Mall (Music From The Motion Picture)

Background

On May 6, 2011, Deadline reported that Joe Hahn would be directing a film adaptation of Eric Bogosian's novel, Mall.^[1]. Hahn himself confirmed the news in a tweet he made later that day.^[2] Vincent D’Onofrio, Chelsea Handler, and Bogosian himself were all set to star in it, with D’Onofrio also producing. About the film, D’Onofrio stated "This film will be a comment on social violence. It begins as a man walks through the front door of a suburban mall armed to the teeth, causing five strangers to embark on a night that will change them forever. As the bullets fly, one teenage boy hurtles through the night on a collision course with the man he will become.” Handler and Bogosian were eventually replaced by Gina Gershon and Peter Stormare. In 2012, it was confirmed that Linkin Park would be composing the soundtrack to the film, and that it would be included in Linkin Park's record deal with Warner Bros. Records.^[3] It was later revealed that Alec Puro, the drummer from heavy metal band Deadsy, would be helping Linkin Park compose the soundtrack.^[4]

The first official trailer for Mall was released in May of 2014, which also contained the first snippet of music from the film's soundtrack, "It Goes Through". Hahn held a special screening of the movie on July 24, 2014 at the fifth annual Nerd HQ event.^[5] In June of 2014, Mall was released in France, and was officially released worldwide October 17, 2014.^[6]

Writing and Recording

Though most of the songs on the soundtrack were composed by Linkin Park specifically for the film, some of the songs were old demos of the band that were redone for the score. "White Noise" can be seen being worked on in the The Hunting Party Extended Trailer, "Devil's Drop" was worked on during the Living Things sessions under the title "Warm Spell", and "The Last Line" was started during the Minutes To Midnight sessions and continued to be worked on in the A Thousand Suns sessions under the title "Ammosick". Interestingly, "The Last Line" was mixed by Neal Avron, indicating that the song made it to the end of the recording sessions for Minutes To Midnight, but was not included, much like "Across The Line" and "What We Don't Know". "Dancer" was also worked on during the Minutes To Midnight era. For unknown reasons, the version of the song used in the movie contains scat vocals, but the soundtrack version of the track cut them out. Though it can't be determined when "It Goes Through" was started, samples of the song were released under the name "Luna" in Linkin Park's first Stagelight bundle in December 2012, along with samples of "Mal RX7", which went by the name "Milk". Like "Dancer", "Mal RX7" is noted as being an instrumental, meaning the song probably had vocals at some point.

Regarding working on the soundtrack and with Puro, Joe Hahn stated "I met (Puro) on tour because he was a drummer in a band called Deadsy years ago, so it was cool to get together with him because he’s a great friend. There’s three songs on the score that fit really well with what’s going on and actually became particular themes throughout the film. A lot of them were just little song ideas that (Linkin Park) had that didn’t really quite have a home, and this was our way of finding a home for them. And then the rest were just kind of experiments that Alec and I were able to put together, but it was definitely inspired by the band’s music. We do have a whole album’s worth of score to put out."^[7]

Composition

Releases

Physical

European Union, cat. 9362-49306-1

Digital

Mall (Music From the Motion Picture) // {4 members of LP & Alec Puro, cat. 093624930631}

Track Listing

Standard Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	White Noise	Bennington Chester Charles, Farrell David Michael, Hahn Joseph, Puro Alec, Shinoda Michael Kenji	3:06
2	Jeff Walks	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:00
3	Mall Blueprint	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:16
4	Jeff Makes Observations	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	2:17
5	Mal RX7 (Instrumental)	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:10
6	Barry's Story	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	0:59
7	Changing Room Tease	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:21
8	Danny In Police Car - Mal Gears Up	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:44
9	Mal Gives Barry Second Chance - Mal Unloads	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	2:29
10	Mal Carnage - Mal Stalked	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	3:17
11	It Goes Through	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	3:16
12	Cops Arrive	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:27
13	Danny's Lucky Day	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	2:28
14	Jeff Philosophizes To Donna	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:08
15	Jeff And Donna Connect	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	0:54
16	Jeff Trips In The Mirror	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	0:42
17	Adele And Danny In The Backseat	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	2:35
18	Mal Vs. Helicopter	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:08
19	Devil's Drop	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	3:00
20	TV Comes To Life - Mal And Jeff	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	4:20
21	The Last Line	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	3:41
22	Danny Goes Home	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	1:41
23	Dancer (Instrumental)	Bennington, Farrell, Hahn, Puro, Shinoda	3:19

Personnel

Music

Chester Bennington
Dave Ferrell
Joe Hahn
Mike Shinoda
Alec Puro

Production

Mike Shinoda: production on "White Noise", "Mal RX7", "It Goes Through", "Devil's Drop", "The Last Line", and "Dancer"; mixing on "White Noise", "Mal RX7", "It Goes Through", "Devil's Drop", and "Dancer"
Rick Rubin: production on "The Last Line"
Neal Avron: mixing on "The Last Line"
Joe Hahn: production on all other tracks
Alec Puro: production on all other tracks
Brian "Big Bass" Gardner: mastering

Art

Frank Maddocks: art direction and design

Live Performance

Songs Played Live

"Devil's Drop"

Reception

Critical Reception

Chart Performance

Awards

Trivia

External Links

References

↑ Deadline, May 2011]
↑ Twitter, May 2011
↑ Variety, May 2012
↑ Yahoo, August 2013
↑ Alternative Press, July 2014
↑ New Noise Magazine, August 2014
↑ Billboard, September 2014

[1] Deadline, May 2011]

[2] Twitter, May 2011

[3] Variety, May 2012

[4] Yahoo, August 2013

[5] Alternative Press, July 2014

[6] New Noise Magazine, August 2014

[7] Billboard, September 2014

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