Mike Q&A Summary 6/8/2020

[LPLStaff]

Here's the recap from June 8th with the questions Mike answered!

 

- "How do feel about Hands Held High these days?" -> "A lot of you guys have been retweeting links to that song because of the current state of affairs. It's definitely timely, definitely appropriate."

- "You recently said that Promises I Can't Keep felt like my own version of a Linkin Park song. Since it wasn't performed on your solo tour, would you consider perform it with the band?" -> "That's a good question. I think it'd be up to the band. You know... usually when it comes to decisions about the set or what to do on stage... we kind of talk it out. I don't just go in... no one of us would just go in and say, 'Here's what we're doing.'"

 

He talks about how he prepares some samples beforehand for the streams because it would be really boring for fans to watch him pick through sounds. He said he also does this when making a track normally, he will pick a bunch of sounds before starting his session.

 

- "Who wrote the lyrics and who wrote the melodies to Roads Untraveled?" -> "I think I wrote most of that one. Maybe not the whole thing. If I'm not mistaken that was one of the ones that I even did most of the drums on that one, which was unusual. I remember that, the drums were a mix of live and... oh you asked about the lyrics and melodies. I'm pretty sure I did most of the lyrics and melodies on that one."

 

Mike says he isn't ever wrapped up in the critical response of an album after it is released, because he is completely satisfied with it when it is out. He does read critical reviews of shows and things like that sometimes, but he doesn't pay much attention to music reviews.

 

He added, "One of my favorite albums we've ever done, if not my favorite one, was A Thousand Suns. The critical reception was generally a little more negative than the fan reception. The fan reception was either one star or five stars. It was either everyones favorite album we made, or they hated it. I think that was the era where someone said "this album is a slap in the face for Linkin Park fans." "It's like ok, really? You take this whole thing too seriously. Second of all, this is our art and our creation, we're not trying to make pop top 20 hits." There are songs on it we thought we would do it. To get into the whole thing and make it about themselves as opposed to we are the guys who have to put on the name of the venue... hearing people talk shit about it was difficult, it's always difficult."

 

- "How did LP decide to do show encores?" -> "It was usually just a part of the show. It's just a part of a headline show. If they don't, they are making a statement about encores which I think is fine. But maybe that is overthinking it."

 

- "Do you guys go for vocal lessons or learn from experience?" -> "Both. Vocal lessons are good for you, not only to get better at singing but usually the techniques you do during a vocal lesson will have you warmed up before a show. And if you're doing a lot of shows, part of the focus is using your voice the right way so you don't wear it out, so you don't lose your voice. It was a big step for me going from shorter shows to longer shows, and then adding singing to the shows. And then on the Post Traumatic Tour it was going from sharing vocal duties with Chester to doing a full set where I was doing it the whole time. I was actually very nervous about that. That's potentially twice as much singing, rapping, and using my voice. I thought, "oh shit, my voice could go out all the time." And it was really worn out but I never lost it. So that's good. I recommend them. And really like one of the main things I learned with vocal lessons is do your warmups. Maybe they'll teach you cooldowns too. Think about it like working out. You would want to do a warmup and a stretch afterwards so that you don't pull a muscle... kind of like that."

- "Back in the days when you were driving the tour bus, how many times did you get lost?" -> "We got lost a bit. Back then when we were driving the RV, it was not a bus but an RV, I drove more than the other guys but we all split it. Well I shouldn't say we ALL split it. Joe, Chester and I drove, Brad and Rob did not. Phoenix wasn't with us when we did those tours. I feel like I got pretty good at driving it. Have you ever gotten a new car and you feel like it's too big or you don't know the edges of it are? It felt like an extreme version of that, like getting in an RV and trying to drive it around. I remember we went into DC one time and I managed to drive the RV around a corner. There were cars on every corner and every street, and there was a huge, fat dumpster in our way to get to the venue AND there was a cop car. And I remember there were guys out of the windows on every corner of the vehicle trying to make sure that I didn't hit anything. Like I was inches from every edge. I managed to get the whole thing... we were SCREAMING when I got through the thing when I didn't hit anything."

 

 

 

[Igussek]

I love this sentence "That's a good question. I think it'd be up to the band."

It's exciting that they will return in the future : >

[hahninator]

Promises I Can't Keep sounds like it's right off of Living Things, and I mean that in a good way. They need to play that with LP. Fantastic track, one of his best solo songs and it fits in with the LP music perfectly.

[Soeffingnaive92]

Yeah basically it’s a LT song, I love it