Chino Moreno: Innovative Lyrics

The nu-metal movement began around the late 80s to early 90s and was characterized by the combination of heavy metal with elements of other music genres such as hip-hop or grunge. Many associate this type of music with loud guitar and vocals and bands such as Slipknot or Korn. One band that started off sounding similar to this genre around its conception was Deftones led by lead singer Chino Moreno. Morenos first two albums Adrenaline and Around the Fur shared many similarities with this genre; as time went on other bands continued to release albums following the same types of sounds as nu-metal. He released his album White Pony in 2000 and took the band's music in a whole new direction breaking out of the nu-metal label.

Chino Moreno

What makes White Pony so innovative is how it combines heavy and dissonant sounds and loud screaming vocals, very characteristic of the nu-metal genre, with more melodic and soft sounds more akin to love songs. The album includes songs that are only heavy or soft, like “Korea” and “Teenager” respectively, but it also includes songs that have elements of both like “Passenger”. In addition to the changes in how the music actually sounds the focus of the lyrics also took a completely new turn. Typical nu-metal had lyrics that were more angry and nihilistic, while White Pony did include some songs with lyrics like this it also had lyrics that had more of a sad feeling such as “Teenager” which deals with heartbreak. The lyrics are often quite vague leaving the meaning of the songs very open to interpretation. Moreno continued to pioneer new genres of music with each album release, with Diamond Eyes the music began sounding more uplifting incorporating hopeful lyrics, and continued to use new and unique guitar riffs.

White Pony (2000) Album Cover

The lyrics are so characteristic of Deftones songs that you would expect Moreno to write the lyrics for his songs first but it is often the other way around. Moreno talks about the instrumentals of the songs is a collaborative effort between all the band members and a lot of experimentation, but the lyrics that he writes have a very unique process. He explains how he doesn’t really know what the songs are about but that he gets a feeling of what they are trying to convey through the instrumentation. Sometimes the lyrics start with just mumbles, there are no lyrics just sounds that feel right to him. In their latest album Ohms, the song ”Ohms” it opens with “We're surrounded by debris of the past” followed by “and it's too late to cause a change in the tides”. Moreno explains how the phrases just come to him and not that he is actively thinking about something, the meaning of the song develops from these spontaneous moments. He also feels like music serves as an escape from reality. During the writing of Diamond Eyes, the band's drummer Chi Cheng was in a car crash that left him in a vegetative state where he eventually died. This put the writing of the album on hold but was eventually picked up again, the influence Cheng’s crash had is evident in Moreno’s use of music as an escape. The songs of Diamond Eyes lyrically are more hopeful and spiritual. The band has also had quite a few rifts between the members, there have been times when they also split and there is constant arguing, however, Moreno says these conflicts have actually been great for the writing of his songs. The disagreements can cause them to rethink what they are doing or try and compromise and combine their creative differences. Getting input from the other members whether it is due to conflict or just collaboration in general has influenced Morenos writing leading to some of the most unique songs to date.

Diamond Eyes (2010) 

Many artists follow similar creative processes. Nick Cave is an artist who follows many of the same processes as Moreno. Cave talks about how when writing his songs he does not know what they mean, the writing of the lyrics comes from a more spontaneous process. Cave says his moments of spontaneity are still intentional even if he does not know the meaning of them. He uses these spontaneous moments to finish writing his songs and either once finished or along the way he finds meaning in his songs, just like Moreno creates his instrumentals and mumbles before writing his lyrics both artists find meaning in their music during the process. Cave also had to deal with the loss of someone, his son. Cave explains how the grief of losing his son has impacted his music and he writes songs that his son's spirit can inhabit and have feelings of struggle and opportunity. These songs serve Cave as an escape from reality allowing him to express how he feels about the loss of his son but also how he realizes that life is not completely hopeless, there is a strong connection between how Cave's son’s death impacted his music to how Cheng's death affect Moreno's writing.

Deftones have been a very influential band with the sounds produced being new and innovative with each studio album release; these albums have inspired many bands to follow in their footsteps. What makes Deftones still stand out among all these bands is not just that they were a pioneer of the genre, but the lyrics written by Chino Moreno. The lyrics of these albums and songs will always stand out as the process for creating them and the mind behind them is so unique and seemingly random, yet there is still an intentional process. Being able to give meaning to something with no basis is quite a unique skill. Not everything has to be completely thought out and sometimes it’s best to just create based on what you feel and nothing else.

https://dailyevergreen.com/130945/culture/why-white-pony-is-a-masterpiece/

https://senseisayspodcast.com/creative-flow-state-deftones/

https://songexploder.net/deftones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tNyctK1qz8 

Faith, Hope, and Carnage” by Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan, 2022