LINKIN PARK By Christie Eliezer

Linkin Park mix heavy metal, hip hop, rap, electronica and rock. Buoyed by the success of their hit teen anthem "One Step Closer" ("shut up when I’m talking to you!") and "Hybrid Theory" album, they turned in tough shows on its Australian tour in May. During their set at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney, the crowd jumped up and down so much that they cracked the floorboards and the balcony almost collapsed.

Brad Delson (guitar), Mike Shinoda (MC), Joseph Hahn (dj/samples), Pheonix (bass), Chester Bennington (vocals) and Rob Bourdon (drums) see themselves as a six-headed beast with one heart and mind. Yet it’s no secret 23-year old Delson, who gave up a plans to become a lawyer for the band, is their bright spark, who makes the music a little different. During the Ozzfest tour in America, Linkin Park will start work on their second album.

Q: When you talk guitar heroes, you think white rock. But there’s some great guitarists in hip-hop too. You just have to listen to the Outkast record, haven’t you?

A: "That’s a real good example. The rules were made by rock guitarists, and they influence each other. Because hip hop is different music, its guitarists felt they didn’t have to do it like white rock. A producer with a rock background was telling me that in pre-production I should practice my parts so well I could play them without a mistake. I got into a discussion with him about sampling. I wanted to sample a part and then work over it. I could play over it live if I wanted to, but sampling gives you a totally different feel. He couldn’t see it. He thought I was using it as a crutch. So those aspects of electronica and hip hop with rock is something that has potential."

Q: How long after you started playing were you happy with your set up?

A: "I’ve always been happy with my sound. I use Ibanez and Paul Reed Smith guitars with pretty hot pickups. I use Mesa boogie Rectifier amps and cabinets. I like a heavy sound but I don’t want it to be biting. To get it heavy and full yet smooth, I used a lot of layering in the studio, sometimes four times — once left, one pan-left, once pan-right and then change the amp setting on the guitar and do the same thing, left and right, to get that stereo effect. The challenge is when you’re on live, when you’ve only got a guitar and an amp. You go for multiple mikes on the cabinet but of course you’re never gonna get that stereo wild sound."

Q: What was your first guitar like?

A: "A Fender Squire Bullet, I got it around 1989, and it cost about $300. It was an unusual guitar, a cheap Fender model, it didn’t have a pickguard and a double humbucker pickup. Unfortunately it was stolen at one of my earliest shows. It would have been nice to have kept my first guitar. I had absolutely no idea what sound I could get out of one because no one showed me. I brought it home, and I could only get some loud noise through my practice amp."

Q: You essentially got into music by watching MTV in the late ‘80s, right?

A: "Listening to Metallica and Skid Row. I wanted to grow my hair long like (Row’s) Sebastian Bach. I was watching MTV the other day, and Sebastian and his son were playing ‘One Step Closer’ which was a thrill."

Q: Has your style, or approach to your playing, changed in the last year?

A: "I love the guitar, I’ve played it for 13 years, I’ve been taught and I understand theory. But I’m not your classic guitarist. When I write songs, I don’t think of the guitar first, but the song. There’s so much guitar-driven music out there that I try to make it not atypical. The track ‘In The End’, for instance, is a piano hip hop track where the guitar plays only a subtle appearance. I want to experiment with things like that, make it sound ethereal, even make it sound like strings. The next album will be heavier in parts and softer in parts, with more electronica and dance experiments with the rock aspects."

Q: How big is your guitar collection?

A: "It’s growing as fast as what my sponsors send me! I have eight guitars, electrics and acoustics. I play Ibanez seven-strings and Ibanez acoustics and Paul Reed Smith six-strings. I’m working on a customised guitar when I get back to America."

Q: What else?

A: "D’Addario 10 gauge strings, a Boss digital delay pedal, a Boss chorus pedal and a Boss compressor sustain pedal — a Shure wireless mic. My live set up is pretty simple. Apart from a pedal tuner, I put my guitar straight into the mixer. I don’t really understand it if it’s too complex."

Q: Was "One Step Closer" always a stand out?

A: "Even before it was a hit on the radio, people went wild for it. I came up with the riff on the floor of a parking lot of a studio during a photo shoot, and I knew it was special. It took a lot of work getting all the elements in place. Other songs came together easier but this one had a power."