The producer for Linkin Park’s debut record ‘Hybrid Theory’ and sophomore record ‘Meteora’ has also spoken out to Billboard about Chester Bennington and went as far as saying working with Chester was a “Dream come true”. The producer is Don Gilmore and he shared the following about working with Linkin Park in their early years:
“The demos were brought to me through my manager and I thought it was good. I didn’t necessarily think it was amazing, but I liked that they were trying to do something unique. So I met with them — they were looking at some other producers — and I went to a rehearsal, and Chester started singing and I was just like, ‘Oh my god, this is really special,’””
“I’d never really heard somebody sing that incredibly just in a little crappy rehearsal room,” he continues. “He wasn’t really singing like that on the demos, and I just felt like, if he can sing like this in the studio, then we might have a chance of doing something.”
The producer continues to talk about the track ‘One Step Closer’, more specifically the ‘shut up’ part of the track, saying the following:
“There were different lyrics written, we were saying maybe it could be a musical section, and then Mike and Chester came in with this and Chester went out and sang it and it was just overpowering. He knocked the walls down in the little fort. When he sang it, he just literally destroyed the whole thing and almost broke the microphone.”
Don Gilmore was brought on once again for Linkin Park’s sophomore record ‘Meteora’, on which he shared the following: “For a record producer he was just a dream come true. He could go to that point that was, like, beyond — it’s just crazy how hard he could go with such precision. And even when he sings softly, the precision [was there]. So yeah, he was a super special guy.”
