Loma Vista RecordingsPrior to his death in July 2017, Chester Bennington announced that his pre-Linkin Park band Grey Daze would be reuniting to re-record the group’s early material. Nearly three years later, the project finally comes to fruition in the form of the album Amends, due out this spring.
Most rock albums are created by recording instrumentals first, followed by vocals. But in making Amends, Grey Daze members Sean Dowdell, Mace Beyers and Christin Davis recorded new instrumentals surrounding Bennington’s original vocal take, so that they could “make sure he could shine in the best possible light.”
“[We] then [made] the music more modernized,” drummer Dowdell tells ABC Audio. “We still kept the integrity of the way the band felt and sounded originally, but we also made it something that’s still relevant in today’s music scene, and something that [Bennington’s] fans will relate to.”
Making Amends sounds like a Chester Bennington-fronted rock album in 2020 was very important to Dowdell.
“We made it in a way to where it sounds like we went and recorded with [Bennington] yesterday or last week,” he explains.
For Dowdell, who had been friends with Bennington since they were teenagers, revisiting those original vocal recordings was, understandably, a “difficult” experience.
“You start hearing these double meanings, these lyrics that he and I wrote together over 20, 25 years ago in some cases,” Dowdell shares. “Some of them are very prophetic as to what actually transpired in real life.”
“There’s that emotional connection that he and I had through our friendship, of course, that really pulls on my heartstrings every time I listen to him,” he continues. “I get to hear my friend every time. So, it’s painful, but it’s also healing for me.”
Amends will be released April 10.
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