Linkin Park 2005 Album

[Kristeen Cheek]

OneMore Light is the seventh studio album by Linkin Park. It marks a departure from the heavy sound of The Hunting Party, the first time the band has written songs starting from the vocals, and the first Linkin Park album to be titled after a song. It was also the final album released with Chester Bennington.

Linkin Park started to tour in support of The Hunting Party in May 2014 in Europe. This was followed by the Carnivores Tour in August and September, the Circuito Banco do Brasil shows in October, and the European leg of The Hunting Party Tour in November. Their show in Berlin on November 9 was recorded for a live DVD which remains unreleased.

Due to Chester Bennington breaking his ankle in January 2015, the band was forced to cancel the rest of the United States leg of The Hunting Tour after only three shows.[1] During Chester's recovery, the band met at the studio to go through a few new demos they had already written, like "Spirals", "All Our Days", "Hands Itch", and "Last Straw";[2] and Chester worked with Stone Temple Pilots on new music.[3][4] Linkin Park also released an acoustic version of "Final Masquerade" through their website to thank the fans for their support.[5] By the end of March, Chester was fully recovered and went on a tour with Stone Temple Pilots, coming back to Linkin Park in May to play a few festivals around North America.

Fort Minor, Mike Shinoda's side project, officially made its comeback in June, after an almost 10-year hiatus.[6] Mike released a new single, "Welcome", and performed a couple of one man shows as Fort Minor.

In early October, Linkin Park did a mentoring session with Zayed Hassan, the grand prize winner of the Stagelight Monthly Music Contest, at Red Bull Studios in Los Angeles,[12][13][14] resulting in the song "Sailing Through The Clouds". After that, the band went back to their studio to work on new material[15][16][17] and recorded a collaborative track, "Waiting For Tomorrow", with Martin Garrix in early November.[18] That same month, the band would play their last shows of 2015 before returning once again to the studio.

While recording the album, the band also collaborated with many artists on non-Linkin Park music: "Like Riding A Bike", a Hot Karl song produced and featuring Mike was premiered in May[19] a few days after Mike teased the song on his Snapchat account;[20] a collaborative song recorded with The Lonely Island called "Things In My Jeep" was released on June 3;[21] Mike did additional production in the One Ok Rock song "One Way Ticket" in August;[22] and Brad Delson collaborated with his brother Greg in a song called "Willing To Try".[23]

Before the release of One More Light, Linkin Park parted ways with Jonathan Schwartz, the band's business manager since Hybrid Theory, after he admitted embezzling $4.8 million from singer Alanis Morissette and $1.7 million from two other clients.[24][25]

The band had been writing and recording mostly in Los Angeles but also had a few sessions in London and Canada.[26] In Los Angeles, they started working at the Larrabee Studios, but got a new studio headquarters at Sphere Studios[27] because they wanted more space.[28][29] The studio is located in a low-key area on the northeast side of Los Angeles, in The Valley. According to Mike Shinoda, the vocals and foundational songwriting was coming together in the main room, along with his beats and Brad's guitar. There used to be a lounge next to the main room which Joe turned into a second studio, so they were multi-tasking. Joe also brought a lot of his sonic toys and keyboards to the hangout room.[30]

Starting on January 15, 2016[32] the band decided, for the first time, to open up their process to fans through social media[33] by doing live streams, posting pictures and videos of their day by day in the studio, and sending studio updates to their mailing list.

Speaking to LPAssociation in early December 2015, Mike said he felt this was going to be an important album for the band, being something completely different from what they had done in the past, and saying the band doesn't really care about trends in music because their recording process takes too long to really grow on a song, and they simply don't care. They were trying a new approach to their recording process, working on words and melodies first before deciding the style of the songs, and they were looking at a late 2016 release for the album, with a 6 month hit-or-miss. According to him, the band goes to the record label not for what they think about the album, but for them to help get it out to the people.[33] In a Q&A with LPU members, Rob Bourdon said the fans were the reason the band was motivated to create something new, but they didn't try to guess if the fans would like the new songs because it could obscure their process. They also didn't want to rush the process of the new album, regardless of delaying its release, because they wanted it to be as perfect as possible.[34] In the end, their original goal of having new music out by the end of 2016 wasn't met because they slowed the process down to spend more time on the album and write a few extra new songs.[35]

While working on the album, Chester went through depression and alcoholic problems, one of his close friends died and his stepfather had cancer.[52] He suffered a three-day relapse[53] and went through an outpatient treatment program.[54] "I started reaching out and talking about my feelings. The next thing I know, I wasn't alone in the conversation in my head. I was inviting people into the conversation and getting feedback and working through this stuff. At the end of the process, I was surprised I was ever in this place. I was like, 'Wow, I can't see myself getting in that place again because I have such good friends'. I have a beautiful wife, great kids, awesome job."[55]

The band started narrowing down to some of their favorite songs and recording "some keeper vocals" in mid-February.[56] According to Joe Hahn, "The difference on this album is that a lot of it was created electronically. Which was good, because we were able to focus on creating new ideas quickly and writing the lyrics. This generated a good flow and despite the desire to write the lyrics, the album reflects the harmony between the electronic base and the form of Linkin Park's songs."[57] With a lot of material to choose from, they clearly had an album in there and decided to get votes from all six of the members to see which songs would make it. Mike made large documents in his computer with all of the notes/comments by band members on each song.[46] After getting the vocals right, keyboards/samples and drums were high on the list.[58] Mike said, "As we go, you're gonna hear them start to have a lot of layers, and maybe too many."[59]

The mixing stage started that same month,[26] with Chester saying they would be mixing for a long time because they had "a ton of songs."[65] He listened to all the tracks together for the first time on January 29[66] and said that this was his favorite Linkin Park record to date and he couldn't wait to share it with fans.[67]

The band worked with a wide variety of artists throughout the making of the album,[68] which Chester explained by saying they were curious about how others work and wanted to expand on their education.[65] Mike also said Linkin Park is more than capable of writing their own songs, but they wanted to change it up and write with others this time. They met with 30-40 songwriters, one at a time.[69] According to Phoenix, anyone who they've enjoyed the work of in the past or who is interested in seeing what they're doing and how they work, they've invited them in and hung out in the studio, whether it meant hanging out and eating lunch in the studio or doing some music and writing together.[70] Among the people who were seen with the band but didn't contribute to the album are Zane Lowe,[71][72][73] Quincy Jones,[74] and Kyle Lambert.[75]

While most of the collaborators on the album were songwriters,[28][29] the band also brought in vocal producers because they wanted a different perspective on how to approach the vocals.[76] Among the collaborators are Justin Parker,[77] Conner Youngblood,[78] Jon Green,[79][80] Blackbear,[81][82] Andrew Goldstein,[83][84][85] Eg White, Emily Wright, Andrew Bolooki,[37] Andrew Dawson, RAC, Corin Roddick,[26] Ross Golan,[86] Wyatt Durrette,[45] Michael Keenan Leary,[87] Brian Howes[88][89] and Alexander Spit. American singer Kiiara also had a 7 hour session with Linkin Park[90] to record vocals for a song written with Julia Michaels and Justin Tranter,[91] and rappers Stormzy and Pusha T contributed to the album with original verses.[92] The Chainsmokers (American DJ duo) revealed they were also asked to work with Linkin Park,[93] but Mike Shinoda said the collaboration never happened.[94]

During the sessions, Chester Bennington approached Billy Howerdel to contribute a song to the album. He had a halfway finished demo of a song called "Eat The Elephant" to which he could see Chester contributing. The song didn't make the album, but when Chester passed away, he saw that as a hint to finish the track. He said it was a kind of therapy. The chords, drums and lyrics were completely reworked and the new version was included on A Perfect Circle's 2018 album Eat The Elephant (titled after the song).[96][97]

After wrapping up the album, Chester started working with a vocal coach for the first time in his life in preparation for stripped down performances and the One More Light Tour. Thanks to him, Chester said his range was expanded significantly.[98] Chester would spend 40 minutes with his vocal coach before every show of the tour.[99]

The band made a conscious decision of not having transitions between the songs because they wanted to ensure that each song was its own statement. The album opener, "Nobody Can Save Me", is considered by the band one of the foundational songs of the album, starting an emotional arc.[48]

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