Chino Moreno

Camillo "Chino" Wong Moreno (born June 20, 1973) is an American musician who is best known as the lead vocalist and primary lyricist of the metal band Deftones.

He is also a member of the side-project groups Team Sleep, Crosses, and Palms.

Moreno is known for his dramatic tenor voice and distinctive screams.

He grew up in the Oak Park area and attended C. K. McClatchy High School, where he met Abe Cunningham and Stephen Carpenter, with whom he founded Deftones in 1988.

Before becoming a professional musician, Moreno had a day job at Tower Records' shipping department.

Circa 1988, Moreno started jamming regularly with his middle-school friends Abe Cunningham and Stephen Carpenter, leading to the formation of Deftones.

Within two years, the group started playing club shows.

They were signed to Maverick Records after one of their representatives saw them play in Los Angeles.

Their first commercially released album was Adrenaline (1995), produced by Terry Date.

While the album wasn't an instant success, extensive touring, word-of-mouth, and Internet promotion built the band a dedicated fan base, as well as helping Adrenaline to sell over 220,000 copies without the singles "7 Words" and "Bored" (as well as their music videos) receiving any airplay.

For 1997's Around the Fur, the band expanded its sound, spending more time with Date, and giving more thought to the album's production.

The record was highly anticipated and propelled Deftones to fame in the alternative metal scene on the strength of radio and MTV airplay for the singles "My Own Summer (Shove It)" and "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)".

White Pony was released in 2000 to critical acclaim and unprecedented commercial success.

Frank Delgado had become a full-time band member, adding new elements to the band's music, while Moreno himself contributed guitar lines in addition to vocals.

With influences of new wave, dream pop, and trip hop, the album is considered a turning point for the band in terms of experimentation.

Singles "Change (In the House of Flies)" and "Digital Bath" supported the album's release.

A single entitled "Back to School (Mini Maggit)" was released as a rap-influenced reinterpretation of White Pony's closing track, "Pink Maggit".

While commercially successful and a fan favourite, the band have previously strongly objected to its publication, although it is unclear whether this is still the case.

White Pony was subsequently re-released with "Back to School (Mini Maggit)" as the album's opening track.

For the song "Elite", Deftones received the 2001 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance.

In 2001, Moreno developed a throat injury due to heavy screaming and was forced to miss at least four shows.

He suffered inflammation on his right vocal cord and partial paralysis of the left vocal cord.

During the rest of their supporting tour, bassist Chi Cheng took over vocal duties that required screaming while Moreno sang the softer melodies of the lyrics, despite recommendations by doctors to hold off from singing to allow time for recovery as well as rumors that the band would be cancelling the remaining stretch of the tour with Godsmack and Puddle of Mudd.

The eponymous Deftones was released in 2003, and saw the band being praised for the heavy album's progression and originality in the midst of declining creativity in contemporary metal.

Moreno was quoted as saying, "It's all on record. We told motherfuckers not to lump us in with nu metal because when those bands go down we aren't going to be with them."

B-Sides & Rarities saw release in 2005, bringing together unreleased and obscure material accrued since 1995.

2006's Saturday Night Wrist was completed after a protracted and tumultuous recording process, nearly leading to Moreno's departure from Deftones.

Later he said it had been "a seriously unhealthy experience" and he "wasn't sure if [he] was going to return" at the time the band was on a self-imposed hiatus.

After eventually finishing the album in early 2006, Moreno claimed it to be more of a compromise between all of the members' influences, ranging from their brutal and brooding heavy signature seen on Adrenaline and Around the Fur to the more experimental sound heard on White Pony and Deftones.

However, the band saw a significant decrease on the album's first week sales compared to their two previous releases.

In 2007, he was placed at number 51 in Hit Parader's "Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time".

Moreno was born in Sacramento, California, the second of five children.

His mother is of Mexican and Chinese descent and his father is Mexican.

The nickname "Chino" is the Spanish-language term for Chinese people, shortened from "Chinito" (little Chinese one), a moniker "given to him as a kid by his uncles because he looked predominantly Asian, when most Mexicans are Mestizo."

Deftones were working on an upcoming album with the working title Eros, when bassist Chi Cheng was severely injured in a car accident in November 2008, remaining in a minimally conscious state and later a partially conscious state up until his death in April 2013.

In 2009, the group had recruited Sergio Vega for his replacement and announced an indefinite delay of Eros, stating "... we realized that this record doesn't best encompass and represent who we are currently as people and as musicians."

With Vega, the group began work on a new album, Diamond Eyes, which was released on May 4, 2010.

It saw the release of the popular singles "Rocket Skates", "You've Seen the Butcher" and "Diamond Eyes".

In November 2012, Deftones released their seventh studio album, titled Koi No Yokan.

"Leathers", "Tempest" and "Swerve City" came out as its singles.