Pooch (@TourPooch) LPU Chat Summary
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Linkin Park’s front of house sound engineer, Pooch, has just part took in a video chat with LPU members, here’s a summary of what went down, lots of random facts and interesting LP info!:
He’s been working for Linkin Park for 6 years now.
He said Linkin Park will start rehearsing soon, they generally rehearse 3 weeks before tour.
He hasn’t seen the guys in a while so it will be nice to see them
After Europe, LP go back to the US for plenty of dates, they’re working all this year until 2013.
LP are planning to hit US, Asia, New Zealand, etc.
He was asked if there will be more shows in Germany other than Rock am Ring and Rock Im Ring, he said he’s sure they will.
He hasn’t heard any of the new Linkin Park songs, but he’s looking forward to it
In August, LP are going to change their set lists, and probably perform more new live songs
How did Pooch meet LP? Pooch said he was mixing for Limp Bizkit for the Summer Sanitarium tour, and LP was on this tour, when the guys heard Pooch mixing they had kept him in mind then when they were looking for a new FOH engineer the management hired him
About every 2 months he releases a new blog post (I believe it’s here).
He has worked with Van Halen, when he heard LP were going back on tour he decided to come back to them.
He has a wife and dog (boxer, named Penny), he has no children but plenty of nieces and nephews
He studied at Berkeley College of Music in Boston, he studied bass guitar there. Phoenix and him get along really well.
Favorite Waves plugin? C6.
Hardest song to mix live? The last album was difficult, Blackout he decided, a lot of songs on the A Thousand Suns record
His favorite song he likes to mix: songs from Hybrid Theory and Meteora, Papercut is one of his favorites. Minutes to Midnight and A Thousand Suns are good too, but he only named Papercut.
Linkin Park have played Robot Boy for rehearsals, but LP never played it live. He said LP play lots of songs in rehearsals but sometimes never perform them live.
Chester and Pooch are good good friends because he had worked with Chester on Dead by Sunrise, he was the Production Manager and Tour Manager, as well the FOH Engineer.
Brad wears headphones because he’s protecting his hearing, he has very sensitive ears. The rest of the guys have inner-ear headphones, custom mold in your ears, and what goes through them are whatever LP need to hear. Example: Chester’s vocals will be louder for Chester.
Why DSP sounds different? Basically ever DSP is a new experience, mainly because the environment they play in is different wherever they play. That’s why each DSP is unique and have their own sound. It’s an accurate representation of what it was like that day. In his opinion he said it shouldn’t sound the same, sometimes it depends on how’s feeling that day like for example he might feel the guitars need to be louder, etc.
What’s Pooch’s favorite live performance? He said this was a hard question but there were a couple of times in China in soccer stadium that he enjoyed because the crowd was massive and they were loud
He doesn’t get bored of LP’s performances, because it’s different each time.
Then he showed us his room.
There are places in different countries that have sound levels that they cannot go by, it’s actually dictated by the police (the law states they can only be so loud) that’s because the people that live there have rallied their local politicians that it can only be a certain level of sound. He doesn’t like it too much, but he has to deal with it
Inside arenas are harder compared to outdoor venues (open-air stadiums) when it comes to mixing.
He loves Israel, when they went there, and he’s really happy he go to go there
He praised Russian fans, they keep going back to Russian because the doors have opened for bands to play there
The perfect band? every band he’s worked for has their own twist, the past few years they’ve been working for Slash and Myles Kennedy. He loves working with Linkin Park though, they’re so nice and treat him well, and because of that he turns down other gigs.
He’s pretty close to the band but not that close that he goes their houses
The first concert that he ever went to is the Beach Boys, he was a kid, he went and saw them in Sacramento. His parents took them there. The concert that changed his life was Van Halen in ’94 that made him say “that’s what I want to do mix rock and roll bands!”
His first job was a boys scout medic
He doesn’t know anything about any new LP Live DVD. Right now LP are focused on their new record
He said he likes to travel, he loves cruises. In his free time he loves traveling.
He doesn’t help with LPU albums, anything that doesn’t have to do with live songs he doesn’t take part in
He’s 42 years old
He does not like Justin Bieber!
He’s absolutely sure on this record cycle in late 2012 or early 2013 they will go to Japan and Canada (someone asked about those specifically).
He’s not a big rap fan, but he does like Jay-Z. He likes Billy Talent
There are some summits coming up and he hopes there will be one in Australia
You can meet him at the concerts, if he he has time he’d love to talk to you
One of the coolest things that happened with LP was one time in Australia they sang to happy birthday to him.
He doesn’t really like 30 Seconds to Mars, he likes Muse though, and Foo Fighters, My Chemical Romance
He has 2 full sleeve of tattoos, bunch of pieces on his back and couple on his legs
He’s sure there will be a UK tour!
He doesn’t get sick of LP songs and doesn’t suggest what songs they should play live, it’s all up to LP.
He did not mix Live in Texas
He DID mix Milton Keynes
There are songs that LP play in rehearsals that you guys never get to see, he doesn’t know why LP never play them live
Pooch thinks that Linkin Park WILL come to India but he’s not sure, but he thinks they should go.
They do not have a database of all the recordings, there’s a vault somewhere where it has all they’ve done but he doesn’t know anything about that.
After shows the crew eats lots of pizza before the show they have catering
There are times where Pooch doesn’t get a finalized set lists till 5 minutes before the show
Best LP performance? he thinks Milton Keynes was really good
He loves Linkin Park’s version of Rolling in the Deep. He doesn’t really care for Adele.
He doesn’t know why LP did not release a live DVD of the Moscow show, but they might!
He loves France!
He wants LP to play loads of live songs but he didn’t name any
He doesn’t know why Chester is wearing glasses, probably because he can’t see like him.
How to mix a certain song, he says he tries to make it as true as the song sounds on the record, as that is what the band have worked on to get
Advice for sound engineers: Start working at a music venue near you, or work at a local sound company that provides sound gear, this will provide you knowledge before you get to mix anything, he said it’s a long road and he’s extremely lucky to get the work that he gets to do.
He doesn’t like Disturbed
He talked about the Kiss symphony, he said it was a lot of logistics but it was great.
He hopes Projekt Revolution will happen again.
He said Whitney Houston was the most challenging act to mix live, since there was so much to mix.
He said he loves the Pinkpop festival
He loves headline shows more than festivals
His favourite move is Goodfellas, he watches Walking Dead
Favourite LP songs are Papercut and Breaking The Habit.
He uses Digidesign Profile
He likes the Dead By Sunrise bandmembers
First equipment brought Urei 1176
He doesn’t like PCs, he has a Mac
Edit:
Adam chatted with the LPU members after Pooch left, here’s a few things we got:
He talked about the LP2K12 Twitter account, and revealed if it was fake or not. But he said it’s fun to have you guys guess…so we won’t say anything either. Well, since he/she confirmed they’re not part of LPHQ.
He’d love to do an LPU summit in South America, doesn’t know if it’ll happen though. Summit won’t happen in Chicago again, it already happened.
The new album artwork is not by Mike, he saw it and it definitely wasn’t Mike. He might have had some part in it though, he’s not sure.
Mike is trolling us because it’s hilarious– if you didn’t already know. Confirmation.
Lying from You and Burning in the Skies are his favorite songs
Adam had met LP at the Leave out all the Rest video shoot, Chester was really sick that day
He loves LPU11, it’s probably the best LPU year.
He’ll try to get the guys to get on the chat soon, Mike is super busy at the moment though
LPU Summit in Moscow is not happening.
He doesn’t know where the next LPU summit will be at, but they’re planning one
He doesn’t know if Rock am Ring will be streamed
There’s no more agreement with DC shoes anymore, they had an agreement with them to make LPU shirts, but not anymore
You’ll probably be able to bring one friend with you that’s not an LPU member to early entry at the shows
He doesn’t know if Chester will be at the opening of the Club Tattoo
They don’t really have control when meet and greets take place (before LP performs on stage).
Linkin Park love the gifts the receive at meet and greets!
He thinks lots of people will RSVP for meet and greets this time around, not like last year, most people got a meet and greet during the last tour, EVENTUALLY (at one point during the entire tour cycle).
He started working for LP 4 years ago.
Hugo (worked for LP, you might have seen him at meet and greets) won’t be on this tour this time around, he’s doing other things during this tour.