Interview with Mike from Focus

ana · Sep 15, 2010

Interview with Mike and Dave from Focus

(Focus is a german magazine, similar to the Time magazine)

*I just copied and translated the german text into english through google, because I dont have so much time but it's pretty well translated*
EDIT: I didnt see that Dave answered some questions too.

"Their first three albums it has made the Californian group Linkin Park to become one of the most successful rock bands of today. Now they present their next trick.
Three years have passed since the last Linkin Park album Minutes to Midnight "passed. Meanwhile, lead singer Chester Bennington has his solo project Dead By Sunrise proven. Volume crisis? Not at all: On the fourth, again by Rick Rubin (U2, Johnny Cash) produced record, the alternative rockers plant developed jointly. "A Thousand Suns" is the album to give about the singer Mike Shinoda and bassist David Farrell information.

FOCUS Online: Gentlemen, when hearing the new Linkin Park album, I thought at first it would be the new Madonna album!

Mike Shinoda: Madonna? Why?

FOCUS Online: Because the woman who sings it at the beginning, it has a vocoder-distorted voice.

Shinoda: I see. But I do not think Madonna has ever been so awesome.

FOCUS Online: Probably not. But there is an ambient sound that runs like a thread through the new album.

Shinoda: Hmm, definitely looks different from the plate. This is probably also depends on what you hear otherwise. Whether one more in the hip-hop, rock or pop is at home. We are six types and hear completely different things out. For us, it is therefore just music.

FOCUS Online: Did you influenced electronic music, particularly this time?

Shinoda: That has developed rather naturally. For ten years I learned to play the piano. Then I moved on to keyboards and put me at some point in the nineties, my first sampler. And when you get your first compilation, clicking until you look through the many different beats. You listen to the different sounds, noises and sounds. You do not really play a song. At least I did not. I tried only. This plate has its roots in these experiments. There was a re-kindled interest in making a lot of cool noise. But on our way a noise that feels hand-made.

FOCUS Online: The music is very percussive.

Shinoda: Absolutely. But it has many facets. So dark it may seem, to me it is also the most hopeful of what we have ever produced. And the reason is that there really is an album. Even when people have become used to it to add itself only certain songs, is my hope that they make this record an exception. I would like to see durchhören many fans all over the plate. We have used a lot of time to make the album a kind of travel experience. It has twists and turns. It is not only the best songs in the musical sequence, but it makes sense.

FOCUS Online: What experience for a journey for the listener when he hears the songs one after?

David "Phoenix" Farrell: The fans start so just beginning to deal with the record. But we have been working for several years and developed our own fantasies to do so. Which differ in each of us. My experience is so different from the example of Mike.

FOCUS Online: What?

Farrell: For me it is a very colorful and visual journey. I've heard the record a few times with closed eyes or in the dark with headphones. Everything is very much alive. To me it seems almost as if there is another dimension that takes me to another place. It's like a 45-minute trip. But we have already heard the wildest opinions: one says it's all so encouraging and hopeful. And the neighbor says again, the songs were as melancholy and incredibly bleak.

FOCUS Online: How does it look on your journey, Mr. Shinoda?

Shinoda: We want to tell a certain story. It is rather abstract. Hopefully, the songs take on issues, encourage people to reflect on and leave them to their own conclusions are, what it is. That is almost like a personality test.

FOCUS Online: What does this say about me, if I find that the record happened to sound apocalyptic, futuristic?

Shinoda: It's all right with you. For this is understandable. In essence, the album really represents the modern world in which we live. The organic and the digital elements of the panel reflect the human and technological dynamics of the real world. We live in a time integrated into the human experience in the technology. The technology plays a major role, as we act with each other and understand the world around us. My uncle, for example, finds it ridiculous that so many young kids are only talking via e-mails and text messages. But my cousins who do exactly that and are constantly online, seem to me much wiser than any of us be here. For they have all the information.

FOCUS Online: How to get on as a Native American drumming like in "When They Come For Me"?

Shinoda: Our drummer Rob has a tribal drum fan community would have connected the Internet. He has even paid for a membership fee of $ 15. The users there are always sending each other MP3s back and forth. Rob has operated there so very serious research, to design this particular drum sound. But all the work that was in this one part of the song has invested significantly to how we work. You never know how deep the rabbit cage someone is looking for ideas from us. And that's fun.

FOCUS Online: For a piece you used a speech by Martin Luther King. Why?

Shinoda: It is one of his lesser known speeches. I found the speech on the Internet and was really moved away. He could hold still as if he were still alive. And I think this applies to all Sprachschnipseln that we used on the album. The intention, why we do such a thing is not to teach the people. But I find it exciting when I think that our fans go to the bottom of the speeches to find out more about it and want. This will be good for them.

FOCUS Online: In contrast you provide with your first single "The Catalyst" the song for the Electronic Arts video game "Medal of Honor." It is a military shooter set against the Taliban. Why do you support such a Shooter game?

Shinoda: I am a hardcore player. I grew up with it. This is just our generation. The song was not written specifically for the game. But the music and the game are a perfect match because both are powerful and dramatic. I am of the opinion that parents bear the responsibility for what their children at play.

FOCUS Online: I was never a big fan of the way, your first two records ...

Shinoda: Really? Well, that's O.K. We do not do many interviews with people who say that. Maybe they think it, but she did not say.

FOCUS Online: But I like the new album. Do you think that Linkin Park can be reached with the much more experimental record, a new audience?

Shinoda: That is outside our control. What people forget sometimes is that we make music for so long. And over time, tastes change, the way things are. Our tastes have really changed much. Therefore, any record of us sounds a bit different. If we are in the studio, we are very committed to trying out new things. to repeat oneself is not our thing. Every time a demo is created, which reminds us of an older song of ours, we drop it better.

FOCUS Online: What is the role of your lead singer Chester Bennington on the record? You had to do a lot of work because of his solo tours.

Shinoda: No, he injured his shoulder, so he is not there. Chester and I have worked much more on this record. It was a difficult process to write the lyrics with him. If we have done previously, it was mostly so that whoever of us, who wrote the text, it has often sung. At our last studio album "Minutes to Midnight" it started with the fact that I also once sang the lyrics written by him. On this record we sing together often. And only when we mixed the record later, we shot just a loud voice and the other softly."
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Interview with Mike from Focus

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