Deftones Talk Private Music And More With Zane Lowe

07-11-2025

(dmk) Deftones sits down with Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 to discuss their upcoming 10th studio album, 'private music.' Members Chino Moreno, Stephen Carpenter, Abe Cunningham, and Frank Delgado joined Lowe at the iconic Canter's Deli in Hollywood where the musicians spoke extensively about the creation of private music, shared memories, and discussed what the future holds.

Watch the full interview below or listen to it anytime on demand with an Apple Music subscription here. See a transcript of some of the Q&A below:

Chino Moreno tells Apple Music about having a newer fanbase since beginning to tour after the pandemic

When we went on our first tour out of the pandemic, I started noticing a lot younger fan base as well as some of the old die hard fans and then it's even like the kids of our older fans, too. We'd do some meet-and-greets, there were a lot of parents and kids, I was like, "Who showed who our music?" and it was pretty much split down the middle sometimes. Sometimes, it was the younger kids who showed their parents. And their parents heard of us, but probably never seen us, right? So they were bringing them, and then it was parents bringing their kids. It was kind of a cool thing.

Chino Moreno tells Apple Music about sobriety and the impact on writing and performing

Chino Moreno: I feel like I'm just enjoying it, where I'm present now. Sobriety's been great for me. It's been almost three years. And that was just a total game changer from so many aspects of life, obviously but...

Zane Lowe: Had it just run its course for you. Had you just got to a point where you just knew?

Chino Moreno: Yeah, just sad. Through the pandemic was when it all came to a head. You know what I mean? I think everything just kind of where a lot of people, just like Steph was saying, oh, we're off now. Niche thing was, I'll just dive in to be creative. And now I can be at home and I can just go to my studio every day. That did not happen. I just did not feel creative at all during that time. I would go down in my studio and I'd sit in there and I'd pick up a guitar for a minute and I'd strum it for a second, and then I'd go put on a record, listen to something, crack a beer, you know what I mean? And just like whatever and every day. And then it got earlier and early, like 10:00 in the morning and I'm just like, "There's nothing to do." And I just got sad and lonely. I think everybody was feeling that way. I know I'm not the only person that was feeling very isolated and just lonely. [...]

But yeah, going through all that and then coming out of it and then just realizing that I just want to try something different and then just realize that I'd never tried it before and then started, wake, I felt like I woke up. And then really the way I think with the shows, writing everything, when I started writing again, it was just like everything is a lot clearer. And then funny enough, not funny, but when I would play shows, I would have fun playing the show. Before the show, a drink, a beer, a shot, whatever, and go on stage to feel like I need that to get out there and be loose and be silly and have fun, whatever, blah, blah. But I would never be able to watch any live performance of myself. And if one would come on, I would just cringe and I couldn't look at it. And that clicked, and all of a sudden I was like, "why can't I even watch myself?" And it really made me understand, I was just not really happy with myself. I knew I could do better.

Stephen Carpenter and Chino Moreno tell Apple Music about creating sounds before writing songs

Stephen Carpenter: We're creating soundscapes, if you will, and there's just some things for me, my instinct and where I gravitate to always is hearing a chord ring out or palm muted stuff, that's what I'm really into. [...] I'm at a place now where I'm more interested in putting in stuff that I'm unfamiliar with and trying to be more than just the power chord. But I still end up back there, that's the problem.

Chino Moreno: It's funny though. I don't think this is something we'd be proud of specifically, but as a band, as I think as musicians and as a band, I feel like we're much more into making sound than we are writing songs. The sounds are what really inspire us. When we start making music, honestly. No one ever goes, oh, play. Let's go from this chord to this chord and this chord. It's the sound of a... For instance, we made White Pony. The only idea that we had in going into making that record is we were really, really into DJ Shadow at the time, and a lot of stuff like that. We just wanted drums. We were so into just drums and just low end sub bass, certain little things that we wanted out. Our record didn't turn out sounding like that- But this is what inspired us, right? The sound, not so much the song or a lyric or anything like that. All that stuff kind of comes secondary. So like I said, I don't know if that's something to be proud of but I feel like that's what really inspires us

Chino Moreno tells Apple Music about the effect that Chi Cheng's death had on the band

That was kind of when everything got put in perspective, how lucky we are to have each other and to have the friendship that we had up to that point. And honestly, we still continue to have obviously, but I think about him all the time. We think about him all the time. There's not a day that goes by where when we're together, something happens and a Cheng story comes up.

Chino Moreno tells Apple Music about Chi Cheng's music in the band

That's the one thing that he left us, that music. It's like, when you hear what he plays too, also unconventional. I think he was another sort of version of that within the band where, because he listened to only reggae and Taj Mahal and whatever, he didn't play bass like was expected to play over what Stephen was playing, and to the drums Abe was playing. And that's kind of what made it special.

Chino Moreno tells Apple Music about how their upcoming album title "Private Music" came about

I mean the simplest answer for that would be that was a folder on my desktop while we were working on all these songs where I put stuff in. Obviously, I like the kind of exclusivity of the name, whatever it makes you feel very, I guess maybe restricted, maybe naughty, maybe has all these connotations, I guess to it, whatever. Very private in a way.