#braddelson #linkinpark #rockfileradio
Bradford Phillip "Brad" Delson (born December 1, 1977) is an American musician, best known as the guitarist and one of the founding members of the Grammy Award winning rock band Linkin Park. He is also the A&R Representative for Machine Shop Recordings.
Delson entered UCLA in 1995 as a Regent Scholar working toward a Bachelor of Arts degree in Communication Studies with a specialization in Business and Administration. He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and shared a dorm room with future Linkin Park band mate Dave Farrell for three out of his four years at school. Delson also had the opportunity to intern with a member of the music industry as part of his studies and ended up working for Jeff Blue, an A&R representative at Warner Bros. Records, who offered constructive criticism on Xero's demos, which were from the 4-track sampler tape Xero, which was released in 1996. Blue later introduced Chester Bennington, who would become the lead vocalist of Linkin Park, to the rest of the band.
After graduating summa cum laude from UCLA in 1999, Delson decided to forgo law school in order to pursue a musical career with Linkin Park.
In 1999, Delson's band, Xero, replaced former lead vocalist Mark Wakefield with Arizona native Chester Bennington and renamed themselves Hybrid Theory. Before long, Delson, along with Shinoda, had produced the six-track EP of the same name as the band, distributing it to various websites online and earning the band its own cult following. By 2000, after one more band name change, Linkin Park was signed by Warner Bros. Records.
On October 24, 2000, Linkin Park released the overwhelmingly successful Hybrid Theory. Over the next year, Delson helped produce the remix album Reanimation (2002), and added his own creative insight into the remixed interpretation of "Pushing Me Away" ("P5hng Me A*wy").
After Reanimation, Delson played a key role in the production of Linkin Park's second studio album, Meteora (2003), which featured heavier guitar riffs than ones in Hybrid Theory.
Linkin Park released their third studio album Minutes to Midnight on May 15, 2007 in the United States. For this album, the band strayed away from the style of nu metal style they had perfected in Hybrid Theory and Meteora, and developed an entirely new sound. For Delson, this meant experimenting with different guitars and amps, both new and vintage. It also meant he needed to push aside his disinclination for guitar solos, which are featured in tracks such as "Shadow of the Day", "What I've Done", "In Pieces" and "The Little Things Give You Away".
While the band pieced together the song "The Little Things Give You Away," Delson experimented with an E-Bow, creating a song called "Ebow Idea," which would afterwards become "No More Sorrow". Listeners can also hear him jingling his keys in "Given Up", an idea which he is credited with in the album booklet, as well as the multiple tracks of hands clapping. He has also played the piano for a few of the live shows on the song "Hands Held High".
Brad also added his own creative insight into "New Divide", the track composed and performed by Linkin Park for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen – The Album in 2009. It was also the band's last single before the whole band got together, away from their side projects to compose music for their last album, A Thousand Suns, released on September 14, 2010. Their next album, Living Things, was released on June 26, 2012. The tenth song of this album, "Until It Breaks", features Brad Delson, doing the vocals. Near the ending, Brad sings a melodic part, which is the first time he actually sings lead vocals in a record.
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