Mogwai Talks Deftones Collaboration As reported recently, Scottish mostly-instrumental outfit Mogwai has teamed up with Chino Moreno of the hard-rocking band, Deftones for an in-progress Mogwai track titled "Cortez." Sound strange? Well, I've seen stranger-like Creed. At any rate, Mogwai were in the fine city of New York Thursday after playing a shockingly loud Wednesday night gig at Irving Plaza, and guitarist/frontman Stuart Braithwaite was kind enough to chat with us a bit about this nifty collaborative effort. Mogwai and Deftones have actually met before, a few years ago at the Reading festival in England, which is where the mutual admiration reportedly began. Braithwaite told us that Cortez - on which Chino will provide vocals and which does not appear Mogwai's forthcoming album, Rock Action, due out April 24 on Matador-was initially intended for someone else's sultry voice. "Chan Marshall [aka Cat Power] was meant to sing on that song," Braithwaite said of the song, which was written last year and was recorded during the sessions for Rock Action. "But she's useless and never showed." Braithwaite said the idea to ask Moreno came when he and the band were watching the television one day. "We were just watching MTV and Deftones came on. Guitarist John Cummings was like, 'He's a really good singer,' and I said, 'I know him.' So I just asked him. He really likes us. We've sent him the song. I know he's definitely into it, because we weren't going tell anyone - obviously if you tell people these things and then it doesn't happen, you look as if you're talking shit. But he went out and told all these magazines and stuff so he must be really into doing it. So hopefully it'll turn out well."

"I think the track will turn out really well," he states. "Deftones are definitely the best out of all those American metal bands. They're nothing like the more 'Beavis & Butthead'-style bands, anyway [laughs]. We've met Chino a couple of times and he's a cool guy. We're not sure what we're going to do with the track yet. We've got a lot of stuff left over from the album, so we might release an EP."

What are you listening to these days?
A lot of classic rock. It's always still hard to fault that kind of music. It's still better. I like some of the new metal. In some ways, I'm looking for reasons to like it - like the Deftones, I kind of like them. I like Korn better than Limp Bizkit--I want to try to like them but it doesn't do it for me. I like Radiohead a lot. "OK Computer"--I actually like to listen to that. I tend to go back to that older stuff. It blows me away more.

Question : So what is CKY and the other guys doing at this point?
Phil : They signed with Island Def Jam and they payed their way to Hawaii to record their new album they will be there until about the middle of May, they've been there for about 2 weeks now already.

Question : Well, I live in Seattle. Do you think they will ever tour here?
Phil :Well they are supposed to be touring with the Deftones sometime this year, so if you ever see the Deftones come to town, Camp Kill Yourself should be touring with them. I'm not sure of Jess' schedule so, they have three tours planned for this year, so they probobly will be in that area. Bam is touring with skating so he might be there too.

"Maynard's approach to music is out in left field in comparison with other musicians. I'm pretty sure he knows all that, and it's probably why he's such a smartass little fucker."

Q: What's it like touring with the Deftones?
Joseph: "We haven't actually met them yet, but there's three more shows, so we're hoping that maybe by the London show, which will be the last night of the tour, that they'll actually let us look at them."
Chester: "They actually have this rule that you're not allowed to make eye contact with them, or talk to them or touch them in any way."
Q: What are your views on being labelled nu-metal?
Chester: "Also, the Deftones ahve been lumped in with nu-metal, and they've been around since the late '80s. So they're not very new."

Music in High Places, the travelogue that places musicians among metaphysical surroundings, is moving to MTV. For an upcoming episode, producers sent Deftones to Hawaii. "I hope we don't turn out cheesy," says 'Tones frontman CHINO MORENO. "But we just went to have fun and play some music. They tried to get us to do some spiritual shit, but we weren't gonna be acting like fools on TV. The minute it got weird, we told 'em, and they were cool." Performing songs like "Knife Party" and "Digital Bath" acoustically, the boys also got to explore the Big Island's lava fields. Were they inspired? "Our inspiration comes from everyday kinda shit," says MOreno. "It wasn't like we were enlightened."

When asked about his religion Chi said:
"well,good question.yes im a buddhist,but a zen lunatic is more like it.i see where yer comin from and can agree on alot of it and i suppose thats why im buddhist.its because you put no faith or relience on anything but yer own divinity as a human being.through meditation you learn about the godlyness of yourself and all others.and you can drink alot and not feel bad. i dunno-its complicated in its simplicity.i hope that helps-thanx-chi"

And Chino posted this:
"i thought i could die.i spit at youre vibrader.i wish we had some crayons.one crayon?gimme amber. ill wait here.chino*"
and...
"sometime around 11:15 cheng rang my doorbell.i really wanted to see him.i like cheng.i love sleep.try again monday.-chino*"

When frank was asked "was that just a rumor about a double-album?" he said, "it could happen."

And when Chi was asked why he cut his dreads he said: "glad you enjoyed docklands.um...i thought id would make my penis look bigger but its still tiny so..oh well-thanx-chi"

"I look at it like we are playing a show. People don't admit they like Limp Bizkit, I said something to the crowd last night (in Manchester) about Limp Bizkit and everyone stated booing. But I know for a fact that all those kids would go to see Limp Bizkit play, and they probably own a Limp Bizkit album, they have to - why do they sell so many records....I don't dislike Limp Bizkit's music, the same way with Linkin Park, it's very formulated and predictable and I think it's good for what it is. It's like a party youthful record, and I look at it like that. I haven't actually heard their new album....If I had a choice I'd much rather play Milton Keynes with Tool, a band I do listen to, but I don't think it's a bad thing we are playing with Limp Bizkit, I think it will be fun."

"So when we go home we are going to start writing as much stuff as we can before the summer. Then hopefully in the fall go in the studio and start recording"

C: The Deftones tour, last I heard, Weezer was rumored to be on that, is that true?
P: I don't understand where that comes from. Like I'll look at the newsgroup and be like "Everybody thinks we're playng with the Deftones." But as far as I know, there was no plans ever to play with the Deftones. Especially because they'd probably just insist on playing Say It Ain't So everynight and we'd be bummed about it because then we'd play it too.
C: Do you like the fact that they'd play it?
P: It's just wierd because we played a radio show in LA for KROQ and they played it right before we went on. It's like, "We're gonna play it, come on."
C: Did you play Say It Ain't So anyway?
P: Yeah it was wierd.

"Me and B-Real had been talking about a side project and me and Stef had been talking about it forever too, and within a couple of days we all put it together and a week after that we'd already written 9 songs and now we have 17 recorded and we hope to put it out next year sometime. Me and Stef met in Houston in 95 and we became very good friends and always talked of playing together. I overheard B-Real saying he's doing a solo thing and when I was wondering what he goes "Well I'm thinking about doing a solo thing" so I said what about being in a new band I'm working on? And he was like "Fuck yeah!" Raymond, that was just easy he was like "Let me know when and I'll be there". He's just easy to work with and that's why I got him in on the band. It's a mixture of all our bands in one which is pretty amazing."

"I'm actually looking forward to making another record. With White Pony, we took our time, which was cool. But we sit around and overanalyze stuff, we go in circles forever. This year, I wanna be as productive as possible." Moreno's resolution includes a solo record, a project he calls Team Sleep. "Right now it's just me and a DJ. He's mostly making beats on an old SP 1200 drum machine." Fresh. Sounds like...? "It's kinda breakbeat-ish with a lot of ambient sounds around it. It's similiar to Portishead, but with my vocals."