Deftones’ Abe Cunningham: ‘Gore’ ‘Pissed a Lot of People Off’
In 2016, Sacramento rock group Deftones released their eight full-length record, Gore. The record showed new iterations in sound from the band's previous work, building upon melody and atmosphere. While reviews were generally positive, some fans were not as open to the shift in sound. Deftones drummer Abe Cunningham has addressed this in an interview with Overdrive, saying, "This record has really pissed a lot of people off."
He made his comments in reference to the fact that each member of the band is keen on always expanding what they can do with their sound, and how to evolve on top of their music.
In the same interview, bassist Sergio Vega said "We are really just passionate fans of music and passionate fans of being musicians and also very passionate of music gear. We are always consuming new things, and with all of our different tastes combined, there are obviously overlaps with the material that we write. When we enter that process of writing, it's a very organic process for us all. Basically, what happens is that we get into a room and we make noise. [Laughs]"
Vega later detailed the creation of the record saying, "In the case of Gore‘ (for me it’s my third album with the guys), what we do is document everything and with this album, Abe and I took a handle on that, whereby we would record everything and the next morning we would get up extra early, have some coffee and listen back to what we had worked on and would begin to chop up the ideas and mail it out to the other guys, keeping things documented and dispersed to everyone else."
Cunningham replied, "What’s crazy, and kind of funny is that this record has really pissed a lot of people off! It’s made a lot of people happy also, but we’ve noticed that it’s really made people really angry. I guess it takes a bit of time for people to wrap their heads around it."
Bringing it back to a larger picture, Vega brought up his entire tenure with the band saying, "I feel that when you take risks and put yourself out there and following your heart, it’s really all that we can do to stay true to what we do. There’s no point in recording the same album over and over."
It's interesting to hear the perspectives of the band members on their shifting sound, especially given the most recent record. Fans at times want bands to live in an eternal twilight of their own favorite album, but with tastes changing, bands often move on.
It should be a good rest of the year for Deftones. The group is set to open for Guns N' Roses for a few dates, having just wrapped up their own co-headlining tour with Rise Against.
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