#HybridTheory20 Press

[LPLStaff]

Linkin Park has begun their #HybridTheory20 press ahead of the album's release. On September 29, Brad, Dave, Joe and Mike took part in a private online press conference hosted by Matt Pinfield. Information disclosured during the conference is slowly surfacing and we'll be updating this post as they show up.

 

 

"Pictureboard", from Loudwire:
 

During a Linkin Park virtual press junket, Mike Shinoda shared some of the background behind the track. "Fans have known about ‘Pictureboard for about 19 or 20 years. They’ve known of the existence of it, but didn’t know at all what it sounded like." He revealed that after being asked about it frequently, they at one point thought of making it an LPU fan club song, but it had a sample that needed to be cleared, which seemed a little unrealistic at the time.

 

Shinoda marveled at the fan determination to uncover the track over the years. "There’s so many songs … why is there so much focus on this one? You’ve never even heard it," he pondered. But even after clearing the sample (which he revealed was a Barry White drum sample), fans were able to piece together that the clip of audio was from an interlude the band had played at a rock festival in 2000 or 2001.

 

He recalls, "The fans had even come up with a name for that performance. They made up their own name for that interlude and they were asking me about that interlude, and I was like, “You don’t understand. You guys made up the name. I don’t even know what song it is you guys are referring to. You literally named that thing something else. I didn’t come up with that.”

 

Guitarist Brad Delson revealed another reason why the track has some importance in Linkin Park's history. During the chat, he explained, "Unless my memory is super wrong, which is very possible, but not likely, I think that was the first thing I heard Chester’s voice on."

 

He recalls, "I remember getting that and saying, ‘Hey, what do you think of this guy? He just sent us this recording.’ I wasn’t like crying with joy, but almost. I was like, ‘Wow, I don’t even know what that is.’ He’s so tiny and vulnerable on the verse and you can hear all those timbres and harmonics and then all the overtones on the heavy part. To me, it just blew my hat off my head. And then we were like, ‘We gotta meet this guy.’”

 

Shinoda says of finally being able to share the track, "We're very excited for [fans] to hear it," adding, "It was almost that the occasion had to be of big enough significance that it was worth doing all those things. This was that occasion."

 

 

First rehearsals with Chester, from Louder:

 

Asked about the band’s first rehearsals with Bennington, who had formerly fronted Arizona rockers Grey Daze, Mike Shinoda recalled he and his friends marvelling at the singer’s talent.

 

“We were so protective of like, the identity of the band, and what we were trying to do,” Shinoda remembered. “We had this vision of what it was supposed to be coming into focus, and it wasn’t there yet, but we really wanted to get it right. And so when Chester came in, I remember we all couldn’t stop talking about how talented he was, and what a voice he had. 

 

“When we were making demoes together and doing stuff for the first time, he was still discovering who he wanted to be as a vocalist as well, and it was partially like, how he could express himself in a unique way, but then also what would fit this style of music, what would fit this band the best. So it was doing both of those things at the same time, and I was like, the first point of contact: it’d be me recording him, and he’d do a thing and I’d respond to that, and so it was like a slow progression into that identity. It wasn’t like there was one moment where he sang a thing and I went, ‘Wow! That’s it!’ It was like all these little steps.

 

“We released a song for this box set called She Couldn’t, and looking back at that one, I don’t know if I realised it in the moment, but She Couldn’t, to me, was so cool because it had… for example, lyrically, it had the line ‘You’re not alone’, he didn’t scream in the song, there were no heavy, distorted electric guitars in the song, the entire rhythm track was mostly sampled, and in one song, like super super early on in our relationship together with Chester, it was like this was the type of song that would become part of our identity way down the line, like it was pointing the compass in the direction of 2010, or 2007. It was all in there, we just had to discover it.”

 

 

Early demos, from Helmie Ezfar:

 

 

 

Favorite song on Hybrid Theory, from Darren Paltrowitz:

 

 

[linkinepi]

Lmfao on the fav songs!!!! Great excerpts from all the interviews. Thanks a lot!

[PizzaPino]

Rob is still trying to dial in from his table telephone. ☎️ 

[JerseyShore]

That favorite song video is fantastic. Must watch.

[YRQRM0]

That was fun, I wonder what Joe was trying to say about Super Xero

[lpliveusername]

New article about this:

https://genreisdead.com/linkin-park-press-conference/

[hahninator]

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/9460473/linkin-park-hybrid-theory-20th-anniversary-track-by-track/
 

First ever track by track of Hybrid Theory. Great info from Mike and Joe. 

[Justin]

50 minutes ago, hahninator said:

https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/rock/9460473/linkin-park-hybrid-theory-20th-anniversary-track-by-track/
 

First ever track by track of Hybrid Theory. Great info from Mike and Joe. 

"My original verses were ok, but our A&R guy at the time was really an insecure guy all around"

 

Lmao I love how Mike takes a shot at him every time he comes up in conversation.

[lpliveusername]

Two more videos from this day.

 

Building their fan base:

 

Linkin Park Radio: