Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington on divorce, drugs, and Dead By Sunrise
REVOLVER The hiatus in 2005 was the first time Linkin Park has taken a break in 10 years…
CHESTER BENNINGTON Meteora and Hybrid Theory both had 24-month touring cycles, so we were on the road for a really long time. We weren’t really happy with how Warner Bros. had treated us at that point. It was a pretty frustrating time. It was like, “Here we are, we sold 20 million albums” and they’re still telling us, “You’re a fluke.” We sold 10 million records, how much do we have to prove?
In the print interview, you talk about your divorce. Is this when you started losing your shit?
I just completely lost my mind. Over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, I was just a trainwreck.
Did it start on one day or was a crescendo?
The day it started was the day I knew I was gonna move out.
In our interview you talk about partying hard. What do you mean by that?
It could have meant going to a strip club and having a few drinks. It could have meant staying at home and watching the waves break and drinking Jack and Cokes all day. Or it could have turned into a four- or five-day drug-and-alcohol binge, pushing yourself to the limits of your mind. I think the one common denominator in all that stuff is no matter what I was doing, there was always alcohol…and there was a lot of it. I would sit there with my guitar all day and write songs and get drunk. And when you’re drunk, if somebody said, “Hey let’s go do this particular drug, or that particular drug, or a combination of all of them,” you’re like, “OK.”
And in the middle of this you had to go play Live 8? What was that like?
Live 8 felt like this thing that was way bigger than me. It was important and getting a message out. But at the same time my brain was firing all kinds of electrical signals into the wrong places. Another thing I had to do because it was important and bigger than me [was a Music for Relief show]… I had no idea what my money situation was like. I was living in this little apartment. And it was like, “Hey, we need you to go to Thailand to go for Music For Relief to talk about all the stuff that’s going on over there with the tsunamis.” You guys can’t think of a-fuckin’-nother person that might be better suited for this right now? I don’t have any fucking clothes! All my stuff’s at my ex-wife’s house! She’s not letting me in! You want me to go? I don’t have a couch! … Life doesn’t fucking stop going because you decided you’re having a bad day—or a bad year.
What happened?
Unless you’ve had it happen to you, it’s kind of difficult to grasp. They started prescribing me Klonopin for anxiety. Taking that and drinking as much as I was drinking, it’s a combination of the two things that will kill you if you stop doing them suddenly.
My left arm would start to bounce, and then my head would start to twitch. I was embarrassed by it. There was only a few people who had seen me like that. Talinda [Bentley, Bennington’s current wife] would have to come in and comfort me and talk me out of it, and I would have to get something to drink to bring myself down. It was crazy. I got hospitalized a couple times. Finally I sat down with her and a couple of my friends in Dead by Sunrise and said, “I need to go into treatment.” On the way to treatment the night before, I was like, “Let’s get fucking hammered! This is my last time.” No one else got hammered with me. They just sat in a room and watched me. It was pretty pathetic. Went into treatment, was there for 30 days, got out. Three weeks later I was drinking again. I drank more. That was when my wife pretty much had a complete nervous breakdown over it, called everybody in Linkin Park. Couple hours later they were all at my house. Told me how much they loved me. I got on the plane and went back to treatment again.
It was a real intervention?
Yeah! I was sitting there going, Fuck… If I had just not picked up that first drink again. Went back to treatment. Came out in a much better place. Stayed sober for about a year. Relapsed. Went right back into hitting the program hard. Seven months later relapsed. That’s been the case for me.
You had demoed much of the Dead by Sunrise album in 2005. But when you re-recorded the vocals in 2008, were any of the songs hard to record?
“Let Down,” for example. That was in the middle of the divorce and that’s what that song was about. When I wrote the demo, it was really fucking good. That was harder to redo in the studio when I’m happily married and got a lot of success and I’ve got stuff again. It was hard for me to go back to that place because I didn’t feel that way; I didn’t feel that desperation. It was harder for me to do the final recording for that song because it was hard for me to tap into those emotions.
When you listen to the record now, do you feel like a different person?
I know I talk a lot about it, but the reality is, I came out on the other side. I made a great record with Linkin Park, made a good record with Dead by Sunrise. I’m good dad, I’m a good husband, I have a lot of friends. The bad thing would had been if I had died or continued to do that to myself. And ended up somewhere in the shithole. The good story is that didn’t happen. I get to keep making music.
http://www.revolvermag.com
CHESTER BENNINGTON Meteora and Hybrid Theory both had 24-month touring cycles, so we were on the road for a really long time. We weren’t really happy with how Warner Bros. had treated us at that point. It was a pretty frustrating time. It was like, “Here we are, we sold 20 million albums” and they’re still telling us, “You’re a fluke.” We sold 10 million records, how much do we have to prove?
In the print interview, you talk about your divorce. Is this when you started losing your shit?
I just completely lost my mind. Over the course of the next 12 to 18 months, I was just a trainwreck.
Did it start on one day or was a crescendo?
The day it started was the day I knew I was gonna move out.
In our interview you talk about partying hard. What do you mean by that?
It could have meant going to a strip club and having a few drinks. It could have meant staying at home and watching the waves break and drinking Jack and Cokes all day. Or it could have turned into a four- or five-day drug-and-alcohol binge, pushing yourself to the limits of your mind. I think the one common denominator in all that stuff is no matter what I was doing, there was always alcohol…and there was a lot of it. I would sit there with my guitar all day and write songs and get drunk. And when you’re drunk, if somebody said, “Hey let’s go do this particular drug, or that particular drug, or a combination of all of them,” you’re like, “OK.”
And in the middle of this you had to go play Live 8? What was that like?
Live 8 felt like this thing that was way bigger than me. It was important and getting a message out. But at the same time my brain was firing all kinds of electrical signals into the wrong places. Another thing I had to do because it was important and bigger than me [was a Music for Relief show]… I had no idea what my money situation was like. I was living in this little apartment. And it was like, “Hey, we need you to go to Thailand to go for Music For Relief to talk about all the stuff that’s going on over there with the tsunamis.” You guys can’t think of a-fuckin’-nother person that might be better suited for this right now? I don’t have any fucking clothes! All my stuff’s at my ex-wife’s house! She’s not letting me in! You want me to go? I don’t have a couch! … Life doesn’t fucking stop going because you decided you’re having a bad day—or a bad year.
What happened?
Unless you’ve had it happen to you, it’s kind of difficult to grasp. They started prescribing me Klonopin for anxiety. Taking that and drinking as much as I was drinking, it’s a combination of the two things that will kill you if you stop doing them suddenly.
My left arm would start to bounce, and then my head would start to twitch. I was embarrassed by it. There was only a few people who had seen me like that. Talinda [Bentley, Bennington’s current wife] would have to come in and comfort me and talk me out of it, and I would have to get something to drink to bring myself down. It was crazy. I got hospitalized a couple times. Finally I sat down with her and a couple of my friends in Dead by Sunrise and said, “I need to go into treatment.” On the way to treatment the night before, I was like, “Let’s get fucking hammered! This is my last time.” No one else got hammered with me. They just sat in a room and watched me. It was pretty pathetic. Went into treatment, was there for 30 days, got out. Three weeks later I was drinking again. I drank more. That was when my wife pretty much had a complete nervous breakdown over it, called everybody in Linkin Park. Couple hours later they were all at my house. Told me how much they loved me. I got on the plane and went back to treatment again.
It was a real intervention?
Yeah! I was sitting there going, Fuck… If I had just not picked up that first drink again. Went back to treatment. Came out in a much better place. Stayed sober for about a year. Relapsed. Went right back into hitting the program hard. Seven months later relapsed. That’s been the case for me.
You had demoed much of the Dead by Sunrise album in 2005. But when you re-recorded the vocals in 2008, were any of the songs hard to record?
“Let Down,” for example. That was in the middle of the divorce and that’s what that song was about. When I wrote the demo, it was really fucking good. That was harder to redo in the studio when I’m happily married and got a lot of success and I’ve got stuff again. It was hard for me to go back to that place because I didn’t feel that way; I didn’t feel that desperation. It was harder for me to do the final recording for that song because it was hard for me to tap into those emotions.
When you listen to the record now, do you feel like a different person?
I know I talk a lot about it, but the reality is, I came out on the other side. I made a great record with Linkin Park, made a good record with Dead by Sunrise. I’m good dad, I’m a good husband, I have a lot of friends. The bad thing would had been if I had died or continued to do that to myself. And ended up somewhere in the shithole. The good story is that didn’t happen. I get to keep making music.
http://www.revolvermag.com
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Dead By Sunrise - "Out Of Ashes" Track Listing
Dead By Sunrise will release their debut album, Out Of Ashes, on October 13. The full track listing for the album, which features the lead single “Crawl Back In,” is as follows:
Fire
Crawl Back In
Too Late
Inside Of Me
Let Down
Give Me Your Name
My Suffering
Condemned
Into You
End Of The World
Walking In Circles
In The Darkness
Fire
Crawl Back In
Too Late
Inside Of Me
Let Down
Give Me Your Name
My Suffering
Condemned
Into You
End Of The World
Walking In Circles
In The Darkness
Monday, August 17, 2009
New Song From Chester's Dead By Sunrise!
Dead By Sunrise, Chester Bennington's new project, just posted their debut single on their MySpace page! Click here to listen to 'Crawl Back In' now or watch the live performance of "Crawl Back In" on YouTube.
You can pick up the track on iTunes on Tuesday!
You can pick up the track on iTunes on Tuesday!
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Behind the Scenes of Chester's Dead By Sunrise
Chester has teamed up with members of Julien-K to record "Out of Ashes," the debut album from Dead By Sunrise, due out October 13, 2009. Here's a glimpse at what's in store.
Dead By Sunrise - Album Trailer
Dead By Sunrise - Album Trailer
Monday, July 27, 2009
Dead By Sunrise to Perform at Select LP Shows
Dead By Sunrise will be performing a special three song set as part of Linkin Park’s show on the following dates:
7/30 – Stuttgart, Germany
8/1 – Stevenage, UK
8/2 – Graefenhainichen, Germany
8/8 – Chiba City, Japan
8/9 – Osaka, Japan
8/22 – Pomona, CA
For more information, visit http://www.myspace.com/deadbysunrise.
7/30 – Stuttgart, Germany
8/1 – Stevenage, UK
8/2 – Graefenhainichen, Germany
8/8 – Chiba City, Japan
8/9 – Osaka, Japan
8/22 – Pomona, CA
For more information, visit http://www.myspace.com/deadbysunrise.
Friday, July 10, 2009
DEAD BY SUNRISE — New band from Linkin Park's Chester Bennington - To Release debut album, entitled "OUT OF ASHES", this fall
CHESTER BENNINGTON , lead singer for multi-platinum, two-time Grammy-winning rock band LINKIN PARK, has put the finishing touches on OUT OF ASHES, the debut album from his new band DEAD BY SUNRISE. The album is tentatively scheduled for a fall release through Warner Bros. Records.
The band, which is 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, recorded OUT OF ASHES in Los Angeles with producer Howard Benson (Motorhead, My Chemical Romance).
The songs on OUT OF ASHES began to take shape during some downtime Linkin Park had before the band began recording their double-platinum 2007 album Minutes to Midnight. "I came up with a few songs that felt and sounded really good, but I knew they weren't right stylistically for Linkin Park," Bennington says. "They were darker and moodier than anything I'd come up with for the band. So I decided to work on them on my own rather than turn them over and have them transformed into Linkin Park tracks."
Bennington says that the music he wrote for Dead by Sunrise is darker, sexier, and more personal than anything he's done before. "It's got me all over it," he says. "This is the music I hear in my head." Indeed the creative freedom that Bennington felt making OUT OF ASHES is evident on songs like "Crawl Back In," "Let Down," and "Walking in Circles." "There are no hip-hop influences at all on this record, which is obviously a big difference," he says. "Also, the amount of vocal layering and use of harmony really showcase my voice in a new way. I was involved in the entire process of making the record, including the programming and the production, which was not only a great educational experience, it was very empowering. I'm really excited that the album is finally going to see the light of day!"
Bennington has been busy as of late, having spent the past 18 months touring with Linkin Park in support of Minutes To Midnight, which has sold more than six million copies worldwide since its release in spring of 2007. One of the most successful rock bands to emerge this decade, Linkin Park has sold more than 45 million albums worldwide. They've scored a remarkable string of chart-topping hit singles, a pair of Grammy wins, and earned an international fan base whose members number in the millions.
The band, which is 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, recorded OUT OF ASHES in Los Angeles with producer Howard Benson (Motorhead, My Chemical Romance).
The songs on OUT OF ASHES began to take shape during some downtime Linkin Park had before the band began recording their double-platinum 2007 album Minutes to Midnight. "I came up with a few songs that felt and sounded really good, but I knew they weren't right stylistically for Linkin Park," Bennington says. "They were darker and moodier than anything I'd come up with for the band. So I decided to work on them on my own rather than turn them over and have them transformed into Linkin Park tracks."
Bennington says that the music he wrote for Dead by Sunrise is darker, sexier, and more personal than anything he's done before. "It's got me all over it," he says. "This is the music I hear in my head." Indeed the creative freedom that Bennington felt making OUT OF ASHES is evident on songs like "Crawl Back In," "Let Down," and "Walking in Circles." "There are no hip-hop influences at all on this record, which is obviously a big difference," he says. "Also, the amount of vocal layering and use of harmony really showcase my voice in a new way. I was involved in the entire process of making the record, including the programming and the production, which was not only a great educational experience, it was very empowering. I'm really excited that the album is finally going to see the light of day!"
Bennington has been busy as of late, having spent the past 18 months touring with Linkin Park in support of Minutes To Midnight, which has sold more than six million copies worldwide since its release in spring of 2007. One of the most successful rock bands to emerge this decade, Linkin Park has sold more than 45 million albums worldwide. They've scored a remarkable string of chart-topping hit singles, a pair of Grammy wins, and earned an international fan base whose members number in the millions.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Linkin Park's ONLY North American Show
Linkin Park will be playing their only concert in North America in 2009 with Tool, Alice in Chains and others at the first ever Epicenter '09 at Fairplex in Pomona, CA on Saturday, August 22nd.
PRE-SALE TICKETS are currently ON SALE NOW for members of the LP Underground, Linkin Park's official fan club, and LPU members will save $10 per ticket during the pre-sale! Tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday, June 27th at Ticketmaster. Visit http://epicenterfestival.com/ for more info.
Fansa can SAVE MONEY by joining LP Underground and ordering pre-sale tickets! In addition to discounted tickets for Epicenter, LPU members are eligible for Meet and Greet opportunities with members of Linkin Park, have access to the members-only LPU website, exclusive discounts, content & contests and SO much more!
PRE-SALE TICKETS are currently ON SALE NOW for members of the LP Underground, Linkin Park's official fan club, and LPU members will save $10 per ticket during the pre-sale! Tickets go on sale to the public on Saturday, June 27th at Ticketmaster. Visit http://epicenterfestival.com/ for more info.
Fansa can SAVE MONEY by joining LP Underground and ordering pre-sale tickets! In addition to discounted tickets for Epicenter, LPU members are eligible for Meet and Greet opportunities with members of Linkin Park, have access to the members-only LPU website, exclusive discounts, content & contests and SO much more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
GLORIOUS
