DEFTONES Writing Process Is ‘An In-The-Moment Sort Of Experience’

On why DEFTONES‘ new album, “Gore”, was delayed by several months:

Chino: “Oh, we just like to shatter expectations. [Laughs] Nah. I mean, we never really, actually were too adamant on trying to get a record out [by a certain date]. We really sort of took our time on purpose making this. And we didn’t… We weren’t actually… I wanna say we spent a good year and a half, I think, from the time we started writing it ’till now, I guess. But we really took our time in that time as far as, like, we didn’t work that whole time; we did, like, little short spurts of writing and then took a few months off and then went in for, like, a week. We all live in different cities now too. We’re all sort of spread out around the country, so for us to get together, it kind of has to be planned. So, yeah, we just picked these little pockets of time and in those times got together and worked. There were a couple of little hiccups, I guess, in mixing and things like that, that pushed it back a little bit further, but, for the most part, we just kind of did it at our own pace, and it felt really comfortable doing it that way.”

On DEFTONES‘ musical goals for “Gore”:

Chino: “You know, sadly, we don’t have any goals — I mean, in that way. We don’t talk about what we’re gonna try to do. We really try to make it an in-the-moment sort of experience, and it seems to be the most exciting way to make records. I feel like if we talked too much about it, or planned it out too much, or decided what type of record we were gonna make, we’d sort of be boxing ourselves in to have to stick to that. So we kind of just let it happen. I mean, we don’t write before we get in there, as far as… everything is pretty much written together while we’re all in the same room, and for that reason, I feel like it has this sort of live communal kind of feeling to it. Everybody very much shines, I think, in the right way. And hopefully, we do evolve when we make records. I think that’s sort of important for us to try to challenge ourselves and try to think outside the box as well. Not completely; I mean, obviously, I feel like it’s still very much a DEFTONES record, but like with anything, I think it should progress and it should expand on what it was before, and I felt like we did that.”

“Gore” debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200, having shifted 71,000 equivalent album units in the week ending April 14. It is the band’s highest-charting effort since their self-titled fourth album bowed and peaked at No. 2 in 2003.