This tribute is taken from the fall 2025 issue of VICE magazine, THE BE QUIET AND DRIVE ISSUE, a Deftones special. We’ve sold out our copies, the only ones left are in stores—perhaps there’s one near you? Secure yourself the next 4 issues by subscribing.
Before Chi, Deftones was just me, Abe, Stephen, and a childhood friend of mine who played bass.
At that point, Abe was by far the most technically proficient musician out of all of us. He’s been playing since he was three years old; he’s always been a beast.
Back then, there was this other group around called Fallacy; they were a couple of years older than us but went to the same high school and were one of the biggest up-and-coming bands in Sacramento. They saw us play and snatched Abe. While we were super happy for our friend, it did leave us without a drummer, at least until our bass player started playing drums.
And then that left us without a bass player.
We met Chi the old school way. Stephen put a flyer up in the local music store with little strips you can tear off that had his phone number on. It was actually Chi’s brother that called. Him and Chi both played bass, and when Stephen told him what kind of music we were making he was like, ‘Oh, you want my brother.’ So one day this happy-go-lucky Asian-American guy with super long hair and a big crooked smile shows up at Stephen’s house. We started writing music together that same day.
I ended up moving in with him not long after, sharing a one-bedroom apartment just off the Sacramento State campus that cost $600 a month. Chi was still at college, and he had this deal where as long as he was attending classes his dad would pay half his rent. So Chi paid half the rent, and then I paid half of that, which was nothing. We covered it by working shifts serving food at the dorm cafeteria. I literally worked two hours a day, made enough to pay rent, and befriended a lot of the kids in the dorms. It was like going to college without actually going to class.
Chi’s a few years older than me so he really felt like a big brother, taking me under his wing. We were like each other’s shadow. We lived together, we had the band, and we worked together at Tower Records too. We were there when we got the call that Deftones had been offered a deal with Maverick. We quit our jobs on the spot. Started touring. Sat across from each other on the bus. From the day I met him, we never left each other’s side. We were together every single day, man.
Chi never graduated in the end. He stopped going to class, but he didn’t tell his dad so he kept on paying the rent. Chi actually loved school, but things got really busy with the band. We were playing a lot; we did a lot of Bay Area shows where we’d get home at like three, four in the morning. It was the same for everyone. The band started taking priority over work, school, everything.
Chi was the self-proclaimed ‘business guy’ of the group. He was the oldest one in the band, and he would always say that he did all the hiring and firing, paid attention to the books, and stuff like that. And he did. There were so many years where I just didn’t pay attention to a lot of that stuff at all, knowing Chi would have it covered. He became the mediator when it was time to be serious, and he had a great way of taking on that role, but it did create a bit of tension for a while. It was like he was the ‘band dad,’ so as happy-go-lucky as he was, I felt like I had to answer to him a certain way. But a lot of it was just me not wanting to let him down. It got easier over the years, as we all grew up and started paying more attention to that side of things.
When Chi had the accident, the conversation of whether or not to continue the band went on for a long time. Six months, at least. There was just so much uncertainty. When someone’s in that state where they’re still here physically, but they’re unable to communicate, you just don’t know what to do. All we were thinking was, ‘Is he gonna come out of this?’ Meanwhile, everybody is asking us ‘How’s Chi? What’s up?’ and we didn’t have an answer. Not even his doctors had a clear answer. So we were in limbo, having these emotions and not knowing how to process any of them.
At first, the idea of getting back together wasn’t to start making new music or practice for a tour or anything like that. It was purely to play together again, because all our lives that’s all we’d ever known. So even though Chi wasn’t there, we could still be there for each other, doing what we would normally do. It was comforting for us to be able to process it together and dive into our creativity and keep active in that way.
When it came to the bass… back then, it was more about building out the frequencies than it was searching for someone to fill a spot. We’d known Sergio Vega for years. We were huge fans of his playing in Quicksand. He was a friend of ours, and he was a friend of Chi’s as well, so we reached out to see if he’d be down to come to the studio and jam. We weren’t thinking we’d go on to make any records, or release new music, or do any of what we’ve done the last ten years or so. We just got together to hang out and play—to do what we’ve done for all of our adult lives.
Looking back, Chi would always fill the room. Even in our darkest times, he’d come in with these wild stories, turning whatever pain we were going through into something we could laugh about. That was when everything came into perspective, when we’d realize how lucky we were to have each other and the friendship that we’d built.
I think about him all the time. We all do. There’s not a day that goes by without a Chi story and the music he left us is just as special. He played in his own unexpected way, carrying light into the darkest moments, reminding us we weren’t alone.
This tribute is taken from the fall 2025 issue of VICE magazine, THE BE QUIET AND DRIVE ISSUE, a Deftones special. We’ve sold out our copies, the only ones left are in stores—perhaps there’s one near you? Secure yourself the next 4 issues by subscribing.
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