On December 26, Linkin Park bassist Phoenix was at the mall returning Christmas gifts when he received a phone call from management telling him about the tsunami tragedy in Southeast Asia. He immediately rushed home and flipped on the news.

“We were just in the region a little bit earlier in the year,” he notes. “We had some personal experience with the area so it was shocking to see those images on TV.”

Over the past few years, Linkin Park made several tour stops in places like Pulau Mapur, Thailand and Indonesia. In fact, the band helped open the region to international rock acts when, in 2003, they played the first big concert in Malaysia since Michael Jackson performed there more than a decade ago. Linkin had to jump through hoops to meet all the local rules and regulations, but at the end of the day, they performed a historic show in the very stadium where Malaysia announced its independence half a century ago.

“That was our first experience in the region, and since then we’ve been able to go back and play a couple more,” he notes, which helps explain the band’s personal connection to that corner of the world. “We have people that we met over there, not just fans, but people who work with the Warner affiliates in the region. Obviously, they are tremendously affected by what happened.”

Yellowcard’s Ben Harper also had a personal connection to the region. The band’s former merchandiser, Arosha Silkscreening in Santa Barbara, is operated by a Sri Lankan native who has family and friends in the affected regions, and has been collecting donations, sending them directly to Sri Lanka to rebuild homes destroyed by the disaster.

“He was the guy, while we were on Lobster — an indie label, and we were poor as hell — [who] used to front us all these shirts and mail ‘em to us and we’d have thousand dollar merch tabs with him that he’d let ride,” Harper recalls. “Right when this happened, he reached out to us for any kind of help.”

Although Yellowcard is technically on break before recording their next album later this year, Harper says the band is trying “to put something together in March or April and help filter money right to Arosha. So we have a direct connection to what’s going on there.”

Some of the members of Trapt had even recently visited some of the areas prior to the disaster that were hardest hit by the lethal waves.

“We decided to go to Thailand for a few days,” says Trapt’s Simon Ormandy. “I went to Bangkok, while Pete [Charrel] and Monty went to Phuket. Phuket was one of the places that was directly affected by the tsunami. It was extremely surreal, having experienced the beauty of the country and the warmth of its people, to see footage of the devastation. Pete and Monty have pictures of and stayed in Patong Beach, which is one of the places that was hit hardest. It gives us a connection to the place, and some personal motivaton in getting involved.”

In the past, Linkin members worked with various charities — L.A. Children’s Hospice and the Breast Cancer Research, among them — but founding Music For Relief is the first cause they’ve tackled as a group. Days after the tragedy, guitarist Brad Delson brought up the idea.

“Brad called us and said this was something he really wanted to do, and all of us were more than happy to be on board,” recalls Phoenix.

“At first, we just wanted to donate some money, but eventually we decided to do something a little bit bigger and expand it outside the six of us. We wanted to get other artists and fans involved, so we started Music For Relief.”

“Brad called me pretty early in the whole deal,” says Hoobastank’s Doug Robb. “I’m sure we were one of the first bands that was on it, just because we’ve known them so well. It was just a few days after the whole tsunami occurred and seemed like a real obvious thing to do.”

While providing aid might have seemed “obvious” in the early weeks, causes like this often fade from view as the shock subsides.

“We are bombarded by news day in and day out and you can become numb to the stories because you’re just sitting at your TV watching, but this kind of catastrophe really wakes you up,” says Taking Back Sunday guitarist Fred Mascherino. “It is just unbelievable. This was the greatest tragedy of our times.”

If others might forget, the music community will not, and Music For Relief plans to keep its infrastructure in place for future tragedies that might arise. In fact, Linkin Park did start Music For Relief, but the organization has since developed into its own standalone identity.

Throughout the country, bands are doing Music For Relief concerts and songs that have nothing to do with Linkin Park.

New York’s K-ROCK radio station and the Sayreville, NJ-based Starland Ballroom sponsored a multi-day, multi-band Music For Relief-affiliated benefit event last month that included performances from bands such as Midtown, My Chemical Romance, Coheed and Cambria and Senses Fail.

“On one night, Taking Back Sunday headlined,” says The Starting Line’s Matt Watts. “On the next night, we headlined. It was great. So many kids came out to the shows and I think all the shows were sold out. It just was awesome to see people come together.”

“It was an amazing show,” Mascherino adds, “but everyone kept in mind why we were there.”

Long Island-based Taking Back Sunday aren’t strangers to charity, having also supported cancer relief organizations. Although the fivesome have been on tour in Europe since the New Jersey benefit show, according to Mascherino, the band’s guest list on their London date was a paid donation list. And the band doesn’t plan to stop with collecting aid there. “Once we get home we will be coming up with more ways to raise money,” he notes.

Music For Relief is for any artist, big or small, who wants to get involved, and people continue to sign up left and right. The list of Music For Relief artists is also diverse, making this the only place to see Boston, Hanson, Tricky, Jay-Z, Juanes, Blondie, Lloyd Banks, Tears For Fears and Inspectah Deck all lumped together.

Diversity is the name of the game on a new Music For Relief benefit single to be released on iTunes. “Forever In Our Hearts,” written by Godhead’s Jason Miller and produced by Jay Baumgardner, will feature such vocalists as Brian McKnight, Mya, Nate Dogg, Sonny Sandoval (P.O.D.) and Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach) along with musicianship from members of A Perfect Circle, 311, Jane’s Addiction and Evanescence founder Ben Moody. The chorus will also feature vocals by several actors and other musicians.

“I am certainly not a celebrity,” says Miller, “but I know a few, and I thought if those few told a few more, then maybe we could put together something really special.”

Static-X vocalist Wayne Static thought Miller did “an awesome job rounding up fellow musicians to participate. Some people might be surprised at how closely knit the rock ‘n’ roll community actually is. There are a lot of good people in this business.”

Adds Phoenix about such projects, “We didn’t want Music For Relief to be a Linkin Park thing or something that has our name on it. We wanted it to be a catalyst for the music world to get involved.” Besides the single, keep an eye out for a Music For Relief benefit concert in SoCal this month that should feature Linkin Park, No Doubt, Blink-182 and many others.

Showing that musicians are responding to this catalyst, many of the organization’s artists have been using the media to help raise awareness about the cause.

“I’ve done a handful of interviews on radio, some on TV and print, basically just spreading the word and letting everybody know what’s going on and that we’re backing it,” says Robb.

Hoobastank even has plans to return to Southeast Asia (Robb says he’s been there twice before), Bangkok specifically, to perform on the MTV Asia Music Awards show.

“At first I was very surprised that they were even going to do it,” Robb says. “But apparently they’ve changed it into more of a benefit concert.”

Some acts even see Music For Relief as a stepping stone into getting more active with charity organizations.

“This is the only organization of its kind that we have been involved with,” says Trapt’s Ormandy, “and may serve as a catalyst for more efforts in the future.”

“We’re in a position right now where we can help out as much as we possibly can, and that’s a good thing,” says Watts. “I think if everyone gives a little bit, that’s what really counts.”

Adds Static, “It’s a very simple thing for us musicians to give a few hours of our time to help raise awareness.”

To date, 100 percent of all funds go directly to the American Red Cross, but Music For Relief plans to address other causes and work with other organizations shortly. Linkin’s four-stringer concludes, “As Music For Relief moves forward, if a need arises anywhere in the world, we’d like it to be able to help out in any way possible.”