Hybrid Theory: the Portuguese tribute band that is successful around the world and reached Rock in Rio

As they are modest, they do not openly admit what fans are saying everywhere: Hybrid Theory is the best Linkin Park tribute band in the world. Please agree, however, that you take this project very seriously and are continually working to improve your show. “That title is not given by us, but we know the work we have done and that brings us results. Because we can evaluate these results, we know we are good. We work hard: we rehearse every day from 11 am until 5 pm”, explains Miguel Martins, guitarist and manager of the band formed in Lagos. Ivo Rosário, vocalist – who delights the public with his incredible resemblance to the late Chester Bennington – states that “We take this as a normal eight-hour day job. Our work doesn’t just start when we step on stage.”

Despite all the commitment they put into what they do, it still finds it difficult to believe the scale that the project, born in 2017, just a few months after the death of the North American band’s leader, reached in a short time. “It all snowballed, we couldn’t really explain how it happened”, admits Miguel Martins, joking that the requests were coming up “out of the blue”. When he received the first invitation to give a concert at Altice Arena – currently MEO Arena – he laughed and didn’t take it seriously: “We’re not a band that fills a room that size”. It was only the third time that he accepted the proposal, having sold out the pavilion in April 2023. From then on, appearing on the Galp Stage at Rock in Rio was a quick leap.

The story of a dream

Hybrid Theory – the name of Linkin Park’s debut album, released in 2000 – was born at the end of 2017 with a mission: to raise some money to buy extra equipment for the original band they were trying to create at the time, Zeroh. Some time before, Miguel Martins had made a casting for this project and Ivo Rosário auditioned to sing Linkin Park. The members at the time were impressed, he ended up being chosen, but that didn’t mean they immediately came forward with the idea of ​​a tribute: they really wanted to play originals and they already had several songs ready to be released. “When we finally decided to start the tribute we had nothing, in my mind it wouldn’t even be possible to reproduce this in the way we are doing today. In fact, I was one of the people who was most opposed to doing it because I technically thought it wasn’t possible”, admits Miguel Martins. Today it is difficult to believe how they achieved so much in such a short time. In addition to Miguel Martins and Ivo Rosário, four other members are also part of the band: Pedro Paixão, vocalist, who voices Mike Shinoda, Nuno Bernardo, bassist, Diogo Neuparth, drummer, and Daniel Pimenta, DJ.

The first concert took place in January 2018, at the Bafo de Baco bar, in Loulé and it couldn’t have gone better. The following week they scheduled another one in Portimão and tickets sold out in two hours, meaning they had to book another date. They quickly scheduled others, having held around 30 that year, including some in the Azores. The following year the invitation to leave the country came and the first concert took place in Germany, followed by a proposal to tour Australia.

The pandemic complicated the agenda, but they didn’t stop. “Following the pandemic, in May 2022, we returned to the Algarve Academic Week, and posted one of the videos from that concert on YouTube. This one went viral, with two million views. And that changed everything”, explains Miguel Martins. It was here that they began to receive more contacts for concerts with a different dimension. “From then on we thought: maybe this is something to keep, and we started thinking about the more visual aspect of the show, with video and multimedia components, and not just the musical, so that we could give people an experience that unfortunately is no longer available. possible to have from the original band”, says Ivo Rosário.

When they accepted the challenge to do a concert at Altice Arena, things really started to change: it was necessary to have a bigger team, due to the demands of the show. Thus, the small group of six, always accompanied by the sound technician, became a team of 15. The entire lighting and image experience was properly worked on, raising the level of the presentation.

Initially they maintained this project in parallel with their professional activities, but from the moment they went viral they realized that it was impossible to make the two compatible and they would have to dedicate their time entirely to the band. “When the video went viral we realized that the band had grown to a higher level, and we didn’t even have time to adapt, it was like that, suddenly”, explains Miguel Martins.

In cachets They don’t speak yet. They say they don’t work for “dollar signs”, but because they enjoy what they do, but “obviously the cachet It’s bigger now, it’s on a larger scale, we couldn’t continue to receive 50 euros each per concert”, jokes Miguel Martins.

How to build a tribute band

The recipe, they say, is to work hard. “There are many hours working, in front of the computer, in the studio, studying, recording and listening to understand if it sounds the same. We study all the videos there are of Linkin Park, how they play live, how they did in the studio, everything we can gather so that it can help us provide a good experience for those who watch us. It still took us a few months before everything was solid and consistent”, explains Ivo Rosário.

Asked about the copyright part and the relationship with the original band, Miguel Martins says “this was the simplest part, because there is nothing to deal with: copyright works like any other band. coversthe show promoter is responsible for paying all copyrights, royalties and licenses to the responsible entities, and get the respective percentage to the original bandwidth. So they are also gaining from us.” Unfortunately, the Portuguese band has no contact or feedback of Linkin Park, despite having already tried it a few times.

Regarding the tours they have already done, they reveal that the best concerts were in India, where they have already been twice. “The band is very big in India. We land at the airport and we already have the media at the door. It’s the country where there is the most madness around us”, says Ivo Rosário. “The first concert in India was at the level of Woodstock, we were going to give a concert for 800 people and when we got there we had a sold out cricket stadium. We have no idea how many people there were”, reveals Miguel Martins amused.

As for the future of the band, they say everything is open. If they stick to originals or if they stay that way, anything can happen. “But of course, giving a concert at Rock in Rio has a huge weight, it represents another responsibility, and obviously it can open other doors, but we don’t want to anticipate the future”, concludes Miguel Martins.