LPTimes has posted a little summary of the Linkin Park interviews published today in Kerrang, MSN and WMMR. Here’s a little extract of the MSN Interview with Mike:
“Living Things”‘ first single, “Burn It Down,” is No. 1 on Billboard’s Rock Songs. Do No. 1′s mean more to you now than they did when you first started?
Yeah, having gone through a point where we put out some songs that didn’t perform as well as we had hoped, and, in some cases, it was kind of confusing. “Leave Out All the Rest,” on our third record, I always thought that was going to be a really big song. … So whenever you’ve got a few things that didn’t pan out, you find yourself experiencing a little bit of humility. … I’m very appreciative of that stuff when it happens; I always have been.You seem very happy sitting here, but there is a lot of anguish on this album. You call it “Living Things” because it’s about personal relationships. Does it hurt to exorcise demons?
Yeah. It’s obviously so silly when people talk about, like, “Oh, somebody becomes successful at what they do and they have no right to complain about anything anymore.” And the moment that person loses a parent or a spouse, it becomes obvious once again that they’re a human being and no matter what successes you’ve got or where you’re at in life, pain hurts. … When something that matters to you gets taken away — or, actually, sometimes just having to wait for something hurts. … We write from a place that’s honest every time, but the stuff that goes on this record as compared to the last is definitely more personal. There’s a lot more “me” and “you” in the lyrics, and that’s always coming from a place that’s very real.Plus, you are all in your mid-30s. By now, life has kicked you around, so there’s some fertile ground to plow.
When I was younger, I didn’t have as much of a concept of the ramifications of my actions and of other people’s actions. As soon as you start to get a little bit of a sense of the scope of how things are affected by what you do or what other people do to you, it just means a lot more, and if it’s something bad, it just hurts worse, you know.How was working with producer Rick Rubin different this time from the previous two albums?
Over time, we just get more familiar with each other’s style and with each other’s abilities. … I love basketball, and when I watch a good team, they’ve got the chemistry and they get the rhythm going, it’s so fun to watch. I’ve actually experienced that with Rick and our band. There’s no playing catch-up when we get in the studio together. Our band is built on the philosophy of bringing together lots of different sounds and things that we like, and we’re working with a producer who is known for being able to do that. Rick is not a pusher. He barely suggests any specific things. He draws it out of you.
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