Linkin Park Reunion: How It Happened

it's official Lincoln Park are back and are releasing a brand new album from zero on November 15th Mike shoda Brad Delson Phoenix Farrell and Johan are joined by new members Emily Armstrong of dead Sarah as co-vocalist and Colin Brittain the songwriter and producer for the likes of G flip illenium and 10 Rock on the drums new single The Emptiness machine is available right now the band's first new music in seven years on the new album Mike Shinoda says it was made with a de appreciation for our new and longtime band mates our friends our family and our fans we are proud of what Lincoln Park has become over the years and excited about the journey ahead the band will kick off this new era with a series of headline shows including in Los Angeles New York and at the O2 Arena in London the band played a special event this evening September 5th in Los Angeles where all the news was revealed it was broadcast via live stream on the band's official website and also shown on big screens in New York's Times Square and it's sh it High Street Station in London opening with the emptiness machine shenoda greeted The Crowd by simply saying it's good to see you again so how did we get here well rumors about possible live shows have circulated online for some time now as the band continued to remain as popular as ever in fact when we caught up with Mike shenoda for his recent Rock sound icon issue we discussed how their influence has been felt on the next generation of bands and how Their audience has kept growing even in their absence to be in in 2023 seeing brand new Teenage artists and bands show up and referencing and loving Lincoln Park music is like such a blessing like we're we would never guess that we could be in this position and to be honest like some of it's crazy to think that some of them will be in this position later like they'll grow up to be um a band that somebody else references so that I think the chain you know that chain of influence and inspiration goes on it's we were influenced by bands we will influence bands um and it's a that's a beautiful lineage um separate from that I mean I you know we we were on the more like I don't know practical or like logical side of things there's a um the end of the year is when everybody gets you know a lot of their data back um besides you're like Spotify wrapped and stuff like that like like like more um Deep dive uh wrap-ups for the year that you get from management or your label or your publisher and so on and they're like saying hey okay like here's how we did this year we're really happy with these things maybe we can like work on these other things later next year and there was like you know for a band that is like I guess technically technically inactive Lincoln Park has been on an upswing in the last two years that is like unbelievable we've I mean the the we have like I we got one I think we got on one um one report for like just one DSP platform we had gained like like multiple tens of millions of new listeners wow and like that's mindblowing these are people like and I what they mean is like people that have never listened to Lincoln like 30 million people who have never listened to Lincoln Park before found Lincoln Park this here and all I can do is be grateful like that's the only I don't there's there's there's almost like nothing else I can say about that it's just shocking and um I can just what what do I say just like thank you that's all although the band have not been fully active in recent years there have been moments to celebrate such as the release of the 20th anniversary reissue of their debut album Hybrid Theory Johan reflected around that release about why he thinks those classic songs still resonate with people today we we went into that record just trying to you know reach inside of ourselves and have this introspective look and present what's going on and um I think what ended up is uh this this energetic music came out that people could relate to that people could really live vicariously through I don't think the the songs themselves provide answers but you know some people it provides U just like safety or or maybe even Direction just like some kind of um some kind of piece even though the music itself is not so peaceful sure I think but I think that that that that feeling whatever it is has been pretty common with people throughout the years and you know I um we didn't know that that would be the case when we wrote it it's just something that happened we were just kids that U wanted to make music a 20th anniversary edition of Meteora followed and came alongside previously unheard single lost which became a major hit on the US Billboard Chart Dave Farrell also reflected on the success of that particular song with us last year I wish I knew how or why any of that worked but I don't but I do know I do know that our fand base for whatever reason has always been insanely supportive of of everything we've done and everything we've tried um and so I I have felt so fortunate you know throughout our career to have the type of fan base and the type of fans that we have the type of people that we have um kind of in the lincol par community and I think this has been a project where for me when I first kind of listened to that song again and I had forgotten about the song I you know as soon as I heard it I was like oh I remember this you know but at the same time I was getting to listen to it with fresh years having not heard it for 20 years and kind of almost not even thought about it for 20 years so I was also almost like uh CAU by not CAU by surprise is not the exact way to say it but a little bit of caught by surprise by Chester's voice and just kind of taking me back to that early place of like I oh yeah like I love his voice like he got a awesome incredible connection with what he's singing and there's so much power there and it was just almost like I was hearing him sing something fresh and new um and I think I think or I was hoping that that would was going to be able to then go to the fans as well and for them to have that similar experience of even though it's 20 years old having something feel like you know a a person or a singer that you really love you're getting to hear something new from them so with this increasing interest in the band it came as no surprise when billboard reported earlier this Summer that early discussions were in place for a possible reunion tour to take place in 2025 so there we are 11 brand new songs arriving this November a world tour about to kick off and a brand new drummer and co- vocalist this is the new era of Lincoln Park I've been James Wilson Taylor and this has been your rock sound news update