Before their 1995 debut album Adrenaline, Deftones had a handful of demos out in the world that don't quite sound like the Deftones you know and love today. In an interview with Revolver, Deftones frontman Chino Moreno said the band's early material isn't exactly their brightest spot and that there's a reason it never got reissued.
"It's hard to say," said Moreno. "I mean, maybe, because I'm all self-taught and I didn't really know what I was doing. I just wanted to play music so bad, but everyone else was better than I was at drums and guitar — so I needed to find my own way to be in a group.
"So [Deftones'] earliest music probably wasn't some of our most shining moments and for that reason it's not out there. A lot of it was just backyard parties and stuff like that. So, to me, it helped us in that way. We were able to have some sort of artist development before being shoved in front of people.
"The internet is one of those things that I have a love-hate relationship with. I feel bad for people that just want to try something — and fail at it — and then people jump on it and break their confidence before they even get a chance to try something that might be different. I think the best music is, you know, out-there, natural, not typical."
For evidence of just how different early Deftones is from anything else they ever did, look no further than their 1991 cassette Answers • Hogburg Hop.
Deftones has quietly been working on a new album throughout 2023, which they're aiming to release sometime hopefully in spring or summer 2024. The news comes from Deftones guitarist Stephen Carpenter, who added that Deftones is once again working with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Mastodon, Alice In Chains, etc.).
