This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Sacramento-based alt-metal band Deftones will be doing a co-headlining show with Rise Against on Saturday at West Valley's Usana Amphitheatre. Drummer Abe Cunningham did a Q&A with the Tribune back in mid-May, touching on this touring lineup, changes in the music industry, and finding balance in a crazy lifestyle.
Can you just start off by telling me, in your estimation, how this pairing came about?
Yeah, man. We've known the Rise guys for many years — it's one of those things, summertime comes around, and the way that touring is these days, people tend to put together packages. It's just a matter of it being summer. So, the Thrice guys we've known for many years as well, too. You've got this group of, this list of bands, and you go, "Well, hey man, that could work, this could work." We've played on a lot of different festival shows over the years with Rise Against on the same bill, and we definitely know the dudes, and Tim [McIlrath] comes down and sings with us sometimes on certain songs. So, "Let's give this a shot," and everything kinda worked out nice. And we're to be off and running soon.
I spoke with Joe [Principe] from Rise Against the other day and was discussing with him how Deftones and Rise Against are not particularly similar types of bands, and so does the crossover of the audience come into consideration when you're putting together a bill like this one?
Yeah, totally. I think, ultimately, the main goal would just be to try to bring a killer show to town, you know? But at the same time, there's people that enjoy both of our bands, and you always love to gain listeners from other people too, and vice versa. At the end of the day, it's just about having a great time and enjoying the people who are your tourmates. It's about that. You want to have like-minded people on the bill so you can make new friends. That's what the whole goal's about. But like I said, we've known them forever, and Joe's a rad dude! They're all good dudes. You hope to just make everyone … maybe you can turn someone else on to something, or you can learn from someone else — that's the goal, too.
I know most artists hate with a passion having labels put on what they do, but for those people who simply just might not know Deftones, how would you describe your music to them if they were to ask you what you're about?
I always just say rock 'n' roll, man. That sort of puts any end to the question. But, we're a band of thrills — there's lots in the music, there's ups and downs, there's lots of dynamics, there's lots of things people can grab onto. Everyone is welcome, everyone is welcome here. We're a rock 'n' roll band. Like the Rolling Stones! Haha! No, we're not.
That's a hell of a comparison to make!
That was far-fetched!
It's been a little bit now since your last album; are you working on anything new yet?
I guess it's been just a little bit over a year since "Gore," our last record came out. We are kinda just touring. We got home a little less than a week ago from a month in Europe. And then we have just a couple weeks off, three weeks off, before we start up this summer thing with Rise. And that's a month long. I guess we're sort of at the end of this record cycle, if you will, but even that's kinda weird, 'cause things have changed so much. In terms of a record cycle, it used to be a good 2½ years; it's kind of a different world these days. We live in a different world. We have a lot of back catalog, obviously, so we can dip in and out of this weird realm, if you will. So we're still going, we're kinda going by writing some new music here and there, which we'll get down to shortly. But yeah, we have just a little bit of touring here to do, and kind of just popping around doing some select dates around Earth. And then we'll get back to making music.
That brings up another interesting component of how the music industry's changed. Back in the '60s and '70s, if you weren't putting out a new album every year, you were slacking. Then we got to a place where an album every 3 years was acceptable. Now, we're sort of back to, "Well, it's been more than a year; what are they up to?" Are those changes in expectations difficult to get a handle on?
Yeah. Though I don't think we worry about it too much, just when we get together to do things. But it's interesting what you just said. The whole album cycle — back then, before music television and videos and everything, in the '60s and '70s, people were that prolific. But they were touring all the time because it was [about] tickets and T-shirts. And that's what it's come back to. The album would be advertising for the show, if you had some new music, new tunes to play. And hopefully you're selling the tickets and T-shirts, man. That's really what it's come back to, through the insanity of the '80s and the height of the '90s, and the whole rock star thing — just the ability to blow up on a music video and these things. There used to be million-dollar-plus budgets, where if you didn't spend a million bucks on a video, MTV wouldn't even think about picking it up. And now you can make the baddest video for 15 grand. I mean, you can make it for a dollar if you wanted to. Everything's kinda come full circle. We're back to people putting out records a lot more frequently and back to again having it be an advertisement for the show. It's kind of an interesting place to be. We've had a taste of the latter, then we're here now, too. I think we have a good perspective just 'cause we've been around awhile. We've seen the changes and how you adapt in this ever-changing amoeba of a business. But we rely on our live show, and you can't take that away. Hopefully. Knock on wood!
So, how have you adapted over the years? Looking back and where you started and where you are now, what are the big changes that have occurred? Or even the subtle ones?
You know what's funny? I'm sure there've probably been a million things that've changed, but [really] not much. It doesn't seem like we've changed. We started back in 1988, which is crazy. Our first record was '94, '95, but our band's been around for nearly 30 years. That's insane to think about. It doesn't even feel like that at all. And really, it's the same dudes. If anything, there's more of a respect for each other; we got caught in this grind, which is a very common thing — you do first record and your second record, but then you get caught in this write, record, tour, write, record, tour, and you can get seriously burnt out. We've outlived that a couple few times. There's just a new respect for each other and for what we do. And we've reached a really nice balance, man, between touring our tails off — we're still lucky to be able to go around the world and do what we do; it's an amazing lifestyle, it's an amazing job, because being able to be a regular guy and have some time at home is so important, too. But we've grown up. We're still wild and we have a blast, we definitely have a lot of fun, but it's a nice place to be to reach a bit of balance. It's very important to keep on going. We're doing pretty alright, and it's a nice place to be. That's where we're at.
It's really interesting to hear you use that word, "balance." Most people look at a rock band and may only consider the aspect of, "Well, how lucky are they to be making a living by making music?" And they're not wrong, but they don't take into consideration the monotony of that cycle, and all the work that goes into it.
Yeah, there's a lot of sacrifice. And I don't want to sound like I'm complaining at all, because I'm not, but there's relationships that come and go, marriages, all these things, there's children born — all these things. It's nice to be able to do both.
You also mentioned that, at the end of the day, you always have your live show to rely upon. So what can the fans of Salt Lake City expect when Deftones show up at Usana Amphitheatre?
We've played there so many times over the years — DV8, all these little clubs, at the old Fairgrounds, all these different spots, and here we are coming back once again. It's just nice, it's the summertime, it's a celebration, man! I hope people come out and enjoy. It's about open ears, open minds, and taking it in. Hopefully we can all be part of that and have a lovely evening! We're just trying to figure out a setlist to play and to please everyone if we can, but it's difficult when you're trying to pick songs from all these different records, and people want to hear something specific. And also not playing the same thing every night is a fun thing, too. So we're trying to switch it up and pull some old ones out of the bag that we haven't played in a really, really long time. All in the confines of an hour and a half set, or whatever it is.
I love bands that switch it up every night, and obviously you've got the catalog to pull it off. So what goes into making those decisions on a city-by-city basis? How does that process work?
We've been floating around a little list between each other of songs that all think, "Wow, it'd be great to play this. We haven't played this in so long!" Another thing that sucks about our band is that every record's different tuning, so we try to put blocks of songs together that we can interchange; otherwise, you don't wanna have a guitar and bass switch every single song. That messes with the flow. So we try to do things that are in chunks of twos, threes and fours, just for tuning purposes. We're carrying production and lights too, so all these things are considerations — the programming of the lights. There's all these different things, and we try to let our crew guys know what we're onto so they have a head's up when it comes to programming the lights and all this stuff for each song. There's a lot that goes into it, but we have some freedom too, which is cool and therefore fun. … You wanna keep it fun for yourself, too. As a band, you wanna be able to switch things out and keep it and alive!
Thanks so much for your rime! Was there anything else you wanted to add or mention?
We're thrilled to come back to Salt Lake, man. We were at Saltair last year, but before that, we hadn't been to the Salt Lake area for quite a while, for a few years. So it's nice to be coming back, and it's summertime, and let's have a good time together!
ewalden@sltrib.com
Twitter: @esotericwalden —
Rise Against and Deftones
With Thrice, Frank Iero and The Patience
When • Saturday, 6:30 p.m.
Where • Usana Amphitheatre, 5150 Upper Ridge Rd., West Valley City
Tickets • $29.50-$54.50; Smith's Tix