Joe's Rolling Stone Interview

[Skipees]

Here's the Rolling Stone interview with Joe, he's talking about the new remix album - Recharged, Stone Temple Pilots and The Mall:

 

Rolling Stone caught up with the band's Joe Hahn at his L.A. store Suru recently, where he was celebrating the band's limited edition Transformer, Soundwave. That conversation led to talk of the band's new album, frontman Chester Bennington's collaboration with Stone Temple Pilots and Hahn's upcoming headphones launch with Skrillex.

 

- How did this action figure come about?

We met with this guy from Division Agency and he's working with Hasbro and working with cool collaborations. We always said if we ever did a Transformer collab we wanted to do it with Soundwaves. We grew up with Transformers, and the reason we worked with the movies was we had the nostalgia for all that stuff.

 

- How did the single with Steve Aoki come about?

Mike [shinoda] has been on this EDM kick for the last year and he's been hanging out with different EDM guys, like he did a day with Avicii, and he's been sending stuff back and forth with Aoki. This is the one that really stuck. He fleshed it out, brought it to the guys and we were into it. And it coincided with the game and also the album we're putting out, which is remixes of Living Things.

 

- Are you an EDM fan?

Yeah. The funny thing is today it's called EDM, but back in the day it was house, and now there's dubstep, which sounds nothing like what dubstep originally sounded like. Everything is crossing, which is cool, and now it's being widely marketed. I think it's interesting. We always combine styles of music and that's what everyone is doing now. It's fun to see.

 

- Are there DJs you'd like to work with?

I would love to do something with Sonny [skrillex]. I actually have a headphone I'm putting together, and the first edition is going to be a limited edition with Skrillex. That's in the works right now – hopefully at the end of the year, but most likely beginning of next year. I'm more involved with the actual design and sound. I really want to work with cool people, musicians and non-musicians, and do collaborations and keep it tight. I'm not trying to use a record label to market or a headphone company. It's just something cool I want to do. When you actually see it you'll know where the inspirations came from, especially after today's event. There's a transforming element to it.

 

- But Chester fronting STP is a totally different thing – that band is so established. How do you feel about it?

In high school we grew up listening to Stone Temple Pilots. For us these are the deities of rock. They're up there, so if someone asks you to do that, you just do it. Chester is such a great singer and for him to have the opportunity to go and sing with other people, we're appreciative of them for asking Chester to do it. I think on a spiritual level it works in so many ways, where it's not even about there being a benefit, it's just something that feels right, especially for Chester.

 

- How is all this stuff keeping you excited?

Mike and I went to art school together, so from an early point we understood that the creativity is not just one thing. And I think even stylistically in our music, you see back when we started that was a little different, but now it's normal. Everyone does it. Every genre is incorporating everything. When it comes to the visuals, I shot a film called Mall, and we're shopping that to the festivals next year, and everyone was really supportive of that.

 

- Who was in the film?

Vincent D'Onofrio, Cameron Monaghan played the lead – he's from Shameless – this kid named James Frecheville, who was in Animal Kingdom, Gina Gershon. Mimi Rogers had a little cameo. A bunch of people – Peter Stormare.

 

- What are your release plans?

We're looking for one of the first quarter festivals. Let it find a home, and hopefully after that people will get to go to a theater and see it.

 

Read the full interview here.

[Kirstie]

It's rare to see Joe actually answering questions normally and not fooling around!

 

[Astat]

Hardcore version of Victimized? MY BODY IS READY.

[gorast]

Finally, more acknowledgement of The Mall.

 

2014? I can deal with that.

[Michelbeats]

Hardcore version of Victimized in the sense of an more agressive version? or the music genre hardcore?

[Justin]

Hardcore version of Victimized in the sense of an more agressive version? or the music genre hardcore?

Probably just more aggressive. My first thought when I read that was something with a hard beat and heavy synths. A song that fits the literal genre of hardcore would feel slightly out of place on an album that is shaping up to be mostly EDM oriented. Then again I'm just guessing and I could be wrong.

[Twiilite]

I'd dig if Mike brought some new guitar work to the forefront of Victimized to make it heavy rather than rely on synths and beats. And the fact that he's been apparently listening to a lot of metal and punk recently gives me hope that those genres will inspire this remix even more than the original.

[Geki]

If ''hardcore version of Victimized'' means heavy electronics, then meh. If it means that it will be somewhat of a metal version of sorts, then hell yes. Normally, I would be really excited by this because I've always wanted to LP to do something heavy, but I have a feeling it will just be really heavy by EDM terms. Not interested in anything electronic from LP in the slightest.

Edited October 4, 2013 by Geki

[RogueSoul]

Keep in minf he used "hardcore" to describe a remix, which is totally different from.a regular "hardcore" song. Nonetheless I'm excited to hear it.

[Numbrocker]

I'd just like to have a longer version of Victimized. I was never a fan of the album version.