The Deftones are taking their hybrid, angry sound into the stratosphere with their captivating Around the Fur album and on the road this summer on the Vans Warped Tour (alongside Bad Religion, the Specials, Rancid and NOFX).

Even the European shores are not safe from the quartet; the powerful Sacramento Four are geared to gig at popular European festivals like Reading and Glastonbury. From popular local musicians to hitting the big-time with their no-holds-barred guitar driven wrath, the Deftones never lost an iota of their essence.

As touring supporters of today�s biggest rock outfits like KoRn, Bad Brains and White Zombie, they live up to their name as among this year�s most passionate performers.

Vocalist Chino Moreno and guitarist Stephen Carpenter talk to Circus Magazine about their range of backgrounds and their ride to the top so far.

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At the peak of their powers, big-time bands could literally ask for anything in the world, and they would get it. In the case of the Deftones, they are subject to the usual idolatry by their ardent fans. A few years later after breaking through to sales and critical success, their singer Chino Moreno has seen a lot of this occasionally fanatic reaction from their female followers.

"Women, for me, spell drama," says Moreno. "Really, I get the weirdest-requests. I had to sign my name on a girl�s skin and she went off and had it tattooed. That�s a bit strange. I can only hope that her taste is pretty steady, otherwise she�ll be really sorry for it."

Explaining the Deftones is difficult, if not impossible. It�s easier to describe who they are � this Sacramento, Calif. Quartet has been making waves with their excellently-crafted sophomore effort Around the Fur and headlining the summer�s Vans Warped Tour (performing along seminal bands like Bad Religion, Rancid and NOFX). Consisting of Moreno, guitarist Stephen Carpenter, bassist Chi Cheng and drummer Abe Cunnigham, the band�s intense music is a high-octane blend of funk, pop, metal, punk and hardcore, some industrial and rap thrown in for some good measure.

So unique is their sound that even the band itself has trouble describing it. They make a couple of attempts, scratching their heads. "We got a heavy drum and guitar sound, but we�re not just heavy," tries Carpenter. "We like a lot of heavy sound like Sepultura, Helmet and all that and we sure got influenced by them, but there�s far more than that to our sound. Chino likes the Bad Brains and he was always singing along, that�s how he developed his style as a vocalist. You know the Bad Brains and his hard drinking are responsible for this voice. That and his frequent mood swings."

"Alright, I�m a moody bastard," admits Moreno, grinning. "But it�s good for our music. Basically there are just two different feelings, love and hate. Everything else, every other feeling is somehow connected to one of them. Love and hate are the two basic feelings and I�m capable to change from one to the other really quick, like in a song. Sometimes I go through both moods in one song, not just once, but a couple of times."

With live staples from Fur like "My Own Summer (Shove It)," "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" and "Lhabia," the band could make the listener double the frequency of their heartbeat, make their feet twitch madly and then send them heading straight for the pit. But offstage, they�re the guys next-door who believe their straightforward image doesn�t have any influence on their music and that live performances should be honest without relying on smoke and mirrors.

"We�re a real melting pot, you know," says Carpenter. "White, Mexican, Chinese�a lot of people think that has something to do with our sound, but I don�t think that music has something to do with your race. We don�t really care about image, I don�t even know if we have an image or if people just think we�re weirdos, we probably are, but so what?"

"What we really care about is playing loud," Moreno chirps in.

The band�s beginnings were depressing but had phenomenal results. At age 15, Carpenter was involved in an automobile accident while skateboarding, and received a generous settlement sum three years later. The aspiring guitarist spent it "on gear, clothes and going out with friends in about six-to-eight months," according to this bio. He began jamming in his garage with Moreno, whom he knew since they were about ten years old. The singer brought in an old buddy of his, Abe Cunnigham, who would eventually became a principal part of the Deftones� songwriting axis. With Cheng completing the gold (replacing their original bassist who departed because of creative differences), the band began refining the material that was to propel their �95 debut alum, Adrenaline, to great sales heights.

Whey they started out in their native Sacramento, they played basically everywhere.

"First, we covered a lot of bands, then we started to write our own songs and we played everywhere where they let us," says Carpenter. "We jammed in garages, at parties, then we even scored a couple of paying gigs. That was just wild, first we couldn�t really believe it but it was great. We played the whole Bay Area and slowly we started to venture out. We didn�t want to play too often in one place, you know not give the audience a chance to get fed up with us, so we went to a couple of new places!"

"Yeah, sometimes playing for a huge crowd of 10 or 20 people," adds an hysterical Moreno, whose musical influences span from The Cure and Depeche Mode to punk. "But we really didn�t mind, it was exciting to go somewhere else. To play a gig in another town, no matter that the bar was pretty often a real dump. We always saw it as a challenge to win the audience over and it paid out in the end. Pretty often the people came up to us after a show and told us that they liked it and asked us to come back, when we came back the same people were there and they brought their friends with them [through] word of mouth.

"That�s why I can�t understand bands who are pissed off if they�re playing for a small crowd and don�t give it all," Moreno adds. "Shit, there are people there who came to see you and you owe them a good show. If they don�t know you and didn�t come to see you, if they just stumbled in by mistake, you also have to give them a good show to make them stay."

"It all boils down to the question why you�re doing it," says Carpenter. "If you�re doing it for the sake of playing, then you don�t care how many people are there. I don�t like the star attitude, �We�re only going to play for a big crowd.� That�s a lot of crap.

"Especially if you�re on a tour, no matter how small the tour is. It�s not easy for new bands to score gigs and when you do, you don�t want to make a mess of it."

Moreno offers another explanation:

"I think a lot of them need it for their self-esteem. Sometimes I think they can�t stand themselves, they hide behind their fame because they don�t really accept themselves as [people]. They need to be admired. If you take their fame away from them, then there�s nothing left � and that�s bad. We don�t care for the hype, we are who we are and what we are. It�s great that we�re a successful band, or whatever you want to call it, but that�s not the reason why we�re doing it. We simply like it. I think it�s apparent in our music and the lyrics."

The days when they played in small places or for a crowd of 20 people are history. They got signed on Madonna�s Maverick label in September of �94 and they seem to be more than happy there.

"They never tired to interfere with our sound or tell us what to do," explains Carpenter. "When we recorded our first album we were a bit�nervous, yeah I guess nervous is the right word.

"It was a bit overwhelming, being in a real studio. It was a bit intimidating. We knew what we were doing on stage, but we felt a bit lost in the studio. The great thing was that nobody tried to take advantage of us and push us into a certain direction. They offered suggestions, but it was always clear that it is our record and we have to make the decisions. That was very reassuring!"

"Yeah, it was really something else than making a demo tape!" Moreno chirps in. "Without the support from the label and Terry Date [producer], I don�t think it would have happened. We were all nervous but I think I was scared shitless. Sometimes I was really close to running away!"

There seems to be something in the Californian air that inspires bands to make a similar kind of music that made KoRn, the Deftones and Coal Chamber famous. A couple of years ago, it would have been impossible for bands to break through with a unique style like that, let alone any airplay.

"Probably people got bored with the mainstream," muses Moreno, "you know they wanted to hear something else. Our kind of music is not really new, but before people just didn�t pay any attention to it. We all owe a lot to KoRn; not only were they always supportive, they also kind of paved the way for that kind of music. Maybe this is becoming mainstream, I don�t really know, but I wouldn�t mind. It gives people the chance to hear it.

"The mainstream label is strange," he adds, "It always reeks of selling out, but on the other hand it gives more people the chance to hear that type of music, to enjoy it and that�s great. We�re not trying to become mainstream, we�re not going to change our music to get more airplay and such, but we don�t mock getting airplay! I�m still getting a kick out of it if I hear us on the radio!"