Secrets

Part Two: DBS -- After Dark

[July 27, 2009]

A week after their successful festival set in Turkey, Linkin Park was back in LA attempting a band meeting without Chester, and Brad wasn't having it. Band meetings, band decisions, could only happen if all six members were present. More than a decade in, and Mike and Chester were trying to change the rules on him.

"All I'm saying is, I think it's time to get serious about this album. We've got just over a year until it needs to be completely finished, Mike. Songs. Artwork. There's decisions that will need to be made as we get closer to deadline. It's hard to do that shit when he can't even show up to meetings!" Brad reached to rub his hand over his goatee before he remembered he'd shaved it off before they played at Rock'n Coke, surprising everyone when he cut his hair down from overgrown poodle to an acceptable human shape. He still wasn't used to the smooth skin under his hand, and he was ready to abandon the idea of being clean shaven.

Mike closed his eyes and dropped his face into his hands as Brad fumed from his seat on the couch. "What do you want me to say to him, Brad? I can't tell him he can't go." He'd already battled this same argument within himself when Chester first told him about the upcoming Dead By Sunrise touring dates. Everything Brad was saying were things Mike had already questioned, and he was too tired to rehash all of it again.

"Why not? You're the only person he listens to. You need him here to finish these lyrics. We're stuck until the two of you decide what it is we're even doing with this album. Hell, I don't understand half of what you just played for me." Brad's eyebrows were knitted together in consternation and he flipped both hands up into the hair, waving them around at Mike's electronics with irritated emphasis.

"I just... he wants to do this, and he and I have talked it all through. They're just going to do little bits at a time. The longest he'll be gone is a month during October, and we can work instrumentals without him. You just need to relax. We'll get a lot of the vocals done in that week when he returns in August, before he leaves out in October. We're going to work on lyrics over the phone and email. It's not ideal but it will be fine. He's dedicated to it, I'm dedicated to making it work. I understand what we're trying to do. There's plenty of time left to get it all completed."

Suddenly trying to remember the band rules of disagreement, and hoping to get through to the emcee, Brad switched tone and tactic. "I feel like you're not listening to me, Mike. This schedule you just handed us shows Chester out during all the critical parts of putting the record together. I mean, he's not even here to talk this through, he's out doing press for another band." Brad scanned his eyes down the schedule Mike had given him and the rules fell right out of his mind again as he scowled. "He promised this little side project wouldn't get in the way."

With that, Mike braced his hands against the side of his workstation and pushed up, stalking toward the window in a huff. He was tired of arguing the same points over and over. Brad didn't know how to let things go. He stood looking out the window over the back garden, unfocused eyes not really seeing anything but Chester's face in his mind... Chester as he had sheepishly handed Mike his touring schedule and waited anxiously for Mike's reaction.

It had been a year in the making, the rest of Chester's solo album, and Mike had patiently waited for him to see the project through and come back to him. He'd learned to change diapers and heat bottles, and as the months rolled by, he'd learned to recognize Otis' different cries, watched in amazement as his son learned and grew and began to crawl and then toddle around. The early morning hours, time spent in the recliner with the baby and a cup of coffee, had quickly become a favorite part of Mike's days. Having a baby certainly made the time pass faster than it would have in breaks of the past, and Mike found very little time to miss Chester in his new, busier domestic life. When he did have quiet moments, he longed to get back into the studio, and he'd pacified himself by working on some new samples alone. Hours in the studio had been scarce, though, and he'd been looking forward to getting back to work more regularly when Chester came to him with the schedule and put that anticipation on pause.