Guerrilla Candy spoke with Deftones drummer Abe Cunningham a few weeks ago while he was on the road in Salt Lake City. He had some great things to say about Weezer, White Pony, Seattle and tourmates Fall of Troy. Below is the interview in full.
GC: How’s the tour been going for you guys so far? Any highlights or any shows that stand out?
Not to be bland or anything, it’s just been a long leg. We’ve been out for at least 16 months now. It’s just another day at the office really. But it’s fun. It’s a really fun office. But I’m looking forward to a break.
GC: How has the reaction been to the new material off “Saturday Night Wrist?” It’s been out for a while and fans have been able to digest it. How has the reaction been for fans hearing it live?
People have had time to get to know it. We play a majority of the record now and the reaction has been great. We have five records out now so we try and mix things up and keep the set list fresh and change it up usually nightly. But the reaction to the new stuff has been great. People have been having a good time and really digging it.
GC: What goes into the creation of a Deftones set list now that you have five albums, six if you count the B-sides and rarities?
Usually it happens about five minutes before we go on. There’s the staples people want to hear or need to hear, but some of these songs we’ve been playing for about 15 plus years. You always try to keep it fresh. You try to please everyone but you can’t always do that. It’s a mix of songs off every record.
There’s a lot of different tunings so we group some songs that go together otherwise we’d be switching guitars every song and slowing the set down. But we usually just battle it out five minutes or so before we go on and we try to please everyone both in the band and the fans.
There are songs that I really do like to play, but it goes in phases. Some of the songs after a while I get sick of playing and want to play something else. But at the same time you find ways to breathe new life into the old songs that you play all the time. It’s not like, “Oh man, we’re playing ‘Seven Words’ again.” Actually that song has been a joy to play lately. You know, it’s just like anything else, you kind of roll with it. You have to take some breaks away from some songs sometimes but you don’t want to upset anybody.
GC: Why has “Seven Words” been such a joy to play lately?
It’s because we’re playing it fairly tight these days. I guess apparently I’ve been playing it way too fast for, like, the last 12 years. My bandmates let me know that the other day.
GC: Are you pretty sensitive to that sort of criticism? Twelve years is a long time to wait for your bandmates to mention that your tempo is too fast for a Deftones hit.
They probably said it before but I just didn’t hear them.
GC: How was the recording of “Saturday Night Wrist” different than past records?
Quite honestly, it was a horrendous experience. It’s been pretty well documented that it was not an enjoyable record for us to make. Things can’t always be easy. But we sort of got into a trend the past few years, beginning with “White Pony,” of taking longer and longer between records.
The band has been around for almost 20 years and we’ve spent more than half our lives together and I think we were a bit burnt out. It’s all the usual things you hear everyday about a band. We really are best friends and like family, but we just came to a point where we weren’t communicating at all. It’s sort of a difficult thing to do, to be creative, when you can’t talk to your best friend.
You’ve heard these stories a million times. It’s all really cliché. I think compared to the big picture, the problems we had were pretty miniscule and they’re mostly just sand-sized problems that we turn into Mt. Everest size proportions. It’s just one of those things where it’s out (“Saturday Night Writs”) and I couldn’t be happier with the way things turned. But it was process that was not enjoyable and I hope to never ever have to repeat that process again.
GC: Was it just the lack of communication that made things difficult, or were there other factors?
It’s just like anything. We’ve done this for quite a while now and it’s a pretty hectic lifestyle. I think we’re allowed to be burned out. But to make a long story short, it’s all worked out now and we’re having the time of our lives now.
GC: So what about another new record? Have you guys thought about recording anything soon, or will fans have to wait a while since it sounds like it might be time to take a break?
Going into what I was saying earlier, this whole process has been draining physically and mentally, but we are trying to write material on the road. There is so much time wasted on the road really. You’re playing two hours but you have so much time before the show that you just waste. So we’re trying to work on taking advantage of that.
GC: Was it difficult to have a career-defining record with “White pony” and write a follow-up to that? Or at least write a follow-up to a record that many fans think has been the high point of your career. Or do you not focus on things like that when you’re recording?
It’s not something we think about much really. The whole premise of the band when we started was, it sounds pretty juvenile, but we just wanted to rock. That was 20 years ago when we started and out goal was to rock and we just hoped we got to play the next city over.
You can get into thinking about “White Pony,” but it was really just our stance at the time on a lot things that were happening musically. The whole nu-metal thing was coined. We were just doing our thing our own way for many year previously and we got tired of that. It was just our stance on things.
If you picture a beautiful white pony in some vast meadow or plain just running free. That’s what we thought about; not trying to attach ourselves to anything and hopefully outlive that term which I believe we did. Nu-metal dies a few years ago, right?
GC: I hope it did.
Really, as far as thinking about records, it (“White Pony”) was just a slice of time. We kind of were just making music that we enjoyed at that point.
GC: Deftones is one of the few bands that survived nu-metal. You’ve been able to stay relevant in rock for more than just a period in time when Limp Bizkit was being played on the radio. What do you think has contributed to that?
I really think it’ just us being us. We really just try to be ourselves, Not to delve into this again, but we were a band before all those other bands were out there. I think that whole scene was thrust out there so fast and shoved down everyone’s throats and we’ve always been really mellow and low key. That whole mainstream vibe with nu-metal just wasn’t what we are about.
GC: Even though you’re from Sacramento, Deftones is one of those bands that is from Seattle by association. You play here a lot and you’ve recorded albums here. What is it about Seattle that attracts outside musicians?
Seattle is actually one of my favorite cities in the world. We’ve had amazing concerts there. Terry Date, our long-time producer and friend, was the first person to convince us to go there and we just fell in love with it. We recorded our first, second and part of our third record there and we’ll always have a soft spot for the Pacific Northwest.
GC: You’ve got a band on tour with you from Seattle no. How has touring with Fall of Troy been?
It’s been great. It’s so funny because they are so young. Not like we’re old as dirt or anything, but it reminds me of how we were when our first record was out and we started touring. It’s kind of fun to see them out there because they’re so full of energy and just like go get ’em. It’s quite invigorating for us.
GC: I heard some of the Fall of Troy guys actually join you on stage during your sets.
Yeah. We’ve been playing these Weezer songs, or butchering them, for years and Steven, our guitarist, for the life of him, cannot play a solo real well. He’s an amazing guitarist, but whenever the shredding part comes up we would just end the song. So it’s kind of cool because Thomas, the guitarist from Fall of Troy, will get on stage and allow us to complete this open book that’s been open for many years. He comes in ad shreds the leads and we’er able to complete these songs we haven’t been able to complete for so many years.
GC: Is that why there weren’t any Weezer covers on the B-sides album?
Well, playing Weezer was always just for fun. We love Weezer, they’re an awesome band and still are to this day. But we were never able to complete the songs because of the solos. So yeah, there you have it.
