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Abe Cunningham
(August 2003 Issue)
Back With A Passion Any
busy
drummer will tell you that sometimes the best tool for kicking
your playing up to the next level is simply taking some time
off.
Judging from his performance on The Deftones' fourth album, this was
clearly the case for Abe
Cunningham.
Fans have been waiting three years for the genre-blending Sacramento rockers to follow up White
Pony,
a startlingly ambitious disc that took the so-called "rap-rock" or
"n'-metal" genre in a bold new direction by
incorporating elements of
classic rock, psychedelia, and the arty, noisy sounds of "shoegazer"
bands like My Bloody
Valentine. That kind of sonic experimentation
continues on The Deftones' new self-titled disc, and
Cunningham
distinguishes himself once again as one of the most imaginative, fluid,
and powerful players in the field.
"The
third time around, with White Pony,
we were a little bit fried and burned out," Cunningham says. "We'd
just
toured tons, and then suddenly we were in the studio making a record
and it was like work." This time the group
built its own studio
and recorded most of the backing tracks at home in "Sacto," pacing
itself and enjoying the down time. "I
have a four-year-old son," Abe
says, "and this was the first time I've been able to be in his life for
more than a few
months at a time. That was really nice. Drums are a
passion; that's what I do. But honestly, I was sort of happy just to
be
normal and home for a second."
Jim DeRogatis
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