In a new interview, Deftones frontman Chino Moreno speaks about the writing process for the band’s upcoming album ‘Koi No Yokan’ compared to various other releases and how he deals with the ailing state of his friend and bass player Chi Cheng.

Moreno tells Noisecreep about the process of writing ‘Koi No Yokan,’ explaining, “We were coming out of a tough time, obviously, and our goal was to kind of rebuild what we created over all the years. I felt like we had to prove ourselves. We’d taken so much time between records, had some inner turmoil and our records were starting to get pieced together versus really being created together, so for us it was a chance to get back to basics. We didn’t have an idea of what sort of style we wanted. We just came in fired up and motivated to do something great. It was all very positive. We had more songs than ever, tons of ideas.

When asked about Deftones bassist Chi Cheng, who has been in a coma for much of the time since a 2008 car accident, Moreno says his thoughts are always with his bandmate. “It’s not just music, it’s every day life,” says Moreno. “When I was 17-years-old, I moved out of my parents’ house and moved in with him. We’ve been best friends most of my life. I’ll just be doing some random thing in my life and he’s always in my thoughts. The whole band feels very strongly about him and he’s always been a part of things. The main thing we try to do is keep a positive attitude because it’s not like he died – it’s more or less he’s still alive and fighting and we all have hope – that’s the way we handle things.”

Deftones’ seventh studio album, ‘Koi No Yokan,’ is set to be released on Nov. 13.

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