In the past two years, the whole rap-rock fad has pretty much been run into the ground. The formulaic shuffle between pugilistic hip-hop verses and melodic choruses has grown stale, and the roar of percussive down-tuned guitars has gotten so played out that all the volume and rage is no longer jarring or visceral.
It would seem that many acts that formerly led the revolution — including Korn, Papa Roach and Kid Rock — have revamped their sounds in an attempt to survive, and other more stubborn bands have been left scrambling to hang onto their fan base, much of which has gravitated to hip-hop or pop-punk in a quest for new kicks.
And yet Linkin Park, whose debut album, Hybrid Theory was America’s best-selling album of 2001 and stayed at number one on the ARIA charts for nine consecutive weeks, have kept their fans hooked and begging for more. Backstage at Sydney’s Entertainment Centre just prior to the bands sold out show, media commitments take the back seat as priority is with the band’s fan club “LP Underground” that are scheduled in for a meet and greet.
Linkin Park’s tremendous success is somewhat baffling since they cling so tightly to the increasingly taboo rap-metal formula, shun rock-star antics and lack any sort of celebrity charisma. Even the band’s casual fans might have a tough time picking the faces of vocalists Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington, DJ Joseph Hahn, guitarist Brad Delson, bassist Phoenix and drummer Rob Bourdon out of a crowd. In fact, if they are recognised – it is quiet possibly for the wrong reason.
“I have an anecdote I would like to share with you in this interview” guitarist Brad Delson offers. “Last Christmas, a radio station back in the states [K-ROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas] puts on a show with eleven or twelve great acts, and its really hard to get tickets and you have to win them from the station itself” Explains Delson “So anyhow, I was just walking around, and this guy runs up to me, tells me how fantastic I was tonight and asks for a picture. Weird part was; Linkin Park didn’t play that night, so, when my brother asked him what band he thought I played in, he answered Wolfmother!
The stereotype rock & roll behavior has been captured forever in the iconic stories of Mötley Crüe & Ozzy Osbourne, however, the cliché of “sex, drugs and rock & roll” seems to be far from the creature comforts that Linkin Park indulge on tour “People always want to find something exciting about us, but to be honest we’re pretty boring,” added Hahn. “People wouldn’t be too excited to come backstage and hang out with us. We don’t party or anything, we just play Xbox and we’re pretty mellow. When we play a show for 20,000 people, that’s the highlight for the night. You can’t go backstage after that and try and top it, so we just wait until the next show.”
They’re not fashionably self-destructive, they’re not loudmouths, you would struggle to ever see them in tabloid magazines. So just what is it that allows Linkin Park to thrive when others rap-rock bands are struggling? In part, it’s the frustration, heartache and loneliness that spirals through the band’s radio-ready songs. Lyrics dealing with issues such about divorce, howling about bad relationships or screaming about domestic abuse, Linkin Park transfer their pain into powerful music that seems to work with its varied fan base.
Not all Linkin Park fans are drawn to the impressive lyrical nature that the band showcase. Just as many are attracted by their churning music, which elates, agitates and inspires. Reminiscent of the way Nirvana perfected the soft verse/loud chorus recipe, Linkin Park have mastered rap-metal. They weren’t the first or even the 101st to take on the style, but they integrate the elements better than almost anyone, and in the process pull in a diverse range of metal, pop and hip-hop fans.
Minuets To Midnight is a logical progression from Hybrid Theory & Meteora. Once again, the band flaunts an arsenal of riffs that buzz like taunted bees; syncopated beats and dizzying scratching, which power the rhythms; and vocal hooks that offset the aggressive raps and frost the songs with commercial sheen. But this time, Linkin Park embellished their tunes with experimental flourishes. Many tracks are laden with bizarre samples and instruments.
“What we really wanted to do was just push ourselves and push each other to really find new ways to be creative,” Hahn said. “We wanted each sample that was in each song to be something that might perk your ear — something that you might not have ever heard before.”
They took a major step toward experimentation with their 2002 remix album, Reanimation, on which they reinterpreted Hybrid Theory with the help of a range of other artists including Kutmasta Kurt, Pharoahe Monch, Aceyalone, Korn’s Jonathan Davis, Staind’s Aaron Lewis and Orgy’s Jay Gordon. This was a crucial step in the evolution as a band, as what they gleaned from those sessions they implemented on Meteora and Minuets To Midnight.
“We got to see a lot of different styles of writing that we ordinarily wouldn’t have explored,” Delson said “I think that really helped to evolve our writing process.”
Of course, ambition has its price. In their crusade for innovation, Linkin Park became dangerously obsessive, endlessly looping samples, chopping them up and playing them backwards and recording countless takes of different songs. Shinoda and Bennington wrote 40 choruses to the single “What I’ve Done” before they had one their band mates were happy with. When Bourdon was in the studio he suffered from insomnia, and when he managed to fall asleep he dreamed of drum patterns gone awry.
Even though they’re each only a few minutes long, the songs on Minuets To Midnight are complete expressions. “We think of our songs like little movies,” Delson said, scratching his scruffy beard. “You want the type of story that builds to a climax. You have the twist or the fight scene, then a tiny realization at the end. And somehow, by the time we’re done, it always comes out to be about the same size.”
Considering that the band wrote 30 cuts, fans might wonder why there aren’t more than 12 on the final LP — or they may just be thankful they don’t have to wade through so-so material to get to the good stuff, a problem with more than a few current albums.
“We wanted a group of songs that would sit well together because we wanted to make a record that you could pop into your CD player and, from beginning to end, there would never be a spot where you start daydreaming,” Bourdon explained.
With eight million copies of Hybrid Theory sold, Linkin Park have been successful enough to earn what every band wants — complete artistic control. And when they use the words “complete control,” they don’t mean hiring other people to handle everything except the music. DJ Joseph Hahn has shot the majority of the band’s videos, Shinoda has overseen most of the artwork, including the 40-page insert for Meteora, and the full group plays a major role in coordinating fan-club activity.
The only problem with being so consumed with all aspects of your work is it leaves little time for anything else. And when such an intense album schedule is coupled with a lengthy worldwide tour itinerary, tensions can start to boil. The wear and tear of being away from friends and family heavily informed Minuets To Midnight and coloured the claustrophobic vibe of the songs.
“When you haven’t done anything normal like going shopping or going to the supermarket, things get really weird,” Bourdon said. “Everything becomes a different life and every day is busier than the one before it. It’s all really exciting and we try to stay in a good frame of mind, but sometimes it gets hectic and stressful and you feel like you can’t breathe. Just being at home is like a vacation.”
Unlike the many bands whose members become snippy under duress, Linkin Park survives strain by bonding together. When they discovered how hard it was to maintain a relationship on the road, and learned how many people they considered friends were actually opportunists, they turned inward, gaining strength from their own chemistry.
“We consider ourselves really fortunate to have a good relationship between the six of us,” Hahn said. “Before we even had a record deal, before we did Hybrid Theory, we were spending a good amount of our time together as friends. So what that really provides us with is a good safety net. We really look out for one another and I think everybody does a great job not only caring for one another, but also keeping everybody on track.”
That doesn’t mean Linkin Park don’t occasionally bicker. All of the band members are passionate about what they do, and since each has veto power over any new musical passage, the working environment can become tense.
“If we hear something and think that maybe it could be better, somebody would say, ‘Hey, that’s great. Could you try that again?’ ” Hahn said. “That’s a hard thing to hear after you’ve been locked inside a room for 12 hours and you’ve come out feeling somewhat triumphant about something. Going back to the drawing board like that really sucks.”
“It does,” agreed Delson. “But it’s nothing a seriously competitive game of Scrabble can’t fix.”
Minutes To Midnight is Out Now through Warner Music.
