MTV: You’ve just finished touring here Down Under – how did it go?
Chester: For me personally, the first couple of shows on this tour were pretty rough. I felt very kind of disconnected and just off, I wasn’t feeling very well and I almost was compelled to send out like a public apology or some kind of Twitter. But then I was like, no, I don’t want to do that coz it’s part of what we do.
Mike: (Laughs) Chester’s version of bad, when you do what we do, we’re kind of perfectionists, and what’s acceptable to us is a very narrow margin. Our shows here have been a tonne of fun, and touring down here feels like you’re on vacation the whole time, its so warm and pleasant, the people are great, we always have a good time each time we come, which is why we keep coming back!
Read the whole interview under the cut
The Grammy-Award winning band rock out Down Under
Jan 4, 2011
Source: Sophie Barnett
With their incredibly energetic performances and chart-topping rock ballads - US heavy-weights Linkin Park aren’t an act to miss seeing live.
But that’s something you’ll already be well aware of if you were lucky enough to catch the legendary alt rockers in Oz for their ‘A Thousand Suns’ world tour.
Despite a shift in direction for their fourth record, ‘A Thousand Suns,’ with a heavier focus on hip hop and electronic – they’ve still proved they’ve got what it takes to thrill even the most hardcore of fans, as well as bag some new ones.
And with more mature vocals, a greater range of notes, and deeper lyrics, their latest record was more than worth the year-long wait.
Fresh from their Aussie performance, MTV caught up with singers Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington, to talk touring Oz, The Wiggles and future collaborations…
MTV: You’ve just finished touring here Down Under – how did it go?
Chester: For me personally, the first couple of shows on this tour were pretty rough. I felt very kind of disconnected and just off, I wasn’t feeling very well and I almost was compelled to send out like a public apology or some kind of Twitter. But then I was like, no, I don’t want to do that coz it’s part of what we do.
Mike: (Laughs) Chester’s version of bad, when you do what we do, we’re kind of perfectionists, and what’s acceptable to us is a very narrow margin. Our shows here have been a tonne of fun, and touring down here feels like you’re on vacation the whole time, its so warm and pleasant, the people are great, we always have a good time each time we come, which is why we keep coming back!
MTV: You’re touring with Pendulum next year. Which other Aussie artists are you fans off?
Mike: Chester’s a big fan of The Wiggles.
Chester: Yep, huge. I mean they are the equivalent of The Beatles.
MTV: Talking of huge, how was it teaming back up again with uber producer Rick Rubin for the new record?
Mike: By the time we got to this record we’d built this kind of friendship and this working relationship that made things very comfortable and we were able to just go in and focus on the record and not be distracted by that whole image of who Rick Rubin is. He's a great leader and he’s also a team player at the same time.
MTV: You famously teamed up with Jay-Z in the past, any more collaborations in the pipeline?
Chester: What’s special about that stuff is that it’s all been very spontaneous and not planned and that’s what makes it so good I think. So we’re definitely open to doing things, I think we’ve got a couple of ideas in the works, but they’re not solid so I don’t like jinxing those kinds of things.
But we do have some interesting ideas floating around, so our diehard fans who look forward to that kind of stuff, there’s going to be some stuff coming in the pipeline.
MTV: So no one specific on the wish list then?
Chester: Johnny Cash, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, those are a few, but I think it’d be really difficult! (laughs)
Make sure you get your hands on Linkin Park’s outstanding new album ‘A Thousand Suns’ out now!
Sources: MTV , LPL
Labels: interview
