MY LINKIN PARK "DECADE LIST"

January 2, 2010 Ten years ago, I had just quit my job at a tiny graphic design house in North Hollywood. My band was writing our first album, and hoping to release it someday.

A lot has happened in the past ten years.

Those of you who visit this site probably already know a lot of the big deals in LP history; here is MY DECADE LIST: the top five most underrated (but important) things that happened to Linkin Park in the past ten years…

5 - INTRODUCING OURSELVES TO THE LABEL…THE WRONG WAY

In the late '90s, we had played for and been turned down by every major label (and many of the indies). Warner Bros. Records initially passed on us, but had a change of heart and decided to sign the band. Soon thereafter, we decided that we wanted to make an impression with our new "teammates." We immediately put out a message to the entire WBR staff: we wanted to meet them. We set a date, and took over their conference room. We sat them down, exchanged pleasantries, and gave them some paperwork that outlined who we were, what we intended to do, and how we thought our music, marketing, and fan club should be treated.

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a middle-aged record label employee with some experience in the "record business." You've had some big hits, and you consider yourself to be good at what you do. Then, imagine a young, unproven, newly-signed artist meets you in your conference room, to hand you a stack of papers telling you how to do your job. What?

I don't think we knew how risky it was to pull the stunt we pulled. Luckily, they were enamored by our "chutzpah," and decided to roll with us. The entire Warner staff was suddenly talking about the new band they just signed.


(image: Chester and Rob before the Shanghai show, 2007)
4 - SHANGHAI STADIUM, November 18th, 2007

Upon arrival in Shanghai, we knew the show was going to be special…but we had no idea. When we were met at the airport, our promotion and label staff informed us that the last two rock bands to play China at the time were Nine Inch Nails and The Rolling Stones. They told us the largest concert by a foreign rock artist was The Stones show, which was attended by roughly 12,000 people. We were about to play a show at Shanghai Stadium, which was easily two times that size.

Upon arrival, we saw the concert was heavily guarded by national police. Every few feet, all along the perimeter of the venue--EVERYWHERE--stood an officer in uniform. I wasn't sure if they were armed, but it was definitely different for us. We were informed that the police forces were all prepared to engage if there was any rioting, violence, etc...That scared the crap out of me. I pictured a few fans throwing something, the entire place erupting into violence, and foreign rock bands being banned from Chinese concerts for a long time. I thought it was a somewhat irrational fear. I was later informed that if a riot had occurred, the scenario above is exactly what would have happened.
Luckily, the Chinese fans--and our band and crew--never went down that path. it turned out to be one of the most exciting and important shows of our career so far. By the end, we even caught a few of the police guards nodding their heads to the music.


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3 - LINKIN, NOT LINCOLN
Some of you know the story: when we were in the studio writing our first album, our band was called Hybrid Theory. Another band (on the label, I think) was called "Hybrid," and they didn't want us getting confused with them. We agreed. Sitting at our dirty, cheap rehearsal space in Hollywood, a number of names were thrown around. The only one we really liked was "Lincoln Park."

At the time, less than half the people we knew had email addresses and access to the internet. Dial-up was aggravatingly slow. Bands' "mailing lists" were all about phone numbers and home addresses. Someone (Brad, maybe?) suggested that it might be important to acquire lincolnpark.com. We tried, but it was taken.

At the time, it seemed like a small and simple decision to change the new potential band name from "Lincoln" to "Linkin" in order to get the domain.

I once heard it put this way: if you were to start at a center point and draw a one-inch line, then change direction one degree and draw a second line, the two end points would be close together. It may seem like an insubstantial thing. But draw those two lines out hundreds of miles, and the end points will be miles apart. Sometimes a small change or decision can add up to a drastic difference in direction.

2 - MINUTES TO MIDNIGHT

Fast forwarding to 2007: MTM was a special album for the band. Fans know that the songs and approach were different…but there was a deeper change that I remembered seeing, one that came from each personality in the band and multiplied by the guidance that Rick gave us. This was the exact moment where, creatively, the guys in the band came together more closely than ever before. There was more of a sense of camaraderie and collective creativity than ever before. Irrespective of the music, the band changed a lot in the 12-18 months we worked on that record. I think we grew up a lot, had a ton of fun making the album, and became much better friends.

Here are some photos that I just found of us hanging out at that time:
1 - THE RETURN OF PHOENIX

Our bassist Phoenix and guitarist Brad were college roommates. We all played and recorded together in the beginning…but Phoenix was also committed to another band. He had been close friends with those guys before we ever met him, and when they left on a small tour, he went with them. I think we spent nearly a year bugging him to come back to the band. Touring without him, the balance of personalities in the band felt like a constant nagging issue. We knew the chemistry was off.

Some people think that he came back because we were starting to see some success and money. I know Dave; that's only a small part of the equation, if any part of it at all. He had made a promise to his other friends, and he fully intended to see that promise all the way through. He didn't come back to Linkin Park until his other band had run its course.

I am positive that if he had not, the dynamic in our band during those early years would have caused an implosion of some sort, and our band would have gone a far different (likely very negative) course.

Especially in the early days, Phoenix was a calming presence, and a voice of reason. We were pretty lucky he was able to come back.


Hope you liked the list. These were things that stuck out to me as big things that few people consider "milestones" in the band's career, but I know without them, we wouldn't be where we are today.

Looking forward to the new year, a new album, and whatever is to come in the next decade for Linkin Park. Happy New Year!
十年前，我辞掉了在北好莱坞的一个平面设计室的工作。我的乐队正在写第一张唱片，希望有一天能发行。
十年间发生了很多事。
访问我的博客的朋友可能已经知道了LP一路走来的很多大事件。这里是我对这十年的总结:最重要但是被严重低估的五件事。
5.以错误的方式把我们自己介绍给唱片公司
在90年代后期，我们已经跟各个大型唱片公司和很多独立唱片公司接洽，但是都被拒绝了。华纳兄弟唱片起初也拒绝了我们，但是后来他们改变了想法决定签我们。那不久，我们决定我们想跟公司留下深刻的印象。我们很快就给他们放出消息，我们想见他们。我们定了日期，用了他们的会议室。我们请他们入座，互相寒暄，给了他们我们写的文本，上面列出了：我们是谁，我们想干什么，我们对音乐的看法，如何营销，粉丝俱乐部应该怎样被对照。
可以想象，在那个时候，你是唱片公司的中年职员，在唱片业已经有了一定的经验。你已经策划过大卖的唱片，你认为自己做的工作还行。然后，再想想，一个年轻的，未被市场检验的，刚刚签约的画家在你的会议室你和你谈判，给你一堆东西，告诉你该怎么做。想想，后果是怎样的。
我们还没有意识我我们干的蠢事风险有多大。但是很幸运，他们对我们的“血气方刚”很感兴趣，决定不跟我们计较。顿时，整个华纳的职工都在谈论刚签的乐队。

4.2007年11月18日上海体育馆
一抵达上海，我们就知道这场演唱会意义非凡，但是我们也不知道结果会怎样。营销公司和唱片公司职员在机场接我们时就告诉我们，那时在中国开演唱会的摇滚乐队是九寸钉乐队和滚石乐队。他们告诉我们，在中国开的最大规模的演唱会的国外摇滚乐队是滚石，有1万2千人去看了他们的演唱会。我们即将在上海体育馆开的演唱会规模比他们的2倍还大得多。
一到达，我们就看到演唱会现场被警察严严实实围着。到舞台的到楼两边，每隔开几英尺就有一位穿着制服的警察。我不知道他们是否持枪，但是这对我们来说是非比寻常的。我们被告知，如果现场发生骚乱或暴力事件，警察会马上应对。这让我有点想取消演出。我曾经想象这样的画面，一些粉丝在扔东西，整个现场演变成了暴力现场，中国政府在很长时间禁止国外摇滚乐队来华演出。我觉得这是有点毫无理由的恐惧。后来有人告诉我如果发生骚乱，我想象的情况就会是现实。
很幸运，中国粉丝以及我们和我们的工作人员并没有发生我想象的事情。这场演出是我们到目前为止最振奋最重要的演出之一。最后，我们还看到一些警察点头示意认可我们的音乐。

3.LINKIN,而不是LINCOLN
你们中有些人知道这事：当我们在录音棚写第一张唱片时，我们的乐队名叫“混合理论”。另外一个乐队（我怀疑是同家公司的）叫做“混合”，他们不想我们和他们的名字混淆。我们同意了。坐在好莱坞肮脏的廉价的排练场，无数的名字飘过我们的脑海。我们只喜欢“林肯公园”这个名字。
那时候，我们认识的人中不到一半有电子邮箱，有机会上网。拨号上网是相当慢的。乐队的邮件列表都是电话号码和家庭地址。有人（大约是BRAD）建议有必要注册lincolnpark.com。我们尝试了，但是它已经被注册了。
那个时候，一个看起来很小和简单的决定，就把乐队的名字从“lincoln”改成了“linkin”，而目的只是为了得到那个域名。
我曾经听说这样的事情：你站在中心画一条一英寸的线条，然后改变方向一度再画第二条线条，两条线的终点会重合。这可能是不确凿的。但是如果画数百英里的线条，终点也会隔开数英里的。有时，一个小的改变或者决定就会给以后的发展带来巨大的差异。

2.末日警钟
回到2007年：末日警钟对我们来说是张特别的专辑。歌迷都知道歌曲和处理方式是不同的。但是我还看到了另外一个巨大的变化，即在RICK的指导下，乐队里不同的性格的交融和体现。这个时刻，乐队里的人比从前更团结，更具有创造力。这不再只是之前的所谓的友谊和集体创造力的感觉了。撇去音乐不谈，在我们创造那张唱片的1年到1年半的时间里，乐队变化很大。我认识我们成熟了好多，在做专辑时有好多的笑话，我们间的友谊更加深刻。

1.菲尼克斯的回归
我们的贝斯手phoenix和吉他手brad是大学的室友。一开始我们就一起玩，一起录音。但是phoenix那时同时也参加了其他的乐队。在我们认识前，他和那帮人就是好朋友了。当他们要出去小型巡演时，他就和他们一起去了。我想我们花了差不多一年的时间劝说他回到我们的乐队。巡演没有了他，乐队里各种人格的平衡就出了问题。我们知道各种性格间的化学反应结束了。
有人会想，他的回归可能是因为我们的乐队有了成功的迹象，能赚钱了。我了解他，那只是他回归的众多原因中很不起眼的一个。他和他的那帮朋友许诺过，他要一直守诺言。直到他参与的那个乐队运行正常时，他才回到了林肯公园。
我确信，如果他不回来，早年我们乐队内部的活力会过剩，我们的乐队也会向一个不同的可能是非常消极的方向发展。
尤其在乐队的早期，phoenix是我们的镇静剂，他代表着理智。他能回来，我们真的非常高兴。

希望你能喜欢我的总结。这些就是我认为的重大事件，很少有人会认为这些事会是里程碑性质的。但是我明白如果没有这些事，我们就不会有今天的成就了。
期待新的一年，新的唱片，以及林肯公园在下个十年会发生的任何事。
新年快乐！