Natural Cross

Possessing a vocal technique that could just as soon soothe a baby as frighten a ghost, Chino Moreno can move between gentle and hostile territory by shaping melody, rhythm and timing like no one else in the heavy rock world. Honing his inimitable style as the frontman of Deftones, the highly revered Californian alt-metal outfit established in 1988, Moreno now turns his focus to the “beautiful gloom” of †††.

“We didn't actually have an idea to make a record and to go on tour or make a band or anything like that. It was just more or less let's see how many songs we can knock out,” Moreno explains of the process that led to forming ††† with childhood friend and Far guitarist Shaun Lopez and producer Chuck Doom. Initially roped in for vocals on just one track, the pair was so pleased with Moreno they suggested he sign up for the project. “We ended up doing I think somewhere between twenty and twenty-five songs, which was a lot of songs – I mean it was done over a period of time and the cool part about it was that we didn't have a record label, we didn't have any expectations; people, the fans, no one knew that we were actually doing this project so it was very under the radar and I think that lent itself to just be something that happened very organically.”

Released quietly online in 2011, EP † did the rounds without the pre-release hype and leaks that had taken the fun out of Moreno's Team Sleep side-project. Packaged together with 2012's EP †† and with the addition of five new tracks, the trio's just released eponymous debut long player is proof that one doesn't need a barrage of guitars and hard-hitting drums to be heavy. Both points excited Moreno greatly.

“I felt like I was in a really good creative space when we started working on this. The Deftones had just got done releasing our Diamond Eyes record which, you know, at that time I think there was this real resurgence of creativity with me and even with Deftones as a band – I was just in a really creative place and I wanted to create as much as possible in my downtime… It wasn't a preconceived idea that I was gonna try this different or do that different [with †††]. Honestly, I just reacted to what was put in front of me and really that's what I do with Deftones too. I didn't put on a different hat… It's me pretty much doing what I love to do, and that's just sort of weave in and out of what's put in front of me… The music speaks to me and then I speak back and a lot of the times it works out – it's as simple at that.”

With dark synths, fuzzy bass and electronic percussion, This Is A Trick was the first glorious taste of †††.

“It stood out from a lot of the other ones because it was one of the more upbeat songs, I guess you could say. It was also an experiment in trying something that I'd never really done; I mean, there's no guitars in that song, really – it's not a rock song by any means but it's not this delicate electronic thing either. It's got this almost dance hall kind of rhythm to it and I dunno, just vocally the way I approached it was to me interesting because it was like nothing I'd ever done, but yet it's very catchy,” Moreno explains how it cleverly depicts the themes of the album as a whole and reveals much about his evolution as a vocalist.

“I feel that way about a lot of the songs on this record; without trying to be pop or to steer in that direction, I think there's a pop sensibility that runs through a lot of this music that just sort of happened. It really fell into place; as opposed to taking a left turn when things were just sort of naturally guiding me away, I kind of just went with the flow instead of trying to make everything really weird or whatever. I really just felt comfortable with singing along with the songs and going where they took me naturally… If something seems like it's too easy then I go, 'Well there's a reason why it's too easy so I need to take a left turn here and try something difficult', and I think that's good for a lot of the stuff that I do – I think it's the reason why I've maintained a career in music for this long because I don't just take the easiest road all the time – but with some things I've learnt to relax a little bit.”