In 2005, while writing songs for Linkin Park 's album "Minutes to Midnight," lead singer Chester Bennington began penning tunes that were outside the realm of what the multi-platinum, two-time Grammy-winning band hoped to accomplish.
That laid the groundwork for Dead by Sunrise , Bennington's new project, whose debut, "Out of Ashes," hit stores Oct. 13. The set's first single, "Crawl Back In," was one of the most-added tracks at rock radio for four weeks spread across late August and early September.
Dead by Sunrise--Bennington on vocals, guitarists Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh (from Orgy/Julien-K), bassist Brandon Belsky, drummer Elias Anda (also from Julien-K), and keyboardist Anthony Valcic--performed last week at MTV's first annual "Ulalume" Halloween festival at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD, alongside Paramore, AFI and Kid Cudi. Their performance will air during a Halloween-themed week on MTV, MTV.com, mtvU, and mtvU.com.
Bennington spoke to LiveDaily via telephone from Beverly Hills, CA, about the timing surrounding the Dead by Sunrise album, the band's plans for a tour and the new Linkin Park album.
Why was now the time for Dead by Sunrise?
Interesting question. Now's a good time because I have time to do it. Starting a new band wasn't really something I planned on doing. The music is just kind of a little outside the spectrum of Linkin Park. So the songs kind of told me to do something different with them. In doing so, I have to work around Linkin Park's schedule. We started writing songs in summer of 2005. Then we worked for a few months, got a lot of the record done and then I stopped working on the record to go make [Linkin Park's] "Minutes to Midnight." We toured "Minutes to Midnight;" that sucked up three years. Now that that's over, we went back in the studio last year, finished making the record with Howard Benson, now we're putting it out. Linkin Park is in the studio working on our new record. If there's gonna be a time to do it with this record, this is the time. So I made it happen.
Were you writing songs specifically for Dead by Sunrise, or did you find you were writing songs that were not very appropriate for Linkin Park?
I wouldn't say they weren't appropriate. The guy in the last interview actually made a good point. He was like, "The Beatles made music all the time"--I'm not comparing us to The Beatles--"that was totally different than what they made in the past. It didn't really matter what style it was. They just made their records." I think that that's the case for us now in Linkin Park.
If I had started bringing these songs in the band now, they may have fit better into the idea of what we're doing in Linkin Park. At the time, close to four years ago, we weren't really in that frame of mind. We were still juggling the idea that we had to make hip-hop metal. When you write a Spanish-influenced song in 6/8 time with a little bit of swing and swagger, it doesn't really fit in the hip-hop realm with metal.
Once we got past that, we got over ourselves, and we were told by somebody we respect in Rick Rubin, that if you like the music and you think it's great, then you should be able to put it on your album. That opened our minds a lot in Linkin Park. The timing of this album was [that it] just happened at the time when it wasn't quite into the realm of what Linkin Park was ready to do. That's just the reason it worked out the way it has.
Do you plan on touring with Dead by Sunrise?
Yeah, we like to tour as much as we can. It's gonna be more difficult to tour with Dead by Sunrise than with Linkin Park, simply because Linkin Park is No. 1 and they take the highest priority. So if I need to go in the studio or if I need to go tour with Linkin Park, that's going to stop whatever Dead by Sunrise is doing. But I'm confident that we'll be able to do plenty of shows to go around and play as much as we can for people who are fans of Dead by Sunrise.
How did you come up with the title 'Out of Ashes'?
It just kind of seemed to fit how I feel about where I am today. There are times in people's lives where you have to go through and clean house. I feel like I've gone through one of those periods of time, coming out of the ashes, so to speak.
What was it like to work with Howard Benson?
Howard is actually a very cool guy, really fun to be around. He's smart. He's a noble kind of guy. It was really cool. He was very focused on the vocals and making the vocals pop on this album. So, he was cool. The guys I'm working with in Dead by Sunrise are all talented musicians and very talented in the studio, in terms of being engineers and producers. So when it came to record music, [Benson] was kind of like, "You guys do your thing. I trust you." So Howard and I spent most of the time working together, while the other guys worked in the studio on their own. It was kind of cool to have that freedom.
What do you think he brought out in the band?
Well, producers always come in and tell you whether they think a song is decent or not. A good producer will maybe push you to maybe change melodies or write better lyrics. Maybe there could be a better post-chorus musically. There's got to be some kind of build or dynamic in the music. That's what good producers do. When they come in and help bring a song to a life they didn't have before. That's what good producers do.
How long have you known the guys in Dead by Sunrise?
I've known Ryan and Amir for probably 10 years now, maybe more. We've been good friends for a really long time. They started a band called Julien-K. I met Brandon probably five or six years ago. It's very cool to be in a band with them. We get to hang out and make music together.
How's Linkin Park's next album coming along?
I always get kind of nervous answering questions like that. It's truly my opinion, but ... I am the luckiest motherf----r to be in this band. That's all I have to say. Just curiously, crazy good songs in the studio right now. It's kind of crazy. There's some magic happening in there. Something's happening with us and it's good.
There's also a great interview with Dead by Sunrise up at MTV.
"It's kind of funny, because I wrote a song, and I was positive it was a Dead by Sunrise song, and I was in the studio playing it, and [LP guitarist] Brad [Delson] goes, 'You are putting that down right now!' " he said. "And I was like, 'Well, apparently that's a Linkin Park song.' The song is called called 'F---ing Awesome,' by the way."MORE...
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