Deftones sampler/turntablist, etc. Frank Delgado spoke to Fuse of the band’s forthcoming new album “Gore“, which will be released on April 08th. When asked if the group intentionally shoot for a mixture of heavy and soft within their music, he replied:
“It sounds dumb but we just get together and we throw ideas at each other and what sticks, sticks. We know what we don’t want to do. We know when it sucks because we just won’t keep working on it. If there’s an idea and we keep twisting it and turning it and building on it, we obviously think it’s good and we keep working on it. We edit along the way. We’ve never been that type of band where we have 40 songs and we pick the best 12 for the record.
It would be cool to be able to have that, but we’ve never been that kind of band. We don’t go into a record thinking we have to do something a certain way. It just doesn’t happen. The reason our records are so dynamic with these highs and lows, the heavy and soft, the quiet and low is that’s just emotions that comes from being in a room with five guys for any amount of time.
There’s no way in hell we’ve ever been like, “Oh, we need to be a heavy metal band. We need to make a heavy song.” Heavy is different to different people. It’s different to each of us, the five of us. It’s selfish, because we don’t really care what people expect or want. We just do what we do.
We want to be able to make a record that we can put on in ten years and be proud of. [When we write] if it’s something that sticks out then we build on it. That’s how we know we’re digging it because we’re trying to out do each other by making it cooler. That’s how it’s been the whole time. Nothing has changed in that department.”
When presented with the suggestion that it was a competitive process, he replied:
“It’s not really competitive, it’s that we want to make each other’s shit fucking better. Not better, we want to make the idea flourish. We can all add something to it. That’s how it works and it’s not easy.”
While the recent unhappiness expressed by guitarist Stephen Carpenter wasn’t addressed, Delgado did offer a bit of a different perspective in regards to how their albums come together:
“We’ve learned to try different things and find what works. We just want to make really good records. We have to find different ways to make it good for everyone. We don’t want to force anyone to make something when they don’t want to make a record.”
