CHESTER
Vocals
Chester was born on March 20th, 1976 in Phoenix, Arizona. Since his 20th year of life he's married to Samantha. Chester's greatest musical influences were the Stone Temple Pilots. Linkin Park isn't Chester's first band. Before joining Hybrid Theory (the former band name) he was singer in a band called Grey Daze. Chester has his own unique religious views, so it's possible that he doesn't belong to any religion.
MIKE
Emcee
Michael Kenji Shinoda was born on February 11th, 1977 in Agoura, California and is half Japanese. Together with Brad he formed the band Xero in 1996 (they met in 7th grade). The other band members were Joe, Rob, Phoenix and Mark (who's Taproot's manager now). Mike got a job as graphic designer, he designed the soldier with dragon-fly wings on the Hybrid Theory cover. He learned playing piano for ten years when he was young(er). Now he brings the hip hop elements to the band and into the music. Mike's greatest influences were The Roots, Nine Inch Nails and The Deftones. His favorite song on Hybrid Theory is "Papercut".
BRAD
Guitarist
Brad Delson was born on December 1st, 1977 in Agoura, California and is Jewish. He calls himself "Big Bad Brad", and likes to call his 7-string Ibanez guitar "Satan". Brad's prior bands were The Pricks (he believes that members of Linkin Park and Taproot were in this band, but he isn't sure), Relative Degree (together with Rob), and Xero (but this band is almost like Linkin Park today). Brad's first instrument was a trumphet, then he changed to the guitar - fortunately... In school he used to color his hair in different colors. His current hair color is the natural one.
JOE
Turntable DJ
Joe was born in Glendale, California on March 15th, 1977. Although Joe's born in America, he's Korean because of his Korean parents. His nicknames are Remy and Mr. Hahn. Remy is his split personality, Joe says. Mike and Joe met in Pasadena arts school. Joe was and is still into illustrating and is responsible for the visual part of the official site. He came up with the concept for the "One Step Closer", "Crawling" and "In The End" video.
ROB
Drummer
Rob was born in Calabasas, California on January 20th, 1979 and is Jewish. He's the youngest Linkin Park member. Rob previously played in other bands, like Relative Degree (together with Brad) and of course Xero. He learned playing piano when he was younger. Rob played the drums since he was 9 or 10 years old. Before starting his career as a musician he worked as a waiter. Rob's favorite song on Hybrid Theory is "In The End".
PHOENIX
Bass Player
David Michael "Phoenix" Farrell was born in Plymouth, Massachusetts on February 8th, 1977. The current bands Phoenix plays in, are Linkin Park and The Snax. Phoenix joined the Tasty Snax in his high school time after moving to California. Later they changed their name into The Snax. He's Linkin Park's original bassist, but first of all he learned playing guitar and later he changed to the bass. Partly some songs on Hybrid Theory are written by Phoenix, but he doesn't play on the album. Brad did this job. |
