Dave ‘Phoenix’ Farrell Says Linkin Park’s Comeback Has ‘Gone Very Well’

It has been over a year since Linkin Park stunned the music world by emerging from hiatus with a new lineup and a new album, From Zero. While the return has been met with commercial dominance and sold-out stadiums, bassist Dave “Phoenix” Farrell admits that the road to resurrection was paved with anxiety, “sleepless nights,” and deep uncertainty regarding the band’s future following the tragic 2017 death of Chester Bennington.

In a revealing new interview with Argentina’s UnDinamo, Farrell opened up about the internal struggles that preceded the band’s decision to carry on. He confessed that early attempts to regroup were fraught with difficulty.

“We’d had a couple of stops and starts, after Chester passed away, of writing music, and from my vantage point, it was just too hard,” Farrell explained (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “It felt emotionally challenging. I liked some of the stuff we were writing and I loved spending time with those guys, but just starting to touch upon things that still felt painful and so sensitive, it was too much.”

For years, the surviving members—Farrell, Mike Shinoda, and Joe Hahn—would gather for a week, only to retreat for six months when the weight of the legacy became too heavy. Farrell described a period of intense personal anxiety as he tried to predict how a reunion would work.

“For me, it was so liberating because I had spent sleepless nights trying to figure out all the answers to all the questions of what it would mean or look like to do Linkin Park again,” he said. “All of those fears, they would just get me so anxious and keep me up at night, trying to answer the 10,000 different questions that needed answers for that to go forward.”

The breakthrough came when the group decided to strip away the expectations. roughly two or three years ago, they agreed to create music without the burden of the Linkin Park name attached to it.

“[We] kind of just said, ‘Let’s throw all that out the window. Let’s just make stuff, and let’s see if we even like it. Let’s not make it under the headline of ‘This is new Linkin Park music,'” Farrell recalled. “Let’s just test if we can still be creative together… and let’s not put any burden of figuring out what it is or what to do with it on to it.”

This low-pressure environment allowed the chemistry to develop naturally with new vocalist Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain. However, even after the music was written, Farrell harbored concerns about the physical realities of touring. With the core members getting older and new faces in the mix, the rigors of the road were a legitimate worry.

“I didn’t know what to expect… There’s all those questions of the wear and tear that the travel and everything is gonna take on your body and for the vocalists on vocals and everything like that,” Farrell admitted. “Thankfully at this point, a year-plus into it, it’s gone very well. Everyone has stayed relatively healthy… And the shows have been great.”

Regarding the polarizing nature of replacing a legendary frontman, Farrell remains philosophical. He acknowledged that while the internet will always be a source of “difficult things,” fear of criticism was not a good enough reason to stay dormant.

“I think everybody deals with grief differently and everybody has a right to do it their own way… I felt like it was really important, for me personally, to just keep living,” Farrell stated. “The notion that somebody might not like it should never be a reason to not release something or do something new moving forward.”

The band’s gamble appears to have paid off. From Zero, released via Warner in November 2024, propelled the group to massive heights, with the single “The Emptiness Machine” hitting No. 1. The band, now rounded out by guitarist Alex Feder (touring in place of Brad Delson), holds the distinction of being the only rock act to exceed two billion streams in 2024. A deluxe edition of the album was subsequently released in May.