DEFTONES' FRANK DELGADO Discusses Meaning Of 'Heavy'; New Tour Dates Announced

According to The Pulse Of Radio, DEFTONES samplist/keyboardist Frank Delgado recently talked to Fuse about the band’s new album, “Gore”, set to drop April 8. He touched on a number of subjects, including inspiration, the subjectivity of what’s “heavy” and the recent unhappiness expressed by DEFTONES guitarist Stephen Carpenter.

Delgado on how the band aims to hit the sweet spot between heavy and soft: “We know when it sucks because we just won’t keep working on it. If there’s an idea and we keep twisting it and turning it and building on it, we obviously think it’s good and we keep working on it. We edit along the way. We’ve never been that type of band where we have forty songs and we pick the best twelve for the record.”

He continues: “It would be cool to be able to have that, but we’ve never been that kind of band. We don’t go into a record thinking we have to do something a certain way. It just doesn’t happen. The reason our records are so dynamic with these highs and lows, the heavy and soft, the quiet and low is that’s just emotions that comes from being in a room with five guys for any amount of time.”

Delgado goes on to say that the band refuses to be constricted to a specific genre. “There’s no way in hell we’ve ever been like, ‘Oh, we need to be a heavy metal band. We need to make a heavy song,'” he explains. “Heavy is different to different people. It’s different to each of us, the five of us. It’s selfish, because we don’t really care what people expect or want. We just do what we do.”

Carpenter recently made waves when he said he was unhappy playing on the current record, and Delgado touched on that too, saying: “We’ve learned to try different things and find what works. We just want to make really good records. We have to find different ways to make it good for everyone. We don’t want to force anyone to make something when they don’t want to make a record.”

DEFTONES will hit the road for a headline U.S. tour beginning May 8 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tickets go on sale March 4 at Deftones.com.

The band had previously announced spring tour dates, including a March 5 headline performance on night two at Travis Barker‘s Musink festival — a three-day tattoo convention, car show, and concert, followed by appearances at this year’s SXSW music festival, including a performance at SPIN‘s 14th annual day party at Stubb’s on March 18. May and June will find DEFTONES appearing at major festivals in the U.S. and Europe, including Carolina Rebellion, Rock On The Range, Rock Am Ring, Rock Im Park, and Download, among others, as well as a solo-headline play at Wembley Arena.

DEFTONES tour dates:

Mar. 05 – Costa Mesa, CA – Musink Festival
Mar. 16 – Mission, TX – Never Say Never Festival
Mar. 18 – Austin, TX – SPIN Party at Stubb’s
Mar. 19 – San Antonio, TX – Lonestar Events Center
Mar. 20 – Dallas, TX – South Side Ballroom
Mar. 22 – Houston, TX – Revention Music Center
Mar. 24 – Lubbock, TX – Lonestar Pavilion
May 08 – Concord, NC – Carolina Rebellion
May 10 – Memphis, TN – Minglewood Hall
May 11 – Nashville, TN – Ryman Auditorium
May 13 – Pompano Beach, FL – Pompano Beach Amphitheatre
May 14 – Lake Buena Vista, FL – House of Blues
May 15 – Atlanta, GA – – Shaky Knees Festival
May 17 – St. Augustine, FL – St. Augustine Amphitheatre
May 18 – New Orleans, LA – Orpheum Theatre
May 20 – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theatre
May 21 – Maryland Heights, MO – KPNT Pointfest
May 22 – Columbus, OH – Rock on the Range
May 24 – Sioux Falls, SD – The District
May 25 – Wichita, KS – Cotillion Ballroom
May 26 – Oklahoma City, OK – Criterion Theater
May 28 – El Paso, TX – Neon Desert Festival
Jun. 03 – London, UK – The SSE Arena Wembley
Jun. 04 – Mendig, Germany – Rock AM Ring
Jun. 05 – Nürnberg, Germany – Rock IM Park
Jun. 10 – Paris, France – Download
Jun. 11 – Derby, UK – Download
Jun. 14 – Cologne, Germany – Palladium
Jun. 15 – Berlin, Germany – Columbiahalle
Jun. 17 – Aarhus, Denmark – NorthSide Festival
Jun. 18 – Reykjavik, Iceland – Secret Solstice