February 20, 2008
The Gazette

"Rick Rubin is a big man with a very large beard. That's all you really need to know."

Actually, it wasn't all I needed to know. And I knew that already. What I needed to know was how the legendary producer (who has worked with everyone from Red Hot Chili Peppers to Public Enemy to Slayer and Johnny Cash) helped California hard-rock band Linkin Park shake off the last shackles of its rap-metal past on its new album Minutes to Midnight. But the band's DJ Joe Hahn was being a smart alec.

"He definitely challenged us," Hahn said of Rubin. "But he wasn't present a lot of the time, which was good - we needed to do a lot of work to get to where we wanted."

Linkin Park spent close to two years working on the new album, writing over 100 songs in the process. Their goal: to expand their sound.

"We went into writing (this) with the attitude that we didn't want to write the same record again," Hahn said.

"The first two albums (2000's Hybrid Theory and 2003's Meteora) were like chapters in a book. We didn't want this to be the third chapter. We wanted it to be a progression."

Even within the rap-metal genre, Linkin Park always set itself apart as a band not afraid to stray from formula, exposing emotion in ways their peers wouldn't dare.

But on the new disc, the group strays even further, broaching radio-friendly modern-rock on Leave Out All the Rest, What I've Done and the U2-esque Shadow of the Day; and sentimental balladry on In Between and in Pieces.

Toss in a couple harder jams (Given Up, No More Sorrow) a surprisingly peppy party tune (Bleed It Out), and a pointed anti-Bush rap (Hands Held High), and you've got the sound of a band in transition.

The songwriting duo of singer Chester Bennington and rapper/co-producer Mike Shinoda pushed themselves vocally and stylistically, Hahn said. And the pair took their bandmates along for the ride.

"Playing the same songs all the time in your live shows, it's easy to get attached to what people react to," he continued.

"I think a lot of times, with other bands in that situation, they start writing music that is expected of them. We didn't want to do that."

The group set to work trying to shake things up, working together in pairs, then switching up the pairs, trying anything that came to mind and not dismissing any idea just because it didn't sound like the Linkin Park of old.

"We all approached the music thinking 'Whatever it takes ...,' " Hahn said. "Most of the songs, we did so much work on, we don't know who wrote what. We kept swapping files, someone would write a piano part, then someone else would write a guitar part. We would just throw everything at the wall and not have egos about it."

There was no master plan, Hahn explained - just a focus on writing good songs, whatever they sounded like. Which is how the band arrived at the final track-listing for the album. "We picked the songs democratically. The songs on the record are what rose to the top."

Linkin Park performs Friday at the Bell Centre, with Coheed and Cambria, and Chiodos. Tickets cost $48.50 to $58.50, available at Admission (514-790-1245 or www.admission.com).