Billboard, citing unnamed sources familiar with the negotiations, reports that the package sold to Warner includes Deftones’ master‑recording royalties, co‑publishing interests and writers’ royalties, effectively transferring a significant share of the band’s future income from both recordings and songwriting. Warner Music Group already owns their master recordings and the band’s publishing has often been overseen by major music publisher Warner Chappell, making this an extension of an existing relationship rather than a new partnership.

One member is said to have retained his portion of publishing and master‑royalty income, while the remaining members opted to sell, though none of the musicians or their management have commented publicly on the arrangement.

Analysts quoted in the reporting suggest Warner paid a “mid‑ to high‑double‑digit multiple” of the catalogue’s annual net income, a ballpark that could place the deal’s value in the tens of millions of dollars depending on when it was signed. Such multiples have become increasingly common in high‑profile rock and pop catalogue transactions, reflecting confidence that classic albums will continue to generate steady revenue for decades.

Deftones royalties and publishing have become increasingly attractive. This is in part due to a recent listening surge that has been driven less by the band’s recent albums, such as 2020’s Ohms and 2025’s Private Music. There has also been renewed appetite for older releases like 1997’s Around the Fur, 2000’s White Pony and 2010’s Diamond Eyes, which have posted substantial year‑on‑year gains in both physical sales and streaming. Retailers and label executives point to a broader resurgence of heavy music among younger listeners, amplified by TikTok trends, festival slots and headline tours, as key factors in introducing Deftones’ catalogue to a new generation.

For fans, the sale is unlikely to change how they listen day‑to‑day, with Deftones’ songs expected to remain available across major streaming platforms and physical formats under the Warner umbrella. Behind the scenes, however, Warner will now exert greater control over licensing and administration of the band’s compositions, potentially opening the door to more prominent marketing campaigns, soundtrack placements and brand partnerships as the company looks to maximise its investment in one of heavy music’s most durable catalogues.

The new interview with NME celebrates the release of Deftones 10th studio album, ‘Private Music’, which marks the bands first album since 2020’s ‘Ohms’.

The ‘Sextape’ rockers have won over a whole new generation of fans in recent years, thanks to many of their hits going viral on TikTok. Moreno spoke about their ability to keep making new fans after over three decades since they first formed.

Speaking to NME, Moreno said: “Even if we thought about it that way – ‘Oh, we need to make something for everybody’ – I think we’d be fooling ourselves to think we had a formula to do that. I would like to think that it is because we’ve written good songs that have stood the test of time and transcend generations.”

Moreno was then quick to compare his own band’s power of attracting fans of all ages to Oasis, pointing out the overwhelming hype that the Gallagher brothers have generated for their current tour: “I can say that without sounding arrogant about Oasis, too: that’s why their shows are what they are and why they have this broad demographic there.

“They write great songs. I’m not saying we write as great a song as they do, but I’m saying that if you go through a catalogue, there are a handful of songs that transcend time.”

Moreno, whilst wearing the black Oasis Adidas football shirt released earlier this year, continued: “Multiple generations are into what we’re doing. When I’m on stage, it is inspiring to look out there and see fresh faces, and familiar faces as well. I don’t think that’s something that any of us anticipated.”

This isn’t the first time that Deftones and Oasis have come up in the same conversation this summer, as just a few months ago Liam Gallagher took to twitter to say about Moreno: “He’s a dude”.

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Looking back at the tweet, Moreno told NME: “I had to ask my PR what that meant. I was like ‘Is that good? Is that bad?’” When he learnt it was high praise from Gallagher, Moreno enthused: “Awesome, I love it!”

The Deftones frontman revealed that he will be in attendance tomorrow (August 28) as Oasis perform in Chicago as part of their North American tour.

‘Private Music’, Deftones 10th studio album, is out now and available to listen to on all streaming platforms. Check out NME’s five-star review here, where they said about the album: “Very much a whole journey through a full-bodied and expansive fever dream.”

On July 10, the band shared a new single, ‘my mind is a mountain’, along with details of the project. The record has been co-produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who previously worked with the band on 2010’s ‘Diamond Eyes’ and 2012’s ‘Koi No Yoka’.

The brutal instrumentation might remind listeners of their earlier work, though with a new polish to it. Fans have shared their joy at hearing a fresh release from the group, giving a warm reception to the new single.

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The band began teasing new music at their massive headline show in London earlier this month, with projections on screens that read “Private Music” and “X.VII.MMXXV distributed by Deftones, all rights reserved.”

It’s been five years since Deftones’ last release, ‘Ohms’, which came out in 2020. The record received positive reviews from critics, with Consequence of Sound describing it as “their hardest hitting effort in years”.

Alongside their upcoming album, Deftones have announced a 2026 headline tour that will see them travel through Europe and the UK. The 15-date tour will see the band visit Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester, Dublin and Cardiff in February, before wrapping things up at The O2 in London on Feb 20.

Joining them as support will be Florida hip-hop star Denzel Curry and New York post-hardcore band Drug Church. You can view the full list of dates below.

Deftones 2026 tour with Denzel Curry and Drug Church

January

29 Paris, FR – Adidas Arena
30 Brussels, BE – Forest National

February

1 Hamburg, DE – Barclays Arena
3 Munich, DE – Zenith
5 Lodz, PL – Atlas Arena
6 Berlin, DE – Max-Schmeling-Halle
7 Dortmund, DE – Westfalenhalle
9 Stuttgart, DE – Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle
10 Amsterdam, NL – AFAS Live
12 Birmingham, UK – BP Pulse Live
13 Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
14 Manchester, UK – Co-Op Live
16 Dublin, IE – 3Arena
18 Cardiff, UK – Utilita Arena
20 London, UK – The O2

Tickets will go on sale this Friday, July 18 from 9am local time. You can find them here.

The band were forced to pull out of Glastonbury just hours before their set due to one of the band members falling ill. Grime icon Skepta was drafted in as a last-minute surprise replacement. Our coverage of Skepta’s impromptu Glastonbury performance can be read here.

At Crystal Palace Park, Deftones opened with fan favourites Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away) and My Own Summer (Shove It) from their 1997 breakthrough album ‘Around the Fur’. The setlist also featured heavy-hitting renditions of ‘Diamond Eyes’, ‘Tempest’, ‘Swerve City’, ‘You’ve Seen the Butcher’, ‘Sextape’, ‘Rosemary’, and ‘Hole in the Earth’. The night closed with a powerful back-to-back encore of Minerva, Bored, and 7 Words.

However, it was a cryptic visual displayed on the side screens before and after the performance that sparked the most buzz among fans. The cryptic semi-announcement read “Private music – to be distributed by Deftones, all rights reserved,” followed by the roman numerals X.VII.MMXXV. The encrypted date translates to July 10 2025, strongly suggesting the alt-metal veterans are intending to drop a new album this July.

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The band have been hinting at a follow-up to their 2020 album ‘Ohms’ for some time, with guitarist Stephan Carpenter confirming that the band were working with producer Nick Raskulinecz back in 2023. Frontman Chino Moreno added in a recent press release: “We have a whole record recorded all musically and it’s pretty much my job right now to finish up the vocals… We’re not really in a rush. We want it to be great. I think that’s most important. But it is coming, and, yeah – it’s really good”.

Deftones are currently making their way through the European festival circuit before kicking off a North American tour in late August. Tickets for upcoming dates are available here.

For more on the band’s headline tour announcement, read our earlier coverage here.

The Cure formed in Crawley in 1976 and produced a unique gothic weirdness that quickly amassed a large fanbase from their debut album ‘Grinding Halt’ in 1985. Since then the British rock band has released fourteen studio albums. Their latest release ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ in 2024 topped five US album charts following its release. The album features eight dynamic tracks including ‘Warsong’, a classically moody song– lyrically macabre from the first line ‘Oh, it’s misery the way we fight’.

Moreno, vocalist of nu-metal band Deftones released his cover of ‘Warsong’ as part of The Cure’s remix album ‘Mixes Of A Lost World’, out on 13 June. The album has also had covers released by Paul Oakenfield and Four Tet. 

Vocalist of The Cure, Robert Smith, shared his thoughts on the ‘Songs Of A Lost World’ album in a rare video interview in 2024. He reveals that this album felt “more natural” since their last release was a celebration of their 40th anniversary, which Smith felt had the wrong tone and gave a sense of, “Here’s The Cure after 40 years, be amazed”. Here, he also shares his thoughts on the album’s creation, revealing that he came across a book about Slovenian sculpture and saw a picture of a head “emerging from rock”. He then had a reflective moment where he knew that this would be the album cover. 

In an interview with Rolling Stones, Moreno shared his inspiration for the direction he took with the remix. Moreno’s respect for the track comes through in the cover as he upholds the integrity of the song. He shares that he aimed to “strip it back slightly of its organic instrumentation and bring in ridged, mechanical percussion and some down-pitched vocals aimed to bring forth the cold/dystopic feel of the song while maintaining the core beauty of what existed.”. The remixed song shares this blend of The Cure’s melodic intention with Moreno’s smooth shoegaze vibe.

Deftones share a large fanbase with The Cure, releasing nine studio albums since 1988. Their early albums showcased a quintessential nu-metal sound, though their latest music has evolved to alt-rock with albums like ‘White Pony’. The two bands have an ongoing musical relationship with Smith covering Deftones’ ‘Teenagers’ from the ‘White Pony’ album for the band’s 20th anniversary remix album ‘Black Stallion’.

‘Mixes Of A Lost World’ is available to pre-order now, which Smith has revealed he will give all recording royalties of to War Child UK. 

After selling out London’s Crystal Palace Bowl for June 29, the alt-metal band have added two more UK dates—Halifax’s historic Piece Hall on June 24 and Cornwall’s Eden Project on June 26. Tickets go live this Friday, December 13, at 10 AM.

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Deftones, the California-based band formed in 1988, have long defied categorisation, straddling the worlds of metal, shoegaze, and alternative rock with an ease that seems almost alchemical. Emerging from Sacramento’s hardcore scene, they initially rose to prominence as part of the nu-metal movement of the late 1990s, alongside bands like Korn and Limp Bizkit. However, their ability to weave ethereal atmospheres with crushing riffs quickly set them apart, cementing their reputation as trailblazers in their genre.

Anchored by the haunting vocals of Chino Moreno and the dynamic interplay between guitarist Stephen Carpenter, drummer Abe Cunningham, and turntable-ist Frank Delgado, Deftones crafted a distinct sound with landmark albums such as ‘White Pony’ which came out in 2000. The record, which featured hits like ‘Change (In the House of Flies),’ earned them both critical acclaim and a Grammy for Best Metal Performance, securing their place in the pantheon of rock innovators.

With founding guitarist Stephen Carpenter absent from the current tour and Fred Sablan stepping in on bass post-Sergio Vega’s departure, Deftones continue their evolution both sonically and in personnel.

On June 24, they’ll take the stage at Piece Hall in Halifax, an 18th-century venue of Georgian architecture that once housed bustling cloth merchants. The location’s sprawling open-air courtyard, surrounded by grand colonnades, will provide a stark yet romantic backdrop for the band’s blend of ethereal melodies and pulverising riffs. One can imagine the haunting strains of ‘Change (In the House of Flies)’ reverberating off stone walls that have stood for centuries.

Then, on June 26, the tour moves south to the Eden Project in Cornwall, a site that merges futurism and nature in its iconic biodomes. Known as much for its environmental mission as for hosting artists like Björk and Massive Attack, the Eden Project offers an otherworldly setting—a fitting match for Deftones’ boundary-pushing sound. Here, amidst lush greenery and under a canopy of stars, the band’s music will feel both intimate and infinite, echoing themes of connection and transcendence.

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These venues, steeped in history and vision, mirror Deftones’ unique ability to bridge the visceral and the sublime. For fans, this isn’t just a tour; it’s a pilgrimage to witness a band in dialogue with spaces as evocative as their music. 

The band’s 10th studio album, the follow-up to 2020’s Ohms, is reportedly in the works, with Chino Moreno teasing progress while promising no release date. The band doesn’t want to rush it so at the moment it remains just that –  a tease. 

Whether in the picturesque surroundings of Cornwall’s Eden Project or under Halifax’s twilight skies, Deftones are poised to deliver a series of shows that promise to resonate.

London, we are returning for an intimate show on 13 June with special guest, @grandson. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9AM BST. https://t.co/HseWpLUduQ pic.twitter.com/wbTbhiOGaR

— Deftones (@deftones) May 16, 2022

Tickets for the show will be made available on Friday, May 20^th at 9 AM BST. There will also be two presales preceding it; one through O2, which will open at 9 AM BST on May 18^th, and another through Live Nation on May 19^th, also at 9 AM. Information regarding Download Festival, including remaining tickets, can be viewed here. In other recent news regarding Deftones, the band recently parted ways with long-time bassist Sergio Vega, and debuted a new line-up on their North American tour with Gojira, which saw bass guitar duties being taken up by Fred Sablan, formerly the bass player for Marilyn Manson. Vega announced his departure from Deftones in a video message posted on social media in March.

Up until that point, Vega had been Deftones’ bassist since 2009, when he assumed the role left by founding member Chi Cheng, who was involved in an automobile crash in 2008, ultimately leading to his untimely passing in 2013. Vega stated in the video message, in light of his departure: “It was never about money, it was about a sense of belonging. So that was really it. And ultimately, in parting ways, it was not a function of me trying to renegotiate during the pandemic. It was a function of the contract being cancelled. And me having a little conversation with Chino, and then another conversation with a couple of the guys saying ‘hey’ when they wanted to reinstate the contract.”

 

 

 

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Despite his departure from the band, any fan of Vega will know that this does not even come close to spelling the end of his career, and is simply the commencement of a new chapter. Vega is heavily involved with his other band Quicksand, who Vega originally joined back in 1990. The group recently released their fourth full-length album Distant Populations.

Vega has also revealed that he is working on a writing and production project alongside multiple acclaimed artists, however he has yet to unveil the details of this in full, with exception of working alongside Spotlights drummer Chris Enriquez and ex-Every Time I Die vocalist Keith Buckley.

The video for the remix offers a fresh take on the original video from 2000, featuring exclusive footage never seen before from 20 years ago. Originally directed by Liz Friendlander, ‘Change (In The House Of Flies)‘ immediately became a milestone for the alternative/nu metal scene, and has since reached more than 19 million views on YouTube. The new video is reimagined by the L.A.-based visual production company Yhellow and created by Lorenzo Diego Carerra to perfectly match Tourist’s unique and atmospheric housey remix of the emblematic track.

Tourist’s take on ‘Change (In The House Of Flies)‘ is the fourth official remix taken from the second CD Black Stallion of the 20th anniversary re-release of White Pony that originally came out on 20 June 2000. Earlier this year, Deftones announced the release with the first remix for ‘Knife Party‘ by the Canadian electronic band Purity Ring, followed by the new version of ‘Passenger‘ courtesy of none other than Mike Shinoda from Linkin Park. Last week, Deftones premiered the third installment of the Black Stallion promotion with ‘Teenager‘, remixed by the charismatic Robert Smith from The Cure.

William Philips joins the stellar line-up of artists and producers gathered together to celebrate 20 years from Deftones’ critically acclaimed masterpiece. The rest of the remix album offers a diverse selection of well established names such as DJ Shadow, Squarepusher, Trevor Jackson, Clams Casino, Blanck Mass, Phantogram and Salva. Today’s release of White Pony x Black Stallion marks the end of a busy year for Deftones following their long-anticipated comback in September with the premiere of their ninth studio album Ohms.

The original White Pony from 2000 transformed Deftones from a rising nu metal band from Sacramento into a global festival headliner on route of becoming one of the most influential alternative bands of their generation. The album is certified as platinum in the USA and gold in the UK, and peaked at #3 in the US Billboard Chart and #13 in the Official UK Albums Chart.

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Tourist has been an active name in the global pop and rock scenes in recent years. He rose to fame after co-writing Sam Smith’s ‘Stay With Me‘ winning the presitgious Grammy award for Song of the Year for it in 2014. As a solo artist, Tourist has released three studio albums – U (2016), Everyday (2019) and Wild (2019) alongside several EPs. Most recently, he dropped his latest single ‘Siren‘ on 30 September via Monday Records.

His songwriting and production credits include collaborating with the likes of Lapsey, Dillon Francis, Avicii, and many others. Moreover, Phillips is renowned for his electronic remixes of tracks by Christine & The Queens, Cvrches, Wolf Alice, Hozier and Haim, with his latest team-up with Deftones for ‘Change (In The House Of Flies)‘ sure to leave a lasting mark in his career.

My Deftones remix is out now.https://t.co/nc5pCujbcz pic.twitter.com/WIwWGIHRti — william (@Tourist) December 11, 2020

The five-piece haven’t released music since 2016’s Gore, and the news of new music may come as a surprise to fans after frontman Chino Moreno previously told NME that he ‘wouldn’t want to carry on forever’ in terms of making music. Progress has been quick with the follow-up to Gore, after posting that they werer ‘back at it’, and ‘jamming’ in the studio as recently as late March 2018.

Speaking to Rock.com.ar, Moreno revealed “There are six or seven songs, which are still mutating”, going on to explain”They are very powerful, and I am anxious because, as I told you before, it has been a collaborative process.”

Chino was also asked about the involvement of guitarist Steph Carpenter, following his issues during the creation of Gore, with the vocalist responding that  “Most of his problems were not about Deftones, but about personal things.

“The best part is that now we are writing songs for the new album, and unlike Gore, it’s been a joint effort.”

Carpenter had previously spoken on the 2016 LP, commenting “When we were coming up with the ideas and writing the songs, the stuff that was being written, you know, the other guys’ ideas, I wasn’t too interested in it.

Moreno revealed that Deftones repeatedly turned down the chance to tour with KoRn- one of the world’s biggest bands for much of the 90’s- despite the personal friendships the band shared with KoRn and it’s members. “We did make a very conscious choice of who we were going to play shows with […] It was hard to be this young band and having to turn down tours. I can’t remember how many times I turned down KoRn! And they got pissed at us. Jonathan [Davis, KoRn frontman] would say, ‘Why do you hate us?’ and I didn’t know what to say. I’d tell him, ‘Dude, I don’t hate you. I love you, guys. You’re my friends. But I don’t want to tour with you. I don’t want to be on the ‘Family Values’ with you and Limp Bizkit’.

KoRn were the spearhead of the “nu-metal” genre, which for better or worse means that they still carry some weight today. Moreno saw the tag as a negative label however, and elaborated that “The name of the genre was nu metal, so anything that is new is one day going to be old. And I didn’t want to be old with it.”

Deftones guitarist Steph Carpenter also weighed in on the issue, criticising the compartmentalisation of music, rather than any of the band’s involved. “I remember when these subgenre names didn’t exist. It was just metal. So I don’t think we made a decision to step away from it — we’ve never paid attention to what anyone else was doing. We just did what we thought was right, and tried to make a killer album.”

Deftones recently had to cancel a tour date in Koln, Germany, due to Moreno taking a fall onstage in Paris, and breaking his foot, as you can see in the video below. Miraculously, the singer was able to continue and finish the set, and after the cancellation in Germany, looks set to finish the tour.