Bryce Knights | Courtesy

San Antonio loves its hard rock music, and Deftones unquestionably fit the bill. The quintet, which has been together for almost 20 years, is bringing its mix of hard rock, rap and furious melody to Lonestar Pavilion at Sunset Station for a two-night set beginning on Friday, May 18. Deftones' latest album, Saturday Night Wrist, was released last year in October.

Before Deftones take the stage, Deftones drummer Abe Cunningham recently chatted with 210SA.

So why back-to-back shows in San Antonio?
Two nights is nice. It gives us the opportunity to get down and play. We have several records of material, and to get it all in one night is pretty tough. Two nights is a special thing.

So fans attending both shows can expect something new each night?
We're breaking songs out that we haven't played in a while. We stopped playing some that are our bread and butter. We have songs that we can rest, but then others, we've got to play. We know that.

You switched producers for your latest release. Why did you decide to go in a different direction?
People always say they're switching it up, but you can't help sounding like you if you have a sound. There's nothing wrong with that. We just wanted to try something different and record just a slice of where we were at the time. This was a strange record to make because we were going through a lot of stuff. The last five or six years have been kind of crazy. We've been together for almost 20 years and have spent more than half of our lives in this band, and we just had to work a bunch of things out.

Why do you think 2000's White Pony was the album that really exposed you to the masses?
We've never really been a band that concentrated too much on writing a hit if you will. We're just trying to perform. When the first record (Adrenaline) came out, it was unheard of to hear that on the radio. We were just trying to do our thing, but White Pony put a stamp on everything that was getting big at the time.

Was the band's success as immediate as some believe?
We never expected to sell a record, and we're still not a band that sells many records. In this day and age, no one is selling any records, even people that should. We're a tickets and T-shirt band, and those records are kind of like a little in.

Deftones were once called rap-rock, then nu metal, but both phases have come and gone and your band is still here. Why are people so quick to slap a label on something?
It's easiest to put things into categories. You go to a record store, or even to the produce section at the grocery store, and you see that. Always with music, people will try to lump everything into something. It's not that we're assholes or hard to get along with, but we never wanted to be into that. We've made some great friends along the way, but we've usually just stuck to ourselves. Not to misconstrue that we don't like people, because we're having a great time now.

How distinct was Chino's voice the first time you heard it?
It's funny because we went to middle school and high school together, and the first time I heard him was in the hall singing Danzig and Morrissey. In class we'd have headphones going, and he'd have one in one ear and I'd have the other. We'd pretend to do match. We're a garage band. Everything we know now, we learned along the way.

Didn't he actually have some vocal troubles a few years ago?
It was some pretty serious stuff. Around the time of White Pony, he had a paralyzed vocal cord. Now, he's really got to take care of himself. We've definitely had some wild times, but we're not as old as dirt yet.

What's next for Deftones?
We're such good friends, and we've worked out a bunch of silly issues that have turned into Mount Everest-sized problems. We hope to be doing this as long as we can.

Clint Hale | 210SA