Robert DeLeo: ‘It was a very difficult decision to terminate the face of the band’

Sacado de // From: http://www.rollingstone.com and http://portalternativo.com (TRADUCCIÓN)

El bajista de Stone Temple Pilots, Robert DeLeo, y su nuevo vocalista, Chester Bennington, han charlado con Rolling Stone.

DeLeo asegura que “Dean (DeLeo), Eric (Kretz) y yo hemos estado ensillados por alguien durante mucho tiempo. Siempre hemos velado por lo mejor para Scott (Weiland) y tratado de ser un gran amigo para alguien al que no le importaba ser amigo nuestro.” Eso llevó a “una decisión muy difícil.”

Bennington considera que “esto está pasando en el momento adecuado. Desde fuera, esto es algo que esperaba que fuese a pasar. Para nosotros, la transición ha sido lo más suave posible creativamente para una banda. Y el hecho de que todos nos llevamos tan bien, de que disfrutamos la compañía de los otros, tenemos la misma ética de trabajo y disfrutamos lo que hacemos, es un flipe en muchos sentidos. Al mismo tiempo, tengo la ocasión de componer canciones con dos de mis compositores favoritos que nunca hayan compuesto, Robert y Dean. Componer canciones con estos tíos, ya lo puedo quitar de mi lista de cosas por hacer. ”

DeLeo afirma que la opción de Bennington fue la única que tuvieron en mente.

Le di la bienvenida porque nos conocemos desde hace bastante tiempo. No creo que hubiera otra elección u opciones para hacer que la banda funcionara. Recuerdo estar produciendo un disco en los estudios Conway y vi a Slash, y recuerdo darle la mano cuando me enteré de lo de Velvet Revolver (el nacimiento del grupo) y le dije, “Buena suerte con eso” (risas)

DeLeo reconoce la dificultad de la decisión de prescindir de Weiland:

Fue una decisión muy difícil terminar con la cara de tu banda. Hay muchos caminos a la historia de ciertas bandas y cada una es un poco diferente pero al final todo acaba siendo igual. Pero fue una decisión muy difícil de tomar. Más difícil es imposible. Pero no teníamos otra elección. No quiero entrar en ello por los rollos legales pero hemos estado ensillados por alguien durante mucho tiempo. Siempre hemos velado por el mejor interés de Scott y tratado de ser un gran amigo de alguien al que le daba igual ser amigo nuestro… Y no creo que tuviéramos otra opción. Sabíamos que era lo que queríamos antes de pensar en coger otro cantante. Creo que Scott dejó muy claro, su camino y sus decisiones en lo que ha hecho con o a esta banda. Así que cuando estás en esa situación, Dean, Eric y yo preferimos seguir adelante. Quiero divertirme, joder, haciendo música. Tengo el lujo absoluto de ganarme la vida con la música. Si estoy con gente que no pilla eso, entonces quiero estar cerca de gente que si lo pille.

Por su lado, el frontman de Linkin Park explica:

La verdad es que respecto la decisión que han tomado estos tíos. También entiendo lo increíblemente difícil que sería tener esa conversación. Al mismo tiempo, no es una sorpresa. Todo el mundo que conoce a la banda entiende porqué se tomaron esas decisiones. Esto no es algo que necesite – tengo una gran carrera con un grupo de tíos geniales a los que quiero profundamente y hacemos música increíble juntos. No tengo necesidad de hacer esto pero al mismo tiempo entiendo que esto es su vida. Esto es como van a pagar las facturas y hacer que sus hijos vayan a la universidad, así quieren pasar el resto de sus vidas. Así que al decir que si significa que estoy al 100% ahí también. No quiero hacer el gilipollas con estos tíos y joderles el futuro y tirar un año de mi tiempo y trabajo para decir, “No sé si quiero salir de gira en mi tiempo libre”. No puedes hacer eso, así que quiero dejar claro que quiero honrar a todos los que están involucrados.

El bajista concluye con palabras elogiosas a su ex-frontman:

Tuve el tremendo regalo, igual que Dean y Eric, de componer música con Scott y estimaré eso todo lo que pueda. Creo que ahora es momento de abrazar y estimar esto. Me siento muy honrado por el hecho de que a los chicos de Linkin Park les parezca guay esto. Todos esos tíos son grandes. No es la música – es la humanidad. Son la clase de seres humanos con los que quieres estar en este punto de la vida.

IN ENGLISH

Fellow Stone Temple Pilots Robert DeLeo and Chester Bennington, now pulling double duty as frontman for both Linkin Park and STP, sat down with Rolling Stone recently in North Hollywood. Before a revealing hour-long interview, DeLeo brought a reporter his laptop and a pair of headphones to hear the band’s forthcoming EP, High Rise.

Scott Weiland on STP: ‘They’ll Have to Buy Me Out of the Company’

Featuring five songs, the EP ranges from the straight-ahead hard rock of the lead single «Out of Time» and the planned second single, «Black Heart,» to «Cry, Cry,» a song written by Bennington, which segues nicely into the EP’s closer, the atmospheric long player «Tomorrow.»

With legal battles with Scott Weiland ongoing, DeLeo didn’t want to say too much about the band’s former singer, yet a lot emerged over the course of the interview. «Dean (DeLeo), Eric (Kretz) and I have been saddled by someone for a long time,» he said at one point. «We’ve always looked out for Scott’s best interests and tried to be a great friend to someone who really didn’t care to be friends with us.» That eventually led, he said, to «a very difficult decision.»

There is a freedom of collaborating in this day and age, and I’m sure that ties nicely into you guys being able to try something new.
Chester Bennington: I think that this is happening at the right time. From an outsider, this is something I expected was going to happen. For us the transition has been about as smooth creatively as a band as possible. And the fact that we all get along so well, we enjoy each other’s company, we have the same work ethic and we’re all enjoying what we’re doing, it’s a trip in a lot of ways. At the same time I have the chance to write songs with two of my favorite songwriters that have ever written, Robert and Dean. Writing songs with these guys, that’s something I can check off my list of shit to do.

Robert DeLeo: We’re all complementing each other very nicely.

I recall Slash and Duff McKagan admitting that after their experiences with Axl Rose and Scott, Velvet Revolver was a little gun-shy about bringing in a new singer. What were your thoughts on bringing Chester in?
DeLeo: I welcomed it because we’ve known each other for quite some time. I don’t think there was any other choice or options to make the band work. That’s the way it was. I remember I was producing a record over at Conway Studios and I saw Slash there, and I remember shaking his hand when I first found out about Velvet Revolver and I said, «Good luck with that.» [Laughs]

It’s like any relationship – you get burned and you’re hesitant to trust again.
Bennington: Part of the appeal of doing this, and part of the vibe that I bring, I’m just coming in here and doing the same things I would do normally, only I’m writing different music with different guys. It’s been interesting for me to see how the normal day-to-day stuff that I’m used to doing with the other guys that I work with is just a fucking complete shocker over here in this camp. It’s like, «Dude, you’re here?» Simple things like that, or, «Let’s play this song.» «OK, cool,» and I just start singing the song. Robert was like, «Are you sure you don’t need a teleprompter?» I was like, «I’m pretty positive I don’t need a teleprompter.» If I fuck up the words it just makes the show more human, and I’d rather fuck the words up than be latched to something that tells me what I’m supposed to do.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed the most about this process is seeing these guys have a good time doing it, and everybody’s talking and we’re all smiling. I’ve seen this whole process become fun for these guys again and see the joy that everybody is having when we’re doing band-related stuff. So that, to me, is a really great reward . . . The depth or the length at which I think these guys have been operating for the last 10, 15 years, they’ve put their dues in and they’ve really tried to make it work. This was the choice they had to make, and if it wasn’t me it was going to be somebody else. STP is moving forward without Scott 100 percent, whether I say yes or no. So I’m just glad that it’s me, because I am such a big fan of the band – I know the songs as well as these guys know the songs, maybe even better than some guys know the songs. And I do my best to honor the legacy of the music. We just want to go out and fucking play and have fun doing it – play rock & roll really loud and smile.

DeLeo: Loud is allowed.

It feels like this is a situation that should have very little pressure.
DeLeo: There are our own pressures of making great music. That means a lot, and it always has, and I think Dean, Eric and myself have earned it to be in this situation. I don’t think any of us are getting any younger, and I certainly don’t want to spend the next 10 years of my life the way I spent the last 10 years of my life, or the last 15 years, for that matter. So I think this is humbly saying very [well-deserved] for me, Dean and Eric to be in this situation. I know what kind of human being this guy [Bennington] is. It’s not all about him sounding just like someone. I’m talking about the quality of the human being and that means a lot to me, Dean and Eric.

Using the relationship analogy again, you come out of a bad one and you just want to have fun.
DeLeo: I wake up every fucking day and I put my life in perspective. Here’s a perfect example: we were doing pre-production one day, we were working on «Out of Time,» and I had to stop. I just looked at the four of us down in my basement and I went, «Do you guys realize where we’re at right now?» We’re down in my basement right now, and 35 years ago that’s where I started using a tennis racket, which came to a guitar, which came to other people involved and playing other people’s music. That all developed in the basement. So to come around full-circle 35 years later, to be a grown man and have us all playing in the basement, that’s pretty fucking beautiful. It puts things in perspective, and my point is I don’t ever want to lose vision of how important it is that my childhood dream has become reality and that’s gonna continue for the four of us.

Bennington: The weird thing is, I come in and we sit down and we’re all telling the same fucking fart jokes in the same funny voice. Things just were going at hyperspeed all the way. We know each other, but we don’t know each other intimately. Now we’re all really great friends, and we know that the only way to justify this type of move is to be a band that feels like this is our thing and we’re creating our music and our vibe. There are gonna be a lot of expectations from fans, mostly from the Stone Temple Pilots crowd and in some way the Linkin Park crowd, because they’re gonna wonder what could possibly be cool enough to take your attention away. You want to be an astronaut, you’re already in fucking outer space with a whole different crew.

The thing is, for me, it’s an opportunity to write with these guys, play rock & roll music that I like to play, and the competitor in me is like I want the challenge. I get off on the challenge of making something this difficult work. This is coming into a very well-known group that has a legacy and musically has some of the best songs written of its time. So to maintain that identity and stay true to that, there’s the pressure. But then also to take the reins and create something new and create our own vibe still feels very true to what the fans expect musically. Those are challenges we take very seriously, so that’s why I think being independent right now, with no label, and we’re doing everything on our own, we are able to produce the songs the way we want them to be produced. We are able to put out music when we want to. We don’t have to follow an album kind of thing – we can make one song at a time and put it out. And people are going to be interested in coming out to see us play, and that’s where it all matters. We show up with good songs and let the music do the talking.

The whole thing has gone better than expected, and I think making the music has been the hardest part. But, dude, you listened to the EP, there’s a vibe going on there. There’s a consistent vibe throughout the tracks that I feel really represent who we are as a band.

It starts off as more straight-ahead rock & roll, but I feel like «Tomorrow» ventures off a bit – more epic – and «Cry, Cry» is a bridge between the tracks.

DeLeo: Chester wrote that one. You always have a bank of songs that are hanging out, but for this it really was a matter of erasing the board, starting over again. That was a really big inspiration for me, to have this chance to wipe the slate clean and really start over again with this new energy.