Automatic writing approach to lyrics helped unlock ideas


By AL KRATINA, Freelance February 1, 2011

When California’s Linkin Park released its debut album, Hybrid Theory, in 2000, the band was a little late to the nu-metal party. Korn had finished all the Cheetos, Limp Bizkit picked a fight and got taken home by their moms, and Disturbed had passed out gibbering on the couch.


Though Linkin Park, which plays the Bell Centre Monday night, didn’t pioneer the genre -which blends hip-hop and metal like a smoothie made by 14-year-old skateboarders -they did add to it. In contrast to Bizkit’s loutish bellowing marinated in testosterone-laced spittle, the band’s lyrics folded in Alice in Chains-esque angst. Dealing with themes of alienation, isolation and the kind of pain that goes deeper than bruised knuckles, the material struck a chord with listeners, driving Hybrid Theory to diamond certification (10 million sales) and the band to stardom.


Over the next decade, Linkin Park built its fan base while evolving its sound, moving away from nu-metal, strengthening its alternative rock influences and maintaining a hip-hop focus with albums like 2004′s Collision Course, a mashup with Jay-Z. Last year’s A Thousand Suns, a concept album revolving around themes of war and destruction, is perhaps its most mature, blending everything from progressive rock to electronica.


“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,” says rapper, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda, who shares vocal duties with singer Chester Bennington. “But at the beginning of a record … we don’t have a definite understanding of what that sounds like.”


Regardless of the plan, six band members with disparate influences makes change inevitable. “We’re just a product of our collective environments,” says Shinoda in a conference call with several journalists. “We grew up doing different things, listening to different things, and that dynamic of these six guys who have such varied interests, it tends to work toward our advantage.”


Also affecting the sound of A Thousand Suns was a new approach to lyrics. To change its perspective, the band turned to automatic writing -an attempt to tap into the subliminal mind by writing without conscious thought.


“It’s really more of a stream-of-consciousness style of writing vocals,” Shinoda explains. “Ideas would just kind of pop out and I wouldn’t even know that I was thinking about some of this stuff.”


Eventually, he says, automatic writing led to the concept of A Thousand Suns. “We listened back to that all and there are ideas of destruction and … self-annihilation and fear that were popping out and surprising us,” says Shinoda. “We decided
that, for the six of us, (fear of annihilation is) an honest emotion and that it was proper for it to be a part of the record.”


Despite the push to change, there are constants within Linkin Park, including the embrace of cutting-edge technology. Not only is its music heavily influenced by technology -with songs like robotic yet soulful The Requiem evoking the moment Terminator got human feelings -but the band has long experimented with new ways to connect with its fans.


The band has created video games and iPhone apps, and is planning to incorporate 3-D technology into a future project. On its current tour, it’s partnered with Basecamp Productions to allow fans to download “official bootlegs” of the concerts.


“We want the fans to be able to take that special event of the Linkin Park show home with them,” Shinoda says. “When you get your ticket, you basically get your show to listen to for free.”


Unlike many bootlegs, Shinoda insists that these recordings won’t sound like they’ve been swallowed and thrown up by a Sony Walkman in 1985.


“It’s not what they call a ‘line mix’ or a ‘board mix,’ which is the cheapest and easiest way to do it. … We just think that sounds terrible and it’s kind of sloppy,” explains Shinoda. “What happens in our show is the guy that mixes the show live … (does) a special mix for your iPod and your car and something that will sound good on your stereo.”


That love of technology makes its way to the stage show as well.


“Our art team developed technology that’s new, just specific to this show,” says Shinoda. “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.”


The result, says Shinoda, is a look that will change along with the band’s performance. “No two shows will be the same.”


Linkin Park plays the Bell Centre Monday night with Does it Offend You, Yeah? and Pendulum. Tickets cost $57 to $87 and are available via Evenko at evenko.caor 514-790-2525.


al@alkratina.com


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