It’s no secret Deftones have made an enchanting return with their brand new ninth studio album Ohms. Frontman Chino Moreno joined Bloody Disgusting’s Boo Crew to get into the conception of this new masterwork and to chat about Chino’s love of the horror genre.

“I grew up watching a lot of great films that helped shaped my mind in maybe a good or not so good way,” Chino reminisces, “One of the movies that still clicks to me is this movie called Ten To Midnight. Charles Bronson is in it. He’s like, the cop and it’s about this killer kinda thing and I used to watch this movie – me and my little sister. We would run skits from that movie!”

He continues, “I really like a lot of the psychological thriller kind of stuff from the late 70’s early 80s. To me, that stuff was way more intense than gore or slasher. I was way more into the psychological and stuff that seemed like it could actually happen, like the dude up the street. I remember the original movie When a Stranger Calls. I remember watching that as a kid, freaking out – and the dude’s calling from inside the house.”

The appreciation for horror runs in the family too! “Every time we have a family thing where we all get together and it’s the end of the night, we all lay on the floor and still watch (John Carpenter’s Halloween) 1 and 2.” He explains, “The whole vibe, John Carpenter’s music, the way it’s filmed, everything,” Chino admits, “Anytime when someone has a mask on or a face covering, to this day that s&^% still irks me.” Another one of Chino’s faves is Bryan Bertino’s 2008 film The Strangers. “That is my….So that’s the best movie I’ve seen recently. I know it’s old now, probably ten years old. As far as newer horror movies, that movie trips me out because the same kind of thing. My man with the hood on his head. He’s slow and he’s in the house, you don’t know where he’s at. Very similar to the style of the first Halloween as far as like, you just see someone lurking in the background. That kinda s*&# still bugs me out!”

Chino had the opportunity to score a horror film himself for Blumhouse and Hulu’s “Into The Dark” earlier this year called, I’m Just F’ing With You.

“That was super fun for me! I was able to actually look at the clips and then create from scratch, tones and sounds to it. It’s difficult. It’s a lot of work, it’s a lot of time. Coming up with initial ideas is the easy part. I basically just used an old synthesizer that I have and a guitar and that’s the only two instruments I used on that whole soundtrack. Most of it’s all done on this old Prophet synthesizer that I have. A lot of the sounds on that keyboard have that sort of 80’s vibe to it. To me it was fun, creating it from nothing. I would LOVE to do something like that again.”

In terms of the electronic side of Chino’s compositional chops, it looks like we may be seeing a return to his Crosses project very soon as well.

“A few days ago, I just moved into a new place a little over a month ago, so I’ve been setting up my studio room in here and I broke out some of that (unreleased) stuff from then, and I started working on it! Now that the Deftones record is done and there’s no touring really in the near future, I kinda have time to work on stuff so I’m definitely going to dig in and see where I can go with that. I really really like that project. The best part about it for me was no one knew we were making that record even. We put it out as ep’s first and we just kinda dropped out of nowhere. Making music without any expectations was super freeing and fun. I really love doing it. I like the guys that I work with in that so I’m gonna try to get some of that stuff finalized… finished up.”

For more with Chino including a walk thru the new Deftones album, Ohms, his fascination with the occult, living in a haunted house during the White Pony sessions, Chino’s thoughts on Poppy, his collab with Chelsea Wolfe and more, check out The Boo Crew Episode 159. Available now on Apple, Spotify and everywhere you get your podcasts!

Watch the Deftones video for Ohms below.

Follow Chino on:

Twitter: @chinomoreno

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Instagram: @deftones
Twitter: @deftones

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Instagram: @talesfromtheboocrew
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