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Linkin Park in Rolling Stones Magazine 02.02.2003

Linkin Park + Toy Robots = Surreal Video
"All my ideas for videos are pretty out there," says Linkin Parks's resident cineaste, Joseph Hahn. His latest extravaganza is for "Somewhere i Belong," the first clip from Linkin Park's long awaited Meteora. "The song is about escaping the problems of a relationship," says Hahn, "so i created an escapist world." OK, but what's going on with Chester Bennington in this picture? "Chester falls into bed, and as he's falling asleep, a new world is formed around him," explains Hahn. "He lands in this area where we're performing and some of the architecture is based on the toy robots in his room. It's surreal, a stream of conscienceness." Show of hands: Who thinks these guys smoke the occasional joint?
Source:: Rolling stone magazine, beatles issue, page 27

Linkin Park zooms higher with 'Meteora 01.28.2003

"IF YOU were to buy one CD, which would it be?" Donita asked a teenage boy who had been pulled up from the mosh pit of the MTV Asia Awards.
"Linkin Park's 'Reanimation'!" the boy screamed emphatically, even turning towards the area where Linkin Park's vocalist Chester Bennington and DJ Joe Hahn were seated.
You can bet that soon this boy will be queuing up with countless other fans to buy "Meteora," Linkin Park's newest album, set to come out in March.
Chester and Joe took 2bU! through the album's creative process, in an interview where they talked about their new songs, life on the road and their passion for music. That day, the other members of the band, vocalist Mike Shinoda, guitarist Brad Delson, drummer Rob Bourdon and bassist Phoenix, were in California, programming songs.
"It took us about 18 months in about four different phases to write 'Meteora,'" Chester said. "In 2001, we decided it was probably a good time to kind of redirect our mindset from the touring kind of mindset to trying to get ourselves geared up to write. We put up a studio in the back of a bus, ripped out a back lounge and constructed a floor and tie-downs and designed our own case for our Pro Tools. We just wanted to get things out, to get the creative juices flowing. And we got really good ideas out of it."
From the studio, they moved on to vocalist Mike Shinoda's house, where they started recording songs. "We started recording in Mike's house," Chester recalled. "We took all those ideas and kinda messed around with them and by the time we put everything together, we had about 80 songs. And that's when we really started the process of fine-tuning the parts and finding the ones that really stuck out. We took out all those ideas and we narrowed it down to about 30 or 40 songs."
After working on pre-production with Don Gilmore, who also produced "Hybrid Theory," they started recording in the studio. "Final week of recording, I got sick. So I had to finish recording while we were starting mixing, which is a very kind of strange and almost dangerous thing. It actually kinda worked out. We actually finished the chorus for our first single, 'Somewhere I Belong' in New York while we were mixing."
The result of their hard work is "Meteora," a 12-track album of undeniably Linkin Park songs. Select members of the media from the Asia-Pacific region were invited to enjoy the complete album in a private listening session the day before the interview. The new sound is more confident, stronger and at times heavier, but remains very Linkin Park.
Source:: Inq7.com

Linkin Park in Kerrang magazine.
In the article it states the single, 'Somewhere I Belong' will be released March 17th(UK)/March 18th(US) and the full cd will be 36 minutes long. Some quotes from Kerrang site and magazine::
"We're almost done recording vocals and it's super swell," writes Bennington.
"Mike and I have been putting in a lot of hours in the studio and it's paying off. Working with Don (Gilmore, producer) a lot of fun. I'm glad we decided to do this record with him as well."

"Bennington admits that the record is colder and harder than anything they've made before"

"We've had some days where the words just seem to flow out of us, and other days where we can't write more than a few lines," adds Shinoda. "But I know we need to take our time to make things sound right." "The songs are often based on things that have happened to both mike and myself in the past", "the thing about emotional pain is that it never really goes away- the scars are always there and they never heal. Some of those scars are still raw. But at the same time, i dont want to go out and tell everyone what the songs are about, because they mean something different to everybody. A song that sounds dark and pessimistic to one person can be another person's door to optimism"

Source:: Kerrang.com

Linkin Park Get Their Tempers Under Control To Complete New LP 01.28.2003

When your first album sells 8 million copies in the U.S. alone, creating a follow-up can be a daunting task. So it's understandable that Linkin Park were feeling pretty stressed out when working on their upcoming LP, Meteora.

"We felt a ton of pressure," guitarist Brad Delson admitted. "But only because we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. We're definitely our toughest critics."

Just a few weeks ago, tempers were running hot as the bandmembers scrambled to put the finishing touches on the disc, due March 25, but now Linkin Park are all smiles because they're confident that anyone who liked Hybrid Theory will also dig Meteora. The group has grown musically and culturally, and the changes they've been through have colored their new album.

"The biggest difference is in our perspective," vocalist Chester Bennington said. "Co-vocalist Mike [Shinoda] and I are in a different place now. We've experienced a lot of highs and lows. There's been great success in our career but there's also been a lot of time on the road, which brings a lot of different emotions, like loneliness. Also, we've gotten to travel all over the world and play with a bunch of great artists and learn a lot of new things, so everything's different than it was when we started out."

For many bands, releasing a remix album is a great way to bide time between studio discs. But for Linkin Park, issuing Reanimation last year allowed them to stretch their boundaries and learn from artists with different approaches.

"It was great because we were able to bring together all our musical heroes and actually work in a fashion that they were used to working in," Delson explained. "So we got to see a lot of different styles of writing that we ordinarily wouldn't have explored, and I think that really helped to evolve our writing process on Meteora — both in the focus of the live and electronic beats and then also on Mike's experimentation with live piano."

Bennington said Meteora is still loud and heavy, and sports what he considers to be the best song the band has ever written, "Breaking the Habit," which features a 10-piece mini-orchestra. And while the album is still far from sunny, he stressed that it isn't as lyrically bleak as Hybrid Theory.

"I think there's a bit of optimism in there, and there wasn't really any on Hybrid Theory, he said. "When we started out, we were traveling around in an RV struggling to do this for a living. We didn't know if we were going to be able to sell two copies or 10,000 copies. So, things have changed."

Linkin Park named the album Meteora after a Greek city where a series of monasteries sit atop a jagged mountain peak. They'd never actually been there, but it looked pretty cool in a magazine.

"It's really this spiritual, mythical place," Delson said. "Just looking at those pictures was inspirational to us in terms of how epic it felt. I think some of the guys hadn't even seen the pictures when they heard the name Meteora,, and they just really responded to the energy of the name. We think that suitably matches the spirit we tried to create with the record" (see "Linkin Park Discuss Meteora, Plan Surreal Video").

—Jon Wiederhorn, with additional reporting by MTV Europe
Source:: Mtv.com

Linkin Park Discuss Meteora, Plan Surreal Video 01.15.2003

LOS ANGELES — Christmas came a few weeks late for Linkin Park's Joseph Hahn and Brad Delson, who were giddy at Monday's American Music Awards about having just received finished copies of their new album.

"After about 18 months of writing and recording, it's nice to finally have a finished thing to listen to," guitarist Delson said, grinning.

Linkin Park decided to call that thing Meteora, and they've set a March 25 release date for the disc, produced and mixed by Hybrid Theory's Don Gilmore and Andy Wallace, respectively.

"There's definitely a thread that runs throughout all the songs on Meteora, and also between Hybrid Theory, Reanimation and the new record," Delson said. "I think having worked with all those great artists on Reanimation and having toured for so long, we really learned a lot and wanted to integrate that into where we are today. Not necessarily talk about entirely new things, but give our new perspective on that. It's still heavy, a very dark record."

Hahn said although Meteora has more variety than their past releases, fans of Hybrid Theory will like the new record. Like their debut — but very much unlike last fall's remix album, Reanimation — Meteora has no guest appearances.

"We wanted to keep this one more intimate with no guest appearances, 'cause we wanted to focus on our growth individually as musicians and as a group and really showcase that," Hahn explained.

Fans will be able to watch that growth process in video clips documenting the creation of Meteora; the footage, which will be shown on the group's Web site, was directed by Bill Berg-Hillinger, who shot the band's "Frat Party at the Pankake Festival" DVD.

The first single from the album is the aggressive "Somewhere I Belong." "One thing that sets 'Somewhere I Belong' apart from some of the other songs is it has an interesting sense of optimism to it," Delson said. "So I think the lyrics are one of the stand-out elements to that song."

Linkin Park are shooting a video for the track in Los Angeles later this week.

"The video is being directed by this guy, he's got kind of a negative reputation in the industry, but we're giving him a shot. His name is Joe Hahn," Delson joked.

"It's another very visual concept," Hahn explained. "It's basically a dream sequence that's taking place, and the familiar objects in the room are turning into the reality, which is the dream, which is not the reality. It's a whole play on your mind."

"It's very pseudo-intellectual," Delson added.

Eager to get back on the road, Linkin Park are planning a European tour for February, followed by the second Projekt Revolution outing in North America in March.

"We're basically going to be expanding that this year and bringing out bands that should be showcased in terms of their eclecticism," Delson said.

No bands are confirmed, but Delson said Linkin Park will definitely headline.

—Corey Moss

Source: MTV.com
Read this and get more articles on Linkin park from MTV.com.

Brad Talks About Meteora - Interview by Jessica 01.15.2003

BRAD- WHAT DOES METEORA MEAN TO LINKIN PARK AND HOW DID YOU COME UP WITH THAT NAME? WHAT IS THE PRONOUNCIATION OF THE NAME?

(Mee-tee-ora is the pronunciation)

Actually we were touring in Europe and inside the bus the bus driver had set down a travel magazine that was actually featuring this place called Meteora, and just looking at the pictures of this larger than life place- we were inspired to try to write sonically what those pictures conveyed visually. That was before we had even written the body of the album, so it actually inspired us to create on tape what we were seeing visually.
Meteora is a chain of monasteries in Greece that sit on top of incredible rock formations- it’s a really unbelievable place. The title does not have to do with the music in a literal sense- but can be used as a metaphor – the grandeur of it, and the timelessness of it, are all conveyed quite well on our album. Actually some of the guys hadn’t even seen the pictures of this place yet- they had just heard the name, but they were all drawn to it just by the energy of the name.

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE THE SOUND OF METEORA ALBUM AS COMPARED TO PAST ALBUMS YOU HAVE RECORDED?

I think there is definitely a threat that links Hybrid Theory with Reanimation with Meteora. Lyrically I think Chester and Mike are dealing with same kinds of emotions as they were in the past- but the difference is they are confronting them with the new perspectives in their lives. There are a lot of the same themes as Hybrid Theory, but the perspective is different and the album shows our growth. Musically it has a lot of the heaviness and darkness as our recordings in the past- but I believe it’s more dynamic then Hybrid Theory. We explored different tempos and time signatures to create a really unique body of work but at the same time a cohesive record. We took 80-90 concepts for songs and streamlined them down to 12, which not only were the strongest songs, but all made the most sense together musically. When we write an album we want it all to make sense and not just write a single and songs to fill in. I think when someone puts on their headphones and listens to this album it taked you on a journey beginning to end. We wanted to may a cinematic record. One thing that is unique lyrically on Meteora it’s has a unique sense of optimism in the first single which isn’t necessarily present on the other sings. Most of the rest of the songs are quite dark.

ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO TOURING AGAIN AFTER THIS LONG BREAK?

We are really excited to tour and play a lot of places we haven’t been before and even hit some new places– we will definitely be touring extensively. Another great thing is we’ll have a lot more material in which to choose from when playing our live show. Last time we tried to fill out an hour with 37 min of material but in actuality it will be fun to play songs from Hybrid Theory, Meteora, possibly Reanimation. Besides, I think it will just elevate our live show to have a greater selection and more variety. Plus I’ve been working out really long guitar solos I’m really excited to play on this next tour- 10-15 minutes long of just guitar solos. We might just have a second stage just for my guitar solos.

WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE, IF ANY, TO THE RELEASE DATE YOU CHOSE?

It was the soonest possible date that we could get it out.

CAN YOU TELL US ANYTHING ABOUT THE VIDEO FOR THE FIRST SINGLE?

Joe is directing the new video by himself and we are really very proud of what he’s done in the past. He’s definitely going to be special effects and CGI intensive. Joe’s background is in creating larger than life visual environments. The song is really about escape and trying to find a place where you belong- but in this case Chester basically falls into a dream, which is the place where he is most comfortable, and Joe is trying to bring to life Chesters subconscious, which is where the majority of the video takes place.

WILL THE ALBUM HAVE ANY DVD OR ENHANCED CD EXTRAS?

We are trying to do as much special stuff with the CD packaging and content as possible.

WILL YOU BE DOING CHATS ON LINKIN PARK.COM AND LPU.COM TO GIVE US MORE INFO ON THE UPCOMING ALBUM?

Absolutely. LP.com and LPU.com are the 2 only 100% reliable sources of information. And also- the internet has always provided us for the best means for communicating directly with our fans.

WHAT IS THE NAME OF YOUR SINGLE AND WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE?

Somewhere I Belong- it’s the 3rd track and first single off the record. Definitely I think it represents musically what we’ve been able to accomplish. It’s a dope song. I think that from the very beginning of the song you know its something special. It definitely showcases the ability for Mike and Chester to merge into one unstoppable force.

WELL GUYS, THANKS FOR READING THIS LITTLE INTERVIEW I DID WITH BRAD. AND FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO ARE WONDERING, YES, BRAD WAS KIDDING ABOUT THE GUITAR SOLOS...LOL

Source: linkinpark.com
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