Rob/Phoenix/Joe: Always been in the Background?

Is it my imagination or has the band recently made a concerted effort to project Mike, Chester and Brad as the 'frontline' members in charge of song-writing and production, with the other three being relatively anonymous in the background?

You can hear it in all the interviews of late.

 

Just a guess, but Rob and Joe are pretty shy, plus Joe's busy with his store and whatever he's directing or designing. Phoenix isn't always out there as well, but he only shows up when he's messing around with the band. Also, no offense, he's the bassist.

 

For the most part, this is always how it's been.

 

Yes.

 

Yes! well, Rob's job is dumming nothing more, Phoenix's job is the bass & golf , and Joe's job is the sampling stuff.

 

Eh, from LPTVs and all, they sure don't tale the forefront of the songwriting, but they contribute a decent amount to the process. Its not like their voices won't be heard by Mile and Brad, they are a very inclusive band that has a sort of chemistry hard to find in other bands.

 

Kind of always been that way, I think. Rob, Joe, and Phoenix seemed to be more involved with ATS and MTM though.

 

Chester is the lead singer, so he'll always be in the spotlight. Mike and Brad always seem to have been the two biggest influences in their creative process, they're the ones that have produced their two newest albums. It makes since their the 3 we see the most of.

 

Let's put it this way:

If Mike/Chester/Brad like a song, and Rob/Joe/Phoenix don't like the song, the song is definitely going on the album.

 

EFA.

 

Does Joe still ahve the store? Cause I heard somewhere that it closed a long time ago.

 

@Brandon @Spiderguy252 I really hope you two are just kidding and don't actually think that.

 

While it's definitely always been the case that those three are the primary contributors to the creative process, something has definitely changed behind the scenes leading up to this album. I think the fact that every song on the first six albums has evenly split songwriting credits between all members of the band regardless of how much input they had (The Messenger was 100% written by Chester and only features him, Mike on keys, and Brad on guitar, but all six members share songwriting credit, for example), but Heavy and apparently Battle Symphony are only credited to Chester, Mike, Brad and whatever outside songwriters they brought in tells the story. The recent stripped-down performances also being done by just those three members says a lot too.

Don't be surprised if the cameras don't focus on Joe, Rob, or Dave much from here on out, let's put it that way. I hope I'm wrong, but...

 

Well, Chester/Mike/Brad are the most vocal of the group since it's in their personalities: Chester's very friendly and always loves to have conversations about anything while Mike and Brad love to talk about their process and what they're hoping for. Not only that, but...well, I mean, they're the singers and lead guitarist, so of course people will take notice of them. Plus Chester and Mike are highly sought after by other musicians and artists while Brad has grown to be a well-respected businessman and producer.

Rob has always been the quiet one. He's always bashful and just seems to love drumming more than talking or doing interviews.
Joe has always been the mysterious one who's more into directing, his store, and living a low-key life compared to Chester and Mike, but he's also the fourth voice in the studio: if there's some sounds Mike wants or if they're looking to push themselves or go off-base even further, Joe always helps in giving his input (he's the one who suggested Kiiara/a female vocalist in the first place).
Dave/Phoenix has always been the goofball of the band. He's the most vocal out of the three, and heck, before Brad became more prominent during these later albums, Dave has always been the third member in interviews--in fact, I'd argue Dave could be grouped up there with Chester/Mike/Brad since he's in the studio in most of the LPTVs. He just wants to have fun and live his life (as seen with his racing and golf adventures) as well as troll Mike and Brad as much as possible (Chester trolls with him).

Rob, Dave and Joe are still very important to the band, obviously. Without them, I don't think Chester/Mike/Brad would stay sane and the band would have broken up a long time ago. It's just what it is: Chester/Mike/Brad are the most vocal since they carry most of the production behind the scenes, Rob/Dave/Joe are perfectly content with just staying quiet and not having to deal with what their other bandmates have to go through (I mean, Joe's a director, he already has more than enough to handle).

 

Astat, you seem to have a theory about what might be going on. Would you like to share it? Because I also find these songwriting credits and stripped-down performances weird. Do you think there might be some tension inside the band? They do seem like the coolest guys, but we don't know what happens when the cameras are off. Or maybe you believe there's a completely different reason?

 

I doubt there are any real tensions happening right because this has always been the way that the band writes music. We should stop assuming what's going on because that's not healthy for the fanbase either.

 

I hope LP will continue to make music in the future. I hope this theory is false since I don't want the band to split up.

 

The primary writers in Linkin Park have always been Mike and Brad. I haven't kept up much with the band since Minutes to Midnight, but at least that is how I remembered it back then. I think the only time that the other band members actually wrote their own songs was during the making of Minutes to Midnight, where each band member would create their own seeds and at the end of the week, the band would listen to them all. Chester was probably the only other member of the band to ever really write anything on the first two albums besides Mike and Brad. I think he came up with the chord progression to Somewhere I Belong, as well as the lyrics to Easier to Run. I think he also wrote all the lyrics to In Pieces as well. I'm sure there are various circumstances where other members of the band wrote some stuff as well, but I think Mike and Brad have always been the primary writers since day one.

 

I'm not sure why you think it's that out there. In the MTM documentary, it was considered a ~new special development~ that Mike and Chester were accepting notes on lyrics from other band members. The Hunting Party was the album that it was because Mike decided it was to be so. 1 member of a 6 person band made that initial decision (and I'm sure others like Chester were on board, but Brad had to be convinced).

It's pretty clear there are 3 tiers in Linkin Park. Mike is on top, Chester and Brad are just beneath, and the others are at the bottom. I'm not saying they're equivalent to hired musicians, but there's clearly inequality in influence.