Chester Bennington Tells: Side Project 'Dead By Sunrise' Inspired By Drinking Problem

24 July 2009

Take 40's own Andrew G caught up with Chester Bennington of Linkin Park fame last week to find out all about his new side project, 'Dead By Sunrise'.

Chester revealed that he's been able to be more involved in the songwriting process in Dead By Sunrise than in Linkin Park, and that much of the material on their forthcoming debut album Out Of Ashes was inspired by his former struggle with drugs and alcohol.

"There's a lot of different elements of my life that I wrote about on this record that have occurred in the last 4 years," Chester told Andrew G.

"A lot of which were self destructive and negative and heart-breaking in some points, and at the same time I also experienced the greatest love I've ever experienced in my life, getting closer with my family and overcoming the self destructive pattern in my life."

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"All of those things are being represented on the record... and so (the band name) Dead By Sunrise is actually... literally from my feeling like I'm not going to make it to tomorrow. Am I gonna overdose tonight? Am I gonna have seizures from alcohol withdrawal? Am I just gonna wanna quit playing music altogether and go be a recluse somewhere?"

"Those are all things that were very real to me at certain times in the last few years, and then at the same time there's times where I was more happy and more clear than I've ever been... so it's a very weird juxtaposition that you feel on the record."