Dead by Sunrise (previously known as Snow White Tan) is the side project of Linkin Park's lead vocalist, Chester Bennington and Julien-K. The name Snow White Tan was speculated to be a reference to the David Bowie track "Ziggy Stardust", which includes the lyrics "Came on so loaded, man/Well hung and snow-white tan", but the band's renaming to Dead by Sunrise by Chester has not been publicly explained. Chester has said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "We were called Snow White Tan for a while, and then I changed the name to Dead By Sunrise, but I really just like Chester Bennington." Chester Bennington stated in a LPU Chat, that realistically, the album, later titled Out of Ashes, should be put out in September 2009, along with telling a fan on his official Twitter that the album is currently set to have 10 tracks.
History
The band, which also features Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck of the band Orgy, and Anthony "Fu" Valcic, is Bennington's solo endeavor. Bennington has also been assisting Amir Derakh and Ryan Shuck on an Orgy side project called Julien-K. "Both bands are the same. The one where Chester sings and writes is Dead By Sunrise, but when I sing, and Amir and I are the primary writers, it becomes Julien-K and it's more electro and much darker...Julien-K and Dead by Sunrise are basically a creative collective, we're sort of a Warhol-style factory in that sense," explains Ryan Shuck. "Dead by Sunrise is Chester's Julien-K if that makes any sense."
The Dead by Sunrise album has been recorded in full and was originally slated for a 2006 release, and then an early 2007 release, but due to his commitments to Linkin Park, Chester has put the release on hold until early 2009. Recent news posted by The Pulse of Radio say that Chester Bennington's solo album is still in production and will be finalized sometime during Spring of 2008. Bennington stated in an interview with Rolling Stone that he hopes to put the Dead By Sunrise album in 2009. He also said in an interview with Orange County Register that he will work on the album simultaneously with a fourth Linkin Park record. Chester performs guitar and keyboard on the album, as well as singing. All extra instrumental, programming and production was undertaken by Amir, Fu, Ryan and Brandon.
The song "Let Down" has already been played at ReAct Now Music & Relief Hurricane Relief Benefit Concert in Nashville. Also, the song "Morning After" has been played acoustically live in 2001.
The album is said to be a far-cry from the sounds of Linkin Park and draws influence from '90s rock as well as '80s pop such as The Cure, Depeche Mode, and Bauhaus. When asked in an interview about the difference between Dead By Sunrise and Linkin Park, Bennington responded, "It’s hard to describe. Like, describe the difference between Soundgarden and Alice in Chains, you know what I mean? It’s almost impossible. There are obvious things about it that when you listen to it, you’ll know it’s not a Linkin Park record. You’re not gonna get confused. You’ll have to hear it."
On May 10, 2008, Dead by Sunrise performed for the first time ever three songs ("Walking In Circles", "Morning After", and "My Suffering") from the upcoming album at the 13th anniversary party for Club Tattoo in Tempe, Arizona.
On February 4, 2009 Mike Shinoda wrote in his blog, "I was just hanging out with Chester, and got a chance to hear some of his new solo material! In case you haven't heard, he's doing a solo record (he's doing double-duty, working on his album and the LP album simultaneously). The project is called Dead By Sunrise, and the album is being produced by Howard Benson. He played me 9 songs, two of which had [amazing] vocals. I thought I could hear influences from T-Rex to Tears for Fears, but overall it's a pretty punch-you-in-the-gut rock record. Very cool...look for it later this year, probably September-ish. It's going to be incredible!" On May 19, 2009, Chester Bennington announced that the title of the first Dead By Sunrise album would be Out of Ashes, and that the first single would likely be a song called "Crawl Back In."
Chester Bennington also announced recently that Morning After would not end up on the album, despite many rumors.
Discography
- Out of Ashes (2009)
