LPLStaff

That entire summer tour stretch in Europe and Asia of 9 shows, Mike did it. Sadly it seems the only two recordings of it are Rock am Ring and Lisbon. It's a shame their full Download 2004 show was not recorded/released. On Projekt Revolution 2004, Jonathan didn't come out at the last show in Mountain View and thankfully there's a tremendous recording of that show. And then Brazil 2004, too. But there isn't a great quality version of it.

LP themselves didn't start archiving a lot of stuff until Meteora, and every single thing ever until ATS (including video of all of the shows).

Up first: Chris Kelly!

It's been quite a while since Mike took questions on Twitch, but he did answer some on January 11th for the first time in 2021! - "Imagine you're going to do a Dropped Frames Tour, what would you play at the beginning and the end of the concert? What would be the biggest hit?" -> "Good question. That'd be crazy, right? How would I even do that? I wouldn't just make beats on stage, I wouldn't just play instrumentals. Right? Would I? Would I DJ? I don't think I'd ever DJ... I've been asked to DJ, like, "We'll give you this much money, come DJ this event." But I don't really DJ. Everybody in the chat says "Please DJ, DJ Spooky." "Booty Down" would be the hit, you're right. "Party Meow" would be a big one, "The Waltz" would go well, "Quarantine Tequila." We've got hits for a very specific audience, it's like if the whole audience got together it'd be like 1,500 people. If I went on tour with it, it'd be like one person in each city. That'd be amazing. "Neon Crickets", man "Party Meow" live? Come see all of the hits. I'd play the "Sleepy Track" from beginning to end in the middle of the show. That's why this thing we're doing here is so specific, you guys are all over the world and all over the place, and this is not something that's conducive to live shows or mainstream. I go down holes and do too much nerdy shit." - "The Hundreds 15th anniversary Hybrid Theory jacket had a wingless soldier for the first time, was there any reason for it?" -> "Once in a while you'd see a wingless Linkin Park soldier. Originally it was because it was a mistake. I generated a couple of soldier designs and then Frank liked them and wanted to stencil them. So he cut them out and sprayed them, and took a picture of that. And then as a second layer, he did the wings separately and then superimposed them in the computer. So they weren't done together. They weren't actually done actually on the same cardboard or piece of paper or whatever. So, at some point he probably just used the soldier without the wings. Specifically, the one to the side, the one looking to the side. It got used without the wings. And then we didn't catch it, but we did catch it later and said, "Oh, I think we should always use the wings", and he's like, "Oh ok." So the idea of just using the soldier was just kind of a nod to that story, I guess. Good question. See what happens when you pay attention?" - "Can you tell us more about the vegetable version of "Remember the Name" that you did for a film?" -> "Vegetable version? I did a vegetable version? I don't even know that I did a vegetable version. I don't remember this. Oh I see what you're saying, the Peter Rabbit version! We've gotta get clear on the actual video, on the actual clip in question here. Can you imagine you're watching Peter Rabbit and right in the middle of it, out of nowhere, absolutely out of nowhere in this CGI children's film? Dude come on. Just hold on, let me point out one part of the lyrics. 'It's not about the salary, it's all about the celery, and maybe some radishes, maybe some cabbages?!' That happened, that is a thing that happened, Peter Rabbit. They called me and they said, 'We want to use your song in our movie' and I'm like, 'How?' As usual, every time anybody's like, 'We want to use your music in a movie', I'm like, 'Maybe...? How?"'And they originally were like, 'Oh, we're going to have this fight scene where we're going to use it.' And I was like, 'That doesn't sound like something I want to do. It sounds like a very cute movie, but I don't know if that sounds like my thing.' And then I started talking with the director and they were like, 'We want to change the words though. Here's the scene.' And I was like, 'Oh, it's funny, it's a funny scene, got it.' So they rewrote the song for the movie, they rewrote that verse, rather, and sent it to me... and it wasn't awesome. The performance was really weird. Then I was like, 'Tell you what, I'll coach you on this, I'll tell you how to make it better, fix it.' Make it just a little more authentic to the song. Like, the pattern was all off, they had a person who doesn't rap do the thing and he missed the pattern of the thing. And then I was like, 'You know, you really have to have someone who can rap, who is also funny, do it.' And I suggested my friend Jensen who is the best, he's super super funny and he's a hardcore student of hip hop. So that's how that all came together, and then me and Jensen. It was a very easy thing to do, but every time I see it, it's the funniest thing ever. It's dumb but the birds are the ones rapping and the rabbits shoot the birds at the end. The thing is, I didn't initiate that and it wasn't like a hard thing to do. By the way for the record, they asked 'Would you do the voice?' and I was like 'No way! I would love to do a voice for a character but I don't want to just show up and rap a scene.' I couldn't imagine doing the 'cabbages, radishes' myself, it needed someone funnier, a funnier voice. If you actually ask me to do the voice of one of the rabbits, I would do it. But nobody is asking. Nobody asked! I don't know what's up!" - "Is there any connection between your artwork for Hybrid Theory 20 and your Meteora cover photo?" -> "I mean, like a loose connection, not like an intentional connection. The original vibes are all stencils and street art like that. Early 2000s street art." - "The "Final Masquerade" video depicts an apocalyptic scenario even though the song came out in 2014. I feel the lyrics can relate to the health emergency in the world. What do you think?" -> "Yeah, that was kind of the point of the video. Kind of... things are a bit of a mess." - "Hey Mike, on the back of the "My December" t-shirt it has the lyrics "These are my snow covered dreams", I thought it was always "These are my snow covered trees."" -> "Um, that's wrong, right? And then I think there are a few lyric screwups around the Hybrid Theory thing because they were moving very quick on the production of those items and we missed some stuff. But it's kind of fun, like those are good collectors items. What was the one that was all fucked up? Was it Crawling? Isn't it trees...? I don't remember what it was, I have to listen to it. How many minutes in is it, I don't remember. I've gotta look it up. The lyrics aren't coming up on Apple. Snow covered bees? 1:40, thank you. Trees, 100% trees, you couldn't tell? Yeah, trees. I think dreams would be too psuedo poetic. We're talking about home, right? Dreams would be a little less... it's painting the picture guys. There you go - trees." - "Do you still trust Brad or Dave throwing a Coke or whatever since Brad threw a Coke and Phoenix almost killed you with his bass?" -> "I know you guys, being on the road is dangerous business." - "My teacher played Kenji in class to teach about World War II. How do you feel when your songs are used to teach in the academic field?" -> "I love that. Please, as much as possible, wherever applicable. All good." - Mike in a longer answer about other collaborating with Slipknot on the "Produce Me" thing (saying it wasn't the point of it to work with bigger bands) talked about Metallica: "We toured with Metallica a bunch. Playing for them... winning over Metallica fans at a concert is one of the hardest things to do. Sounding like Linkin Park sounds and then playing before Metallica was a miracle and a lot of hard work to go into those shows and have Metallica fans leaving and going like, "I like that band, they were cool." It was no small feat. And it didn't work 100% of the time, we had a couple of shows where too many of the fans were like... not having it. Notably, Ireland. We played some show in Ireland opening up for them and we hadn't set up enough introduction to those fans. Those fans didn't really know us too well and we opened for Metallica, they were literally flipping us off, turning their backs against us and throwing stuff at us."

Julien-K - "Unauthorized Live In Europe" Tracklisting: 01. Intro 02. We're Here With You 03. Surrounded By Cowards 04. Fail With Grace 05. Palm Springs Reset 06. Colorcast 07. Nights Of Future Past 08. Flashpoint Riot 09. Someday Soon (Remix) 10. Breakfast In Berlin 11. Cruel Daze Of Summer 12. I'll Try Not To Destroy You 13. Maestro 14. Kick The Bass

In an almost unbelievable move, this album is now coming out from the band. Patreon first (where it is out now) and then to everyone else via streaming etc.. 6+ years later.

It ends very abruptly.

Mike has posted a series of videos on his Tik Tok account asking for fan vocals on a few tracks. He recently made these songs in his CoronaJams streaming sessions on Twitch. On track one from December 14 ("Freestyle"), Mike says, "Hey guys, trying something new, I made this track on Twitch today, let's see if you guys can do any vocals over it." The description says, "Rappers and singers, let’s hear your vocals on this track 🎤🎹🎧 #duet" For track two on December 15 ("Hanukkah Freestyle-Trap Kletzmer 1.2"), Mike says, "Alright guys here's the track from Twitch from today, feel free to do any vocals or any instrument on top of it." The description reads, "New track for you to #duet with. Made live on Twitch (weekdays 10am-noon PST, Twitch.tv/OfficialMikeShinoda)" For track three on December 20 ("KarmaKon"), the description reads, "#duet with this and add your vocal, instrument, or dance. Let’s see it. #Rapper #Vocalist #Instrumental #Hiphop #Producer #music #musician #performer"

Film Daily has posted a new interview with Jeff Blue and it includes bits about Linkin Park. A few excerpts: "When Chester sang his first note on his demo even over the phone, I was certain he was the guy. His tonality and cadence, energy, identity….it was everything together that made me realize even before I met him, even before I knew what he looked like, that he was the right singer for Linkin Park." "The band and I overcame so many roadblocks, 44 rejections, tremendous politics, changing band members, changing label heads, and almost getting dropped during the creation of the album. It is a testament to the band that they had the perseverance and fortitude to push ahead and create one of the best rock albums of this century. All the stars aligned when I found Chester, but the success must be attributed to Linkin Park and Mike Shinoda, as well as the team at Warner Bros, especially the radio and marketing department. I am proud of how well all pulled together against the odds." Check out the full interview here.

Long time Linkin Park fan kattoda has created a fully animated music video for Mike Shinoda's "Hold It Together", the song that infamously had all of its music video footage lost. From Linkinpedia: The "Hold It Together" video was filmed in Prague and Luxembourg on the 2019 Post Traumatic Tour. Mike said in 2020 about the video, "That's the Hold It Together video. Some of you were coming to the shows and some of you saw us filming the video and we got so much of it done. We had this whole scene... it was this whole idea partially inspired by the Missy Elliot videos from the early 2000s, it was Hype Williams, he did all of these weird, jittery things. I was doing it in reverse, some of them we were doing takes in fast forward. I had memorized the chorus in reverse and I did this whole thing where set up this shot, we had multiple cameras shot, handheld, it was on stage and I did this whole thing where I came to the stage. So at the end of the show, the show's over, crowd's there. Then I leave the stage and then from off stage they all get in position and we did this whole choreographed thing with like streamers and lights and I don't remember what else, and me walking backwards to the stage. Played in reverse it was SO cool because I was talking to the camera and then I was doing the words and I finished on the stage. Then the streamers went back into the things, like the poppers went in. It was great, we couldn't believe it, we had one take to get it right and we got it. And then at the end of the tour the hard drive was accidentally confiscated by the airport police. We believe. We believe that what happened is that it was in Chady's bag and then all of a sudden it wasn't, and it was his mistake to not back it up. So.... it sucks. And that was just one of the scenes, we had done a bunch of scenes with the crew. And you can't recreate those moments. It's not possible. So, that's a bummer." In the video description, kattoda says, "Hi! I’m kattoda and this is my very first animated music video. When I first heard ‘Hold It Together’ I immediately started imagining this story. But I never thought of actually making it into a video. Until I heard Mike saying that they lost all the footage for the Hold It Together music video. So I decided to spend my time in quarantine making this video, and I really hope you enjoy it" Mike of course, in typical Mike fashion, has shared the video on his social media saying, "Wow, @kattoda_draws did a whole music video for HOLD IT TOGETHER. Watch!" Great job kattoda and we're glad that the missing song from the Post Traumatic music video series finally has a video!

Linkin Park recently retweeted a tweet from The Game Awards which used a new remix of "My December." The remix likely was done only for the trailer instead of for a full-fledged remix, but it was nice seeing the track used in the promotion of a big event. Regardless, the trailer is well done and specifically, Chester's acapella sounds great. At this time it is unknown which person did the music for the trailer / remixed the track.

Mike has released his new "Sleep For Students" compilation, of thirty separate tracks. Created on August 28th, 2020, Mike took a fan suggestion on Twitch to create a long and relaxing "sleepy time" track. Reminiscent of "Ghosts" by Nine Inch Nails, or even Mike's "Minutes to Midnight" website clips, the tracks are fully instrumental and weave in and out of different ambient sounds Mike has created. Mike said on September 9th, "Yeah we're working on it, I don't have definitive news yet. But Sleepy Jam is on the horizon, I want to get it out as quickly as possible so you guys can start using it for your sleepy time music. Remember if I told you if I put it on streaming services that it'd make royalties when you listen to it? My concept is actually, I have a scholarship at ArtCenter College of Design that I funded forever ago, and I realized, 'Ah I'd really love to do something with the income from the Sleepy Time Jam that's really cool.' I want to try to send those royalties there, I want it to help fund the scholarship. When you are doing something like that, if I donate it from my royalty income, it gets taxed on the way to me and then I can donate my portion to the school. So I'm like, 'Is there a way I can do it where just donate the album itself to the school?' So if it makes $1,000, then the thousand dollars is taxed and then a portion of a thousand dollars goes to the scholarship. So I'd rather the whole thing go, if it's possible. My scholarship at ArtCenter, it's big enough for a graphics or illustration student based on financial need and merit. So they have to be really good and they have to need the money, and they need help going to school. So we'll figure it out, that's why it's taking an extra second. We aren't going to just put it up on SoundCloud or let you download the thing, I want to do something like that with it. It's complicated enough... the government doesn't want you to use charitable donation as like a tax loophole basically. So you've gotta do it the proper, legal way and I'm not super educated on how that works so we’re figuring it out. So that'll be that with the Sleepy Time Jam." Later in September about the album cover, he said, "I started it black and white, and then I added a little textures on the edges, and then I started just lightning and coloring it, so I wanted it to be more sleepy and chill. Yeah, I like it, it came out pretty good." The album can be purchased at AcousticSounds.com.

Mike was recently interviewed by Strombo on Apple Music, and here's the recap. - Strombo said on Summer Sanitarium 2003, he was interviewing Mike and Chester in Toronto. When it came time to end the interview, they discovered Fred from Limp Bizkit wasn't going to come off of his bus to do an interview so Mike and Chester gladly stayed an extra 40 minutes to fill the time with a very long interview, just before Linkin Park had to go to Boston for the next show of the tour. - Mike was not a big fan of the idea of releasing a Hybrid Theory 20 package. LP management pitched him the idea but he was like, "I wasn't into it in the beginning." He said, "Really? 20 years? I don't know. Why now?" He said once old photos, flyers, etc came up, he then liked the idea. - Mike tells a story from when he and Brad talked in 1998 about having good musical ideas and it'd be a waste if no one heard them. He said they decided from the ground up, the way the band records and sounds they use, they wanted to find ways to push the boundaries with sounds and make people a little uncomfortable when listening to it. Rap/rock was starting at the time but a lot of it was "macho." - The band would mail out street team materials with cassette tapes, etc before they toured and on their first tour ever they would show up and see 20-30 LP fans in line outside the shows. - About Chester passing away and how Linkin Park is dealing with it: "It's more like losing a brother or best friend. Not only did we spend an insane amount of time together, but also we built something." / "We built that together - it's an identity. Like, who are you? We are Linkin Park. And we did that together. Linkin Park is a part of all of our DNA, so when that got fractured and taken apart in a sense, I don't think anybody could really understand because you can't really relate that to anything else, it's not just family, it's not just friends, it's not just brotherhood, it's not just business... it's all of those things wrapped together. For better or worse, that could be something that is not very healthy but you also can't do it any other way. In order to be a band, and be this successful, and exist for this many years as like a highly functional unit of guys, it had to be that way. With that said, I think that there are parts of our relationships and our well being that we are doing so well... I'm super proud of everybody and how everybody's done and coped with things and adapted. And also parts where it's like, "Yeah, we could probably do better." Whether it's just like having bad days or... I don't know. It's a very personal subject. I don't think any of us are at liberty or would even be able to explain this to anybody. You could spend years on it and still not crack the surface of what all of that emotion is."

Sometimes reading text makes it seem like the mood is more intense than it really is. He was in a fun/joking mood as usual.

On October 26th, grandson tweeted: "GRANDSON X LINKIN PARK" , uploading a picture with is name written with the Hybrid Theory logo generator both on Facebook and Instagram which sent social media into a frenzy, getting thousands of interactions quickly. Days ago he also tweeted "SHUT UP WHEN IM TALKING TO YOU", so fans are now speculating about a possible cover or remix of One Step Closer. Mike was asked about the tweet today on Twitch and had this to say: "I do not have a comment on the grandson tweet. Leave me alone. You guys are relentless. I just wanted to get that out of the way so that we can actually get down to business today and make something without you guys spending the entire morning doing that. So just... I'm putting it out there. I'm not answering." He then added, "grandson tweeted an image. I'll tell you what it's not - some of the fans were like, "It's a brand new Linkin Park song featuring grandson!" and then some people threw in other names too. It's like, sure. You know it's not that. It's fun, it's going to be something fun and exciting. It is something, but it's not that. Yeah, grandson is a great kid. Jordan." Fever 333 also tweeted with the caption "333 X LP", grandson retweeted announcing: "TOMORROW". Jason Aalon from Fever 333 commented during a live stream saying that it's "Something very cool with a little bit of collaboration-ish, kinda like a tribute. Just thought it would be cool to honor it." What do you think we'll get tomorrow?