DEFTONES NEWS: NEW LP ON TRACK FOR OCT 9 RELEASE, ELVIS COVER(S)
Deftones singer Chino Moreno might be messing with us when he states to Entertainment Weekly that the band is set to cover songs by Earth, Wind, And Fire and um Elvis Presley for B-sides to their untitled seventh album. Sure, killer remakes are part of the new Deftones album experience. And as the singer hints (below), it would be no surprise for Deftones to break from their usual mine for cover material: the ’80s and mid-’90s stuff via which Moreno can drop unders with his breathy emo-croon. So yeah it’s not a huge leap or surprise.
But is he serious? I care cuz I hate Elvis Presley’s music a lot, so Moreno’s plans imply an utter destruction of the 16-year streak of no differences in opinion between me and his Deftones, one of America’s greatest bands. Aw shit right? But maybe Moreno was joking around, or poking at his interviewer’s square EW audience. After all, he should be light-hearted as his crew rounds third on a follow-up to the masterful Diamond Eyes album.
For now Moreno explains what’s left to do:
“When we’re writing a song … we always come up with a name so we can reference it, and usually it’s just the silliest thing off the top of the head of Abe [Cunningham, drums] or Stephen [Carpenter, guitars]. Usually it’s outrageously dumb or an inside joke, [which] forces me to come up with great song titles so those [fake] titles will never live on. It’s much easier for me in hindsight to step back and look at it.”
Returning for his second outing with the Deftones is producer Nick Raskulinecz, fresh off the triumphant Clockwork Angels album with Rush. Moreno talks about new structure with Raskulniecz:
“We adopted a work ethic that was really productive on [Diamond Eyes]. We said we [would] work eight hours a day, and since we had those hours, everybody was super focused. Before that we had been working up in Sacramento, and the vibe was everybody would come in, hang out, and we would work when we got around to it. We had to get more efficient.”
Okay finally, the cover song talk. What u think?
“We’ve done a lot of ’80s stuff, but we wanted to do something from farther back. We sat down and everybody … was playing songs that we like. So we’re going to do an Elvis Presley song; we have five Elvis songs that we’ve been talking about. And we’re going to do Earth, Wind, and Fire. Hopefully we’ll get at least two, maybe three or four. It’s always fun. We’re done with the real creative part of having to come up with music out of thin air, and now we can be experimental with someone else’s song.
-ADF
