"My December" - Uncovering the Nashville Studio Behind the Song

It's been almost a year since Linkin Park surprised us all with their comeback. With all the new activity and touring, my curiosity about their history was reignited, and I recently set out to uncover a specific corner of the band's history. Namely, how "My December," one of their only studio tracks not done in Los Angeles, came to be recorded in Nashville. As a Nashville local myself, as well as an enthusiast of music history and preservation, I saw this as an opportunity to document a somewhat-overlooked footnote in both the band's and city's recording history. Fortunately, I was able to piece together a good bit of this mystery. Read below if you'd like to learn more about this unique segment of the band's history in Nashville!

Bridgestone Arena's Linkin Park teaser from November 12, 2024, displayed on the venue's guitar pick-shaped screen at the south entrance.​

In the fall of 2000, Linkin Park was a young band with only one single to their name, "One Step Closer," traveling the U.S. in support of their upcoming debut album Hybrid Theory. Their first time in Nashville was October 9, when they arrived in Music City ahead of a club performance the following evening. This was just 15 days before Hybrid Theory would release and change their lives forever. But before that incredible rise to stardom, the band stopped in at a local Nashville studio to record a slow, piano-driven B-side for a radio promotional album.

One of the few known images of the exterior of 328 Performance Hall, where Linkin Park opened for Kottonmouth Kings on October 10, 2000. Now demolished, 328 was one of the early Nashville venues that helped to diversify the country-dominated live music scene in the 1980s. Upscaled.​

"My December" was written at the request of KROQ-FM in Los Angeles, which was preparing its annual Almost Acoustic Christmas concert, as well as a companion holiday compilation called The Real Slim Santa. KROQ, of course, was the radio station pivotal in the band's success with "One Step Closer," after pushing Warner Bros. to fast-track the song's release as a single following overwhelming listener response to a test play. Warner, in response, moved up the release dates for both "One Step Closer" and Hybrid Theory—the latter originally planned for early 2001 before being pulled forward into the more competitive fourth quarter of 2000.

Just days prior to the Nashville show, KROQ invited Linkin Park to open their Almost Acoustic Christmas show, on the condition that they contribute a new song for The Real Slim Santa. For the band, who grew up listening to KROQ and understood the influence it had in the rock world, this invitation was an opportunity to build the relationship—and they accepted.

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There was one challenge, however: the band, still with touring bassist Scott Koziol at this point, was in the middle of the country opening for Kottonmouth Kings on the Ridin' High Tour. This made the prospect of writing and recording a new song an extra challenge for Linkin Park, who were 1,500 miles from Los Angeles on October 4th in Omaha, Nebraska, when KROQ contacted their team.

One of the few pictures in circulation from the Ridin' High Tour, the September 18 date in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Credit overlaid; sourced from contribution to LPLive.​

An off day between the tour's October 8 show in Cincinnati, Ohio, and October 10 show in Nashville, Tennessee, gave Linkin Park just enough time to put a song together to send to KROQ. They found a studio in Nashville to track and mix the song, and Mike Shinoda set to work writing the song, which had little more than a title and idea. Alongside Brad Delson and Joe Hahn, he built a sparse, melancholic track based around a four-note piano arpeggio. However, the facility they used has remained something of an unexplored mystery ever since.

Official credits on the "One Step Closer" international single and Japanese editions of Hybrid Theory list the studio simply as "The Loft in Nashville." The only known clue came from a 2002 comment Chester made on the band's first Projekt Revolution tour, saying that they recorded "My December" in a studio where "Elvis used to record." The implication was seemingly that he meant "Elvis Presley," but Elvis only ever recorded in Nashville at RCA Studio B—which had closed in the late 1970s to become a museum, before some members of the band were even born. This discrepancy caught my attention, and sent me in search of information.

Audio recording of the February 12, 2002, performance of "My December" in Fairfax, Virginia, where Chester provides additional background on the recording.​

My initial efforts to investigate where "The Loft" was, upon moving to Nashville in 2016, produced little fruit. There is little to no information about the studio online, making research rather difficult. The trail went cold, and multiple subsequent attempts only left me with more dead-ends. With the band's return in 2024, however, my efforts were reignited. Through a combination of Discogs credits for "The Loft, Nashville," all tied to Warner releases; archived listings on local studios; and eventually articles from The Tennesseean, I finally identified The Loft as a former Warner Bros. Records in-house studio that was once located at 1815 Division Street in Midtown Nashville, on the fringes of Music Row. Though the building had long-since been demolished, it had once been home to Warner Nashville offices and their state-of-the-art private recording facility on the second floor, which was virtually undocumented. The pieces were seemingly all falling into place.

Photo of the 1815 Division Street building circa 2016, which housed The Loft on the second floor. Photo originally by Mike Beecham Photography.​

Through that trail, I found the website of a former second engineer and intern at The Loft during its final years. After I made an initial inquiry, he generously answered my questions, confirmed the studio's timeline, and put me in touch with the head engineer for the entirety of the studio's operations. Over a long three-hour phone call, he helped paint a vivid picture of the studio's history, unique culture, and eventual shutdown.

The Loft opened in 1986 as the passion project of Warner Bros. Nashville president Jim Ed Norman and engineer Eric Prestidge. The studio was renowned for its attention to detail, and featured a custom mixing console with one of Nashville's earliest full-range designs (20 Hz to 20 kHz), as well as a vast collection of vintage microphones, including ones once used by Frank Sinatra or for recording the orchestra in early Walt Disney features such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Fantasia. The Loft built a reputation as one of the city's best-kept secrets, hosting artists such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Stevie Wonder, and—possibly the real name that Chester had confused in his 2002 comment—Elvis Costello.

The super deluxe box set release of Elvis Costello's King of America, originally released in 1986, featured outtakes recorded at The Loft—which also opened in 1986.​

The Loft's operations under Warner began winding down as budgets came under scrutiny amidst the AOL-Time Warner merger, finalized in January 2001. The studio was officially closed in spring of 2002; however, most perplexingly, both of my current main contacts said they did not work a session with Linkin Park in 2000. The head engineer noted that he recalled someone who had used the space in the transition period mentioning working with the band at the very least. This was a bit of a frustrating dead end, but suggested the possibility that the band used the studio without the usual staff's help, consistent with the credits listing Mike as producer/mixer.

However, the trail was not yet done. I reached out to a local songwriter, engineer, and producer named Joe Hand, who is credited for the Pro Tools session on the earliest releases of "My December." I almost instantaneously received a reply from Joe Hand, confirming he worked with the band to make the song. He had somewhat recently moved to Nashville at that time, and had a background not just in songwriting but in engineering and production. Most importantly, he knew Pro Tools and had his own rig, uncommon at the time due to it being a young tool—doubly so in Nashville, where the country music scene was largely not adopting it yet. Warner Burbank contacted the Warner Nashville team to host Linkin Park. Warner Nashville recognized that they needed someone with experience outside of country music and digital expertise—and Eric Prestidge reached out to Joe Hand, who fit the bill.

Linkin Park tracked and finalized "My December" between their arrival in Nashville and their opening act performance at 328 Performance Hall the evening of October 10. The band worked with Joe Hand to record Chester's vocals using a vintage Telefunken ELA M 251 microphone, from the studio's extensive collection; Joe Hahn's turntable work, which reportedly contained many more outtakes with different samples; Mike's background vocals; and guitar work from Brad Delson, who only came to the first day of the session to record guitar for resampling. Rob Bourdon did not come to The Loft at all. Hand also believed he recalled the central piano figure being resampled from a live recording of the Baldwin piano in the studio. Several of the samples used in the song came from Hand's personal sample bank or his Yamaha DJX keyboard, including the bass, a shaker, and the cello in the outro. After all the parts were finalized, Mike and Joe Hand worked together in Pro Tools to mix the song, as the latter taught Mike some of his mixing techniques.

Chester's vocals on "My December" were recorded using a vintage Telefunken ELA M 251 condenser microphone, part of the studio's very extensive collection put together by Eric Prestidge.
Image source: Freedy Johnson (difficult to find pictures of this mic that aren't re-issues)​

The masters were committed to CD and personally picked up by the Warner Bros. Records vice president, who flew in to Nashville and back to Los Angeles to deliver the song to KROQ. The radio station debuted the song on-air on October 11. Some time after the recording session, the label would reach out to Joe Hand again about the masters. They had apparently been misplaced on their end, and were needed for remixes—possibly, Hand believed, the DJ Crook remix of the song that never made the cut for Reanimation in 2002.

Linkin Park played "My December" for the first time at Almost Acoustic Christmas that December, and the song would go on to become one of their most enduring B-sides. It first returned in 2001 during Ozzfest as a live intro loop to "With You," and appeared in full several times throughout their touring history.

Nashville didn't get to hear "My December" live until 2004, when it appeared in the band's encore at Gaylord Entertainment Center. They brought it back again for Projekt Revolution 2008 at the Sommet Center (the same venue, which is currently named Bridgestone Arena), and that performance was officially released by the band on Songs from the Underground, their 2008 Linkin Park Underground compilation. It again appeared on the digital compilation A Decade Underground in 2010. As a result, Nashville holds the unique distinction of being the city where both the studio version and an official live recording of "My December" were captured.

The 2008 performance of "My December" in Nashville released on Songs from the Underground later that year.​

The building that housed The Loft was demolished in 2016, after efforts by local preservation groups failed to stop a development project. The historic building was leveled, replaced by a high-rise modern condominium development. No plaque or marker remains to commemorate the space’s quiet, understated role in Nashville’s recording legacy—which includes the particular quirk of hosting the session that produced "My December."

Now, as we near 25 years since that recording session and club show at 328 Performance Hall, Linkin Park returns to Nashville for the first time since 2015. When they take the stage at Bridgestone Arena on August 21, they’ll be just a mile (approx. 1.6 kilometers) down the road from where "My December" was recorded during that moment of calm between shows—a fleeting intersection between a rising band and a fading studio space full of history.

Satellite imagery of Nashville from shortly after The Loft's closure, showing the distance from Bridgestone Arena (then Gaylord Entertainment Center) and The Loft's site. 328 Performance Hall, where the band performed in 2000, is also marked.​

With this feature on the history of "My December" in Nashville, I would also like to petition the band to include the song in their setlist for August 21, as they did in 2004 and 2008, in honor of 25 years since it was recorded and in recognition of the city and studio that helped bring it to life. They've played it as recently as last year, and I think that all things considered, it would be a great song to fit in for the place where it was recorded. If you agree, share your support on social media using #MyDecemberInNashville and tag the band!

 

Woah! This is so detailed, amazing work! Hoping that we see My December return, it would bring things really full circle

 

I am pretty sure this is so detailed that even Mike and the others wouldn't remember so many things you collected here

What a fantastic post, this is really peak researching.

 

I THINK the credits for My December mention Joe Hand (not Hahn) on some/all releases? Double check me if you can.
https://joehand.com/producer This guy? Maybe he can help?

Here is what we list on Linkinpedia:

• Written by: Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Joseph Hahn
• Produced & Mixed by: Mike Shinoda
• Additional Pro Tools by: Joe Hand
• Recorded at: The Loft in Nashville

 

I know the earliest credits (LPU 2 and OSC) list "Joe Hand" - but HT20's box set booklet lists it as Joe Hahn. It made sense to me for the earlier releases to be a misprint, especially since no one who worked for the studio I talked to had any recollection of the band coming through. One was particularly insistent that it was not the case.

I have a few other engineers and contacts I've reached out to about a larger project documenting this studio. It appears he's local, so I could send something over to this Joe Hand.

EDIT: For clarification, a reply from one of my closer contacts suggests it could have been scheduled during the wind-down period when there was less direct oversight at the studio. Says "Joe Hand" might sound familiar but he couldn't give it any context.

 

Damn you just outdid yourself here. Great read.

 

This is fascinating stuff, awesome work @Christøffer

I've always loved My December. I had no idea it was completed in Nashville, much less in an old legacy secret studio that has now been demolished. Adds to the aura of the song.

Again, outstanding work!

 

Great post!

I first heard My December on a bootleg compilation called "Under Attack". Anybody remembers that?

 

Those bootlegs had such weird covers ahah ... The good old days.

 

UPDATE: sometimes the simplest answer really is the right one.

I had a great call with Nashville engineer/producer/songwriter Joe Hand. He is indeed the one who assisted Linkin Park at The Loft for "My December." Some quick points among the things I'll be editing into the article:

• As Warner Nashville was winding the studio down between 2000 and 2002, Eric Prestidge called Joe because he had a Pro Tools rig and digital chops—exactly what the band needed. Joe wasn’t Warner staff, but the people at The Loft got the call from Burbank and needed someone who had perspective outside of their country world and the digital experience.
• It was mostly Mike, Chester, Joe Hahn, and Joe Hand in the room; Brad stopped in on day one to record guitar harmonics and some reversed parts they resampled. Rob didn’t come to the studio at all.
• They recorded live vocals, turntable/scratch takes (with a ton of unused of outtakes), guitar, and possibly the odd-sounding Baldwin piano at The Loft (Joe thinks they may have resampled it, but couldn't be sure). Everything else was programmed.
• Several sounds—bass, shakers, the cello part at the end—came from Joe Hand’s own personally-recorded sample library or his Yamaha DJX keyboard.
• Joe Hand and Mike mixed in Pro Tools, not with the studio's console, and Joe taught Mike mixing tricks as they went—Mike wanted to take the reins and learn the workflow.
• A Warner Bros. VP flew to Nashville and back to personally pick up the master CD to deliver to KROQ in Los Angeles.
• Sometime after, Warner reach out to Joe Hand about the masters, as they’d lost their copy and needed it for remixes... (it wasn't Mickey Petralia's that made the cut for Reanimation; however, when I mentioned the DJ Crook mix that name sounded familiar).
• And a bonus! Joe went to the band's Nashville show—he shared a cool story I’ll save for my tour post.

To be edited into my main article! Good call @Hahninator and perfect timing as all my previous conversations gave me exactly the context I needed for the best questions about the session.

 

From his account, they mutually agreed they wanted to work together again, but he never spoke with them again because...well...they blew up beyond all belief just shortly after.

What I would give to get this in front of Mike! This guy lives here and the band will literally be here in two days. He deserves more recognition. There were a lot of great stories that aren't going in my writeup.

 

Yeah, if Chris follows them he could really write some nice stories about all this stuff