High Rise

High Rise is the name of the EP and sole release by Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington.

Background

Stone Temple Pilots fired their long time lead singer Scott Weiland on February 27, 2013 which resulted in a legal battle. In the end, the band was still allowed to use the name Stone Temple Pilots without Scott.

On May 18, 2013 at the KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine, California, Stone Temple Pilots performed as the surprise act before 30 Seconds to Mars (the second to last act before The Black Keys). To the surprise of everyone, Chester Bennington was the front man for the band. The thread from LPLive that night read, "In a move that has caught seemingly everyone from the Linkin Park fanbase to the Stone Temple Pilot fanbase to music fans in general off guard, Chester joined the Stone Temple Pilots on stage at the 2013 KROQ Weenie Roast in Irvine, CA as the lead singer for the band. The band was the "surprise guest" of the show, similar to what Foo Fighters did to Linkin Park in 2011 at the show - showing up and playing unannounced as a surprise. A timed release of a brand new song "Out Of Time" to KROQ followed the performance, with STP issuing a press release and Chester even confirming that he hasn't left Linkin Park."

KROQ added: "If seeing is believing, the audience at Weenie Roast 2013 definitely left as believers in the power of music. The unbelievable magic of the night was doubly-amplified after all the amazing sets earlier when sonic swamis of alt-stadium rock, Stone Temple Pilots, brought Chester Bennington from Linkin Park out as a featured vocalist." Rolling Stone said, "As the rotating stage turned around following a joyous set from Vampire Weekend, the opening notes of Stone Temple Pilots’ "Vasoline" filled the Verizon Wireless Ampitheater. On the drum riser, a man stood with his back to the audience until it came time to deliver the opening line, "One time a thing occurred to me." And with that, the venue exploded as Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington turned and leaped into action, filling in on this night for the recently fired Scott Weiland."

After KROQ debuted "Out of Time" on the radio immediately after the performance, the band issued a press release, updated their website, and provided fans with a free download of the track. "Chester has a one-of-a-kind voice that we’ve admired for a long time," said guitarist Dean DeLeo. "We know Linkin Park will always be his priority, but we thought it would be cool to try something together. We managed to find the time to record a song and we’re all really happy with the result." Chester said, "I've loved STP since I was 13 years old and they've had a huge influence on me. When the opportunity came up to do something creative with them, I jumped at the chance. The guys in Linkin Park have been incredibly supportive of me undertaking this project while I've continued to work on new music with LP."

Chester added on Twitter: "Just played the first show with STP! It was fucking AMAZING!", "Check out our new song available for download free now at http://stonetemplepilots.com", and "FYI, I will never leave LP. We are currently working on a new record and its awesome!"

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Chester said, "When you get together and put a new piece in, there's a whole different energy. For us the creative juices have just been flowing - we've been writing, we have tons of great ideas. Next week we're going back in the studio and hammering out some more music. We don't have a label. Everything ' doing is on our own, so we're just taking it one track at a time. We would love to sit down and hammer out a record, but the reality is we're gonna make music, we're gonna make a lot of it, and we're gonna be in a position to release a single at a time, go out and really give people music the way they want to get it. It is a good position to be in, and for us, all we care about is going out, making the legacy as great as it needs to be, as great as people expect it to be, and coming out with new music that lives up to that standard."

Composition

In July 2013, Robert and Dean DeLeo said most Stone Temple Pilots songs start out on acoustic guitars and evolve from there. They explained that one song on the EP was worked on with "Out Of Time", so they'd be finishing that one as well as three more for the five song EP. Due to time constraints with Linkin Park, family, and touring, it would be hard to make a full length album.

In regards to writing this EP, the band said, "Traditionally we record in very large studios, this time we recorded in a basement."

Chester told Fuse, "In terms of style, when the DeLeo brothers get in the studio together and start writing, they have a very unique way of putting chords together and structures of the type of the chord progressions they put together. So in that sense, it's going to be undeniably the sound of STP, I mean they're the heart and soul of the band. Naturally, I'm not Scott so I'm not going to think of the same melodies, I'm not going to think of the same lyrical content and such so in that sense naturally there's going to be a difference in how I interpret what the band puts together musically. I think that's a reason we are so eager to get the EP out, because we want people to hear the new direction and feel the vibe of the new music because there's definitely a vibe in the new EP that feels fresh and new but it's still STP. When we started writing, the ideas came so fast and every single day it seemed like there were four or five things we were each bringing in terms of new songs. We could have easily spent three more months on this thing and had a full length record out. There's enough material there for us to do that and get into the next one. So, in terms of amount of creativity that's been going on, it's very healthy."

Release

On July 15, 2013, Stone Temple Pilots announced a fall tour and that a new EP entitled "High Rise" would be released. The band's press release stated: "STP members Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo and Eric Kretz made their live debut with Chester Bennington at KROQ's Weenie Roast in May. Since their surprise performance, the band has been busy working on new music for an upcoming EP to be released this fall. In an effort to take control of the way they will be delivering new music in the future, STP will release the upcoming EP via their own label, with distribution through ADA (Alternative Distribution Alliance). Robert DeLeo said, "We're very ambitious about the future of making music. The process and intention of creating it is so much more gratifying. We've been writing new material and visiting songs from our early albums. It all feels new again and we're excited to get out and play a solid set of songs both old and new.""

The EP was released on October 8, 2013. On October 3, 2013, the EP was exclusively premiered on Pandora Radio.

Follow Up Release

In October 2013, Eric said, "There's a whole flood of music that's waiting to come. We just need the time to get in there to put a full length record together. Definitely next year there will be a full length LP with a bunch of bonus songs. We put this together, but we had a bunch of song ideas that we moved past because these songs just jumped out. We put them together as fluidly as possible to develop that chemistry."

Eric in December 2013 said that the band planned on releasing a full album in 2014, "We had so little time, from the time that Chester joined the band. We got the first song out, 'Out Of Time,' in correlation with doing the KROQ Weenie Roast - we were surprise guests on that bill. At this point we're, like, 'Okay, we need to try and make an album,' but Chester was going on tour with Linkin Park to Asia through the month of June. So it was, 'Okay, we've got so little time here'. Chester was working on Linkin Park's new album in the mornings, and then in the afternoon, he'd come and sing with us all night long, and never complain. He never blew his voice out. He's a complete professional all the way across. It's just a timing thing. We're definitely going to have an album out, and we're going to keep touring now. The plan now is to do the Soundwave tour with Green Day over in Australia, and that's in February. Linkin Park's going to fire up their machine at some point next year, so I would say we would complete a full-length LP next year while Linkin Park is out touring the record they're working on right now."

Linkin Park's touring for The Hunting Party took up most of Chester's 2014, but Stone Temple Pilots did have time for six shows scattered throughout the year. While on tour in spring 2015, Dean DeLeo played snippets of new songs to guests at shows.

Ultimately, no album was released and Chester ended up leaving the band in fall 2015.

Track Listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Out Of Time	Stone Temple Pilots	3:04
2	Black Heart		3:10
3	Same On The Inside		3:15
4	Cry Cry		3:28
5	Tomorrow		3:31

Personnel

• Chester Bennington – lead vocals
• Dean DeLeo – guitar
• Robert DeLeo – bass, backing vocals
• Eric Kretz – drums

Additional personnel:

• Production by Stone Temple Pilots
• Recorded at Homefry Studios
• Recorded & Engineered by Russ Fowler
• Assistant Engineer: Jared Hirshland
• Studio Guitar Tech: Bruce Nelson
• Studio Drum Tech: Jarrett Borba
• Mixed by[Ben Grosse at The Mix Room in Burbank, California
• Mix Assistant: Paul Pavao
• Mastered by Tom Baker at Baker Mastering in Calabasas, California
• Original "Check It" Image Art Work by Chester Bennington
• Band Photo by Chapman Baehler
• Layout Design by Great Daane Graphics
• Published by ChesterChaz Publishing (BMI)/Brain Tan Music (ASCAP)/I, Myself And Me (ASCAP)/Fast Fog Music (ASCAP)
• Chester Bennington appears courtesy of Warner Bros. Records

Gallery

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  EP front cover