between albums and Frank Delgado spoke to HEAVY about album number eight and more.
“We took our time for this. I think the record has been done for almost over a year. It went into the holiday period which sort of postponed things a little, but I guess it was all part of the plan, I guess you could say. We did want to take our time. For the most part, it was creating time for the creative process, and also for home time for family and kids. I think it worked out well for us because it was able to be stretched out, we would hang out for a few weeks, write, demo and go home for a few weeks, do some shows and go back into a room for a few weeks. We kind of did that for a year or so. It made sense and it felt right.”
The writing process for a new album can sometimes be an intricate process with a tonne of planning and contribution from all members. But with Deftones, it seems as though they create as they go along, not feeling forced but instead bouncing ideas off each other and seeing what happens.
“I don’t know if we go for it, it’s just kind of what happens. We get together and it all just comes about. Sometimes it’s that, sometimes it’s not, sometimes it’s both, and I just think we’re kind of happy that we’ve built it in a way where we’re able to do that kind of thing. We take advantage of being able to do what we want and in all honesty, that’s all it is. There’s no idea or concept when we go in, we kind of just see what we have. When we’re halfway through or all the way through we look back at the body of work and we go ok, now we’ve got an idea. We don’t really care about what people expect from us, we just do what we do.”
The title of the new album isn’t exactly a beautiful word, considering the album cover is a flock of pink flamingoes flying in unison. But that’s what Deftones are known for, being one thing but also being something completely opposite at the same time. How did Gore become the title of this magnificent composition?
“It was the title for one of the songs we had. And it makes sense and it juxtaposes the imagery. Kind of the whole dynamic thing of the ugliness of gore and the pretty picture is something we’ve always flirted with. Sometimes, things don’t have to be that deep if it looks good and it sounds good.”
With Deftones being one of many bands that were supposed to be here in Australia earlier this year for the now non-existent Soundwave Festival. Everyone is eager to know when and if they plan on touring here at some stage this year, so the question had to be asked.
“I would hope so. I don’t have anything confirmed that I know of yet, but I don’t see us not coming to Australia, especially on an album cycle. We’re just hoping it’s sooner than later and we’re all looking forward to coming back to Australia.”
Picking a favourite album when a band has such a stellar catalogue behind them can be a difficult task. Every single Deftones record has something unique about it, and most fans usually have a mixed response when asked the question.
“In all honesty, every record that you work on whether it’s the past year or more of your life, it’s always kind of my favourite. As far as rating it compared to our other albums, that’s hard, it’s definitely a proud achievement of mine because it turned out so great, I just hope that everybody else enjoys it as much as I do.”
Frank made it clear that they’re extremely eager to get back to Australia, so that they can showcase the new material to their diverse fan base. “Everywhere we go, there’s all sorts of people at our shows which is great. We get the young, we get the old, and we get different colours, different faces, and different ages. There’s girl and boys, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, you get the idea. It’s so cool to see different generations of people discover us and listening to us and I hope that doesn’t change. We’re just geared to get there and play the record for everyone, we really just want to spend as much time as possible in Australia and we’re always looking forward to getting there.”
Gore is out now via Warner Bros. Records.
Gore: Track Listing
1. Prayers/Triangles
2. Acid Hologram
3. Doomed User
4. Geometric Headdress
5. Hearts and Wires
6. Pittura Infamante
7. Xenon
8. (L)MIRL
9. Gore
10. Phantom Bride
11. Rubicon
