one of my all-time favorite albums is
white pony by Deftones I recently did a
live stream where I broke down the
entire album front to back from a
compositional perspective the whole live
stream is three and a half hours long
and almost three of that is just me
freaking out about Abe Cunningham's
drums all right let's get into it I
don't know how to say this word but it's
like one of my favorite songs I've ever
done but fight a Syra if it's if it's
Portuguese
let's get started sorry I don't know
what accent that is it's not Portuguese
foreign
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surprises me
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please
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another
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excuse me
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you
you would and you were
right
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that's okay
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foreign
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thank you
oh man oh God I just the whole time I'm
just freaking out about the drums that's
basic I mean I love every component of
of Deftones but to me like the drums
just grab me and hold me down like I I
I'm just it's like every moment I'm
pretty much enthralled with the drums
because what Abe Cunningham does is he
holds down the groove
so solidly and when I say holds down the
groove I don't mean like oh he's just
like playing in time like he sits in it
he like he doesn't Rush he he's he seems
to feel
the groove
so fully if you drum then you know when
people say you know you're in the pocket
he's just always in the pocket and but
he's so good at at varying his Groove
holding it down but making it so
interesting with all these really great
rhythmic accents he's got all his little
tricks you know I'm sure we could notice
all these patterns that he's doing if
you listen to it again and just listen
to his snare you'll see that like he
could have just kept the snare on two
and four like for the most part like a
lot of drummers might but he's he's
accenting things all the time and he's
he's never doing the same fill twice and
he's
um
it's just so Dynamic and so Musical
anyway I just I'm just so and love so
the first part
this guitar
man it's so harsh it's like oops wrong
track
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so squeaky it's so uh like don't you
hear all those harmonics
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and that's in some weird meter
no no no no no no no no
I feel like that intro is in like three
so it's like the the phrasing repeats
after three beats and the beads are slow
because it's sludgy it's another thing I
love about Deftones sludgy tampos but
yeah I love the unevenness of that riff
and it sounds like it's uh in hmm
foreign
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but then it changes key like when the
song kicks in
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foreign
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thing to do we have to talk about this
it's such an Abe thing to do
and I I bet you this is related to a
genre and I I feel like I've definitely
heard this before
I want to say maybe it's kind of from
Punk
maybe I don't really listen to punk
music but that's the feeling I get where
he goes
his snare comes right before his kick on
like an offbeat like
I just freaking love that
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you notice that every single time before
that beginning downbeat he varies it the
first time he does a little roll second
time he goes second time he goes like
that's just okay
I'm done all right so uh but then it
kicks in
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and it sounds like it's in B major kind
of
that's pretty weird
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yeah it's like it's like major all of a
sudden and it's so weird I always
thought the again I don't really I
listened to his lyrics I pick up phrases
but I wasn't really thinking too hard
about the meaning but you know fuck I'm
drunk I'm on my knees the police stop
chasing I'm her cool meat like you know
it's not a happy message I don't know
what it is but it's not great and it's
just always weird to hear him just like
I'm on my knees and it just sounds so
nature to me
and then he goes huh and it's that's so
dissonant
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and then it goes back too
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I love that contrast that moment is so
creepy
you know it's again he's just like
singing out drums are full on
everything's in a major key and then
he's like you know
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um
and then that very kind of violent
sounding guitar riff comes back in new
cool I love the way he says cool
I always like the effect on his voice
too they're always really tasteful and I
think a big part of his sound
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yeah
you know how to get really really really
nerdy I think there's like a note or two
that Chino likes to sing and when I say
a note I'm not talking about like the
note of G sharp I mean
a spot in the scale that he
you know seem to prefer because I think
all of us have those all of us that
write things that are tonal at least
so he really likes the second degree
otherwise known as the ninth
and uh I will I'll prove my hypothesis
in the next two hours
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it's this one
it's a really tense place to stay and
most Melodies don't start there or end
there or rest there and he's like I like
that I like that a lot and it's
yeah I think the other one he likes
maybe is like the
seventh or the fourth uh there are other
other notes that that create tension and
are not places of rest and he likes to
stay there and defy that it's just
really cool
foreign
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okay I want to talk about this that's
pretty high
you said you were right
and you were wrong
this is like a style of his
not just the notes the way he's singing
all of it
um he's like
um
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there's something about Gino's vocals
that has always reminded me maybe not an
adrenaline maybe but like mostly later
that have reminded me just a little bit
of jazz vocals I know it's really weird
but the way his voice breaks at the end
of phrases and that little little
you said you were right
and you were wrong like you could sing
that Jazzy like so effortlessly
foreign
that's a Major Seventh so it's kind of
like his voice is giving us this like
Major Seventh chord feel
and something I've noticed about
shoegaze which is still a genre that
isn't really well defined in my mind but
I'm starting to pick up on some of the
characteristics
shoegaze has a ton of Major Seventh
chords
like as its basis of Harmony and so here
he's kind of doing that he said you said
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see how that feels just like slightly
Jazzy slightly loungy slightly relaxed
I don't know it doesn't sound like metal
you know you were right and you were and
then he goes down to it again
and this part is so creepy
I love the way that completely devolves
isn't that just so fantastic
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all right
this this part has always reminded me of
the sound of harmonic minor so I want to
see what's going on here
Sue and again he's singing something
really tense against it
there's like pop music
and in pop music usually vocals sing in
the chords so like if the chord
progression is like
your Melody would be like I'm singing in
this chord and I'm singing in this chord
and then I'm singing in this chord and
then I'm singing in this chord too and
you just like follows the chords he
doesn't do that really he's seems to be
constantly pushing against the chords
I mean not to say he doesn't sometimes
sing in them but he's like seems to be
very drawn to dissonance and defiance
so this
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is
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great I love it when he sings um in that
way like
that's it for this video stay tuned for
the next track on the album bye