Emily Armstrong has proven her ability to front Linkin Park with her impressive vocal range and distinctive tone, silencing any doubts about her capabilities. While singing wasn’t her original goal, she has shown herself to be more than up to the task.
In an interview with Q101, Armstrong shared that she took on the role of vocalist out of necessity, due to a lack of consistent singers.
“I had singer friends. I never wanted to be a singer”, she said. “So I’d have people sing the songs that I wrote, and that was like… I just loved being in a band, you know? Obviously, I ended up being a singer. I was kind of forced into it, just because the singers that came and went – I was just kind of annoyed, people leaving and coming and going. I didn’t realize at the time I wanted it to sound a certain way. I realized that later. We were about to do a little tour up the coast of California, and the singer couldn’t do it. And then I was like, ‘Okay, I guess I’ll just do it.'”
“It was kind of annoying”, she added. “I was like, ‘Okay, I wrote the songs. I’ll do it.’ But then at that point, I was just kind of like, ‘Okay,’ so once I started getting in front of people, I was like, ‘Okay, there’s something to this. I’m still not the best.’ But I could hear it. I clicked into that, and then I just started going into that mentality of just chasing that sound that I heard so well in my head and realizing, ‘Oh, I can’t get anybody to do this.'”
Armstrong revealed that she still harbors the big dream of simply being in a band, without the responsibility of being the singer: “You can’t articulate something like that, you just have to do it”, she told. “And so I started doing it, and I found so much pleasure doing it and being in a band and writing the songs and having it just come to life in a way. But at the same time, it’s a dream to be in a band with another singer because that’s always been something that I really wanted.”
Linkin Park has released a new song and its accompanying music video, “Up From The Bottom“, marking their first new track since the From Zero comeback album dropped last November. Joe Hahn, who directed the video, described “Up From The Bottom” as “the best song we’ve ever made”, while bandmate Mike Shinoda stated that “it’s one of the best videos we’ve ever had”.
“Up From the Bottom” will be included in a deluxe edition of From Zero, set for release on May 16 via Warner.
“We are so grateful for the incredible reception to From Zero“, Shinoda commented. “This new chapter, our continuing journey, and the connection between the band and fans has been more than we could’ve hoped for. Thank you for listening.”
The original From Zero album, released last November, was Linkin Park‘s first full-length record since 2017’s One More Light, which was the band’s final album before the passing of lead vocalist Chester Bennington.
