Deftones’ Chino Moreno Discussed Some of His Favorite Songs

Right on the heels of Lamb of God’s Mark Morton and System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno has now shared his thoughts on some of his favorite pieces of music with Rolling Stone. As a fan, finding out who influenced the artists you admire is always interesting… and who knows? Maybe you’ll discover something you didn’t know, or didn’t know you liked!

Here’s a sample of Moreno’s picks:

The Song That Makes Me Want to Stage Dive

https://youtu.be/7XvCAl3vr2M

Bad Brains “Fearless Vampire Killers,” 1982
“This song is about a minute long. It’s super-fast and it’s aggro from start to finish. Every time I hear it it’s like one of those old super-fast punk jams that are just undeniable – it’s like, get in the pit and start swinging, leap off the stage or whatever floats your boat. Bad Brains are another one of my favourite bands.”

The Song That Reminds Me of Touring

Down “Stone the Crow”, 1995
“When we first started touring in ’96 we were in a van, four guys, a tech and a tour manager. There were no iPhones back then so whatever CD somebody put on was what you were all listening to. So Stephen [Carpenter, guitar] put this record on. He played this CD so much that we threw the CD out the window. There’s a song on that album, ‘Stone the Crow’, I heard it the other day and it took me straight back to being in the van, on tour.”

The Song I Wish I Wrote

https://youtu.be/vbiAkVLe9OM

Prince “The Beautiful Ones”, 1984
“Prince had so many amazing songs, but this one in particular just impressed me. It sounded like an ultimatum: ‘Do you want me or don’t you? Let me know because I’m putting it all out there.’ Purple Rain is the defining record of my youth and that’s my favourite song off that record.”

Moreno also revealed that “Anniversary of An Uninteresting Event,” from their 2003 self-titled album, is the Deftones song of which he’s most proud:

“I think mostly I’m proud of that song because I think I wrote most of that song from scratch with no real other input. I don’t really play the piano, and one day I was walking through the studio while we were making that record. I just sat down at the piano and started noodling around and our producer Terry Date started recording. I put the vocals on it and then it was this song that wasn’t really meant to be, but just happened. I feel like it’s a pretty honking tune, and I’m pretty proud of that one.”

You can read the entire thing here.

[via The PRP]