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Mike recently answered a few questions for AltWire, and we thought we'd share a couple of those here.

 

AW: Later this year will be Hybrid Theory’s 15th Anniversary. It’s crazy to believe it’s already been that long, but none the less it’s a big milestone for the band. Any plans of a special tour, re-issue or other event/product to commemorate the upcoming anniversary?
MS: We’re not planning anything musically—no remasters, remixes, or re-releases— but rather plan to celebrate the anniversary in simpler terms. More to come on that later.
AW: Linkin Park seemed to have done everything lately. We have these electronic-driven collaborations with Steve, we’ve had the raw, rock energy of The Hunting Party, we’ve had the cinematic vibe of the Mall soundtrack… Where does Linkin Park go next?
MS: Creatively, we go wherever the music takes us. I’m really happy with the reaction from The Hunting Party, and I think we’re ready to move somewhere new on the next album, which will be coming next year. As usual, we’re also finding other ways to use our creative energy—most notably with a venture capital fund, to invest in and support consumer-facing tech companies we believe in. Technology has always played an integral role in the way we make music, bring it to the stage, and connect with fans, not to mention the way we simply live everyday life. So getting into deeper relationships with the technology community, collaborating and supporting brilliant young minds who want to change the world, that’s something we’re very passionate about right now.
AW: Lastly, in regards to upcoming projects…recent activity on Fort Minor’s social media profiles have lead to many fans believing that some new material may be in the works and that FM may finally make a return after a 10 year gap from the last record. Is there anything you can say at the moment to confirm or deny this speculation?
MS: If I were to ever bring Fort Minor back, the first place I’d say anything about it would be on social media. I’m @m_shinoda on Instagram, @mikeshinoda on Twitter, by the way.

 

Read the full interview here.

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Thanks for posting this guys! Glad you liked it :).

 

Btw, I've secretely relaunched the AW forums today (shh). We couldn't migrate over any posts (without making it look really ugly), but go ahead and register and post around ;). And of course let me know if anything should change: http://www.altwire.net/community/

Linkin Park has a venture capitalist fund.... great...... not really sure anyone cares about that.

 

I always get nervous when I hear "new sound", I was always worried the hunting party was going to go a EDM direction and was super happy when it was confirmed it wouldn't. I worry that this is still on the cards though.

I think they will go poppy and make an extremely mainstream sounding album. They aren't concerned with success these days obviously (Chester said he didn't care if they ever sold another record) but this type of music is extremely popular. Maybe they will do even better with ticket sales.

 

I don't think I'd welcome a poppy sound with open arms but we will see. Maroon 5 went that route and never went back, and they are huge right now. Their stuff is TOO poppy.

While some may find Mike's mention of a venture capitalist fund to be 'boring', I actually thought it was one of the more interesting parts of the interview. Investing in technology companies could mean anything. It could be brand new software like Stagelight, developing new midi controllers for music DAWs, speakers like Infinity One, or even technology to help feed/provide water for 3rd world countries. So many possibilities.

I think they will go poppy and make an extremely mainstream sounding album. They aren't concerned with success these days obviously (Chester said he didn't care if they ever sold another record) but this type of music is extremely popular. Maybe they will do even better with ticket sales.

 

I don't think I'd welcome a poppy sound with open arms but we will see. Maroon 5 went that route and never went back, and they are huge right now. Their stuff is TOO poppy.

I highly doubt that, but I don't say you're wrong. I remember Mike said that he wants to continue to make music that is organic and fun to play live. I doubt they would like to play poppy songs live. In addition they already stepped into poppy/mainstream direction, for instance by LT or collab with Steve Aoki, and since they are pursuing "new sound", I doubt they would like to step back again. As you said they don't care too much about the record sales, and they knew that THP won't be as mainstream as the previous albums, but they made the album anyway and were very pleased with it. I think that they want to kind of become less mainstream, since they made the worst possible promotion for the album. Furthermore, Mike said several times that he isn't pleased with the state of rock today, and how poppy and disney the music today is.

Don't know what to expect about the next album. But i hope they really consider something that they can actually play live. Because the last 2 albums have great songs to play live (I'll Be Gone) but seems like they are not able to do it (All For Nothing).

 

And agree with Mark about the sound of the next album. I guess is time for them going a couple of steps back and do what they really like to do, something more pop friendly, a mix between ATS and MTM would be good. But they really need to work on lyrics, last two albums (more THP than LT) are very poor in terms of lyrics compared with MTM or ATS.

"AW: Later this year will be Hybrid Theory’s 15th Anniversary. It’s crazy to believe it’s already been that long, but none the less it’s a big milestone for the band. Any plans of a special tour, re-issue or other event/product to commemorate the upcoming anniversary?

MS: We’re not planning anything musically—no remasters, remixes, or re-releases— but rather plan to celebrate the anniversary in simpler terms. More to come on that later."
Japan releases a reissue of every album, other countries just sell re-pressings (with the same cat numbers and eans)
So thanks Shinoda, no remasters, no remixes and re-releases for the sake of our wallets. Release some more unreleased HT stuff instead!

Mike can say visceral until he's blue in the face, but the fact is that the songs they choose (or the label choose?) were a radio edition of GATS, Final Masquerade, and Until It's Gone. I take everything Mike says with a grain of salt.

 

But yeah they could do what they want, but if they put out a pop album and play that more than THP I'll be pretty upset.

 

Edit: ALSO, I thought Mike said THP was supposed to be a LIVE ALBUM? That they were excited to hear these songs live. Because I thought I heard that again with LP7 but I can't remember who said it.

They said the "fun to play live" thing for LT and for THP and look how that's turned out.

When ATS came out they said they'd have difficulty translating it to a live setting and played pretty much the whole thing. So I think it's just better to not listen to anything they say when it comes to this stuff :P

I would never be one to promote the band going back to an older sound, or going down a road they've done before (infact I usually make fun of the NU METAL PLZ OMG people that come up every album), but there's something to be said about how well Hybrid Theory's whole sound just "worked".

 

I was listening to the album just the other day, and what I find really crazy about that record is that despite the band writing some ridiculously catchy music in the last 15 years, no album they've done has mixed pop and hard rock as well as that album managed to since. There's just something so special about how each song on that album felt like it could be a single, and how the album was so masterfully crafted that it appealed to a mass audience (metalheads and TRL fans alike) but never felt like it was actually a "pop" record or written to be mainstream. It was able to be played on both rock and pop stations, and yet it was so different than other music at the time that some critics didn't know how to categorize it. The term 'nu-metal' applied only loosely, and the fact that so many of the current "new" rock acts out there sound like Linkin Park, is a testament to how influential that album was.

 

Perhaps the fact that some of those songs were rewritten over the course of 3-4 years could be to thank for that, but my point is...I'd love to see Linkin Park deliver an album that really strives for those ethos. I don't want it to sound like Hybrid Theory, or hold any resemblance to old songs, but I want an album where every song is so well written that each song can be a single. Where every song sticks in your head from start to finish, and you don't feel a desire to skip any of the tracks. The Hunting Party got close to that, and A Thousand Suns is a modern masterpiece, but there have been quite a few 'filler' feeling songs on the last few albums (imo) and I feel that's due to how quickly these albums are being punched out. Even if it takes longer to write, if the band could deliver an album as strongly written as Hybrid Theory, I think it would be explosive.

 

I'm not even talking lyrically or sound wise here. Just quality.

Edited by LPADerek

I agree completely. Now that you mention it, the time it took to write Hybrid Theory and all the different versions the songs went through definitely helped them compose an extremely high quality album. To me, Meteora is just as good but was written in a short period of time and was a bit experimental (BTH, Nobody's Listening). MTM was an excellent period for them and took 2+ years to do too. The b-sides and full album are one hell of a collection of music. ATS is great, then it falls off. LT and THP...not as solid.

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