I had the opportunity to be
a part of a teleconference for The Hunting Party tour that is currently traveling
around the world with Linkin
Park, Rise Against and Of
Mice & Men. During the call, I was able to ask a question to Austin Carlile
from Of Mice & Men and Chester Bennington from Linkin Park
chimed in as well. So, technically, I have semi-interviewed Chester Bennington.
So here it is. Enjoy!
Operator: Our
next question will come from Kinsey Haynes from WVUA-FM.
Kinsey Haynes:
My question is for Austin. I know someone
touched on this earlier, but I want to know, what it's actually like touring
with Linkin Park since they are one of your favorite
bands.
Austin Carlile:
What is it like touring with Linkin Park?
Wow! Super awesome. It's great.
Chester Bennington: (overlapping)
The most fun ever.
Austin Carlile:
Yeah. It's the most fun ever.
We have a coffee meeting and there's a yoga room. No. It's great; it's cool to
see it on both sides of it. It's cool to see it from a business aspect. Like Chester was talking about
earlier and talking about, you know, bands taking control of their own bands
and then, you know, people that work for them being employees for the bands,
the management. And it's cool seeing the business side of it, just as well as
the production side of it. And, you know, we get to the venues at, you know,
9:00AM, 10:00AM every morning and we
wake up, walk in, half dressed, half asleep, tired day at the studio, or at the
venue, that Linkin
Park comes in. You know,
they're not there for sound check, a few hours before they play the show;
they're rock stars. They come in and go, "Oh, we want to do that." We
want to be able to come in and we want to get to a point where we can not have
to set up the venue for literally 13 hours all day wondering what we're going
to do, trying to figure out what to do in the middle of nowhere. And it
inspires us, and it makes us want to work harder and it makes us want to work
and create and become artists that can support themselves, like Linkin Park
does. And, you know, we were going out and playing in Germany and even played
12 shows in Germany on our last tour and every night, just thousands of people
singing and screaming, and it's unbelievable to me and it's something that we
want to set our sights to to do as a band. And we see Linkin Park
as a band like ourselves. And just like Chester
was saying, with each of his albums, he feels like he's in a different band and
feels like their songs change. That's what we do as band and, you know, I think we're constantly
evolving our sound and constantly evolving who we are as a band and who we want
to be as a band, because at the end of the day, you know, I don't think with
any kind of music you never really know, because it's always changing and
you're always creating as a musician. And just the fact to be able to take
notes and to be on tour with a bunch of really awesome guys; it's a blessing
and it's a great experience. It's something I'll definitely never forget.
Chester Bennington: You
know, it's interesting because in the same way, touring with Of Mice and Men,
it's inspiring to me because here are these guys, like you said, they're at the
venue 13 hours a day, you know? They're trying to figure out how to wash their
clothes, to figure out what to do. They're around each other all the time. They
also have lots of decisions to make. You know, these guys play something like
fucking eight shows in a row, and I was like, "Dude, you're going to
destroy yourselves. Please. Thank you." And, like, it's funny, because,
like, a lot of bands would think their managers and a tour schedule and it says
here eight shows in a row. You're like, "Okay. Let's hit the road."
Like, it can kind of seem like you're working for somebody. It's important to
know, like, you know, you don't have to do that. You can actually, like, put a
limit on that stuff so that you don't have to wear yourself out. And you've got
to think long term. And these are the things that, like, you know, I look and I
go, "Wow! These guys actually are like really prepared to play eight shows
in a row." Like, that is bad ass. I don't care who the fuck you are.
That's insane, and especially the shows these guys do. It's not, like, you
know, you're walking out, you know, whisper singing and folk songs for 30 minutes.
It's, like, these guys are putting it out there. And so, it's inspiring. It's
fun to be around a young band that loves playing music and will do anything,
literally anything to do it and show up every day with a smile on their face
and go out every night and crush it and come up and play songs with us when
they should be, like, not playing music anymore; like, resting or whatever else
they want to do. It's fun, you know? It's fun to be around guys that are so
hungry, because it makes me want - I want our crowd to love these guys so that
they go play arenas. I want these guys to go play arenas; I want them to play
stadiums; I want them to have the same success that we have, because it's fun
to watch them play. it's fun to see somebody want it so bad. And it's inspiring
to me, you know? And it makes me go, "That's what I do this for." I
love seeing bands that make me want to be in a band, you know? It's fun; it's
fun to go out on the road with young people that when I watch them go, "John,
I want to be in a band." And then I go, "Yes, I'm in one." And
it's like "Woo hoo," you know? It gets me pumped up, you know? And
that's what beautiful about music. It's, like, I love my life. Mike and I were
laughing today, like, my girls were like running through the house just, like,
literally screaming their brains out and I'm going, "Get it out. Get it
out. Come on," you know? And everyone in the house, like, there were
people who may not be used to seeing that, you know? It's just kind of funny,
because this is the kind of, like, you know, living this lifestyle where you're
around creative people and you're allowed to express yourself and it's fun to,
you know, be creative and be different and it's a blessing. Like, every moment
that we live is a blessing. It's fun to see that transcend into younger
generations. It's fun to see my kids grow up in a home where they can, you
know, express themselves and it's fun to be able to, you know, see all these
things happening, not only from within our own band, but within, you know,
other bands that we tour with and, you know, it truly is a blessed life that we
live, you know, being musicians.
