It’s a little-known fact that one of the main reasons why Deftones, the US alt-metal band, signed to a big label in 1993 was that Madonna loved their music. Her album Erotica had been the first release by Maverick, the label she had cofounded, but a record company needs more than one anchor act.
She was signed by Maverick’s A&R person – none other than Guy Oseary, who went on to take over from Paul McGuinness as U2’s manager. “It was Guy who discovered us first,” says Deftones’ singer and lyricist, Chino Moreno, “and then he and Freddy DeMann” – Madonna’s manager and partner in Maverick – “flew us from our base in Sacramento to Los Angeles, where we played a couple of songs for them in a little rehearsal space.
“That same day we were invited to the record-label offices in Beverly Hills, where I got to meet Madonna, which was mind-blowing. So, yeah, she definitely gave us the thumbs-up. It was crazy to be a 20-year-old kid and have somebody whose music I’ve been listening to since I was 10 years old give us her approval. It was hard to take in.”
Moreno says that although Madonna was the label boss, she “wasn’t as hands-on as maybe you would think. In no way was she dictating our creative direction or anything like that, and, in general, the label let us be us.
“There were certain Deftones shows that Madonna would attend. They were a little nerve-wrenching, because you knew she was watching you … One of the biggest artists in the world knew who we were. It was awesome and very, very cool.”
Fast-forward three decades and Deftones are more successful than ever. They’ve just released a new album, Private Music, and their next European tour, which includes a gig in Dublin in February 2026, has sold out.
“That’s pretty insane, right? Especially with the same people. For the most part, it’s wild to think that kids had this idea to make music together, that we’re still doing it, and that we’re lucky enough to still have people interested. I don’t think any of us would have ever imagined being here now.”
Moreno thinks back to his teenage years in California in the mid-1980s, with his high-school friends Stephen Carpenter and Abe Cunningham. In 1988 the trio started playing regularly in Carpenter’s garage, fusing their love of the US metal bands Anthrax and Metallica with the English bands Depeche Mode and The Cure.
The result, Moreno says, was intense and riff-heavy yet woven through with melody, the sound of hopeful teenagers finding whatever groove they felt suited them.
“Releasing a single or even recording music to tape was something we didn’t even think about. The initial thing was, well, can we all be in a room and make a song together? Can one person react to someone else doing something? That excitement alone was amazing, and then it was all these little steps that we started taking.”
There was no grand future in sight other than enjoying what they were doing in the moment – which, Moreno says, was making a song from nothing.
“The next step was to perform songs in front of people. After that, we felt we could record songs and play gigs in different cities, hopefully having an A&R person or a manager see us, offer us a record deal, and then record our music. All of those small steps happened gradually.”
Being signed to Maverick was important, but it didn’t change their lives overnight. “We didn’t get a career from having one hit song or hit video on MTV or anything like that,” he says. “When you look back on everything and take it in, it’s not shocking, but it’s certainly eye-opening that, wow, we are still here.”
Much has been said of Deftones’ nuanced approach to their music, which, despite its original nu-metal tag, has always featured quieter moments and deft sonic atmospheres.
“I don’t think we’ve ever tried to fit into any certain genre or trend of any sort that has come and gone since the inception of our group,” says Moreno, “and because of that our music doesn’t sit in any specific area or time. We have let the music and the songs transcend all of that, because we’ve always followed our instincts and made the songs that we enjoyed making at that time.
“Even with the new album, it’s the way we have approached the music that makes it different dynamically. A lot of my favourite groups have that vitality within the music. I rarely make a playlist that’s either even or all one thing. I love shifts of emotion that complement each other.
“Having those dynamics within our music, within a record, within a song – that release, that push and pull – helps keep things interesting to the listener and also to us.”
As much as people love that record now, when White Pony came out a lot of people didn’t understand it
That has led many to describe Deftones as the Radiohead of metal.
“It makes me smile, and it doesn’t annoy me at all,” Moreno says. “Can I see the correlation there? It’s hard for me, because I’m a big Radiohead fan, and I think they’re one of the most amazing bands of our generation. So it’s flattering, yes, to be compared to a band as great as them. Do I think that we are? Not necessarily.”
Perhaps Deftones also have something in common with Madonna, too, in terms of stretching boundaries.
“Just looking at her career from a fan’s perspective, I love the diversity of what she’s done over the years and how many times she has reinvented herself,” says Moreno. “I don’t look at her as a person trying to fit into any one creative area. I think she has always made what she wanted to make.
“She probably didn’t make a lot of her fans who like her for certain reasons happy with this or that album, but it made her happy. You know by listening to her albums, her songs, that they are exactly what she wants to be doing and where she wants to be at any given time. I definitely think we’ve followed that model.”
When Deftones were making White Pony, their 2000 album, they incorporated elements of trip hop, shoegaze and prog rock. “We could have easily made another Around the Fur or Adrenaline,” says Moreno, referring to their first and second albums.
“At that point, considering nu-metal was the biggest thing at the time, with the successes of Korn, Limp Bizkit, Papa Roach and other bands, our record label thought it would have been the smartest thing to do.” People wanted them to cash in, he says.
“As much as people love that record now, when White Pony came out a lot of people didn’t understand it. In retrospect it is probably one of our most important records.
“We followed our instincts and did what we wanted to do, and that’s part of the reason why, almost 40 years on, we’re still able to have people be curious about our musical output.”
Private Music is released by Warner/Reprise. Deftones play 3Arena, in Dublin, on February 16th, 2026