Both halves of the songwriting team brought crucial ingredients to the table. Somewhat controversially, on One More Light these collaborators included Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter, bona fide hitmakers who’d worked with Justin Bieber, Britney Spears and Gwen Stefani. Now I survey the area where I want to go and I find the most productive way of getting there, and I work with as many people as I can to tread a clear path.” “That worked for a long time, but doing that you don’t know where you’re going and you don’t know what you’re swinging at. “My answer before was to close my eyes, grab a machete and just start swinging,” said Chester, describing his previous creative approach. Coupled with a totally new way of working, the band was able to express themselves, emotionally and musically, like never before.
And while One More Light would prove more divisive, it was more decisive too, forgoing the boundaries of genre altogether ( Mike Shinoda would proudly tweet the words ‘Genre is dead’ during this period). Despite cameos from luminaries of rock and metal, the resulting album saw the band caught, often awkwardly, between heavier and dreamier impulses.įor Linkin Park, the most fundamental difference between The Hunting Party and One More Light was that the former was “inward facing” and the latter “outward facing”. Perhaps One More Light came as a surprise because of how much it had moved on from its predecessor, 2014’s The Hunting Party, which had featured contributions from Helmet’s Page Hamilton, System Of A Down’s Daron Malakian and Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello. “That’s why I guess I’m like: ‘Why are we still talking about Hybrid Theory? It’s fucking years ago. “When we made Hybrid Theory, I was the oldest guy in the band and in my early 20s,” he recalled. In that same incendiary Music Week interview he’d rallied against fans’ continued preoccupation with Linkin Park’s early days, particularly their debut. While not the most universally embraced of Linkin Park’s releases, One More Light represented the most fascinating – and heartbreaking – chapter in the band’s career.Ĭhester was on the money to suggest his band weren’t strangers to having their creative decisions taken to task. We’re really used to people going all over the place on what they think we should be doing in terms of music, but when people turn that opinion into an attack on me as a person, that’s when I say, ‘Alright dude, say that shit to my face!’” “The only time it bothers me is when people make it personal. “I don’t give a fuck what they think,” Chester said of the naysayers in a Kerrang! fan interview weeks later. Tragically, given what would happen that July, they would never take place. The sketch doubled as an advert for their forthcoming ‘Welcome to Blinkin Park’ stadium shows.
“If you’re saying we’re doing what we’re doing for a commercial or monetary reason, trying to make success out of some formula… then stab yourself in the face,” the singer fired back with a cackle.Ĭhester’s mixture of anger and laughter was fitting given Linkin Park’s recent appearance in a Funny Or Die sketch alongside their friends blink-182, in which the two bands offer moral support to a couple on a date. Had the group once accused of being a ‘boyband’ made a full-blown pop album? Why was it so different? What was their reason for the change? It was the latter line of inquiry that brought things to a head in an interview with industry magazine Music Week, when Chester was asked how he’d respond to those suggesting Linkin Park had ‘sold out.’ For Chester Bennington, the scrutiny being heaped upon his band’s drastic new direction had begun to chafe.
That meant interviews – lots of interviews.
The release of Linkin Park’s seventh album – their first in three years – was fast approaching.
0 kommentar(er)
