Chester Bennington – Vocals Mike Shinoda – Vocals / Emcee Rob Bourdon – Drums Brad Delson – Guitar / Bass Phoenix Farrell – Bass Joseph Hahn – DJ / Samples
Sophomore albums are famously tricky affairs. Musicians have
their entire lives to pen their debut album, the theory goes,
and a relatively short time to follow it up. But what if the debut
in question is the biggest selling album in recent memory? And
what if the music industry has Hollywood-like expectations for
another instant blockbuster? That was the scenario Linkin Park
faced when they entered the studio to record Meteora,
the follow-up to their multi-platinum debut Hybrid
Theory.
That album, which Rolling Stone called "twelve songs of
compact fire indivisibly blending alternative metal, hip-hop,
and turntable art", has shipped 14 million units worldwide
to date. It was the Number One selling album of 2001. It launched
three chart-topping singles including "In The End."
And in 2002 it received a Grammy® for Best Hard Rock Performance
for "Crawling," as well as nominations for Best Rock
Album and Best New Artist. After diligently pursuing their craft
since the band's humble origins in Southern California circa the
mid-'90s, Linkin Park now had the world's ear.
To those outside the band, the pressure to follow up that success
might have seemed insurmountable. But within Linkin Park, vocalists
Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, guitarist Brad Delson, turntablist
Joseph Hahn, drummer Rob Bourdon, and bassist Phoenix weren't
sweating it in ways you might expect. Instead of dwelling on outside
expectations, they set to work, meticulously crafting each moment
of each song to their own exacting standards. The bigger picture
developed accordingly.
"We don't ever want to have the mindset where we need to
sell 10 million albums each time out. That's ridiculous,"
says Bennington. "It's a blessing to sell that many albums;
it doesn't happen very often in this business--even once in your
career is an achievement. Our obligation is to our fans. We're
not going to get too comfortable and say it's a given that people
will run out and buy our albums." "And if you know us,
you know the biggest pressure came from within the band,"
says Shinoda.
"We just wanted to make another great album that we're proud
of," says Bourdon. "We focused on that, and worked hard
to create songs we love. We're our own harshest critics."
If you doubt that, consider this: Shinoda and Bennington wrote
40 unique choruses for Meteora's poignant first single, "Somewhere
I Belong," before arriving at the best possible version.
"We knew we needed to fix a couple things on that song,"
says Shinoda with a shrug. "So we'd write a new chorus, record
it, mix it. Then we'd listen to it the next day, and Chester and
I would look at each other and say, 'I don't know... I think it
could be better.' And then we'd start again from scratch. It was
a lot of work. We probably wrote and scrapped our sophomore jinx
album somewhere in the mix. But we took our time, remained critical,
and wrote songs we knew were good. Some people might have expected
us to write a weaker version of Hybrid
Theory - water it down, stagnate. But that's not what we're
about."
The winning results of that painstaking approach are instantly
apparent on Meteora. The twelve lean tracks display immense growth
from the road-honed band, while still showcasing the rare chemistry
that's been in place since Bennington completed the line-up in
1999. Working once again with Hybrid Theory co-producer Don Gilmore,
the album came to life in a variety of studios, including the
band's beloved tour-bus facility and each member's respective
home set-up. This time Linkin Park had the opportunity to experiment
with a wider palette sound, and an even more diverse array of
styles.
They married wildly distressed samples to heavy guitars on songs
such as "Somewhere I Belong." They arranged live strings
and piano for "Breaking The Habit" and "Faint."
They experimented with complex beats on songs such as "Easier
To Run." They even added a Japanese flute called a shakuhachi
to the hip-hop-driven "Nobody's Listening." Throughout,
the rich textures and dynamic arrangements serve to enhance the
moods created by Bennington's and Shinoda's powerful vocals -
and vice versa. The synergy invites repeat listens.
The guiding vision for the 18-month recording process was evoked
by the album's title, Meteora.
During a European tour in 2002, the band stumbled upon a travel
magazine featuring destinations in Greece. On the cover, the word
"Meteora " and the accompanying photo caught their eye,
and subsequently fired their imaginations.
Meteora is a group of six monasteries perched atop rock pinnacles
rising 1500 feet above the plains of central Greece. As Bennington
puts it, "they don't seem of this planet." And it's
true. (To see for yourself, rent the Bond flick For Your Eyes
Only, in which Roger Moore kicks ass at one of the mountain fortresses.)
The Greek word literally translates as "hovering in the air."
It's a fitting term for the otherworldly region, as well as for
the album Linkin Park created with the image in mind. "We
wanted to write songs that lived up to the energy that name exudes,"
says Bennington.
"It's really epic and beautiful. It totally embodies the
sense of timelessness and expansive-ness we wanted the album to
have," says Shinoda. "We've since met people who've
visited Meteora," adds Hahn. "People go there for solitude
now - to find themselves. And that's what the album is about -
finding yourself. Each song is about looking within and letting
out emotions."
This time out, Bennington and Shinoda expanded the emotional
range heard on Hybrid Theory. That album dealt with frustration,
anger, fear and confusion from a younger person's perspective,
according to Shinoda. The goal: catharsis. By contrast, Meteora
reflects the accelerated lives the band members have led since
recording their debut. "We toured the world for two years.
That alone makes you step back and take a look at the bigger picture,"
says Shinoda. "We've always been interested in universal
feelings, and that's what we focused on with this album. But Meteora
is different in the sense that we're dealing with more facets
of the human condition." "It's still a very dark album,
but there's definitely more optimism," says Bennington. "We're
still the same people, but now there's a light at the end of the
tunnel."
On "Somewhere I Belong," for example, the verses describe
fear and confusion, but the chorus takes that crucial first step
toward arriving at a solution. Bennington sings, "I want
to heal. I want to feel like I'm close to something real. I want
to find something I've wanted all along, somewhere I belong."
And on "Breaking The Habit," he sings, "I don't
know what's worth fighting for. Or why I have to scream. I don't
know why I instigate and say what I don't mean. I don't know how
I got this way. I know it's not alright. So I'm breaking the habit
tonight."
Once again, the vocalists worked closely together to deliver
a broad spectrum of emotions as a unified front. Now, however,
Bennington and Shinoda draw upon a longer shared history. Their
voices and sentiments are practically indivisible. "Mike
is a computer whiz, and a formally trained musician," says
Hahn, distinguishing the difference between the two vocalists.
"Chester brings the rawness - the emotion that needs to come
out. They complement each other that way. It's a true yin-yang
thing."
The entire band, in fact, sounds more fully realized on Meteora.
It's a rare achievement: A full integration of six members that
still retains the unique qualities of each individual. The end
result is the thumbprint style known as Linkin Park. "We
don't really analyze the chemistry," says Bourdon. "We're
just lucky and grateful that we found each other and that we work
so well together."
"The collaborations are more seamless now," agrees
Bennington. "Mike, for instance, knows more about me as a
person, and I know more about him, so it's easier to write lyrics
together. It's not possible to have secrecy in our relationship.
You have to open up, because you want the other person to be on
the same page. We're all that way with each other."
And with collaborators like these, who needs a therapist?
"Exactly," says Bennington with a laugh. "That's
why I joined a band in the first place."
