Deftones Stef buries split rumours that followed tense Gore sessions

Stef Carpenter says that technology is to blame for people being too emotionally invested in what other people do.

The Deftones guitarist has dismissed the rumour that he could split from the band, following comments from frontman Chino Moreno that he was “the odd man out” in Gore studio sessions – and his own admission that he initially didn’t want to work on the record.

He tells TeamRock: “That could have been any day. That could have been any album. It could have happened on every record we’ve ever recorded.

“People are too emotional about their lives. I see it in my lives and my friends’ lives, technology has given people so much information and it should have been something that freed us up and be more rational. Instead everyone is more emotional and stressed, and so heavily invested in the behaviour of other people.

“Remember before all this communication? When you didn’t have your friends and a bunch of strangers feed coming into your life and you could just enjoy your own life without hearing about all this stuff all the time?

“You just got on with your life and your problems and it was all fine. So people need to cool off. It has to be understood that it’s an awesome invention and it’s an awesome platform for people to be able to communicate. But, like everything, it’s just been saturated to the point where you can’t say anything without all this fallout.”

Gore is released on April 8. Deftones have begun a North American and European tour, which includes an appearance at this year’s Download festival at Donington in June.

Deftones 2016 tour dates

Mar 05: Costa Mesa Musink Festival, CA
Mar 16: Mission Never Say Never Festival, TX
Mar 19: San Antonio Lonestar Events Center, TX
Mar 20: Dallas South Side Ballroom, TX
Mar 22: Houston Revention Music Center, TX
Mar 24: Lubbock Lonestar Pavilion, TX
May 08: Kannapolis Carolina Rebellion, NC
May 15: Atlanta Shaky Knees Festoval, GA
May 21: Maryland Heights Pointfest, MO
Jun 03: London SSE Arena Wembley, UK
Jun 04: Mendig Rock AM Ring, Germany
Jun 05: Nurnberg Rock Im Park, Germany
Jun 07: Milan Trezzo Sull’Adda Live Club, Italy
Jun 10: Paris Download, France
Jun 11: Donington Download, UK
Jun 12: Nickelsdorf Nova Rock, Austria
Jun 14: Cologne Palladium, Germany
Jun 15: Berlin Columbiahalle, Germany
Jun 17: Aarhus NorthSide Festival, Denmark
Jun 18: Reykjavik Secret Solstice, Iceland

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.