Grey Daze's Amends, due for release on 26th June, shows promise of being one of the most prolific and cathartic posthumous releases of all time. Showcasing Chester Bennington's 90's grunge vocals atop newly recorded, pristine instrumentals, it's undoubtedly going to leave a huge impact on both new and old fans alike. We reached out to Sean Dowdell, drummer, author and entrepreneur, about the upcoming album.
What song(s) are your favourite from the album?
"I think that every song has a special place in my heart. Right now, Soul Song feels like it's my favourite song. I also like Just Like Heroin and In Time as well. Honestly, I can make an argument for just about every song on the album, but right now, I'd have to say Soul Song."
Which song was hardest to remake, either technically or emotionally?
"Believe it or not, Sometimes, even though it's so close to the original, took us the longest time because we kept working on a part in the second verse that just never felt right. Even though it had the least amount done to it, that was probably the toughest song. It took us months to get that one right. Emotionally, I would have to say Morei Sky was probably the most emotional track that we worked on. You know, there were a lot of tears shed during the recording of that song."
Why did you choose What's In The Eye to be the first single?
"The band didn't. The label chose that song because they let some people listen to the whole record and a lot of people felt close to that song, so they felt that was a good intro to the market, to let people hear Chester similar to the way they remember him in Linkin Park, so there wasn't such a disparity in his vocal context. If it had been up to me, I probably would have chosen Sickness or Sometimes to be first."
How did all the collaborations on the album come about?
"First of all in how did the collaborations come about, most of these people were either really close friends with Chester, friends with myself or friends of a mutual friend of Chester and mine named Rene Mata, who manages producers and artists. I had known Head and Munky for a few years, and just on a random text back and forth with Head, I asked him to listen to a track, B12, and he called me right after listening to it and was freaking out. During that conversation, he was just blown away and then that just kind of sparked the idea of, 'Hey, what about having these guys come and guest record on the record', and that's how it came about. Then we had Chris [Traynor, Bush] who was a guest on four different songs and he just helped us write a lot of the parts on those tracks. He did What's In The Eye, Sometimes, Just Like Heroin and Soul Song and did a great job. We had Marcos [Curiel, P.O.D], he worked on What's In The Eye with Chris. We had Page [Hamilton, Helmet], he worked on Sickness with us. Of course, we had Ryan [Shuck, Julien K, Dead By Sunrise] do In Time and he plays a small part in that one. We had a singer by the name of LP, she sings a duet with Chester. She was a big fan of his and he was a huge fan of her's, so as soon as we reached out to her, she loved the idea and came right in and played on a track called Shouting Out."
Is there anyone else you would like to work with on the future second album?
"Of course there are. There are people I know Chester would've loved to have worked with. We're gonna reach out to Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode, Tom Chaplin from the band Keane, possibly the guys from Twenty One Pilots. Who knows if they'll say yes or not, but those are the guys that we're targeting and there's a few others as well. Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine, there's a few other people, but those are the ones that come to mind right now.
Understandably, the Syndrome's title has been altered from The Down Syndrome from the ...No Sun Today album. Can you give us more insight as to why?
"To be quite honest, when we wrote the title, Chester and myself came up with that and didn't think of the politically correct wording back in the 90's, because it was kinda a metaphor for depression - the down syndrome. That's what we were thinking of it as but as time went on, we would get comments like, "Oh, is that about a mental deficiency?", that type of stuff, and we didn't really want the wording to be confused. So we had the opportunity and felt like we didn't wanna have the title misconstrued."
You've replied to comments on Facebook that you intend to release instrumentals and acapellas of the songs. Any idea on when and how these will be released?
"I'm sure it's going to be released right after the record. They're already done, we already did the acapellas and instrumentals. They're already ready, they've been mastered, they're just sitting there. So I'm sure they just won't be released until the record's released. So probably mid-summer."
Are you aware that UMG are claiming the ...No Sun Today and Wake Me original track uploads on YouTube? Can anything be done to preserve the original recordings?
"The original recordings will definitely be preserved and probably re-released after the new versions come out. But quite honestly, we're not real happy with the way the first two albums have just been pirated all over the internet for the last twenty years, and Warner Brothers was the biggest culprit of not giving a shit and really screwing the band out of what we should have been getting for the last seventeen, eighteen years. Unfortunately, Chester was talked into that early on and finally, thank God, while he was alive, he had enough of Warner Brothers' bullshit and was gonna release the material. I'm glad he came to that conclusion while he was still alive because it definitely upset me long term, that those guys just tried to crush the history and erase it and rewrite it. That really sucks. But UMG owns all of Chester's publishing, so that's their right to do that and that's just kinda how it works, unfortunately."
How long did your documentary series, Making Amends, take to film all in all?
"About two and a half years. We started that right when we did our first trip to L.A to NRG and we basically just continued, we understood how important it was to kinda document everything we were doing. At the end of it all, we started looking at the footage, how special it was and we decided to make a series out of it."
How did the Revolver three part series come about and did this take a different approach to your Making Amends series?
"The magazine reached out to the record label and asked if they could come and film us for a couple of days, driving around the city and just kinda get some history of the band. It was really their idea, it wasn't my idea. They pushed for it, they produced it, they did a good job on it. I love what they did and it's just different in a way, I guess the approach was different. You know, it wasn't anything that we really were in charge of, we literally had a few interviews over the course of two days and that was it, they put the whole thing together. I love what they did."
What do you believe is in the band's near future?
"We're just trying to get this record out right now. I'm not worried about anything else right now other than just getting the record out. We have no plans of trying to replace Chester, that's not in the cards. We have enough music to do another record but we need to get this first record out. I wanna try to concentrate on that, really."
You've said how much of a toll this album has taken on you. Do you think after this, the second album will be any easier to do?
"Oh man... Yeah I do. I think it's going to be easier to do because the hardest part of making the first record was making sure that all of Chester's family was getting along, to be quite honest. There were a lot of moving parts. We had to make sure we aligned everything up and figure out a whole process, so now we've done it once, it will be much easier a second time. I don't think it'll beat me up as badly the second time, hopefully."
In a recent interview with Mace and Josh via Instagram live, Mace talks about the possibility of playing live shows. Is this something that you're working towards or that is in the works?
"No. That is not something we're working towards. The only way we're gonna play live is if we do it in a tribute fashion where we bring in guest singers and they sing like and for Chester, in the intention of tribute to Chester. I would not want to try to replace Chester, I'm not interested in that."
How have you found fans' reaction to the album so far and what do you hope the album will achieve?
"Well the fans' reaction has been absolutely spectacular. It seems like 99.9% of people who hear it, love it. That feels really good, it makes us feel like we did our job and like we made our friend proud and it's something he would have loved to be a part of. What do I hope the album will achieve? I don't really know the answer to that question, other than letting people hear Chester in a different light and preserving these songs and legacy of our friend. I know of course he has a legacy with the other things he's done, but this was a really important part of his history, of who he was and we want to make sure that story's out there and not erased."
What would you say to fans that find it hard listening to Chester's music that want to listen to Amends?
"You can listen or not listen, it's not really for us to say. If you have too hard of a time listening to Chester, maybe you shouldn't listen. My experience is every time we play this for somebody who says they have a hard time listening to Chester, they shed a few tears and they find it very comforting and very healing. But you have to listen when you're ready to listen."
Do you think more needs to be done for musicians struggling with mental illness?
"That's kind of a loaded question, it's not really my strong suit. I think mental illness is a serious thing and I don't think it has anything to do with 'done for musicians' struggling with it, I think it's human beings in general that struggle with it. Whether they play music or not, I don't think is relevant. I think most people struggle with some type of mental illness and there should be more avenues for help for it. I certainly think, as far as suicide goes, I think there should be some type of way we could tap into people that are feeling that way, so that we can help talk them out of it. I just don't know what that way is other than trying to make them listen to something positive or think of something positive."
We would once again like to thank Sean Dowdell for taking the time to answer our questions, as well as Grey Daze for creating this album and ensuring Chester's legacy lives on through his music. We know it will bring limitless joy and comfort to those who need it for many years to come. For further updates, follow the band on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, as well as supporting their music through YouTube, Spotify and at their official website, where you can pre-order the album now.
While this piece has been published on the LPFCW blog, the views expressed within do not necessarily represent the entirety of LPFCW. The opinions and answers given only belong to the interviewee of the piece with permission to post, and should not reflect badly upon LPFCW as a whole.
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