Ex-Deftones Bassist Sergio Vega Elaborates on Departure From Band, Says He’s Working With Ex-ETID Singer Keith Buckley
Last month, Deftones bassist Sergio Vega revealed that he was no longer a part of the band after they posted a four-person band photo on Spotify. Now, Sergio has elaborated on his departure from the band, and has revealed that he’s working with former Every Time I Die vocalist Keith Buckley on something new.
Speaking to Joshua Toomey via his Talk Toomey podcast (as transcribed by The PRP), Sergio outlined at great length his involvement in Deftones and what led to him asking for a more secure position — and not being given one.
“It was a function of the contract being cancelled. And me having a little conversation with Chino, and then another conversation with a couple of the guys saying ‘hey’ when they wanted to reinstate [the contract.]
“I was like, I think the path forward is that we can all be in the same boat. Now would be the time to get off this type of structure. Because it’s not really working for anybody, especially now when we’re not touring, we’re not doing anything. And it doesn’t make sense to have this type of structure, it has been twelve years [since Vega joined the band] at this point and let’s make good on that.
“…We don’t have to work it out now, I just can’t… I just can’t go onto the salary thing because it’s not working for us. And that was it. We really couldn’t come back on that.”
Vega later goes on to explain that it wasn’t about money for him, but rather knowing that he was secure in his position within the band:
“It’s the security and stability of feeling like you’re a part of something that you’re investing in, and belonging. To me the keyword is this feeling that you belong. Something that you’re pouring yourself into.
“Now, had it been from the get go—’this is the vibe, this it the help that we need’—then that’s cool… So for me it was bit of hearing things like ‘Sergio is out of pocket’ [in reference to a comment reportedly made online by Chino Moreno regarding Sergio‘s exit] you know, ‘we fired him, it’s about money.’ It was never about money for me.
“But at the end of the day, I guess the perception of it encroaching on anyone’s income could have been the thing that allowed it to not come together.”
Sergio also went on to reveal that he’s working on a new project with former Every Time I Die vocalist Keith Buckley and Spotlight’s drummer Chris Enriquez:
“You don’t have the thing of trying to build the band. You don’t have to deal with the time conflicts with the people you may want to work with, it opens up a lot. So currently we have a song done. We have [another] one almost done. And then last week we started working on a track with Keith Buckley.
“…It’s super exciting because we got on the phone and we just talked about life. He, Chris and I had a quick FaceTime. We hadn’t met each other, obviously [we’re] well aware of each other. And we really, really hit it off. So it’s a rare time that I feel compelled to mention the person because of the situation.”
Check out the full interview here:
