DEFTONES Frontman: 'Music Is Part Of Our Lives More Than Anything'

Kristen Dunleavy of myYearbook recently conducted an interview with DEFTONES frontman Chino Moreno. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

myYearbook: Would you mind giving us an update on how [DEFTONES bassist] Chi is doing [Chi Cheng was involved in a life-altering car accident, which has left him in a comatose state]?

Moreno: He's still making progress. It's slow progress, he's slowly but surely coming around. He's got a really good team of doctors that are working with him. They're trying to get him to fully wake up. Right now he's in a semi-conscious state, which means he wakes up, he sleeps, he opens his eyes, but he has yet to communicate. Right now he's in northern California at home and he has his doctor, Dr. DeFina, who's got an 85% success rate in trying to get patients to wake up from a semi-conscious state. The doctor is on the East Coast and we're working on getting Chi relocated so he's under Dr. DeFina's care full-time. We're still trying to raise money for him because all this stuff is not covered by insurance and he still needs help. We're trying to encourage everyone to go to One Love for Chi and help out. That site has all the most recent information about him.

myYearbook: Was there a lighter mood in the studio while recording "Diamond Eyes"?

Moreno: It was definitely more positive as far as our working relationship and our work ethics. There was a lot of focus on this record, whereas with the last few records, we were writing in the studio and working at our own pace. We always figured that's the way we do things, so we always kept it that way. But there was a fire lit underneath us when we decided we were gonna go in the studio a year-and-a-half after working on a different record that was almost complete when Chi had his accident. To make the decision to go in and start from scratch was a big chance to take. Financially, we already spent a lot of money and we needed to get back on tour to start earning money again, but we decided it would be the best thing to do. Everybody got into a really creative frame of mind and we just poured it all into the record. It was the most fun I've had making a record in a long time. I don't want to say the mood was light, because obviously we were still dealing with big issues. But we were just happy to be in a creative space and happy that we had each other, we had our health. It was, in a lot of ways, therapeutic for us to do that. It really shows in the final product.

myYearbook: Do you have any plans on releasing [the album that was recorded before Chi's accident] "Eros"?

Moreno: We do. We haven't actually sat down and talked about it, we haven't even really revisited it since Chi's accident. We put it in a vault and hold it dear to us, it's an important record. At this point, it was the last thing that Chi played on. But we haven't talked about how and when we'll do it. The best-case scenario would be that Chi would be back up on his feet and we'd be able to go out and tour the world with him again with that record. We feel as though all of our albums are a snapshot of the time they were recorded, but at the same time, they can stand the test of time. Even if we released it five years from now, it would still be very relevant.

myYearbook: Do you feel like your songwriting has changed since going through that period and writing "Eros"?

Moreno: Definitely. We had a producer working with us this time named Nick Raskulinecz, who came in during pre-production. He was there during the songwriting process, which we've never had anyone do. He really helped us focus on the essence of our ideas. If we started writing a song, a lot of times we'd drift off and two weeks later we'd finish it. Having him there helped guide us back to the foundation that got us working on the song in the first place. He approached us and said he was really interested in working with the band and because he was a fan, he broke down the strong points of what we do and I really agreed with him. He wanted to bring that out and make that the focus for us, and he did exactly that.

myYearbook: Despite all the band has been through, how do you keep moving forward with your music?

Moreno: The music is part of our lives more than anything. It's therapeutic for us during any hard times. I would advise anyone, even if they're not in a band, if they're going through hard times; it's never a bad idea to bury yourself in your work. Our work is our music. Music is an escape for me. I put on music because I want to change my headspace or enhance a good feeling in some way. It's an escape to get you through things. That's probably one of the main reasons.

Read the entire interview at myYearbook.