Pony Up

22 January 2014 | 5:00 am | Simon Holland

"We got through the holidays and that stuff and that was all fine and dandy; supposed to be our time off and then apparently a band called Blur pulled out and left the organisers scrambling so now we’re coming down to spend three lovely weeks down under."

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Deftones have always been a peculiar band to place. For a period they seemed to be safely lumped with the early '90s nu-metal during its initial infection, riding the trend rollercoaster as hard as anyone as that broke out into a full-scale plague. It became easy to assume they simply spawned with the masses. “Not so,” disagrees drummer and founding member Abe Cunningham. “We were lumped into that long ago. The simple fact is we were around a decade before that term was coined.”

The founding core of Deftones existed a full year before fellow American heavies Korn – a band commonly acknowledged as the godfathers of that particular sound. “We were just doing our thing the whole time.” Cunningham states with pride. ”That term has come and went and, you know, we always did our own thing. We started in '88; as far as records though our first record came out in '94 so it's been 20 years for the world but we were around in California, in the Bay Area, this neck of the woods since '88.”

Deftones toured with Korn in 1995, supporting Ozzy Osbourne on a nationwide tour. It was on this tour Korn's self-titled album blew up and went gold, cementing their spot at the top of the genre.

According to legend Deftones kicked off when guitarist Stephen Carpenter, aged 15, was hit by a drunk driver while skateboarding in his local neighborhood in Sacramento. “He got it good, he was totally jacked up.” agrees Cunningham. “He ended up getting a bit of a settlement, which was not much but for a 15-year-old kid was like winning the lottery. He bought a bunch of gear and just sat down and started learning Metallica songs; I mean they were just coming out and they were huge where we grew up, but that's the story of how he got going, not how we got going. I mean, it did happen, but that was before I ever knew him.

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“By the time we started getting going, maybe a couple of years after that, that fat wad of cash was pretty much gone. He had bought things, sold things and blown through that little nest egg. So that is a myth busted.”

It's hard to imagine Deftones co-existing with the release of …And Justice For All, let alone sharing real estate in the golden era of thrash. “We're from Sacramento; we're an hour or so from the Bay Area. It's a quick drive. If you look through history, the '60s, what a great area for music and then through the '70s, the '80s of course with metal and thrash coming out, the '90s were nuts for us and we were proud to come from such a great legacy. What a great area to grow up in and to be that close and see a lot of those bands coming up in their infancy in small clubs. I know that happens everywhere else too. It was really a magical time and magical place to grow up in, no doubt.”

Recently Deftones were added to the Big Day Out line-up – an unbelievable upgrade for a festival that appears to be failing a heavy audience, though Deftones have maintained a strong relationship with the festival.

“We actually came home about a month and a half ago. This is to be our time off. We got through the holidays and that stuff and that was all fine and dandy; supposed to be our time off and then apparently a band called Blur pulled out and left the organisers scrambling so now we're coming down to spend three lovely weeks down under. I couldn't be happier about that, I love it there.”

As with most festivals however clashes were inevitable and Deftones copped it worse than most going up against Pearl Jam and hot off the tail of Snoop Dogg. The release of the schedule last week prompted fans to swamp the band's Facebook page declaring their outrage. Breaking the news to Cunningham however resulting in very little outrage and a more philosophical approach to the business of large festivals: “They have, have they? You know what? Can you really go up against Pearl Jam? No, you can't. There you have it! We'll play our little show and they'll play their big show. It will be what it is and that is that. I'm just going to get loose, I'm going to go check everyone out, see a little Snoop. I'm sure he'll be smoking. I'm sure he'll be in our dressing room smoking as well. We're out just looking for a great time. Like I said, having done it a few times – this is our third Big Day Out festival – and they're always a blast, we're thrilled. We'll be getting' down!”