Linkin Park :: Muzika ~ Koncerti ~ Izvodjaci

Kerang track by track MTM interiew:

WAKE
Mike: This is an intro track that starts the album - you can hear a needle going down on a record and i think it sets the tone for what's to come.

GIVEN UP
Brad: We had a really bad song called 'fire in the city' - the chorus actually had the words 'fire in the city' on it! Mike was the only person who liked it. rather than just scrap the song, we mined it for any good parts.

Mike: It felt like brad stole my car and ripped out the stereo.

Brad: I took the bassline and the drums and built weird sounds around it, which eventually became this song. Chester's screaming: 'What the fuck is wrong with me? Put me out of my fucking misery!' so, without explaining exactly what the song's about, it's pretty clear he's not happy.

LEAVE OUT ALL THE REST
Chester: We knew this was going to be a single from the very beginning, so we worked really hard on making sure it had great lyrics. I'm singing 'Pretending someone else can save me from myself' during it because it's supposed to feel like an apology letter, as though i'm moving on but i want people to remember the good things and not the bad things. A lot of the song is about humility.

BLEED IT OUT
Mike: I wrote the lyrics to this about 100 times. it's always frustrating as a lyricist to come in with a new version that you spent hours on and have the band tell you that it's not there yet. in one case, they listened to my lyrics for 30 seconds and told me to start over again. that was pretty hard. it felt like i was bringing in the lyrics, getting punched in the face and then going back to the drawing board. When it finally came together i said to the band 'I don't think anyone but us could have made a song like this'. It's a fucking bizarre death-party-rap-hoedown!

SHADOW OF THE DAY
Brad: This was probably the most difficult arrangement to nail. It sounded very derivative at first but then we kept replacing different elements on it. We put an acoustic guitar on it, then an electric banjo and then a marimba. It’s definitely one of the best songs we’ve written.

WHAT I’VE DONE
Mike: on the other albums, Brad and I started every song together. But this was the only song we wrote together and the last one we finished. We wanted a song that encapsulated the feel of the whole record and I think this is that song. You’re going to get something different out of this every time you listen to it.

HANDS HELD HIGH
Mike: Rick said to us that, if something sounded like it needed rapping, then we should try singing and vice versa. That’s why this song has rapping on it.

Brad: a lot of the greatest accidents occurred when we combined elements that shouldn’t have worked together.

NO MORE SORROW
Rob: this is probably the heaviest song on the album. It was initially called ‘EBow idea’ Rick told Brad that he should use an EBow [guitar effect] on a different song. When he went in to work on that, he got frustrated and came up with the opening to this.

Chester: I think this is a record you should listen to on headphones because you’ll hear different things, this is a song that shows there is depth to this record.

VALENTINE’S DAY
Chester: It’s definitely one of the poppier songs on the album. We have to be very careful sometimes that we don’t lose the integrity of what we’re doing – we’re a very dark band and we like it like that. We talk about uncomfortable things and try to make you comfortable with that. We tried to do that here in a more poppy song and I really like that aspect of the album.

IN BETWEEN
Chester: I knew that Mike should really sing this song. I tried it once, I did a good job, but it just didn't have the power of Mike's performance because he really believed what he was singing. Whatever it is the motherfucker is apologising for on this track, he's fucking serious! It comes from the most sincere and heartfelt place.

IN PIECES
Chester: I got divorced recently and that was very difficult. I also got remarried so there was a big contrast in my life. For a while I couldn’t be completely happy with the new life I was starting and I couldn’t end the last one. This is a song about that. The music has a kind of reggae vibe to it, almost. It’s really cool watching how the song goes from that, through pop and emerges as a full-on rock song at the end.

THE LITTLE THINGS YOU GIVE AWAY
Brad: this is our favourite song on the record. It's the biggest statement that we've ever made. Nothing could go after it as everything would get eclipsed by it. The thing that really makes it is the guitar solo.

Mike: Brad has always avoided solos because he doesn't like to show off. But when he played that solo, though, it was one of the most emotional moments we've recorded. It says what the lyrics are saying without words.