Prepare yourselves – it’s almost time for the inaugural Soundwave Festival. NICK SNELLING gets pins and needles talking to guitarist STEPHEN CARPENTER from headliners DEFTONES about their most recent album, Saturday Night Wrist.

Next year will mark 20 active years for deftones – so perhaps it’s worthwhile starting with a potted history for new listeners. The Californian five-piece formed sometime in late 1988, taking their cues from both metal, Latino and hip hop, and over several years the band built up a formidable live reputation. This and their workhorse touring regime saw CEO of Maverick Records Guy Oseary sign them.

Boasting a paint-stripping guitar sound, impassioned single-kick drumming style and frontman Chino Moreno’s steam-of-consciousness lyricism, breathy minor-key melodies and serrated scream, deftone's debut Adrenaline (1994) and the massively successful follow-up Around The Fur (1997) turned the metal world on its head.

The latter remains one of the most original, influential and heaviest albums of its era, and two songs My Own Summer (Shove It) and Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away) remain metal anthems even now.

While deftones were often unfairly lumped in with the unfortunate nu-metal debacle, the band never really fitted comfortably into any pigeonhole, and each successive album (from the textured dynamics of White Pony (2000), to the atonal vitriol of the self-titled album (2003)), has seen them pursue a new experimental direction. So too, the new long-player, with its lush production and diverse cinematic approach, sees deftones take another detour. The title, Saturday Night Wrist, is a slang term that refers to a medical condition resulting from minor nerve damage from falling asleep on your arm. How does a bad case of pins and needles relate to the album? “I’ve suffered from it a few times,” admits Carpenter. “You know, when you’re having a drinking session. But I think it’s just the party slang we liked about it.”

That said, there’s nothing limp-wristed about the album. With deftones’ usual dexterous grace, it balances the violent and the tender perfectly, while Moreno’s frayed meandering melodies and psychotic screaming are as dynamic as ever. After three years in the making, it must be relief having it finally out. “It’s a complete relief, absolutely,” affirms the guitarist. “I never worried about how it was going to turn out, but I despised it taking such a great deal of time, that’s all. The creation of it was no different than any of the previous albums, it’s just we took our time, that’s all. Over the last few years, we’ve been going through failed marriages and the like – as we were already touring so much – that in the end we were just like ‘let’s take our time with this, we already know we’re gonna do it, so let’s not rush it.’”

Still, there were the rumours that vocalist Chino Moreno struggled with inspiration, and that his working relationship with producer Bob Ezrin (Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, Lour Reed) faltered? “Well, the music was actually complete in early 2004 but Chino was doing his side-project Team Sleep for about five or six months after that, and so the next eight months after that were really in his court.” Carpenter is open about the mounting frustration the band felt with their frontman. “There were so many moments of frustration where we could not understand what was taking him so long! The worst part, and what got us all so upset with him, was that he’d make countless promises to us that he’d get something done… and then that date would come and go, and nothing would be completed. Or it would be something that was just thrown together for the sake of it.”

After a band emergency meeting that was more like an intervention, it was decided Moreno would record his vocals with a friend (engineer Shaun Lopez) and from there things started to take shape. “It wasn’t until right at the very end, that the realisation really kicked in that it really was all him, and he needed to take his part seriously, and get it done right now.”

Is it a case of all’s well that ends well? “Certainly,” states the guitarist. “The night I got (the finished album) back, I listened to it. I had the CD as people were going to get it, and I could read the lyrics and everything, and I called Chino the next day and said ‘hey, man, I really like the way it came out in the end’. Great melodies, great lyrics, and it was just good to finally hear it completed, and that it was all really good. I mean, I never doubted that it wouldn’t be, but as I said to him, ‘you know, you didn’t have to wait forever, all you had to do is just go with your instincts.’

So, why exactly did Ezrin and Moreno not connect on this album? “Largely due to Chino’s lack of preparation,” says Carpenter bluntly. “He just wasn’t ready. He actually had nothing to offer. Bob’s role was to rearrange the music to what he thought would be best structurally for good songs. The problem was Chino never had his lyrics. He never has until right up until the last minute before we’re recording! Bob tried to provide inspiration to Chino, and help him out, but that’s not how Chino operates.”

Curiously, System Of A Down singer Serj Tankian made a guest appearance on the track Mein, that was almost much more. “That came about because Chino was really suffering from a block – he’d done so many different versions to every song, that he didn’t really know which way he should go. Serj actually ended up putting vocals to that whole song, and when that happened and Chino heard it, it kind of jumpstarted him. He was like ‘whoah, I can’t let him do the whole song. I better get on it!’” Perhaps that can be the ruse next time, I suggest – get a whole bunch of guest vocalists into to scare him into doing better? “Well, it’s no joke, man,” says Carpenter. “We actually told him, if we are ever in this position again, we’ll actually just get someone else to sing them or give the songs away. Why wait forever? ‘If you don’t have an idea right now, that’s cool, we’ll get someone else. Nothing personal.’”

Catch Deftones at the Soundwave Festival (Brisbane Riverstage) on Saturday Feb 24 – check the Rave Gig Guide for the full line-up! Saturday Night Wrist is out now through Warner.

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