Mike Q&A Summary 6/4/2020

[LPLStaff]

Mike answered his first questions of the week on the June 4th drawing stream, so here we go with a recap.

 

Mike is a big Lakers fan but likes LAFC too. Sadly he did not get to meet Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the filming of Good Goodbye because Mike wasn't able to be there. Mike says that Kareem is a very big role model to people in Los Angeles and has a lot of respect for him. 

 

When asked what song he is most proud of producing, Mike says Papercut, but a lot of the first and second record. Meteora because they paid attention to every single detail on the entire album. He is very proud of Breaking The Habit because of it being different for the band. He always liked how Leave Out All The Rest came out. In all of those, it was a team effort, he was co producing and making beats, etc. Remember The Name is his top solo one, but he loves a lot of the production and sonic landscape on Post Traumatic. At the end he joked Booty Down was a top one too.

 

Mike's top three Hybrid Theory songs are Papercut, Points Of Authority, and A Place For My Head. Crawling and In The End are in there, One Step Closer is in there. He likes all of the songs on that album a lot.

 

For music he liked in college, he said: Wu-Tang, Nas, Tupac (liked, but wasn't the biggest fan... but loved the production, what he had to say, his delivery... but not the beats), Rage Against The Machine, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Deftones, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin.

 

"Was Stick N Move ever recorded or reworked? Not as Runaway but in original form?" - "There's a song called Stick N Move, it was one of our early songs. Probably one of the first seven songs we made. Somewhere around there. I think, I don't know. But we certainly played Stick N Move at all the early shows with Mark, before Chester. And then when we went into the studio to do Hybrid Theory, Stick N Move was always a popular one at our shows, so we tried to make it work, and then Don just didn't like it. We were like "Yeah I get that. Like it's not as good as some of these other ones that are coming together. So we just broke it down into pieces and it turned into Runaway. Almost 0% of Stick N Move is in Runaway. Like we almost completely rewrote the song. Like it was kinda the tempo and the bounce of it and that was all that remained. We didn't take Stick N Move and re-record it in the studio. It never got that far. It was only its own thing, and then Runaway became its own thing. It was its own separate session and its own separate recording. They're not the same song."

 

"Why didn't you guys make a full song out of Wake?" -> "I wrote it specifically as an album opener, that's why. Because of we were trying to think of an album opener, like what's the right tone to start the record. Rick and I had a bunch of different discussions. I made a bunch of different demos to start the record with. I don't remember which demos or beats I would have used; some of them may have been released as LPU tracks, I have no idea. I know that Wake was written specifically to be an intro though. He gave me these references like, King Crimson was one, and there might have been a Neil Young song, and as we were trying to figure it out, he was like "have you heard this song?" to see if one inspires you to get the right thing."

 

"Can you talk about the lyrics on Last One To Know?" -> "I wrote that from start to finish, I did the demo over piano. I wrote it because, you know when other people are all talking about a thing, and either they're talking about it behind your back or you just don't hear about it and it's important? It's so complex. It's just the feeling of being out of the loop and the feeling of other people having other opinions and making decisions that affect your life, and you are late to the party on it and not included in the conversation. Without listening to the song or reading the lyrics I don't know if I can get deeper than that. Whenever I write songs and lyrics, sometimes I pull from different memories in different lines. One line could be from this year, and the very next line could be something from three or four or five years ago, who knows. Just whatever pops into my head."

 

He is not opposed to a vocal day on a stream coming up, but he's just really into instrumentals right now. He thinks it won't be very interactive and could at times be boring for fans.

 

When asked about his favorite line in a song, he said he doesn't have a favorite line, but added, "These days people keep mentioning Hands Held High. I am proud of that song, I thought that came out pretty good. One of the reasons that song pops to my head is cause of the situation today, but I also remember sitting on the stairs. I was on my computer and I saw an article about American soldiers in Iraq who had seen violence against little kids. Like, being chased down and harmed, and I wrote the second verse about that situation. But it was also I felt like there were so many parallels between both of them. I mean in a conflict like that, for all of the differences the two sides have that they're at war over, there's also similarities in the reasons that they're going to war and the things they feel. People who aren't soldiers feel."

 

He'd like to make more short jams like Booty Down, so he encouraged fans to go to samples.com, find one good sample, and let him know what it is.

 

"Can you talk about my favorite song In Between?" -> "In Between was an apology song, you know. Listen to the lyrics. Let me look at them really quickly, I want to see if there is anything specific that I can point out to you. I love reading interpretations of the lyrics. I think it's really just an apology song. You know when you just do stuff you shouldn't have done. I think the "pride and promise and lies and truth gets in the way", those parts are the core of the song. I also feel like songs like that are not just about one thing. They are open to interpretation for you guys enough, that I wouldn't want to ruin some peoples' relationships with the song by getting too specific. Other song like on One More Light, there are songs that are about VERY specific things and we've talked about those."

 

"How was it working with Chino from Deftones?" -> "Chino's just dope, he's just a dope singer and a really unique artist. I always enjoy working with him in particular. It's funny because when we first started touring together, I don't think those guys really liked us very much. And then later we just kind of got over it, for the most part. Chino in particular, we're really cool."

 

Mike explained that the band has used the bathroom in a trashcan or a bucket behind the stage when the show was 90 minutes long... it is rare but it has happened.

 

"Can you tell us anything about The Wizard Song on LPTV?" -> "I don't remember the LPTV Wizard Song. I know Chester sang like a crazy wizard thing. I don't think I could tell you anything about that, but I know it was hilarious so definitely go watch that one."

 

Most of his doodling/drawing on guitars happens at venues when he is bored before a show. He still does it.

 

 

[JZLP-Benningstrong]

Papercut is definitely the king of the LP songs 

[sordomuda]

At work, sometimes, i cant go to the toilet even for like 4-5 hours when its busy. I am suprised they couldnt handle 90 minutes haha joke. But honestly you can go pee before the concert right? Fans who want to be frontline, dont use the toilet for the half of the day when you cant leave your line😂

[Soeffingnaive92]

Same as Mike in terms of favorite HT songs, especially Papercut and POA, about APFMH I fucking love the live version while the studio version is just good