Mike Q&A Summary 6/15/2020

[LPLStaff]

Monday Mike... here's a Q&A recap of his stream. Thanks to Nick for the help!

 

Mike did a poll to release sample packs to Twitch subscribers and loves the idea.

 

- "One of my favorite LP songs is Bleed It Out. What was your favorite part of writing that song and how long did it take to create it?" - "God that song took a long time. It felt like a long time because I kept rewriting the verse. The music came pretty easily. The reason I started the verse with "Here we go for the hundredth time" is that I was rewriting the verse like 100 times. I just kept writing stuff I didn't like and I ended up with that verse which I loved."

 

- Speaking about Minutes To Midnight: "It should be said, that album took a really long time. That album took like eighteen months and we estimate over one hundred and fifty demos. Some of them less developed than what I make here everyday, other ones with vocals. And at a certain point... because we were trying to reinvent what the band was and what it meant to be Linkin Park, so we put a lot of work in. Finally I almost went crazy and I was like "Rick we need to put a fucking finish line on this or else it's never gonna come out.""

 

- "How did the concept for LP Recharge the game develop?" - "I think the game company reached out to us first, and they wanted to develop something and they started on it and it looked good. Then we kind of added the element, like we went really deep into the idea of it being more environmentally conscious and benefiting Music For Relief and real life environmental efforts. Nobody had really done a game where you play a game and it benefits the environment. And it went well. It wasn't a big hit or anything but I thought the game came out cool."

 

- "Why didn't you put Across The Line on Minutes To Midnight?" - "Those songs just didn't quite make the cut. I think it was between Across The Line and No More Sorrow... they were filling the same spot. And we didn't like to put more than twelve songs on an album. Besides, you kind of need to have a couple songs in your bag to put on b-sides and other stuff. No Roads Left, Across The Line, there's another song called Blackbirds that we released with that video game. Those things get made along the way and then eventually it's, like, "let's just not put this on the record." If you think about it, part of it's perspective too. Think about it this way. Those of you, a lot of people are mentioning No Roads Left in the chat. You guys know about No Roads Left. You are aware of the song. I feel like it is a good song. We wouldn't have put it out into the world if we didn't think it was a good song. And you guys know a song that other people don't know. You get a song that's a little bit underground and some people don't even know it exists. There's something cool about that. That's the purpose of keeping songs off of a record and putting it out that way."

 

- "Hey Mike you made a remix of Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence, any chance you can make a remix of another top hit?" -> "Yeah, I mean that was a special scenario though because they were doing a big remix album / re release of old stuff and they wanted to modernize and get some modern remixes. I would do it, but you know, the scenario would have to work out."

 

- "I want to know if there will be a sequel of Linkin Park" -> "The thing is like, we're all open to it. It's just a matter of it being awesome and getting it right, you know."