BIOGRAPHIES

Joseph Hahn (DJ)
Chester Bennington (vocals)
Mike Shinoda (bass)
Rob Bourdon (drums)
Darren "Phoenix" Farrell (bass)
Brad Delson (guitars)

The calafornian band Linkin park was originally known as "XERO" and at that point(1998) was a heavy metal band composed of teenage boys. As the vocalist Chester Bennington joined the group slowly they became the rap and song sound that they are famous for now. They were a regular at the LA bar "Whisky a go go", they were offered many recording contracts. Every time, they refused until warner brothers recording came along and offered them a contract where they had more control over their projects. Their first realise, coming from their earlier days, hybrid theory was realised in the fall of 2000. With the smash hits "in the end" and "one step closer" linkin park ruled the music charts. Their trek across the nation in their everliving family values tour gave them stardom and fans that they had noly ever dreamed of. in 2002 the band got their biggest suprise, three grammies! Best rock album, Best new artist and best rock performance for their popular song "Crawling". Because of that the band slipped into the recording studio in the summer of 2002 and started to make Re- animation.

(debut album)"Twelve songs of compact fire indivisbly blending alternative metal, hip hop and turntable art" (Rolling Stones) has shipped 14 MILLION albums worldwide! Of course it was the number one selling cd of 2001. That cd had three chart topping singles including "IN the End" (my personnal favourite!) 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.

The amount of pressure for the next album was unbeleivably mostly from the band itself. They ended up becoming their hardest critics, they kinda became like simon frm american idol, u just culdnt please them (or in their case they just culdnt please themselves). Instead of listening to the outside opnion to take it easy the 6 members set to work on their next album, Meteora. They spent their time carefully handcrafting and perfecting every moment of their songs. "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."

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.