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Japanese music television channel Space Shower TV has uploaded a YouTube series with an interview done with Linkin Park last year for the #Hybrid Theory20 celebration.

It also includes interviews by Japanese singers who talk about Linkin Park: Takuma Mitamura from 10-FEET, Masato Hayakawa from Coldrain, Takanori Nishikawa (known as T.M.Revolution), Shuhei Igari from Hey-Smith, Kenta Koie from Crossfaith, Takumi Kitamura from DISH//, and Takumi Kitamura from The Oral Cigarettes.

Below you can watch the videos and read some of the highlights by Brad and Mike.

Episode 1
- "The band's original name was actually Hybrid Theory. So our all creative vision was to create some unique sound of our own that blended all these different styles of music that we grow up listening to, rap, alternative music, electronic music, heavy music, rock. The idea that we had in our head we weren't hear it anywhere, so it felt like we had to make it and that's what drove us to make these songs and start sharing with people." - Brad

- "We just wanted to make a great album that we were proud of. That was all we can control, right? So we fought to make the record that we wanted to make and we were very fortunate that so many people around the world connected with this album." - Brad

Episode 2
- "I think it was an exciting time. I think there were some bands that had become successful, that we knew growing up, like from high school, so we knew it was possible. At the same time we never felt like we were part of any scene. Not like outsiders per se, but just that we had our own thing, our own vision, we don't really fit into anyone box. And that's why it was weird, like... it's always useful for... could be a record store, could be a journalist to have some kind of category or classification of what the music is and just wasn't accurate, because our all raison d'être, our all reason for existence was to mash all of this things together, was not to be one thing. Whereas Hybrid Theory certainly established that kinda mission, I think fortunately we got to play around throughout in our career with so many different... Like, Linkin Park clearly has one sound and also can be so many different things." - Brad

- "Everything was so stressful because there was always ups and down. We would be so excited to be doing our album but then also be fighting with different people at the label about the creative direction and we wanted to get it right and they kept wanting changing things. And then we were getting on the road and be so excited to tour but the first band that we toured with hated us and it was very difficult, touring in general was very hard. [...] We just wanted to make sure we took good care of our baby, our album and our band." - Mike

Episode 3
- "We were sitting like in an underground parking garage, doing some early photoshoot, but not a real photoshoot, just someone we knew took pictures, we thought it would be cool to do like a 'photoshoot'. I was just bored, I was sitting there, messing around with the guitar, and the guitar is in Drop D, so... Normally the low guitar string is a E, the third string is a D, it was fashionable back then lower the bottom string to a D so it was an octave. So just messing around in that tuning, with the harmonic, and the open string and the harmonic, and the bounce to it, it's probably my favorite riff I've ever come up with. What's cool is the riff in the intro plays straight the whole song, really. I was amazed how modern that song still sounds. The mix of it, the sonic presentation of it, just sounded amazing to it. And I'm used to hearing it live, so I kinda forgot what it sounded like. I mean, it sounds good live too, but I haven't heard the record, the recorded version of it in a while, and I just thought 'Wow! This is really heavy but it's also really melodic'. A lot of electronic information, sounds in that mix. It's a very cool song." - Brad about One Step Closer 

- "The intro is so recognizable. Right into the chorus. Chester's guttural... I don't know if it's singing or screaming, I think it's both, certanly no one can't do that with their voice, right? His voice was so unique. So you've got all the softness and the vulnerability and you've got the electronica, and you've got the drama, and you've got the intimacy. That's a song you can play on any instrument, any way, the words and the melody ring true today I think as much as they... maybe more so, even, then they did when we made it." - Brad about Crawling and Chester's voice.

Episode 4
- "Papercut was always my favorite song off of Hybrid Theory because it had all of the elements of the band packed into one song. It started with a hip hop beat, it had heavy guitars, a very rhythmic feel and also underneath that you can hear a jungle drum and bass style loop. And then you can hear in the verses and choruses it's rapping but then it gets very melodic." - Mike

- "An incredible talent and an incredible human being. Certainly miss him." - Brad about Chester

- "I think everything is wide open. I think it's an exciting time to look back and I think the future is wide open." - Brad (with a big grin) about the future of Linkin Park

- "I think the band evolved a lot over twenty years. We've always retained our identity, our through-line. Making these first two records with Don Gilmore and then getting to work with Rick Rubin who is such an incredible human being and creative mentor... He really encouraged us to continue to challenge ourselves and grow in different ways and never to put ourselves in a box. We took that and ran with it and we've made so many different kinds of songs. Really heavy songs, straight rap songs, very vulnerable, delicate songs and that's one thing that was always amazing with Mike and Chester, between the two of them, they could perform any kind of vocal, any style. So, we were really spoiled. As a songwriter I was personally really spoiled in the band because there was never a song where it was like, "Oh you know that's cool but we just can't do it." Anything that was great in any genre, any style, we could do it. Such a blessing." - Brad

Episode 5
- "We can see each other over Zoom. We've actually been doing some really cool press for this Hybrid Theory release, so... While I haven't been with those guys in person recently, in this kinda way we can be together." - Brad about having meetings with the band

- "I don't think Linkin Park just means one thing to me. I think it means the music, I think it means the friendship with my bandmates, I think it means our adventures all around the world. Just how we feel at home in all these places, I think a lot of people around the world feel like we're their band and it's just magical. It's a magical story and what a privilege to celebrate it with you today. Hybrid Theory was the record that really started the rocket ship ride. Incredibile that it's been twenty years, incredible." - Brad answering to the question "What does Linkin Park mean to you?"

Well that's fucking awesome! One of the best videos to surface in recent years... the band is really rocking here. Really good stuff. Would have loved more amateur stuff like this on HT20 via social media by the band, like Step Up that they posted.

It's not an April Fools joke as it was released on April 2nd.

Big news!

Mike Shinoda has announced that he is releasing a merch spin-off of his 'Dropped Frames' album series titled 'Cropped Frames'! A collection of prints based on art he's drawn on stream, Mike has also announced that 'Cropped Frames' will be sold as NFTs as well.

Since Mike has been quite vocal about wanting to "change things up" lately, the 'Cropped Frames' art will be broken into pieces and sold randomly, blind-bag style! In order to complete the entire piece of art, you have to buy multiple pieces and just simply hope that you don't get doubles! How about that for innovative?

The product description for MECHA MAN says, "Introducing "Cropped Frames", a limited run, spinoff collection featuring randomized art prints of drawings done by Mike live on his Twitch channel over the last year. Each item purchase will include one of several pieces of the full drawing, and is randomly selected and numbered. Collect all the prints to finish the entire art piece!"

"Art print featuring a randomly selected piece of "Mecha Man" - a drawing by Mike Shinoda done live on stream. 8.5" x 8.5". The number of prints available for each drawing varies, please see the item's name to determine odds. Pieces that may feature a signature are not actually signed, but are part of the print itself."

Items include MECHA MAN, DROPPED FRAMES, STEAM PUNK SOLDIER, and HOLD THE PHONE.

When reached by Twitter DM, Mike told LPLive, "Screw the prints, I am just SO excited to sell every piece of every print as an NFT... 54 in total! It's NFT time, y'all!"

Check out the collection here.

Well the previews are quite.... meh.

Rock am Ring has launched a new voting page to vote for your favorite bands... who you'd like to see play the festival in 2022.

Mike Shinoda is included, so be sure to vote for him! Unfortunately, Linkin Park is not included but you can still write them in at the bottom.

Check out the voting and be sure to vote for Mike + write in Linkin Park here.

Mike will be releasing a new 3 track single for 'Happy Endings' on April 2, 2021.

'Happy Endings' 3 Track Single

01. 'Happy Endings' (feat. Iann Dior & UPSAHL) [slowed + reverb] 3:57

02. 'Happy Endings' (feat. Iann Dior & UPSAHL) [Nightcore Edit] 3:12

03. 'Happy Endings' (feat. Iann Dior & UPSAHL) 3:32

Cover art can be viewed here.

Check it out on Apple Music here.

Thanks to martinez for the heads up and info on the release!

In his recent run of press interviews for 'Happy Endings', Mike did an interview with ALT 99.7 in Columbia, South Carolina.

"Amy sits down with Mike Shinoda to talk Linkin Park, why he's helping his fans produce their own music, and how tech is changing the landscape of music."

Mike gave an update on the possibility of a new solo album which he has been teasing the past month, saying, "In a bigger picture, I don't know if I'm headed towards doing an album. I've done enough albums that it almost doesn't feel the right kind of ambitious right now. I love ambitious projects and albums do take a lot of time and care."

So there we have it... maybe no album after all!

12 minutes ago, PurpleFlinstoneVitamins92 said:

So it was Loma Vista pushing Amends editions 

Mace said the band decided that and thought it was a good idea.

1 hour ago, Trumtram said:

Hmm? I always was under the impression that there were plans (maybe not finalized, but still) of them getting together und re-record stuff. I mean, sure, OML would have taken up most of Chesters capacities for 1-2 years. Sorry, if I got something wrong here.

That is correct. The Amends project (titled "New Sun Tomorrow" at that time) was originally started because in early 2017 Chester had meetings with (at least) Sean (Sean says other members too) about re-recording music. This is a statement of fact and this has been confirmed to me by sources other than Sean that I trust 100%. That part should not be in any sort of dispute at all, and I'll throw the full support of LPLive behind that one statement by Sean.

Can't confirm or deny the VOCALS part of it but Chester was absolutely fully involved in the re-recording of the album (whether instrumentals and vocals together, or just instrumentals, or however they were doing it) before he passed. That doesn't need to be something that is denied just because we are angry at GD themselves - this was something Chester was actually doing.

At the time the reunion show was announced, Jason Barnes and Mace had already shared photos of them working in the studio with Sylvia Massy - again, this was before Chester passed and was 100% with his knowledge and direct involvement. Due to Sean saying they were going to send a producer out with Chester on the OML tour for this project, we believe vocals were going to be re-recorded - yes.

Anyway - didn't mean to derail the thread but needed to say that because that isn't something that needs to be up for debate about the facts.

59 minutes ago, JZlinkinparamore said:

 

yeah like releasing a whole album inspired by Chesters death and tour around the world to promote it 

 

 

Except it wasn't an entire album inspired by Chester's death, part of it was Fort Minor that was going to be released in 2017.

The rolling synths and sounds in verse 2 are really similar to the work Atticus and Trent do. It'd be a great collaboration. Look how good Mike's collaboration with Chino was on The Raid - he could create something epic with the NIN team.

Was saying that based on comments of people saying they are "losing their ass" on their NFT investments so far. Are they trolling? Or are people really losing a lot of money on NFT items they've bought already?

This musical collaboration confirms (for the millionth time) that Mike needs to collaborate with Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor. Their Ghosts releases are fantastic, and Mike is creating music in such a similar style/genre to that. This release, his Raid Redemption music, his Mall music, "fine", etc... he's gotta do it. The possibilities are endless. An EP with vocals and full songs? An instrumental album? Imagine how cool that'd be.

But a digital item will lose its value over time much more than a physical item. That's the problem.

3 hours ago, PurpleFlinstoneVitamins92 said:

Lol HTF 😂😂😂 if you take that one and Nobody’s listening out it’d be their best record 

And add Cumulus?

"It's a hot motherfucker today!"

There's just about nothing we love more here at LPLive than finding unreleased Linkin Park recordings made in years past, and we have luckily stumbled upon a brand new recording of Linkin Park on Ozzfest 2001 again thanks to our good friend and resident collector Felipe. This is actually the first recording in quite some time to surface in the LP community.

The sixth show of the Ozzfest tour landed in Maryland Heights, MO just outside of St. Louis at Riverport Amphitheatre. LP was just getting into the groove of Ozzfest, settling down with their finalized setlist for the tour after experimenting with the order of the tracks during the first few shows. As you would expect, their set was heavy, direct to the point, and expletive-ridden to get the Ozzfest crowd pumped up. By this point in their touring career, they had mastered these Hybrid Theory tracks after performing them so many times in the past few years. Chester was quite a wild guy on stage in 2000, 2001, and 2002... talking about marijuana after 'Points Of Authority' at this show but bringing the brutally heavy screams on each and every song.

This recording contains the first 5 songs of the set. Thanks to the taper Fred H., we can now hear these tracks 7,221 days later - one of the longest times since any recording has been liberated in the LP community. The setlist in the show includes 'With You', 'Runaway', 'Papercut', 'Points Of Authority' and 'By Myself'. Of note to us that collect all of the recordings... it's cool to hear Chester with a few vocals on the show intro before 'With You'.

Check out the show page here.

Again - thank you to Fred H. for the recording and thank you to Felipe for always working to get these recordings out to the public!

Linkin Park's sophomore album Meteora turned 18 years old this week!

After demoing ideas on tour for Hybrid Theory in 2001 and early 2002 as well as demoing songs at Mike's home studio, the band recorded Meteora with Don Gilmore at NRG Studios from April to November 2002. The album produced five singles - Somewhere I Belong, Faint, Numb, From the Inside, Breaking the Habit, and Lying From You. From 2003 to 2004, Linkin Park performed a wide variety of shows for the album, from an intimate LP Underground Tour to two of their own Projekt Revolution Tours, to opening for Metallica on a Summer Sanitarium stadium tour, to headlining festivals across the world and even performing a sold out arena tour in North America. Some of these performances have gone on to become some of the most legendary and well known Linkin Park shows ever, especially Rock am Ring 2004.

We'd love to know some of your memories from the Meteora era. Did you see Linkin Park live from this era? Were you involved in the fan communities around this time? Did you buy the album right when it came out? Or did you get into Linkin Park later on?

Ben Young, Brad's guitar tech for The Hunting Party and One More Light eras, was recently interviewed by Ultimate Guitar. The full read is pretty good - check out these highlights:

What tour has been the most fun to be a part of so far?

"I don't really think of things in superlatives. They all have their up days and down days, and it is a job after all, but the three years I spent with Linkin Park felt special. That band was so big and so loved around the world that I couldn't help but feel like I was a piece of something that was bigger than the sum of its parts, especially in European countries or South America where they love their heavier rock and roll."

How did you come to work with Linkin Park? What is your fondest memory of Chester Bennington?

"I got the gig with Linkin because one of my good friends was one of their studio engineers. Starting back in '07 He would call me in occasionally to do guitar setups while they were recording. Through that I became friends with one of their techs, Warren Johnson. In 2014 they needed a new guitar tech on the road and Warren gave my name to the production manager since I was already a familiar face. It worked out perfect and me and guitarist Brad Delson got along great. At first, I was nervous because I got the vibe that he could be difficult, but he was pretty easy to deal with. He just needed someone that pays attention to detail and sweats the small stuff.
 

"One of my favorite Chester memories is when we were in rehearsals one day and Brad wasn't there, so I was covering his parts and playing. We finished running through a newer song that kind of had a strong lead part at the end. After the song was over Chester yelled 'You just played the SHIT out of that guitar.' That felt pretty good. One of the best things about Chester is that day in and day out he always gave it 100%. I never saw a show where he wasn't feeling it and decided to dial it in. He always gave a shit."

What has been the proudest moment of your career (SO FAR!)?
 

"The strange opportunities this job has brought me are insane. Back in 2014 I played three shows as the lead guitar player for Linkin Park when the guy I teched for was unavailable. I knew that potentially it could happen, so I had learned the whole set months earlier. One day we flew to Brazil for two shows and when we landed, I found out that Brad wasn't going to make it and that I was going to be playing. Linkin wasn't a band that had show-ready tracks for a missing musician in their playback, and it wasn't a route they were willing to explore. It's amazing that they put their faith in me to pull it off. I had never played in front of that many people before and I could have freaked out and train wrecked their show. Mike Shinoda put me at ease when he said, 'There are five other people in this band and we all mess up sometimes, so don't worry about it if you do.' It all went great. I ended up playing another show for them when Brad's wife was having a child. After that show at Rock on the Range in Columbus Ohio, Chester said to nobody in particular, 'That was amazing. That felt like an old school Linkin Park show.'"
 

Check out the full interview here.

Undoubtedly the hold up on any sort of DBS demos release is the label. By showing them in a stream on Patreon and talking about them, they can circumvent that. They are releasing a lot of stuff on Patreon that's definitely a "no no" for a public release. Maybe they'll find a way to post a full demo or something in this process.

They were vocal about wanting a DBS style box set back when they did the Time Capsule. 

44 minutes ago, Cesar656 said:

PT has nothing to do with this but ok

Playing devil's advocate - why not? A general assumption (whether right or wrong) among fans is that the sales of Post Traumatic would lead the label to want a single like 'Happy Endings' to do big numbers.

Mike also sat down to do an interview with MYX Malaysia on March 17th. And of course, we have the recap:

- Mike mentioned he was excited to eat the food in Manila when he was visiting his most recent time in 2019 since he was familiar with it in LA. He went walking around and tried different restaurants which he loved.

- He explains how #ShinodaProduceMe works. All of the artists so far have wanted to release the songs - they don't have to but he does like that they are releasing them. Fans can still send in submissions to Mike since he's still working on new tracks. He'd love to do a "futuristic dance hall" track or reggae track. He's always interested in hip hop tracks too.

- They talk about the 'Happy Endings' music video. The director uses a lot of modern styles mixed with throwback ideas so it feels raw and not too polished to Mike. He liked that because it has a sort of indie feel to the video. They didn't all shoot together but they did shoot in the same location. Mike didn't see UPSAHL at all, they just texted, but he was leaving right when Iann showed up so they talked for a few minutes. There was a crew of just seven people shooting it. Both Mike and the director did the illustrations in the video - some of his Twitch artwork was illustrated by Mike that he sent in.

- Mike says the reason 'Drivers License' is such a popular song is because it has a unique characteristic that when everyone listens to it for the first time, they love it. He talks about new artists he's listening to right now, mentioning Tobe Nwigwe, Mazie, and Teezo Touchdown. 

- He'd like to be able to go out on tour soon to perform for fans.

Check out the video here.

Mike did a quick interview with MIX Malaysia on March 17th, here's the recap!

- He explains how 'Happy Endings' came about with UPSAHL. They wrote the song, loved it, and the more other people heard, it they loved it too so it encouraged Mike to release it. He got Iann on the track before wrapping it up to release it.
- He isn't planning an album, "but basically, the bigger the song gets, the more likely I am to release an album. If you want me to make an album, then show me you want me to make an album."

- 'Happy Endings' was the first major label release affiliated with NFTs. Mike's label as well as UPSAHL and Iann's labels were like, "What does an NFT even mean?" And Mike was like, "Well I want to put it out tomorrow so you better do your research!" Ha. He explained that the money will go to his scholarship but he wanted the labels to just not worry about the money - only worry about the rights for the music.
- Mike goes into detail about why he also surprised fans with the 'Happy Endings' NFTs with a bonus signed art print for the song. He expected that the 'Happy Endings' NFTs would exchange hands amongst fans/be resold when he announced that the art prints were coming too, but none of them changed hands. He speculated that this is because actual fans of his bought these specific NFTs.

- The environmental debate with NFTs is brought up. Mike feels that it's a somewhat temporary problem (he's guessing), because so many people are working on solving it.

Watch the video here.

Hopefully HT 20 sold enough to justify a Meteora 20. It's gotta be their best era for live shows too. And the amount of demos we have never heard, etc.

The demos have a lot edgier/rock sound versus the extremely polished studio versions. Let Down and Walking in Circles are even better in the demo forms. Fire and My Suffering indeed are darker.

Mike has released the official music video for 'Happy Endings'! The video was directed by PIX3LFACE and was filmed on February 24 in Los Angeles.