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"All of us, collectively, felt that this style of music could be blended a little bit better, not so jagged and kind of forced in there," Bennington said. "We stopped practicing the songs and started working on new stuff."
Bennington and Shinoda also started writing lyrics together. "I can't talk
about this crappy thing that happened to me and expect him to be able to
sing it," Bennington said. "It has to be vague enough for both of us to go,
'We can relate to it.' And we found that by writing in that way, our lyrics
were hitting home with a lot of different people and a lot of different age
groups."
Armed with new material, the band played its first show at the Whiskey,
where Zomba offered them a publishing deal. With that money, Hybrid Theory
purchased enough equipment to record an EP worthy of shopping to record
labels and selling at shows.
After selling about 20 records, the band dreamed up a more effective outlet for the EPs and began shipping copies for free to fans they found on the
Internet. That following grew into a street team, which they continued to
nurture with stickers, samplers and other handouts.
"Those kids did so much for us," Phoenix said. "They're basically our 150
additional members of this band. Those kids worked really hard just because
they wanted to be part of something."
"And I think that's what helped catapult us back into the eyes of the
industry," Bennington added.
Warner Bros. caught wind of the band's work ethic and offered a contract in
the spring of 2000.
"They were like, 'Wow, these guys are doing so many different things that
are proactive. And these guys are excited and hungry about playing music and
are willing to work at it,' " Phoenix said. "We would actually go down to
Warner Bros., five or six of us at the time, and go in and sit in the
boardroom at the big table with all the different departments and just talk
to everybody about what we were doing and our plans. We would actually bring
in letters from our street team of kids saying, 'I like this song so much.'
"
Around the same time, an electronic trio called Hybrid was emerging and
Hybrid Theory didn't want to confuse fans. Bennington drove by a Lincoln
Park in Santa Monica, and the band agreed a variation of it would make a
good name. Like their music, it was a different take on something a lot of
people could relate to.
"Unfortunately, that park has been renamed the Christine Emerson Reed Park,
so we're actually thinking about changing our name to Christine Emerson Reed
Park and making Linkin Park the name of the second record, just to
keep the consistency," Delson joked.
Hybrid Theory made an impressive debut out of the gates (#16 on the
Billboard 200 albums chart) and has continued to amaze with its
stamina. Seventy-two weeks later, it's at #4 and certified several times
platinum.
Linkin Park's collaboration with the X-ecutioners is also riding high,
they're selling out arenas, and their upcoming remix album is highly
anticipated. Yet instead of popping open champagne bottles after shows,
Linkin Park are out doing what got them there — signing autographs,
thanking fans.
"It's such a unique and exciting and special experience to be able to say
you're doing something you are passionate about," Phoenix reflected. "That
is the most rewarding thing for us."
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Photo: Clay McBride
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