Linkin Park is in the studio

Discussion in 'News' started by Kevin, Oct 26, 2016.

  1. #1
    Kevin

    Kevin A Pattern To Be Followed. LPA Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2012
    Messages:
    3,033
    Likes Received:
    728



    Linkin Park never stops writing music. They can release an album and yet they continue to write music while promoting that album, touring for that album or just have downtime. When Chester broke his leg and had to cancel the rest of the Winter North American 2015 Tour, the band got back to writing instead. This is what brought us the Fort Minor song Welcome.

    It has now been over a year that the band went into the studio to specifically write and record their seventh album. Back in December of 2015 we here at LPAssociation did a podcast with Mike Shinoda where he talked about his and the band's mindset for the album. He also said that they were aiming for a "second half of 2016" release. This led fans to wildly speculate about how the first single would come in June and the album in September. Like fans do. It is however now the end of October, and besides TINY clips from Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook videos, we have no music released yet. Well ok, we have the awesome Bongo Band Jam.

    It is not unusual for a Linkin Park album to be pushed back, remember when Minutes to Midnight was gonna be released in 2006? Or how in the video that originated the song Lockjaw, Mike said "hopefully have a new Linkin Park album out to you guys in 2009", talking about A Thousand Suns? That didn't come out until September of 2010. The releases of LIVING THINGS and The Hunting Party were a bit quicker though, but that was because the band had clear goals of what they wanted to do. Even though they scrapped the earliest demos for The Hunting Party and went in a completely new direction for the sound of that album.

    So what do we know about the album? Well, nothing really. What we do know is that the band has again brought in more collaborators. Whether this is for writing material that will appear on the Linkin Park album, material for the collaborators release, or just to inspire the band, is unknown. The collaborator that we know the most about as of now, is Blackbear. He has appeared in the studio on multiple occasions and has "released" clips of whatever they're working on, on Snapchat. Other collaborators as of this writing include: Jon Green, Connor Youngblood, Justin Parker, and Andrew Goldstein. The interesting part of the Blackbear collaboration, is that apparently there is more planned than just music. In mid-September, some mock-ups for merch from the two artists were captured on Instagram. Something that would not normally happen for just a song from an album. So if the song with Blackbear comes out, it might be a release from him or it must be a really special song to warrant the mash-up merch.


    One of the things that the band has said from the start of this album's process, is that they want to focus more on song writing. So what they did was to start off with writing melodies on guitar and piano, then putting words and lyrics over that. Lyrics have been in focus since the start.

    As for the sound for the album, the little that we have heard suggests a more mellow tone compared to most other Linkin Park albums. In the podcast that Mike and Brad did for the sixth studio update, the playlists that the band upload to Spotify is more what the band is listening to at the moment rather than what the album will sound like. It is however safe to assume that it will be somewhat of a guide to give an idea of what you can maybe expect to hear.
    It is fair to note that this playlist hadn't been created at the time the podcast was made. It's also been updated so some songs that were on there have been removed.


    Speaking of what you can maybe expect to hear, let's take a look at all the videos that have been shared from the studio on all the various social media. Let's go back as far as we can, starting with an Instagram video from January 28th.

    We will clearly just get a singer/songwriter album from Brad​

    Then we head over to March 7th, Conner Youngblood is in the studio and playing with a Moog Theremini. Mike captured this on a Facebook live stream.


    On April 26th, Mike again streamed to Facebook, this time showing that Rob was recording drums on a electronic drum kit. At the time of the stream they were trying to get a better drum sound from the kit because it sounded "too 80s", according to Rob.


    On May 20th, there was another Facebook live stream, again recording drums. This time however, they were in a different studio and using an acoustic drum kit. The stuff that they recorded would be sliced up and used for loops and samples on a track that they at the time had chords and a tempo for, but not anything else.


    On July 28th, Mike and Brad uploaded a podcast. The podcast clocks in at 23:46 and they go in depth talking about what they are doing and what they has been doing.


    On August 8th, we got our first taste of the social media sharing from Blackbear, posting a clip on Instagram of Brad playing some acoustic guitar with him singing over it.

    August 22nd, saw a whole Snapchat story from Blackbear where he was in the studio with the band, screwing around and testing things. We also get some sweet guitar noodling.


    There is also this 22 second clip from Blackbears Snapchat that shows a really rough demo in the works, with a simple beat and Mike singing on it.


    September 21st, we got an Instagram story from Mike where he showed his talents with sampling, showing how he samples some cowbells, puts effects on them, plays them as notes on a keyboard, and then mixes them into the song with some reverb. The result is great.


    Mike shared on October 12th, via Snapchat how he worked on some background vocals using plenty of effects on his voice. The synth/bell sound heard in this clip sounds very much like the one used in Blackbears "idfc", could this be the song they are working on?


    Because the day after, on October 13th, Blackbear and Andrew Goldstein came back into the studio and again. More guitar is worked on in this clip, shared on Snapchat by Mike.


    Blackbear also put stuff on Snapchat from this day, but I can't find it.​

    On October 17th, we got our first full "song" from these studio sessions. It's a 57 seconds long jam that the band did, going under the title of Bongo Band Jam. We're unsure what the "Studio Moments" will mean in the future, but it's probably just like this, sharing things from the studio in a more "professional" way rather than their cellphone cameras on social media.


    We got another "Studio Moments" video on October 19th. This is a 17 second video that wasn't uploaded to YouTube, but we see Rob playing some drums.

    And on October 25th we got a tiny little clip from Mike on Snapchat. The rest of the story was him going up to British Colombia to see a Chance The Rapper concert, so I cut that out as it was not relevant to this.


    Finally, on October 26th we recieved another Studio Moments video from the bands Instagram. It features the members of the band beating on ... seemingly whatever they could get their hands on. Is Phoenix smacking a pizza box into the floor?


    If you want to read the conversations that were had when most of these were originally reported, I'll leave the links here below.

     
    Last edited: Oct 27, 2016
  2. #2
    Delicious Dave

    Delicious Dave I'm gonna drive you into your own anus.

    Joined:
    May 25, 2012
    Messages:
    2,320
    Likes Received:
    277



    I had no idea they released this much stuff. I've only seen like 2 of these. I love Rob's drumming.
     
    AndreyKamensky and Iopia like this.
  3. #3
    Filip

    Filip god break down the door LPA Contributor

    Joined:
    May 23, 2012
    Messages:
    10,879
    Likes Received:
    1,493



    Hats off, dude, this is a great write up.
     
  4. #4
    Nicholas

    Nicholas Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Nov 19, 2013
    Messages:
    984
    Likes Received:
    370



    Thank you, Kevin. I had not previously heard those last 3 ones yet. It's a good idea to have all these updates and snippets in one post.
     
  5. #5
    Broman

    Broman Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2012
    Messages:
    1,511
    Likes Received:
    17



    Didn't watch all the clips, but it looks like you're missing this

     
  6. #6
    Kevin

    Kevin A Pattern To Be Followed. LPA Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2012
    Messages:
    3,033
    Likes Received:
    728



    Yeah it's amazing how I managed to get the other video from a news post I myself made a few months ago, but not the most important one that actually has vocals and music in it :lol:

    Thanks for pointing it out, I knew something was missing
     
  7. #7
    Sasuke

    Sasuke Modern Prog enjoyer LPA Super Member

    Joined:
    May 22, 2012
    Messages:
    5,480
    Likes Received:
    2,755



    Where is the Michael Jackson jam?
     
  8. #8
    Kevin

    Kevin A Pattern To Be Followed. LPA Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2012
    Messages:
    3,033
    Likes Received:
    728



    You mean the cowbell stuff? It's in there.
     
  9. #9
    Sasuke

    Sasuke Modern Prog enjoyer LPA Super Member

    Joined:
    May 22, 2012
    Messages:
    5,480
    Likes Received:
    2,755


  10. #10
    Kevin

    Kevin A Pattern To Be Followed. LPA Administrator

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2012
    Messages:
    3,033
    Likes Received:
    728



    While entertaining, it's not really related to the new album, as they barely even mention working on it. So it didn't get included.
     
  11. #11
    Captain-EO

    Captain-EO Also Prog Nerd Now, Thanks Gibs LPA Super Member

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2014
    Messages:
    5,080
    Likes Received:
    1,290



    The last one is like Linkin Park goes Slipknot with the percussion. :lol:
     
  12. #12
    LohithMohan

    LohithMohan It's like I'm paranoid...or am I?

    Joined:
    Aug 31, 2010
    Messages:
    917
    Likes Received:
    318



    Great article!
    Just wanted to add that we got the acoustic version of final masquerade when Chester hurt his leg.
     
  13. #13
    minuteforce

    minuteforce Danny's not here, Mrs. Torrance. LPA Team

    Joined:
    Oct 31, 2004
    Messages:
    12,760
    Likes Received:
    1,782



    I AM THE DAMAGED ONE :cocainefan:
     
    Captain-EO likes this.
  14. #14
    -Amarez-

    -Amarez- Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 30, 2016
    Messages:
    34
    Likes Received:
    5



    Wow they are going to be really off the wall Daft Punk type of edgy I cant wait
     
  15. #15
    Vinifeijo

    Vinifeijo i'm dancing with matt damons

    Joined:
    Apr 10, 2012
    Messages:
    480
    Likes Received:
    170



    Damn, the one before the last is like a Cyberpunk theme. Like the Tron soundtrack.
     
  16. #16
    Agent

    Agent Formerly known as Agent Sideburns LPA Über VIP

    Joined:
    Apr 20, 2006
    Messages:
    11,884
    Likes Received:
    156



    The cowbell tune sounds very similar to Erasure's A Little Respect.
     
  17. #17
    BTorio

    BTorio Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2014
    Messages:
    764
    Likes Received:
    155



    I just hope all that jamming Brad does on guitar inspires him to write some really cool stuff on the album. He's so capable of putting down some really interesting stuff.
     
  18. #18
    Sasuke

    Sasuke Modern Prog enjoyer LPA Super Member

    Joined:
    May 22, 2012
    Messages:
    5,480
    Likes Received:
    2,755



    Brad are gonna dancing in the Record.
     
  19. #19
    lime treacle

    lime treacle You are not alone Über Member

    Joined:
    Jul 19, 2011
    Messages:
    10,907
    Likes Received:
    1,791



    That's a monster of a post, Kevin! :awesome: Good job.
     
  20. #20
    Michele

    Michele Praise Brad Delson, our Lord and Savior. LPA Addict

    Joined:
    Apr 29, 2014
    Messages:
    17,182
    Likes Received:
    10,793



    Great Job, Kevin.
     

Share This Page