Deftones Interview from Alive and Kickin Dec. 1991



First, a little back- ground on these Deftones guys. The band formed as a punk/funk four-piece in the summer of '90 with Stephan on guitar, Dominic on bass, Abe on drums and Chino singing. After about a year Abe left to join Phallucy as their new drummer. Dominic moved to drums and Chi joined the Deftones on bass. Soon, however, Dominic also left the band to join Phallucy. They now have John from the band "It's Not What You Think" drummin' with 'em. I suggest maybe the Deftones should challenge Phallucy to a grudge bowling match, but that they exclude Abe and Dominic from bowling because, obviously, their loyalties are in question. They liked the idea, but added they have no hard feelings, though they would take great pleasure in defeating Phallucy.

We then reminisced about the great drive-ins of Sacramento's past. The Thunderbird! The Aather! Chi said the first drive-in movie he ever saw was The Bad News Bears at the South Gate Drive-in. Stephan told us a few sneaking-into-drive-in stories, which came as no surprise to me since my earliest encounters with him were while he was trying to scam his way into The Cattle Club. His classic technique was leaving his Walkman at the door while he went in to find someone and then not coming out for hours. 'Yeah,' smiled Stephan, 'that Walkman just bit the dust. I calmly removed the batteries and the tape, which was lodged in there. That's what pissed me - threw me over the edge. I didn't think I'd get my tape out, but somehow I peeled it out, took off my headphones, got a runnin' start and sent that thing flyin'. Smashed it up, right in the middle of the Payless parking lot. He used to do that shit at practice,' said Chino, laughing. 'All the time,' added Stephan, 'I'd pick up Dominic's distortion pedal when that shit would cut out, and throw it across the room. I'd fix it every time.'

I remember one time during a soundcheck at The Cattle Club I thought Stephan was gonna kill one of his bandmates over some sort of reoccurring f*ck-up. Nothing happened, though. The only time I know of any band ever exchanging blows at The Cattle Club was Fault, who immediately broke up and then reformed the next day. Man, I love good rock-n-roll gossip and the Deftones have lots of it, most of it invomng their former bassist Dominic. Chino told of practices at Dominic's familys house. 'Man, there'd be these chihuahuas runnin' around all ever the place, and we'd always have to give someone's car a jumpstart, or drive videos back to the store.' 'One time 'added Stephan, 'they held all our equipment hostage. We told 'em we'd give 'em $10 for being so cool and lettin' us practice there, and they just busted out and said 'You guys can't get your equipment 'till we get that ten bucks. 'I'd go over there and my amps would be hooked up to the stereo.' 'Hah,' laughed Chi, 'they'd hook the P.A. up to the television and make stereo Nintendo. But there's no doubt that Dominic and us are good friends. We used to bag on each other for days.'

As our conversation continued, we talked about Public Enemys new album, stolen leaf-blowers, and Married With Children. Somehow we got to talkin' about deer hunting. I think Jay started that topic. He also ended it by suggesting that the most challenging way to kill a deer was not by gun or bow, but by freezing it in the road with your headlights and hitting it with your truck. The boys told me that they had a tape coming out soon and we decided we would do a release show at the club. By this time it was very, very late and we all agreed it had been a quality night, full of guns, gossip, and beer. [Editors note: I let Dominic read this article before printing and he made me take out the part about the broken-down car in his yard. So I did.]
- Jew Pew
The Deftones Mll be plarng at the Cattle Club wiM the Smokin' Rhythm Prawns, Band #6 and Air Fish, Saturday, Dec. 28th.