This week, the members of Polyphia guested on Amoeba Music's popular What’s In My Bag? internet series – an online YouTube show that sees artists purchase records at the legendary store, and subsequently explain said purchases to viewers.
Naturally, the 20-minute episode threw up a number of surprising revelations – not least Scott LePage’s early affection for Maroon 5 – but the biggest bombshell of the episode came courtesy of Tim Henson, who revealed the band had once remixed an entire song for Linkin Park that never saw the light of day.
At around the 10 minute mark, Henson showcases one of the records he’s selected for his bag: Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory, which was released in 2000.
After fondly reflecting on the childhood memories that Hybrid Theory conjured up, Henson divulged that, as part of the plans to reissue the album in 2020 to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Polyphia remixed a track from the record.
Alas, though the 20th anniversary eventually arrived, it did so without the accompaniment of Polyphia’s remix – something that Henson remains disappointed about to this day.
“[Linkin Park] had contacted us to remix one of the songs on [the album], and we remixed With You,” Henson recalls. “It’s a fucking crazy remix, it’s an insane remix, and it was supposed to be us, 100 Gecs, Brockhampton, a bunch of people.
“It was supposed to be for the 20th anniversary and then they canned the idea after we had turned in a full mixed and mastered song. I can’t believe I’m holding it – the 20th anniversary edition – in my hand, and we’re not on it. Sad.”
Though there were no details given regarding why Linkin Park decided to ditch the remix, Henson’s bandmate Clay Gober does propose they “play it live” to ensure their efforts don’t go to waste, so perhaps there’s a slim chance it may be heard in the future.
Furthermore, given Polyphia’s track record of remixing – they previously turned bbno$ and Y2K’s hip hop mega hit Lalala into a nylon-string-loaded guitar fest – we imagine their treatment of With You would’ve been something special indeed.
