It's no secret that .bipolar. is heavily influenced by the Deftones. Having formed our band in Sacramento we ran in similar circles and always trailed in the shadow of the most popular band to come out of our scene.
But they cast a big shadow as they were so talented, so hard working, and such nice guys.
Especially Chi Cheng. We ran into him a couple times in our neighborhood and he was always super nice. He had a reputation for being one of the most humble and down to earth people. Almost everyone within the scene in Sacramento has a cool anecdote about meeting or hanging out with Chi.
Among our personal experiences two stand out the most:
In 2006 the Deftones played a last minute free show at Cesar Chavez park. Brian was hanging out backstage with some friends and he watched Chi's son Gabe collect every broken drumstick that Abe tossed aside.
In 2007 we played a show at the Blue Lamp downtown with Will Haven. Abe and Chi watched our whole set and chatted with us after. All of us were stoked to say the least.
His accident happened the year we moved to Las Vegas. We kept up on his progress through the site. Not a day went by without us thinking about him and hoping for his recovery.
In 2010 when we attended NAMM we were exhausted heading back to the hotel to sleep when I stepped on a flyer on the sidewalk that had Chi's face on it. I picked it up and it was for a benefit show for him at the Slidebar in Fullerton. Fate wanted us there and who were we to deny fate? We hung out with fellow musicians who all felt as we did about his recovery. It was an experience we were meant to have.
We're deeply saddened by the loss of Chi. He was a huge inspiration and will never be forgotten in our hearts.
Much love to the Cheng family, his Deftones family and everyone else whose heart aches at this time.
