LPAssociation Interview - Mike Shinoda Discusses New Linkin Park Album 'One More Light'

I feel like One More Light may sound similar to The Messenger, one of my fav LP songs.

 

Same as BREAKING THE HABIT but way more personal. how he would sing this live?

 

Very likely. Doesn't rule out the possibility of having long instrumental-only parts within the songs themselves, though, but I doubt we'll get that. Safe to say it's gonna be a very track-by-track-focused album.

 

Fantastic. This site is the only one that can get these kind of answers from Mike, across all media platforms.

 

Good interview.


Regarding the question to Mike about THP, and their "criticism" at the time of poppy music/lack of real rock music:

"MS: Great question. Think of a gallery painter's shows--each exhibition is its own statement, inspired by where they're at in the moment and what's going on around them. We're not McDonalds, we don't make the same thing over and over. In order for us to be happy, we have to be experimenting and pushing the boundaries of who the band is and what we do. Sometimes that means wild direction changes."


That's fine and everything, I support the band changing direction and doing what makes them happy. 10/10. No issue there at all.

But why make all those statements about how rock music is dead and everything is poppy even from rock bands etc etc? It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth hearing them say all that and putting out an album like THP, and then following it up with a song like Heavy.

Why couldn't they just say "This is where we are at right now. We are in a heavy rock mood, here's what we made" and called it a day.

Looking forward to hearing the rest of the album, but looking back at all the things they were saying around THP just feels disingenuous.

*shrug*

 

Since Mike always said 'We put those to the trash...' no one ever asked about what really happened to those, and honestly it didn't matter. I'd just been always curious about them.

 

Agreed 100%. And I think I'm never gonna be okay with that whole debacle unless there's a proper "sorry, I should've worded that differently".

During the ATS-era the band made me more open-minded towards other types of music, eventually got me into producing my own music and it was a shame to see them, especially Mike, go down that road during the THP-cycle since it directly contradicted the established identity of the band that inspired me back in the day. It continues to sour every statement that's come since then.

 

And that ain't a bad thing for me, back then when MTV Unplugged was a thing, I would hope LP could do one of those. And getting new material instead of already existing songs is already a plus.

 

Where does it say exactly that Mike sings in One More Light? (The song)

Also great interview, LPA, I'm proud of all the staff and their hard work coming up with interesting and informative questions. Good job!

I am also happy to hear Mike sings more on this album. Hope he sings at least one song by himself though.

 

At what point did the band say "We're only doing rock music from now on"? You seem to be projecting for some reason, because I personally took his statement as, "For this album, we wanted to make a rock record." It's fairly obvious that each album release cycle has a different mission statement. You've been here since the ATS album cycle, you REALLY should have picked up on that by now.

The only thing that appears to be disingenuous is your interpretation of sentences.

 

@Derek I totally hear what you're saying. And like I said, I have absolutely no issue with them going different directions with each album. More power to them. I'm just giving my take on their statements regarding "rock music no longer being the alternative", and "rock groups putting out music very similar to what you would hear on mainstream radio", and then turning around and making Heavy To be clear, I'm not saying that's bad or wrong! Just that it's a complete 180 on the very next album cycle. Edit: Moreover, that it comes off as a direct contradiction to what they were criticizing (I use that word very loosely here) just 1 album ago.

@Minus At what point in my post did I accuse the band of saying they were only doing rock music from now on? Seems like you also have an issue with the interpretation of sentences

 

Although I guess that could be misinterpreted, but I mean-

The glove fits, OJ.

 

This is the reason why they're my favorite band. you'll never know what you were get next.

 

Except "This is where we are at right now. We are in a heavy rock mood, here's what we made" is not what they said. At least not all they said.


They said things like:

"Like, you listen to it and you go, like, 'C'mon, guys, you're making a jingle. This is not, like, an alternative to what's going on in the mainstream anymore at all.' "

As I mentioned, I don't necessarily have a problem with the direction of the album in a vacuum. But lol @ Mike saying shit like the above line and then going in the current direction. He should be held accountable for saying dumb shit, it's ok to criticize him for that. I don't have an issue with the music itself.

 

Rhetorical questions being taken as a statement that the band will only do rock music forever. En vogue since 2014.

Still sounds like an album statement only to me, not a "this is all the band will do forever". You're still projecting.