Deftones’ Chino Moreno on Working with Stephen Carpenter: “It’s Pretty Damned Competitive”

Is there trouble in Deftonesland? It’s certainly starting to seem that way. Last week, guitarist Stephen Carpenter said that he hadn’t wanted to record any of the band’s new album, Gore, because “It wasn’t the style or the sound I was hoping we would take.” He also said “I would never leave the band that I started but the band started leaving me, I can’t control that.” These do not sound like the words of a happy man.

Now vocalist Chino Moreno has fired back in a new interview with kilpop.com, which, for reasons I don’t quite understand, was conducted at a ping-pong table. Although the interview has since been yanked from the the net, The PRP reports that when asked what he does for fun, Moreno replied thusly:

“You mean like competitive fun? Make records with Stephen. It’s pretty damned competitive. In a way, it’s a lot of this [referring to table tennis game], back and forth.”

So it seems fairly clear that there is currently some tension between Moreno and Carpenter (and possibly Carpenter and the rest of the band, too). What’s not presently clear is how worrisome that tension should be to fans. After all, being in a band is like being in a family, and what family, no matter how loving and functional, doesn’t feel tension from time to time? We just have to wait and see if they can work through it, Hetfield and Ulrich style, or not work through it and split up, Rose and Slash style, or not work through it but stay together for the sake of business, DLR and EVH style.

While we wait to see how this pans out: Gore comes out April 8! Listen to the first single, “Prayers/Triangles,” here. The band goes on tour a month after the album’s release. Get dates here.