Metal, Hardcore, Indie, Rock
Deftones release their new album “private music” and Chino Moreno speaks about Stephen Carpenter not touring abroad
Let’s start with the good news first. Finally, Deftones‘ new album “private music” is out now, and you can get your copy by clicking this link. I tried going to the link in the video below, and it just says “The end”. Anyone has any idea what it means? Maybe they’ll tell us soon enough…
And now, off to the bitter side of things. Chino Moreno, the frontman of the Deftones, is unsure of the reason behind longstanding guitarist Stephen Carpenter’s departure from the band’s worldwide tours. In 2022, Carpenter, who joined Moreno in founding the California nu metal band in 1988, declared that he would no longer be performing with the Deftones outside of North America. The announcement follows remarks he made in 2020 on the podcast Tin Foil Hat With Sam Tripoli, in which he promoted untrue assertions that immunizations are ineffective and that the Earth is flat. He didn’t want to be in a strange nation “and then they want to jab me with something,” the guitarist later told Rock Feed.
In an exclusive interview with Metal Hammer, Moreno discussed Carpenter’s lack of participation at international performances, where Lance Jackman and Shaun Lopez had taken over as guitarists. Though he regrets not performing with him in many markets, he shows support for his friend and bandmate. He also acknowledges that he is unsure of the true reasons for his decision to remain at home.
I don’t want to speak for him. And even if I could, I still don’t have an answer. Really I don’t. It’s still something that I think he is figuring out. And if he does have an answer, I think it’d be great if one day he would share it. But yeah, we support him. We have to. He’s our friend. And his health, be it physically or mentally, always takes the forefront of anything. It’s sad, I want him onstage with us at every show. If you ask me what I prefer, I want him there every day, every time we do anything, with the band. But it literally comes down to: there’s two ways to deal with it. We accept what he can and will do, or we just don’t play. And we want to play.