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ARTICLES
Rollingstone
January 18, 2000
NEW FACES
LINKIN PARK
by Jenny Eliscu
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A BIT OF TRIVIA: IN THE entire thirty-seven minutes and fifty-three seconds of Linkin Park's rage-filled rap-rock debut, Hybrid Theory, you won't hear a single curse word. "We just want to be honest and not hide any emotions with vulgarity," says vocalist Chester Bennington.
Hybrid Theory may not carry a parental-warning label, but with as much potency as albums by Limp Bizkit or Korn, it reflects the frustration of life as a twentysomething dude- "the everyday struggle that you get stressed out by," according to MC Mike Shinoda. Stacked with catchy, pissed-off rockers like "One Step Closer," the album debuted at Number Sixteen on the Billboard 200 albums chart and within a month of its release sold 289,000 copies.
"When I met them," says Don Gilmore, "I was expecting some darker creatures. But these guys are very smart, very happy, and they're all sort of spiritual." Adds Shinoda, "The topics of the songs may not be positive, but I think people can relate to them in a positive way."
A graduate of the Pasadena Art Center College of Design, Shinoda formed Linkin Park in 1995. He talks about benchmark rap-rock moments- Run DMC and Aerosmith's "Walk This Way," Public Enemy and Anthrax's joint 1991 tour, the Judgement Night soundtrack- as life-changing events but says Linkin Park aim to take that mix one step further. "We want to make songs where you can't tell the rap part from the rock part from the electronic part," he explains.
The band landed a publishing deal the night of its very first show - before a scant crowd at LA's Whisky - but it wasn't until it recruited Phoenix native Bennington two years ago that things really jelled. "There is so much passion, so much adrenaline in his singing," says Gilmore. "In the studio, he would go off like he was insane." For all the rage they project, though, Linkin Park want to be seen as approachable- regular guys with regular problems, who just so happen to be budding rock stars. "People see us after a show," Bennington says, "and it's like, 'Wait a second- you're supposed to be this scary guy, and you're not.'" He describes himself as a "happy-go-lucky dude" and says playing music has served as a kind of therapy to help him work through childhood trauma. "I've never talked about it," he says nervously. "I was molested when I was a kid [by a friend]." Following five years of sexual abuse and the divorce of his parents when he was eleven, Bennington became addicted to cocaine and methamphetamine in his early teens. "I went straight in the wrong fucking direction," he says. "That's where I get some of my intensity from, and I think that fuels the music we write."
"In this country, people do not think about the sensitivity of young men," Bennington adds. "It's a real tragedy. For kids to be able to listen to bands like us who are able to express ourselves-not through violence and vulgarity-I think it helps them learn to express themselves."
INFLUENCES
Chester Bennington
 Getting Tattooed..It is the most painful and excruciating experience, yet at the same time beautiful and enlightening. When people look at my tattoos, I want them to see congruency and something kind of unfolding. Fashion..I'm the only member of this band who needs a carrying-kit cargo case for my wardrobe. I've got shoes that go with every outfit, my underwear has to match my outfits, my socks have to match my shoes and my pants-everything is a very big deal to me.
Fight Club...Brad Pitt is a fucking punk-rock god in that movie. Everything about it is brilliant. I definately think it nails American culture on the head.
Cooking..I like to cook: That's why my wife stays married to me. I can make a steak with salt and pepper, and it will be the best steak you've ever had in your life. I think the special ingredient is love.
TOP FIVE ALBUMS:
1)Fugazi, 13 Songs-it has a real raw sound: It wasn't punk, it wasn't ska, it was just this weird, funky vibe that was totally different.
2)Al Green, Greatest Hits-Soul music and old R&B is probably the most perfectly perfect music ever. It's damn sexy and, man, when that boy sings, it just pulls your soul up.
3)Led Zeppelin, IV-Quite possibly the greatest rock record ever written. Every song on that record is my favorite Led Zeppelin song.
4)The Beatles, the White Album-Nobody has ever used melodies like they do, before or since. They had four guys who were just completely on top of their game.
5)Stone Temple Pilots, Purple-Scott Weiland rules the fucking stage. He owns that microphone, and that's what I want to do.
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FARMCLUB.COM
Linkin Park Tests 'Theory' On The Road
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Southern California band Linkin Park, which has already made a name for itself with the debut album "Hybrid Theory," will help cement the group's growing popularity with its first-ever headlining tour.
The band - Chester Bennington (vocals), Mike Shinoda (vocals), Brad Delson (guitar), Joseph Hahn (DJ/samples) and Rob Bourdon (drums) - combines a hard rock foundation with hip-hop and electronic touches
Regarding the eclectic nature of the band's sound, Delson responds: "We told our manager, 'Pick a band and we can tour with them.' Our music reaches out in so many directions that there's pretty much an unlimited amount of cool bands with which we could play."
As for the group's origins, Delson and Shinoda went to the same high school together, where Delson also met Bourdon. Shinoda found Hahn while studying painting at the Pasadena Art Center, with Bennington eventually rounding out the quintet.
"Since I learned how to talk, I've been telling everybody I was gonna grow up to be a singer," recalls Bennington. "When I was two, I used to run around singing Foreigner songs - there's tapes of me doing that." - Chester Bennington.
While we wait for those tapes to land on Napster, fans can hear the band on their current tour, which also features Taproot.
"I've wanted to do this my whole life, and I feel really blessed to be here," says Bennington. "A lot of hard work and dedication and faith can get you through anything and make it happen."
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Guitar World
December,2000
LINKIN PARK
Local Heroes
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When the Los Angeles quintet Linkin Park had to change its name from Hybrid Theory for legal reasons - it's now the title of the group's debut album - it had no idea the new moniker would instantly endear it to audiences around the country.
"There's actually a park in Santa Monica, where we live, called Lincoln Park, so we thought that was a cool name and started using it," explains guitarist Brad Delson, a 22-year old UCLA grad who ditched plans to attend law school in order to push the band. "We went on tour right after we changed the name, and we pretty quickly realized there was a Lincoln Park in every town. Kids would come up to us and go, 'Dude! You're from Lincoln Park too? What side?'
"The joke, basically, is that everywhere we go, people think we're local. So in that respect, it's a really cool name."
And, Delson notes, it's a way for "another rap-rock band" to get a foot in the door of a crowded field. Of course, Linkin Park considers itself a step apart from that scene. Delson-- who founded the group four years ago with high school pal and MC Mike Shinoda - feels that the band's influences help make it distinct, combining hard and industrial sources such as Nine Inch Nails and Deftones with hip-hoppers who are "more intelligent than party-oriented," like the Roots, Black-Eyed Peas and Mos Def.
And, Delson notes, his guitar is most definately the dominant element in Linkin Park's sonic blend-particularly on the grinding "One Step Closer," the band's current single.
"Even though there are so many influences in our music, it's fair to say it's definately guitar-driven," he says. "If a song doesn't start with a hip-hop beat, it starts with a guitar riff. The band pushed me to come up with the coolest, hardest, most interesting riffs I can, so I'm definately in your face on the album."
-Gary Graff
AXOLOGY
Guitars: Paul Reed Smith Standard, Ibanez RB 7-string
Amps: Mesa/Boogie Dual Rectifier, Marshall cabinets
Strings: D'Addario 10-gauge
Currently listening to: Taproot-Gift, The Roots-Illadelph Halflife
Alltime Favorite Album: Sunny Day Real Estate-Diary
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Guitar One
January, 2001
Breakthrough Artist
LINKIN PARK
By Tom Lanham
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Roughly a year ago, Brad Delson thought his future was set. After years of arduous book- cracking-he plowed through so many texts he still owes his alma mater, UCLA, some long- overdue library fines-he graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Communications, and made plans to attend law school the next semester. But a funny thing happened on the way to the legal-eagle forum: The band he'd formed for fun four years earlier, Hybrid Theory (soon to be rechristened Linkin Park), started attracting attention, serious publishing-deal/ major-label attention.
It wasn't a difficult decision. Delson chose the high road, ditched enrollment, and began showcasing for contract-waving execs around Los Angeles.
Sure enough, the guitarist, now only 22, was rewarded for his efforts. Warner Bros. snapped the group up in a millisecond. "We just put all of our eggs in one basket and went for it," Delson recalls. "And it's really paid off. Even my parents were totally supportive. I mean, giving up law for music? I don't think a lot of parents would encourage their children to pursue music, because it's not the most financially stable thing to do."
True enough. But 'Hybrid Theory,' Linkin Park's major-label debut, could rocket Delson and company to the Limp Bizkit big time. Unlike the albums of other rap-rock notables of late, Linkin Park's disc melds metal and hip-hop in a unique, hook-oriented fashion, a la English pioneers Black Grape, even tracing it back a few years to the softer schematics aggro anthems like 'Papercut,' 'Crawling,' and the lead-off radio hit 'One Step Closer' smartly blend Delson's alternately jagged and fluid guitar riffs with the surly scratching of DJ Joseph Hahn, punched aloft by Rob Bourdon's dinosaur drumbeat. And for most of the choruses, the cocktail-smooth crooning of co-frontman Chester Bennington succumbs to the insistent snap-snarl of MC/Toastmaster Mike Shinoda. No wonder Linkin Park wound up wowing the bigwigs-"Hybrid Theory" is a heady entry in a rap-rock race populated by dolts. We're talking one helluva smart rock record here.
Along the creative path, Delson recalls, many naysayers cajoled him, told him he got it wrong. The group should sound more like Limp Bizkit and Kid Rock, it should follow that well-outlined map to rap-rock riches. "But we've been very conscious of preserving our artistic vision in the face of such criticism," Delson says. "And we didn't really think about it. This is just how we started writing songs. Mike (whom Delson knew since junior high) had exclusively been producing hip-hop beats for MCs and had done band stuff, so it was our brainchild to pool our creative energies and start writing songs. Now," he adds proudly, "our sound is so cohesive, it's really difficult to separate the hip-hop from the rock."
And part of the reason for that is Bennington, an Arizona native who impressed a then- singerless group by tracking his vocal parts over the band's rough-hewn demo tape in a professional recording studio-he wanted the job that bad. Another reason is Delson himself, a self-confessed disciple of MTV (he knows every character and every episode of the network's 'Real World' series) who has one mission in six-string life: "I'm a song structure nut, and I want to write songs that really capture the listener's attention and take them on a journey each time. So we really worked on our songwriting for a long time, because we wanted each of the 12 cuts on 'Hybrid Theory' to be as strong as the others.
"And our music is definately emotional," Delson continues. Instrumentally, how did he capture those emotions? "On the record, I played a Paul Reed Smith, which I love. And the reason I love that guitar is that it's so versatile, in terms of its distorted sound and its clean sound. That's why I also like to play it live, because I don't lose anything when I go back and forth from the cleans to the heavy parts. But I also used an Ibanez on the record, which I love for its heavier sound. And I doubled almost every guitar part, first with the PRS, which we split-panned, left and right. And for the really heavy parts, I'd do two more tracks with the Ibanez. So there were often four tracks, and each of those tracks is my guitar going through a mixture of heads and amps that created one tone. so the guitar you're hearing on the record is pretty much just a wall of guitar; it came from a lot of layering."
And, believe it or not, Delson says he's still in touch with a lot of his old college chums. Several of them called to congratulate him when LA radio station KROQ put "One Step Closer" in heavy rotation. "They were almost as excited as we were about the sudden attention the band's been getting!"
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Lyrics
