Herald Sun: Linkin Park's anchored frontman

Here's a great article from the Herald Sun:

LINKIN Park frontman Chester Bennington is used to scrutiny.
However, on their last world tour, Bennington took careful note of one considered opinion - his six-year-old son, Tyler.
Bennington says: "He has travelled more in his short little life than most have done in their lifetime. He has no idea he's done that."
Bennington is also finding joy in watching Tyler try to piece together the puzzle of the music, the performance, the crowd, the reaction, and how his 36-year-old father fits in all this.
"It's so cute," Bennington says. "He saw people cheering and thought: 'They're all here to see my dad and my uncles'. "He made that connection. He knows there is something special here. He realises dad does something different from what other dads do.
"It's interesting to see kids figure out how people view their father differently."
To most others, Bennington is a songwriter and the primal howl in Linkin Park, one of the biggest rock bands of the new millennium.
Hits include In The End, Somewhere I Belong, Breaking The Habit and Numb.
Their new album, Living Things, a return to the crunching intensity of Hybrid Theory (2000) and pop structures of Meteora (2002), will be released tomorrow.
"Our goal is to challenge ourselves creatively," Bennington says.
"We want to make music that doesn't play it safe.
"That's easier said than done when you've been doing it for 12 years and it's your fifth record.
"It can get easy to become complacent in your career and deal with things you know you're good at."
Bennington says the new album is more personal than their last record, a concept work called A Thousand Suns.
He explains: "Living Things deals with more issues on a human level, a personal level."
Bennington says he and co-writer Mike Shinoda wrote about characters more than specific experiences.
"Our lives are different, so we come from two perspectives," Bennington says.
"I remember saying to Mike: 'When I was a kid, my parents got divorced and that made me really sad. I want to write a song about it.' And Mike goes: 'Well, my parents never got divorced. I have no idea what that feels like.'
"But, somehow, it works. We end up with songs with multiple layers and points of view."
Yet, in the multi-platinum world of Linkin Park, one voice is always loudest: Family.
In the liner notes of the new album, Bennington thanks his wife Talinda, and children Jaime, Isaiah, Draven, Tyler, Lily, Lila and Alyssa.
He says: "My wife and my children give me a perspective that is necessary to stay a normal person.
"They allow me to see life for what it truly is, and what is important.
"Being a rock star is awesome, but it is not a real lifestyle. It's very secluded.
"It's awesome to make music at this level, but ultimately, what we want out of life is to be regular people.
"We don't want to experience life as rock stars on a pedestal.
"Family brings you back down to earth. It keeps you tied to the things that are important," he says.
Linkin Park will tour Living Things, including yet-to-be confirmed dates in Australia.
Bennington says their ferocious live shows keep him connected to the memory of the wide-eyed fan he once was.
"A lot of people can sing, and there are a lot of talented people out there for what they do. But I'm not sure there are many people who can do what I do, the way that I do it.
"When I get up on stage scream and yell and deliver ... I feel everybody wants to do that.
"At that moment, I'm speaking for all of us."
The singer says he recognises himself in the fan in the front row shouting every word of every song.
"There is something about that one kid who got there early, got his tickets first, and ran up to the barricade and waited all day to scream as if they were in the band.
"I remember being in that place, looking up at my heroes. There is nothing better than being that for somebody."

Thank you everyone hat tweeted and emailed me the link! Much appreciated. :)

Mike talks about The Raid...and other things

About 6 minutes into this video interview that Mike and Joe Trapanese did with Collider.com, Joe mentions that Mike has two kids. Thanks for the heads up, Madlen.

The Rebel Yell interview with Chester

Chester talked to The Rebel Yell while at the Club Tattoo signing.

CB: I love tattoos. I want everybody to get a tattoo and I want them all to come to Club Tattoo to get them. It is a decision that you have to be an adult to make. It’s a lifelong choice. It’s a commitment. None of my kids are allowed to come home with a tattoo before they turn 18.

Definitely worth a read. He also mentions new Linkin Park music and the upcoming Transformers movie. ;)
-LPTimes

New LP shows maturity

Chester spoke with Zorianna Kit for Reuters:

"With this album, we've taken the microscope off ourselves and opened it up to the world," Bennington said of himself and band members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, Joe Hahn and Rob Bourdon.

"A lot of us are dads, we all have families and we're much more mature than we were when we were 19 years-old, writing records," he said.

Bennington said the new record perfectly represents where the band members are as individuals today and how they view the world. The band's frontman has four sons, and fatherhood really "chilled" him out, he said.

"When I was younger, I liked songs that got people wanting to punch others in the face," he said. "Now, I don't want to scream at people. I want to talk to people. I feel much more able to speak about how I view things in the world."

He cited "The Messenger," which he wrote, as one example. He called it "literally a letter from me to my children" about how much they are loved by their parents. He said he wants them to remember that fact if they ever feel alone in the world.

"That's something I don't think I would have been very comfortable singing about 10 years ago," Bennington said.

Read more!

Chester talks about "The Messenger"

What's the story behind "The Messenger"?

That song actually came to me almost entirely all at once. The second I heard the chord progression, the melody came and then the words came. It literally dawned on me like a flood, which is very rare. Usually, songs come in pieces, but this song came right away! Thank God, there's technology in my phone that allows me to record ideas whenever they arrive. Initially, I started the song off with a line that's not in there anymore. I began with, "You are a child with so many choices. The hardest always make us cry." Right away, I knew I was going to write a letter to my kids, basically. It's telling them you're getting ready to go out into the world, you're going to get kicked around, it's going to be tough and you're going to find yourself in some painful situations, but here's what's important—you're always going to be loved by your family, and that will always get you through. That's going to be the one lifeline that you have which will pull you through all of this chaos around you. Eventually, what ended up coming out of that is the song you hear on the record. It's such a vulnerable, open and very honest song in that way. We really felt like we wanted to replicate that original recording of the guitar and vocal in the phone as much as possible. We recorded the vocal, and we didn't put any special sauce on it or anything. We didn't double the vocals, and we didn't try to go for the perfect performance. I just sang it with my heart. Brad [Delson] played guitar. Mike [Shinoda] sat in the other room, and we all played it together. It was presented in the simplest way, and that's what we've got.

More from that great interview can be read/watched here. Part 2 is coming later.

Noisecreep interview

Chester and Mike were interviewed for NoiseCreep.com. Here is an excerpt:

"I was writing 'Messenger' as a letter to my kids. I was saying that eventually you're going to go out into the world and find out it's challenging out there, but just remember there's always a place for you where you are accepted for who you are and you're loved for all the things that make you who you are. I think that's really important and I think it helps get us through this craziness that we live in." -Chester

SuicideGirls.com interview

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Talinda's anniversary tweets

TalindaB: Thank you everyone for taking the time today to wish @chesterbe and I a Happy Anniversary!
4:06 PM Dec 31st, 2009 from Echofon

We r w/ all of our kids and they each made us cards to say they love us as their patents!
4:07 PM Dec 31st, 2009 from Echofon

Oops.. I meant parents!!It made us cry bcuz even Dane's girls made us one!My stepsons.. Well we don't use the word "step" in our family...
4:16 PM Dec 31st, 2009 from Echofon

So my sons all created something of their own from their heart for us... Wow..this is what life is about...thank U GOD
4:17 PM Dec 31st, 2009 from Echofon

My NYE wish 5 yrs ago was to meet the man God intended for me to love and to have a huge family!!! I'm so happy!!
4:20 PM Dec 31st, 2009 from Echofon

Dead By Sunrise interview at Ulalume

Here is a transcript from a part of the brief interview:

Kat Von D: Chester, you and Linkin Park were on the first Twilight movie soundtrack, are you excited to see the movie (New Moon)?

Chester: You know...I am. I have 4 kids and my teenage niece, they are all very, very aexcited. They've read all the books, so I have to be really excited too.

It's not a perfect transcript but forgive me, it's 4am lol...

USA Weekend interview with Chester

You have four kids, the oldest of whom are 12 and 13. Did you try out the new album on them to see what they thought?

Family’s tricky because they’re always going to tell you that they like it. But sometimes kids can be extremely honest. My wife is a really good gauge of honesty, too — she’ll tell me if she doesn’t like something.

In the next year, you’re planning to tour with Dead By Sunrise and finish a new Linkin Park record. Do you thrive on that kind of busy schedule or do you steel yourself to not being home for a while?

Even though I am pretty busy, I feel like I do make sure that I spend enough time at home – well, I guess it’s relative. I try to spend as much time as I can with my family. Whether my kids feel like I’m at home enough, that’s for them to say. But at the same time, they’re the most important thing in the world to me and I definitely do not want to take away from that too much. I’m at home as much as I’m gone.

Read more here...

Revolver Interview with Chester

There is online exclusive interview with Chester at the Revolver magazine website. He talks about the drugs, the divorce and Talinda. You can read it all HERE.

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.

Herald Sun interview with Chester

Sunrise on Fire found a great interview that the Australian Herald Sun did with Chester. Read it all here!

"People will get a little bit more of a personal glimpse into my life and maybe see the kind of songwriter I am," he says.

It's not about being honest for the first time - he's always done that.

"I've always been pretty up front, especially lyrically, with my music. I think that's the one real similarity between LP and Dead By Sunrise."

On this album, Bennington is a cathartic kind of songwriter. The band's name and the album's title refer to his descent into, and his eventual rise out of, a period in which he was doing - as he puts it in PC terms - a lot of partying.

He was self-destructing, he was addicted to booze and various other substances, and his first marriage was falling apart (he divorced in 2005).

"I've seen the devil in a smile, I've found salvation in a vial, my happy ending exists only in my dreams," Bennington sings on My Suffering.

"When I was going through it, I was actually trying to hide it - at least in my mind I was trying to hide it. I don't know if I did a very good job of hiding it," he says. "But I didn't want everyone to know how bad I'd really gotten. So a lot of the more revealing stuff was written afterwards, looking back, like 'OK, I'm cool with this now, I can handle being more open about my experiences over the past couple of years'.

"So that was really freeing for me. It was really interesting to look back and have that kind of perspective."

But some of the songs were written he says "while I was going through all the craziness . . . stuff that had nothing to do with that downfall, the downward spiral kind of thing".

Nowadays, of course, Bennington is happily remarried with a "litter of children".

The four kids in his house not so long ago became five - "One of my nieces moved in with us, which is pretty cool. So I guess I did acquire a 14-year-old girl somewhere along the line . . ."

It makes one wonder what his wife, Talinda, makes of all the darkness on Out of Ashes.

"At first it might have been a little disarming," Bennington says of his wife's reaction. "Like, 'Do you really want everybody to know all this stuff?'

"Honestly, what do I really have to hide?

If I can't be honest about what I'm experiencing and about my life, then what am I going to write about? Make up stuff?

If you do it tastefully and you do it in a way that's not like pornographic, if it doesn't come across as being dirty and kind of creepy, then I think that's OK."

But was it ever coming across as being dirty or creepy?

"No," Bennington says with a laugh. "I'm totally 100 per cent pure, never done anything wrong or weird in my life."

Though tearing out his heart in his Dead By Sunrise songs unburdened him, Bennington says it wasn't what saved him.

"The biggest epiphany for me during this period was realising how much value I had put into the stuff I had. That was the hardest part for me, discovering I had actually associated my success with the things I had accumulated, like money and cars and houses, things like that.

"When that's all gone, when that all disappeared, I kinda felt like maybe I was no longer successful, and I felt like a failure. And that was really tough to feel that way.

"That was really the beginning of the cascading downfall of my mental state for a little while. Then I got my s--- together and pulled myself out of it, with the help of my friends and my family and my beautiful wife."

These days, Bennington counts success as just living. "Success is if you can make it through life - you've figured something out, you know what I mean?" he says with a laugh.

"I'm still doing what I love to do, I get to be with my family as much as I want to be, I get to work whenever I feel like working, and I get to stop working when I'm over it.

"I don't have to get up and go to a job I hate every day, like a lot of people have to do to pay the bills. So I'm totally fine with that."

"I'm just starting to put all this stuff together and figure out how I can work on Linkin Park and tour with Dead By Sunrise and manage to be home enough to spend time with my kids so they don't feel like I'm a big jerk who always leaves the house."

Quotes about Tyler and a few pics...

"he looks like me when I was his age!"

"Tyler had known how to swim with no floaties since he was 2yr 9 mo. He lives to dive to the bottom of our pool 12 ft!"

-Thanks to everyone who sent stuff in. Especially ChesterDEAN for helping me keep up with their tweets.

Chester interview in Revolver

Thanks to Joey who let us upload her scans from the current issue of Revolver magazine. Chester talks about his back injury and Dead By Sunrise. I've added the scans to our gallery. Click the thumbnails to read the whole article.

My Dad Rocks !!

Thanks to Bubbles from the saybox for the tip. There is a video where Chester talks about his kids and you also can see Talinda in it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Nmm47eZCfk

Edit: Here are some screencaps from Talinda.

LPU Trivia #15

Sound Producer Talks about Chester

"…Chester (lead singer of Linkin Park ) hurt his back while playing with his kid . Apparently he slipped two of his discs in his back. I imagine that this is excruciatingly painful."

Read the rest...Thanks to LPBlog.

Jonah Taylor Delson!

Belated congratulations to Brad and Elisa Delson for the birth of their baby boy, Jonah Taylor! He was born March 25, 2008. Thanks to Ale for sending me the info.

His Jewish given name is Yonah Tzvi. Congrats again to the new parents!

Extra guests on Hungerstrike

Thanks Christina and Tara. Some videos from the Irvine, CA show when Chester came out on Hungerstrike..... ;)



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XEIJddxBRY



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tztMTOIf_b0

Chester's Tattoo

I don't know if we have this already, but here is one of Chester's tattoo in HQ where you can see CB, TB, JMB, DSB, TLB, IDB. Thanks to joehahn.org for the picture.