Dead By Sunrise released their debut album, Out of Ashes, in the United States on October 13, 2009, through Warner Bros. Records. Chester Bennington had started with songs he wanted to pursue outside Linkin Park. Working with guitarists Ryan Shuck and Amir Derakh, he turned that solo project into a band.
The lead single, “Crawl Back In,” made the personal stakes clear. Bennington described it as a song about addiction and the feeling of losing his identity, subjects he addressed directly throughout the record.
The collaboration grew out of a friendship that predated those songs. Bennington told The Aquarian that he met Shuck and Derakh at NRG while Linkin Park were recording Hybrid Theory and Orgy were working on Vapor Transmission. Shuck heard him singing from another part of the studio and came over to introduce himself. Years later, hearing the material Bennington was writing after Meteora, Shuck encouraged him to find a home for it. Bennington initially expected to handle most of the instruments himself, then gave Shuck and Derakh room to change arrangements and song structures.
That freedom changed the record he had imagined. He told MusicRadar he originally pictured a stripped-down approach; with the two guitarists involved, the songs became a much bigger electric production. Bennington played guitar and synthesizers and contributed programming, while retaining an unusually direct say over which songs made the album. “I only had to please myself,” he said. He regarded Dead By Sunrise as a band, with his collaborators shaping music that remained closely tied to his own writing.
Work began in 2005, but Linkin Park’s schedule interrupted it. Recording and touring for Minutes to Midnight occupied the next several years, leaving Out of Ashes unfinished until Bennington could return to it. He told The Aquarian that writing continued across those separate stretches, including new songs during the sessions with Howard Benson. The finished album therefore gathered material from different points in his life.
Benson produced the album in Los Angeles, entering a project that had repeatedly lost momentum. In comments published by Blabbermouth before the release, Bennington credited him with renewing the band’s enthusiasm and encouraging him to explore more of his voice. The elapsed years could make the process sound endless, but Bennington estimated that the actual work amounted to eight or nine months. Layered vocals and harmonies became a particular focus, and he was involved in programming and production as well as singing. For Bennington, that involvement was also a learning experience. Taking part in decisions throughout the recording process gave him confidence in his abilities beyond his familiar role as Linkin Park’s singer.
The subjects also extended beyond the turmoil described in “Crawl Back In.” Bennington connected “Let Down” to his divorce and his determination to avoid repeating the same problems in another relationship. “Give Me Your Name” came from a much more specific request: his wife wanted him to write something they could dance to at their wedding. He told MusicRadar that the song was originally intended just for that occasion. Pleased with how it turned out, he decided it belonged on the album, too.
By its U.S. release, the project had moved from private songs and interrupted sessions to a national television appearance. Dead By Sunrise performed “Crawl Back In” on CBS’s Late Show With David Letterman that day, introducing the album with the same song chosen as its lead single.
