LINKIN PARK bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell and new vocalist Emily Armstrong recently discussed the band’s journey, new music and evolving dynamics in an interview with Justin Scott and Spiegel on the 98 Rock radio station. Regarding how she ended up joining LINKIN PARK as the replacement for the late Chester Bennington, Emily said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It kind of started back in 2019. I thought it was just writing with Mike [Shinoda, LINKIN PARK co-vocalist and main producer], which it was — it wasn’t something that was a preconceived idea of what they were gonna do next. But it wasn’t until I came back in 2022, I believe — I don’t know — ’23, somewhere in there. But I just basically just kept showing up and they just had to deal with it and be, like, ‘Okay, I guess she thinks she’s proved herself enough.'”Farrell chimed in: “From our side, Mike, Joe [Hahn, LINKIN PARK DJ/visual director] and I got together and were just kind of saying, ‘Let’s be intentional about spending some time together. Let’s talk. Let’s see if we write anything we like, but let’s not put any labels on what it is or what we’re doing. Then also let’s just start getting together with other people, whether it be other songwriters, other vocalists, other instrumentalists, and let’s just see what happens.'”I’m the type of person that I can really paralyze myself thinking that I need to have the whole plan mapped out before I start,” he explained. “And this was one where, when I looked at it, I was, like, if I have to figure out what the band looks like — do we play catalog songs when we play live? Do we even play live anymore? Are we releasing new music? Is it an album? Is it a single? — all these things? At a certain point, I kind of just had to tell myself, like, ‘I don’t need to figure out any of that on the front end. Let’s just see what happens, be in the moment, see if we like it.’ We might get together and start writing and just be, like, ‘This is all just horseshit.’ And then it’s, like, none of that needs to be planned. At that point, it would almost be freeing because you’re, like, ‘Okay, good. We tried it and this does not work.’ You can kind of shoot yourself down before you even start. With this, it was, like, ‘I love these guys. I love this band. I love the relationships we have. I love our fans. I love all of that stuff. So let’s just see what happens.’ And then in that process, Emily was kind of alluding to it, but very early on it was, like, ‘Let’s get Emily in the room. She’s an awesome vocalist. Let’s see what that’s like.’ And then [new LINKIN PARK drummer] Colin [Brittain]. Mike had worked with Colin on some other projects and things. It was, like, ‘Let’s get together with Colin as a writer and just see what we write together.’ And it wasn’t, like, ‘Let’s be a band.’ But in the process of years, it was, like, ‘These two are awesome. This vibe that we have all together is great. We love the feel of what this is. Let’s keep adding more and more time and energy into that.’ And it gradually got to sitting here with you guys.”Asked if the LINKIN PARK members had any songs “ready to go” before starting the sessions with various singers, including Emily, Dave said: “We had started writing. Our writing process is pretty open generally, and there isn’t like a start-stop put on anything. We’re always doing a version of writing. But when Mike and Joe and myself kind of first got back together and were saying, ‘Let’s even see what we can do,’ that process took a while and we gradually were adding people in and working with writers and vocalists and instrumentalists and whatever. But in that process, yeah, gradually just Emily and Colin were the fit. They were the ones that — it just jelled. It’s hard to talk about ’cause there isn’t an easy set of words to make that make sense, but it was just right.”I was telling people very early on — they’d ask me about Emily. My inner circle or family would know obviously what I’m doing and what we’re looking at and my description of Emily was that she is the absolute destroyer vocally,” he explained. “[She] can do all the things and can just do them in a way that seems so effortless and awesome. But even more importantly, Emily just fits with us. It felt like we had known each other forever when we first started getting together, and it was just easy and fluid, relationally, in that sense. So for us, that was one of the biggest things.”I didn’t want to keep doing music if it didn’t still feel exciting and have an energy and a joy to it that I love about the band,” Dave added. “If it didn’t feel right, then — I don’t know… It’d make more sense to be doing something else. But in the process of this, for me, I think where we all kind of came together on it was, like, ‘This is the right feel.'”LINKIN PARK announced its new lineup during a September 2024 one-hour global livestream of a concert in Los Angeles showcasing Armstrong and Brittain.Last month, LINKIN PARK released a new song, “Up From The Bottom”. The track, which has already been streamed more than 10 million times on Spotify since its arrival, marks the band’s first new music since the release of the “From Zero” comeback album last November.”Up From the Bottom” will appear on a deluxe edition of “From Zero”, due out May 16 via Warner.”From Zero (Deluxe Edition)” 2CD is a limited pressing. It features a four-panel softpak packaging with 16-page booklet and showcases three new songs, five live tracks recorded around the world and all new, expanded packaging.LINKIN PARK kicked off the 2025 leg of its “From Zero” world tour on January 31 at Estadio GNP Seguros in Mexico City, Mexico. The trek will resume on April 26 at Austin, Texas’s Moody Center.In late January, LINKIN PARK released an a cappella/vocals-only version of “From Zero”, dubbed “From Zero – A Cappellas”.The original version of “From Zero” marked LINKIN PARK’s first full-length effort since 2017’s “One More Light”, which was the last LINKIN PARK album before Bennington’s death. “From Zero” features Armstrong and Brittain, who have joined returning members Shinoda, guitarist Brad Delson, Farrell and Hahn in the band’s new lineup. Guitarist Alex Feder is filling in for Delson at all LINKIN PARK concerts for the foreseeable future.Photo credit: Jimmy Fontaine[embedded content]