Linkin Park have made their mark in music developing their distinct sound and gaining a following of video gamers and hardcore fans. We had a unique opportunity to chat with Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda this week via a North American wide teleconference. Enjoy the transcription below.


Catherine Main: You have done a great job with ’8-Bit Rebellion’ and ‘Linkin Park Revenge’ application and games. Will you continue to do these for your fans?


MS: We’ve had a lot of fun kind of dipping our toes into the game and the app world. I really like the Linkin Park app that is on the iTunes store. However, this particular app is not actually a game. Instead, it’s more of a Linkin Park aggregator. The reason I like it is because you can basically open it on your phone and it pulls information from all of our websites – my blog, the linkinpark.com site, LP Underground information, and then stuff off of Twitter and various fan sites. It puts it all in one convenient place for people to go to. So that’s one of our apps that I really like. The Tabulous Group has just included Linkin Parks music in their newest update of their game, so if you go on the app store, you’ll find the Linkin Park Tabulous game there. That app is also a lot of fun.


Moderator: Our next question comes from Gary Graff with billboard.com.


Gary Graff: I will start with something basic. Give us a sense visually of what we’re going to see when the show comes out on the road.


Mike Shinoda: Well, the look of the show has a lot to do with the look of 1000 Suns. A lot of the themes that are going on the new record kind of take a central role in the visuals of the show. Our art team developed technology that’s new just specific to this show and it had a lot to do with the fact that in our show we don’t play the exact same thing every night. We play different set lists and then within those set lists we improvise, so we wanted a way for the look of the show to kind of ebb and flow with whatever we do with the music. So, from night to night, the music will be different and the visuals will be different as well. No two shows will be the same.


Moderator: Our next question comes from Shawn Plumber with MSN.


Shawn Plumber: I read this morning that you guys are teaming up with Base Camp Productions, kind of an official bootlegger business, as they term themselves, to give fans access to recordings of upcoming shows. I’m wondering what the thinking was behind that.


MS: We actually have been doing the mp3′s of the shows as a souvenir for awhile. The idea being that we want the fans to be able to take that special event of the Linkin Park show home with them, just something we give to the fans. And in the past we’ve charged for it, but on this run we are actually giving it away included in the ticket price. So, when you get your ticket, you basically get your show to listen to for free. What basically happens is it’s not what they call a “line mix” or a “board mix,” which is the cheapest and easiest way to do it. Most people do it that way. We just think that sounds terrible and it’s kind of sloppy, so what happens in our show is the guy that mixes the show live for you records the show as it’s going on and then he takes that backstage and we do a special mix for your iPod and your car and something that will sound good on your stereo, because the live mix doesn’t sound good on your stereo. So, yeah, it gets remixed and then put up online for all the fans of that show to download.


Moderator: Our next question comes from Al Katrina with Montreal Gazette.


Al Katrina: I’m wondering, every new record that you guys put out seems to almost reinvent the sound, especially if you compare the new record, “1000 Suns,” with “Hybrid Theory.” So, I’m wondering, is what changed that evolution? Is it, like, a conscious reinvention? Do you set out to do that or does it just happen naturally?


MS: Yes and no. The difference in the band sound from record to record is something that we set out to do in the sense that we want to make something that sounds fresh and exciting to us, but at the beginning of a record, we pretty much, we may have a sense of what that sounds like, but we don’t have a definite understanding of what that sounds like. So, just to give you a working example, when we were doing demos for “1000 Suns,” we wanted them to sound different, we were making demos and we knew that the sound was a little bit more electronic-based and it was more loose and almost more abstract and, at that time, we hadn’t even hired a producer. So, in the discussion about hiring somebody, at one point we thought, “Maybe we’ll just go it alone,” because we didn’t want somebody else to come in and kind of muck up the thing that we were doing that we liked. At the end of the day, we decided that Rick Rubin was a good match, that when he came in it was obvious that he loved the stuff we were making and he didn’t intend to change that, he intended to try and help us get there in the best way possible. So, that’s why we ended up working with Rick. But that is to say we had a sense of what it was in the beginning and then along the way we made decisions that helped us stay on track and keep our minds open to experimentation and new things.


Moderator: Our next question comes from Melissa Ruggiuri with the Atlanta Journal.


Melissa Ruggiuri: I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the download to Donate for Haiti project.


MS: Absolutely. Appropriate timing. It’s the one year anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti and immediately after the earthquake, the folks there obviously needed help and we have an organization called, “Music for Relief,” that you can find at musicforrelief.org, and that’s what we do. The organization was founded to provide relief in the wake of natural disasters and help reduce the effects of climate change. So, this fell in our lap and we realized we needed to act quickly. We started “Download to Donate,” which is a basically a project where you can get an album for free and donate to the cause. The “Download to Donate” project raised over a quarter of a million dollars and it’s an ongoing effort and an ongoing album, so we’re continuing to collect more songs for it by many different artists and you can go to musicforrelief.org right now and download some music and donate to the cause.


MS: Real quick. Also, $1 per ticket from our North American tour is actually donated to Music for Relief.


Moderator: Our next question comes from Kristen Clarke with popculturemadness.com.


Kristen Clarke: Okay. As an artist, I’m curious, how is it for you when a fan will say that your music changed their life in some way?


MS: It’s always been important to us to really stay; it’s almost like staying in the moment and staying, like, actually listening and being very aware when the fans say things like that, because it is special. I mean, to them, it couldn’t be more important and it wouldn’t matter if they’re telling you; I mean, I’ve actually heard people say some silly stuff, like, “Your band is so important to me and changed my life and blah, blah, blah. It’s so important that I named my goldfish, Mike.” And you’re like, “Okay.” It almost sounds like a joke, like that’s where you ended up. But they are totally serious and they may be having a tough time communicating why that is actually so important to them, but for us, we need to, like, I think it’s important to the six of us to remember that when they’re saying these things, like, it means a lot to them and that in turn, we want it to mean a lot to us and we want to make sure that they understand that we are appreciative of that and that we definitely respect the fans. I mean, they’ve supported the band with such fervor since the beginning, it’s been an awesome ride and we’re very lucky to have such a great fan base.


[Chester Bennington joins the teleconference]


Moderator: Our next question comes from David Huff, Jam Magazine.


David Huff: What I’m wondering is this: Have you found over the years that your lyrics have challenged the rest of the guys in the band to write music equal to the words that are presented to them? And on the flip side, have the guys created music that in turn inspired either of you to write lyrics equal to what you were hearing from them?


Chester Bennington: That’s probably the most interesting question I’ve ever been asked about what we do, so congratulations. That was a really thoughtful question, couple of questions, and I can’t tell you how much I appreciate that.


David Huff: Give me a good answer.


CB: I hope I can give you an equally good answer, but it’s interesting. I think that one of the things that works really well for Linkin Park is the fact that we do, the guise really kind of looking at things from completely perspectives a lot of times, and that gives us an opportunity to see things in a much deeper way. And I think that our styles are different when we work individually and, as you can tell from my short minor, from “Dead By Sunrise,” but when we get together, something really special happens and I think it’s an outside kind of perspective onto a single piece of work. We’re both working intimately on the lyrics, but then you have another person to come in and look at it and go, “You know, I’m not feeling this line. This seems a little obvious or cliché; let’s find a better way of saying that.” It works, I think, much better than maybe a producer or someone who doesn’t have to write lyrics under the guise of the band. I think it works really well because we both do have to sing it and we both do have to feel it in a very real way and a very honest way. And in turn, I think that anytime something like that happens where you’re elevating and you’re pushing and you’re constantly giving criticism and having to take that and work with it, I think the band follows in that step. We do the same thing musically. We’re all looking at every little piece so intently and almost to the point of, like, ad nauseam, that we kind of want to take criticism in a very constructive way and we kind of expect the best out of ourselves and, hopefully, that translates into the music that we make.


Moderator: Thank you. Our next question comes from Allen Sculley, a freelance writer.


Allen Sculley: Hi, guys. Thanks for doing this today. You guys have an interesting way of actually making music together and as a band, from what I can tell, you never, all of the members are never in the studio really at the same time playing together. It’s a combination of guys piecing things together and I’m curious why would that approach work, a best produced band and it’s kind of evolved into that sort of thing and seems to be where you get your best performances and such.

MS: I would guess, I’ve never been, none of us have a lot of experience being in any other bands, a little bit, but probably the most being Chester. But in our experience with each other, we’ve tried jamming out parts and songs. We’ve tried working in larger groups. We tried working with six and five and writing music that way for us just doesn’t really work. It doesn’t do much. I mean, you write more interesting stuff when it’s in smaller groups and what’s really fun is that the music that you make sounds different depending on who writes with whom and where you write. Joe and I working together at Joe’s house is different than Joe and I working together at NRG. So, it’s a lot of fun to play around with the dynamic and it keeps us interested, it keeps us excited, and at this point, I feel like we’ve got a lot of momentum. The last record, “Minute to Midnight” was the record where we were trying to understand, if we can take the analogy of being in a box, probably would take it way too far, but if on the first two records we were defining that box and everybody understood what that box was, then on the next record we were venturing outside of the box and understanding what else is out there and then on the new record, I feel like we got comfortable being outside. So, moving forward, I don’t know where we’re going to go, but I know that we’re not scared to go into the studio and make any kind of noise. We’ll just make whatever feels good to us, whatever feels interesting at the moment, and that will define what the new songs, the new records sound like.


Moderator: Our next question comes from Erica Gradecki with Hope Magazine.


Erica Gradecki: As far as making music in general, what’s the biggest reward for you guys as far as creating the music itself?


CB: Well, I think we probably all view things in completely different ways. I think that for me personally, as Mike said, we do what we love. I mean, this is something that, like, I know most of us would be playing music or creating music as a hobby in one way or another, whether we were assigned to a record contract or not. This isn’t like a job you go apply for and, hopefully, you get a position. And so we really are very, kind of, we’re all very grateful that we get to do what we love doing and we get to travel around the world and experience and become citizens of Earth, so to speak, and raise our kids and enjoy; I mean, we have an enjoyable life and that’s a result of making the music that we make and that’s really what most people strive for in life, is to do something they enjoy doing and have a good life from it. So, that’s something we’re all very grateful for. We try not to take that for granted.


Moderator: Our next question will come from Shay Conner with the St. Joseph News Press.


Shay Conner: Well, I wanted to talk a little bit about the album. When I listen to a song like, “The Catalyst,” it’s kind of this epic song, but even at its most emotional it has this kind of robotic feel to it. How difficult was it to blend human and machinery when you were writing this song? Or did it come naturally?


MS: It was, I mean, Chester, do you want to dip in on this? I feel like it’s definitely something that, if you want to jump in, just cut me off; how about that? The human and machine element was happening before the lyrics were doing that, before the lyrics were as aware, before there was, like, a focus on that theme in the sense of the whole record. The music was already there, so it was kind of like the music informed the lyrics, the lyrics informed the music and it was back and forth, but it was already happening from the beginning of the whole thing, the first demos. I mean, at this moment in time, it’s like how many things, we were feeling like how many things can you do with drums and guitars; I mean, unless there’s something really exciting about that, it felt like there are so many ways to blend the organic and the digital sounds that it feels really fresh right now, just in the world of music, I think, there’s just some sounds that we’re trying to find that we could kind of stake claim to and make our own.


CB: I also think that with “Catalyst,” like it’s a good example. That song has this kind of like these nine little robotic features, like just kind of agitating through the entire song and there’s a point where even the vocals are agitated and it’s very intense and very static and the point of the song where all that stuff kind of drops off the background, the piano comes out, and you hear us singing with me, “Let me go.” There is that moment where all of a sudden you’re like, “Oh, there it is.” Like, that’s the moment where the humanity comes into play. Emotionally through the lyrics there’s that part of it, it’s that cry for help. That’s that thing, but you definitely get that more organic feel in that part of the song and I think that was necessary to that song. It kind of gave it a lot of balance. So, we use that kind of stuff, those are little tricks that you use, that we use throughout the album.


Moderator: Our last question comes from Kristina Fuoco with Sound Spike.


Kristina Fuoco: I just have one quick question for you. You mentioned that since “Hybrid Theory” you’ve learned a lot of things. What was the most important thing you think you learned?


MS: Oh, wow! Well, I mean, one of the things that I think we gained along the way was a sense of what it feels like to be creatively, like true to yourself. I mean, that might sound kind of cheesy, but I’ll put in context and then it will help you understand. It’ll be less cheesy if I put it in context. When we are writing, we’ve got six guys in the band who are really smart and really clever and, whereas, we might write a song, we might write something a certain way and somebody will say, “I want the song to go this way because it sounds best to me.” Or they might say, “I want it to go this way, I want it to be short, shorter because I don’t have much of an attention span and that feels good to me.” But really what might be going on is, in the back of their head, they’re saying, “Oh, like, I think it’ll work better on the radio if it’s this.” Or, “I think the fans will like it more if it’s that way.” And that’s not, you’ve got to weed through that stuff an be really true and honest, you’ve got to be honest with yourself regarding where are these ideas and this feedback, where is it coming from? Is it coming from what you really want or is it coming from what you think somebody else will want. And for us, as soon as we stopped really relying on what other people want, I think we just felt a lot better about the music we were making and that, we had, it’s been with us for a long time. We’ve been doing it on every record, but I think as we’ve gotten older, we’ve done it more and more often, which is really nice.


Moderator: Okay. Looks like there are no more questions at this time.


MS: Great questions and we look forward to seeing some of you guys out there on tour. Bye bye.


Transcription edit done by Melissa Tam