SACRAMENTO, Calif. - With two consecutive gold records to their name and even higher expectations for the new release "White Pony" (Maverick), the Deftones [ tickets ] have entered the final days of their first headlining tour of the U.S. "I'm beat," drummer Abe Cunningham admitted, answering the phone with a yawn. "It's tiring, man. It's a hectic lifestyle. I want to go home and eat Mexican food.

"But don't get me wrong, I'm totally happy with the route we've taken. This is where I want to be, playing music, surrounded by my best friends, seeing the world."

Rock-metal-rap fusionists the Deftones started in 1988 as a group of guys who had gone to school together and grown up together in the Northern California city of Sacramento. Although Cunningham comes from a musical family, most members of the band learned to play their instruments with each other, taking a few lessons here and there.

Despite the Deftones' growing fame, the band still calls Sacramento home. All the band members have houses in the city, "except Stephen [Carpenter]. He lives in Hollywood now. He sold out," Cunningham said with a chuckle.

"White Pony" is certainly a mellower listening experience than the Deftones' first efforts. Less metal and more melody characterize the album, although themes of violence, displacement and sex still pervade the lyrics. "It's the album we really felt comfortable making," Cunningham said. "All the elements were there, pulled together. We didn't care what anyone thought. We've always made the music for ourselves first, but on this album, it's very cohesive."

Cunningham sees the band as growing, rather than turning its back on where it's been. "Some songs on the first album were written when we were 16, 18," he said. "Everyone's grown up a bit. We were a bit more angry back then."

The success of the album, which entered the Billboard 200 chart at No. 3 in June and remains in the Top 50, isn't a real shock to Cunningham. "It's great that people get that deep into our music, take time out of their day to listen to us, that we strike that emotion with people. They find what they want in our music on their own, and what ever they find is good."

Touring, though, is what really does it for the band. The rest is "all gravy," according to Cunningham. "MTV came to us. We're making our sixth video," he said. "They're expensive for a band like us!"

While conceding that it's great to be on MTV, Cunningham said he doesn't much care for the other music he finds there. "A lot of music today is really disposable,'' Cunningham said. ''I don't listen to the radio so much. I'm going back to the past, listening to the shit I grew up on, going back to a lot of stuff.

"There's so much different music, so much different musical styles and tastes in the band. We've been influenced by everything we've heard, from Bad Brains to Depeche Mode. It runs the gamut. There's little hints of everything in our music.''

The Deftones wrap up their North American tour in their hometown on Monday (8/14), and will open a tour of the European festival circuit a week later.