So when people asked, ‘What bands do you listen to?’, the stock answer would be The Roots, Portishead, Aphex Twin and Deftones. We were just trying to mash up a lot of really disparate elements that we personally loved as a group. We didn’t know any of those other bands we liked some of it, and we hated some of it. Mike: “I always told people, ‘Don’t try to put the nu-metal flag in my hands, because I won’t hold it.’ Our intention going into the record wasn’t to be part of a scene. I’m not saying that it’s solely because of us, but we made it okay at that particular moment in time to do that and not be worried about the criticism.” It’s like, ‘Okay, let’s pull everything together and make it happen.’ That Hybrid Theory idea that we were pursuing is ever-present in every genre now. People making music aren’t thinking they have to stick to a style some guy made 30-50 years ago – it’s not like that anymore. Joe: “Today we listen to music and most people don’t think of the genre. Great art is open and fertile and unbound – that was the ethos of our band and still is.”
‘Which genres are you combining to make this thing interesting?’ Whereas things were very siloed when we were making music. Now we’re living in a post-genre world, everything is smashed together, and it’s almost expected at this point.
Underneath that, there was a drum’n’bass beat happening at the same time, so within the first 20 seconds you’re getting three major genre touch-points jammed together.”īrad: “The whole ethos of the album was to smash genres. The beat was influenced a lot by Timbaland, then the guitars kick in with a very cutting edge – what you call ‘ nu-metal’ now – type of sound. To this day it feels like it contains so much of the DNA of the band at that time. Mike: “As soon as it was a song, I knew that I wanted Papercut at the front of the record. This, then, is how that vision became a reality, track by track… There were other bands combining these styles of music, but not in the way we wanted to, and we weren’t going to bend our vision or water it down in any way.” “There’s a lot of pressure by outside forces to conform to whatever’s working at the time, but our vision was distinctly different from everything else. “We were a young band so we didn’t have any clout to say, ‘We’re doing it our way,’” remembers Brad.
It was fucking crazy, in the studio with this guy that I’d been listening to for years.” When we went to mix the record it was the first time I’d been to New York – three-quarters of my favourite rappers are from New York and I’d never even been there! I met Busta Rhymes in the studio while we were mixing. “The first time recording a song in a proper studio, the first time working with a producer and a lead engineer who knew what they were doing. “ a spectacular moment in time where everything was a first,” says Mike today, with a Cheshire Cat smile.
#Linkin park hybrid theory album covers full#
To mark the 20th anniversary of the biggest-selling rock album of the millennium, we sat down with Mike, Brad and Joe to get the full story behind Hybrid Theory, their memories of creating what would become a modern masterpiece, and why it still resonates two decades later. Your parents’ music this was not, and its effects are still being felt today in everyone from Bring Me The Horizon to Architects to Enter Shikari. It was a distillation of adolescent emotion, realised through lung-busting choruses, throat-wrenching screams, bombastic metallic riffage, pristine electro wizardry and exhilarating rap. Expertly flanked by guitarist Brad Delson, drummer Rob Bourdon and turntablist Joe Hahn, the iconic unit we know today was completed by bassist Dave Farrell just prior to the record’s release, with Brad on four-string duty in the studio.Ĭomprised of 12 perfectly-crafted tracks, clocking in at just under 38 minutes, Hybrid Theory dealt in real human connection, wrought with angst and heartache, but it had hooks for days. Formed just four years prior under the moniker Xero, it was the irrepressible duo of Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington (himself a replacement for original vocalist Mark Wakefiled) that made their sound such a formidable weapon. On October 24, 2000, Linkin Park released their debut album Hybrid Theory onto an unsuspecting world.
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