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On Wednesday, May 6th, AWOLNATION will be on Instagram Live at 12pm PST, featuring Mike Shinoda.

Other guests for the week include Duff McKagan on Monday, Hannah Hooper on Tuesday, Judah Akers on Thursday, and Andrew McMahon on Friday.

It is unclear yet what Mike will be doing with AWOLNATION - if it is simply a discussion, a songwriting session, or what.

Instagram has begun the process of memorializing Chester's Instagram page.

The new layout includes "Remembering" above Chester's name and upon clicking it, users will see a note that says: "Remembering Chester Bennington / This account has been memorialized. Memorialized accounts are a place to remember and celebrate someone's life after they've passed away."

The process is being rolled out in waves and some fans will already see the updated profile page.

The full show with interludes, intros, etc will likely be uploaded. We'll see.

Following the news from Phoenix that Linkin Park is working on new music, Linkin Park is trending on Twitter today (April 29th) for the first time since 2017.

At least one member of Linkin Park will join Papa Roach's celebration of their "Infest" album that turns 20 this year. This afternoon at 1pm PST, Papa Roach will go live on YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, and VK for an album celebration. They have hinted on social media over the past week that Linkin Park will be joining in some capacity and it seems that is confirmed now with a retweet of the celebration by Phoenix.

Check it out here.

Linkin Park and Papa Roach toured together in 2000 - Linkin Park's fourth tour ever was opening for Papa Roach on their "Master Bay" Tour in December 2000.

Live Nation Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (Live Nation GSA) posted an interview with Mike and Chester from 2017 that was previously unreleased. Check it out below as the band talks about their first shows as musicians, their favorite live acts, and more!

Yesterday Phoenix was on Dan Nicholl's show about wine, via Facebook Live where he sampled wine and talked about the different wines he likes, how he was introduced to wine, and more. He also mentions Linkin Park's shows in South Africa when they performed there.

You can watch the full stream here: "From LA to the Hemel en Aarde Valley: live tasting with Linkin Park’s Dave "Phoenix" Farrell"

Phoenix again mentioned Linkin Park when he talked about the coronavirus, saying:

"So at this point, globally, we are all doing a version of the same thing. 

For us with the band, we have been writing before this all started. Casually at this point we are doing Zoom meetings to eat lunch together and say hi. But we are not able to get together and write or do that whole bit. We're working at home a little bit, working up ideas. I've been playing a lot of drums just to do something new. I've been doing that for the last year, year and a half, and I've been purposely making as much noise as possible to create my own space in the house."

Exciting!

And here we are again in yet a new week during quarantine, with yet another Mike Q&A summary from his live stream.

- "Did you used to skateboard?" -> "I did, I was always so terrible man. I was probably one of the worst skaters in my whole group of friends. It didn't last for me because it was too discouraging. Believe me, I tried, I was out there every two to three days. And I couldn't do it, I was just terrible. If you ever saw the beginning of Back to Future when he like was skating around town and grabbed the back of the car, we did that with an ice cream truck one time up in the valley and that was the coolest thing I ever did on a skateboard. That was the only time I ever felt like - this was fun!"

- "For any venture to be successful, everyone on the team has to be equally as passionate. When you were building the band what did you do to..." -> "I mean, there's no version of making other people be passionate. You can pep talk people but there are definitely times in everything that I've ever done where there are other people who are not coming to the table. And times when everybody is more excited than I am. I think that is why a lot of music artists are 1 person or 2 people, there are not as many bands anymore, because it's hard to get that many people on the same page."

- "Will the 2004 Brazil concert which was professionally filmed be released someday?" -> "That is a probably not. But, I don't know. Was it amazing? I don't know if that particular one was worth releasing over other ones."

- "Are there LP or Post Traumatic songs you listen to on your own to jam out?" -> "Not really, I don't really listen to my own stuff that much. Please don't wake up to my songs. Because my experience has been that waking up a song, you eventually just hate it. I always hate every song that I use as alarm clock."

- "Will there be a painting/drawing stream in the future?" -> "Yeah, we'll do a painting or drawing stream coming up. I also have some other ideas. I spent some time going through some of the other CoronaJams from previous days and we might revisit a couple of those. Especially the early ones because I found a few of those that were pretty cool. They never got arranged or organized so maybe we'll come back to those and add some stuff and arrange them and stuff like that. Especially the ones I started on Instagram."

- "In the last 22 years, how has connecting with the fans changed?" -> "I was thinking that this whole thing with chats and streaming is actually more similar to the early days of the band than most other things like Twitter. In the beginning of the band when people are on message boards and chatrooms, it was more like this. And things have moved away from that to Twitter and Instagram and Twitch and TikTok and whatever. And this is more, real-time... it was more like that back in the day."

On April 19th, Phoenix made a last minute appearance on the LAFC Instagram Live for half an hour to discuss soccer, touring, and more.

Phoenix explained that he didn't understand the geography of England, but more specifically, didn't know the rivalries of soccer there until he started touring Europe with Linkin Park. He had some funny stories about playing in London, growing up recording soccer games on his VCR, etc. Phoenix's wife makes a quick appearance and Phoenix explains how he first got into LAFC.

Of course everyone wants to know what is going on with Linkin Park. Phoenix says "band wise, we are always kind of writing, we are always working on new music. Right now, with what's going on in the international situation, we're a little bit on pause with all that. In addition, me and Mark and a good friend of ours Brendan Steele have got our own podcast called Member Guest which anyone can check out. It's loosely music and golf-based. But it covers a lot of other things as well, it covers a lot of soccer. So that's what we've got going on."

This is one of those things that is surprising to hear three years later... we'd assume the band would have mentioned this at some time previously BUT it was June 2017 and things changed dramatically in July 2017 so there wasn't much time to mention it publicly.

On April 17th, Mike made a Nintendo Game Boy sounds Corona Jam and took a few questions! Here's what was said:

- "Have you ever thought about writing and illustrating children's books?" -> "In college I messed around with it a little bit but I never really got super into it. I did a few little projects at school, like children's book projects but they weren't very good."

- "You did some remixes for Meteora, would you like to release them at some point?" -> "I don't know if that's true. I don't remember them if we did. But, you know, if they're around somewhere maybe they end up coming out. Since you said that, I will keep an eye out for any Meteora remixes when I'm in the hard drives looking for stuff."

- "Do you prefer making music or making art? Is there any instrument you couldn't play?" -> "There's lot of instruments I can't play. Keyboard is piano and keyboard is not like just sampling things (you can make a very convincing live drum sound or guitar sound on keyboard, so if you can play that you can play those instruments in theory)... but learning piano helps you learn the way chords fit together and sit in a scale. Like classical piano will help you play other instruments. And to layer instruments because it is a polyphonic instrument by nature so you will understand how things fit together. That's why I think so many composes have a piano background in their training."
- "Would you give us a tour of the studio at some point?" -> "Maybe we will do that at some point next week."

- "Vocals are not what we are doing at this point on these jams."

- "Wikipedia says One Step Closer, Papercut, and In the End were recorded in New Orleans. Is that actually true?" -> "No, it is not true. I don't know where that information came up. We wrote and recorded all of those in LA. If you can go clear that up on Wikipedia, on our page, that would be helpful."

- "Would you consider doing seminars for colleges and universities about music production?" -> "Yeah I'd do that. I did a thing, I don't know when it's coming out, but Mike West from 686 does a business class at USC and he had me come down and talk to the students there. He's going to put that up at some point so you can watch that. It's about an hour or so that I was there."

It appears Mike answered one random question before the last one when the stream cut out - if you know what it was let us know.

For more information on the Meteora remixes, visit the Linkinpedia page. The band said a few were done in 2003 and would be released, but no information ever surfaced.

Wow that is a cool poster. We will keep an eye out for it. If someone has it, it'd be someone here for sure. Let's see if someone pops up with one. You could make a great version of this for sure.

Mark Hoppus in a recent Twitch stream revealed that the track he worked on with Mike at Midem 2017 was actually taken and worked on by both Mike and Mark after the event, before they actually had Chester join in on the song. He said that both bands planned on finishing the song after the 2017 North American Tour. Mark describes the track as having great melodies and lyrics written by Chester for it. He says, "it is honestly just a beautiful song."

He picks what to answer so it depends what type of mood he's in, he may not want to answer in depth LP questions every single chat haha

We're back with another Q&A from Mike during his CoronaJam sessions. He didn't take but a few questions on the 16th when he did his Money Mark Jam but here is what was said.

- "Do you still own the Korg Triton keyboard you used on stage back in the day?" -> "I do not own it, I think we sold it. Yeah because I use the Nord now. The Triton was fine for a while but the Nord has the sample capability, I like that better."

- "Do you have a big secret hobby?" -> "I am a big basketball fan, a Lakers fan. There are a ton of Japanese dishes I like to cook."

- "What is your favorite video game ever?" -> "My favorite video game ever is probably Metroid. It's a run off between Metroid to play on my own by myself, Megaman to draw, and then my favorite multiplayer situation was Halo. I loved Halo for the first few that came out."

- "Which CoronaJam was the most fun one to make so far?" -> "I don't know, I like all of them. I like just doing it. I haven't really gone back and listened to them that much, maybe we will go back and do that together."

- "Will Brad ever grow back his fro?" -> "The big fro, probably not. Brad's natural hair pattern is excessively curly. He doesn't have much of a choice in terms of growing back his fro."

Mike added - "We will probably make one more song together then we will flip things up and do something different."

1 hour ago, bloodbath said:

It's just me or every time he responds something about pictureboard he does it very rude or agressively? Like it's a taboo topic or something. 

Because people keep asking him about it 24/7.

What would be funny is if they release it this year for the Hybrid Theory 20 anniversary and it really isn't very good, just as he said a decade ago LOL

We're back with another Mike Q&A summary, this time from April 15th!

- "It has been said that Pictureboard has been played one time with Linkin Park. Did it turn into another song?" -> "It did not. It got played back then and then there's a sample in it so we didn't play it anymore so we didn't want to deal with it anymore. So that's the story on that. I don't know if it was played as an intro to another song. Not a record, I'll tell you that much."

- "Have you considered releasing CoronaJams as a fundraiser for COVID-19 relief?" -> "We'll see. I don't know, we'll see. It has occurred to me but I am not making any commitments yet."

- "Does Post Traumatic feel current or does it feel like a representation of where you were at two years ago?" -> "The subject matter feels really far away, thank god. The production does not. The production on it I feel like, I really like what was going on with the production with that. The good news is that those of us going through difficult things, some of you going through difficult things right now, it does get better. Take your mental health seriously."
- "Have you ever thought about selling good quality prints on your store?" -> "I have done it before, it's a good idea, there are none up there right now. Maybe there is a good way to do it for COVID-19 fundraising. There are always these legal hurdles that get in the way of doing that. I'll think about it and try to figure it out."

Mike is going to take the Instagram Live demos we heard (when he was streaming on his phone), bring them into Albeton and work on them soon so we can hear good quality versions.
 

In November 2018, Linkin Park's music video for Numb became the band's first video to amass 1 billion views on YouTube. It was the second rock song in history to achieve the feat, following November Rain by Guns N' Roses.

In April 2020, the video achieved yet another milestone - it has now passed November Rain for the most views of any rock video on YouTube. With November Rain sitting in the 1 billion, 333,000 range, Numb has now surpassed 1 billion, 350,000 views!

Congratulations to Numb! Next up for Linkin Park, In the End is over 955,000,000 views and rapidly approaching 1 billion itself, which will likely happen in 2020! Linkin Park will then become the second rock band on YouTube with two rock songs over 1 billion views - an amazing feat! Guns N Roses recently had Sweet Child O Mine reach 1 billion as well.

Done! It was in the chat yesterday which we just summarized here: https://lplive.net/forums/topic/14106-mike-qa-summary-april-8th-2020/

During some of his recent CoronaJam Sessions, Mike has taken questions from fans about a variety of topics. Here is a quick summary of things he mentioned on April 8th:
 

- A funny LP touring story: Chester jumped off the stage to sing on top of a porta potty, but the very top of it broke which could have lead to a really messy situation... thankfully he didn't fall in! LPL note: This was likely the Miami, FL April 2001 show where Chester sings on top of the porta potty on "Points of Authority."

- He really liked the sweet popcorn in Brazil when he visited during Linkin Park's tours. However, he likes salty popcorn at the movies when he goes.

- Does he import these CoronaJam sessions into ProTools later on? Yes, he said he would if he added vocals to the songs because ProTools is easier to do vocals. He said he will do a stream with fans to show how he does vocals but warns that it might be boring for fans. Ableton is easier to do the music on because it constantly loops. And ProTools is easier for multitracks, multiple mics, drums, etc because it can handle such a big workload.

- His Hogwarts house the first time he did the test was Ravenclaw and the second time it was Gryffindor. 
- The reason LP songwriting sessions weren't as experimental after ATS and moved to a more classic writing process was because ATS was a unique journey and he always wants to feel like he is learning or doing something fresh for him. Wherever he is inspired at the moment, basically.
- He is totally down to do a drawing / doodling live stream instead of music sometime, he just has to figure the technology out. But he wants to do it on iPad Pro.
- When the band released The Hunting Party, Mike said he wanted to make an album that was fun to play live but ironically THP was the album with the least songs performed live. Mike says the problem was that the rest of the band only wanted to play a certain amount of time on stage, like a set that was around 100 minutes. Mike wanted to play longer but LP didn't get around to rehearsing on the road or making the songs fit into the live setlist with the amount of time they had agreed upon for the set.
- Some footage of the band performing as Xero exists but Mike says they look like children and they dressed up weirdly on stage. He talks about the quality of the videos not being that great from that era because at that time you needed really legit cameras to film with.

- Mike loves visiting Brazil and says the crowds there have a ton of energy. He says the Rock In Rio crowds are epic. He said LP had an end of tour party at their hotel there one time and had a great time drinking and hanging out.
- Mike thinks that Linkin Park didn't end up rehearsing Keys to the Kingdom to play live, but thinks it's a dope song and he loves it.
- LP worked out on tour but not as a group, but he worked out with Chester and Phoenix. He tried to stay with those two on tour (meaning the same hotel) whereas Rob, Brad, and Joe stayed together. It basically boiled down to those three being the most social but also liking the same style of hotels.
- Mike said Chester loved working out and would work out twice a day quite frequently.

During some of his recent CoronaJam Sessions, Mike has taken questions from fans about a variety of topics.

Here is a quick summary of things he mentioned on April 9th:

- Mike talks about the famous New York City 2001 video of And One where Mike jumps into the crowd. He wasn't a fan of doing it much because the band got so popular so fast and the crowds got pretty large. However, he was a fan of going down on the barricade during the shows. He talked about the story where the necklace with his Japanese family crest was yanked off during the show... so Mike at the end of the show asked people to back up and find the necklace; it was returned to him luckily!

- He thinks Paramore is so dope but doesn't know if they'd be open to a collaboration with HIM. He hasn't heard Haley's new solo material besides one song so far but he liked it.

- An artist who he always wanted to do a collaboration with but never got the chance - Kendrick Lamar is someone he'd like to collaborate with. Kendrick doesn't do many collaborations.
- When asked if he'd ever work with Adult Swim, Mike says he loves them and he would love to work with them but he doesn't know what he would do or what they would want from him.
- His favorite Pokemon are Eevee and Pikachu. Eevee is his favorite though.
- It is too long for him to do a rundown of his plug-ins but he may do it tomorrow. He's avoiding certain plug-ins because some of them slow down and/or crash the stream due to an issue with Ableton
- Advice for graphic designers? Get out there, do as much work as you can. Try to find your own vibe and style. Don't try and imitate someone else who is successful.
- The Battle Symphony vocal chops came from demo scat vocals Mike chopped up in ProTools. He used pitch shifter and alterboy, and grabbed pieces and chopped it up on the grid. Then added some effects to finalize it.

- Mike reached out to Twitch but the person who would be in charge of partnering him as the Twitch artist relations person has the coronavirus currently.

- The music video for Hold It Together was finished but the hard drive it was on was stolen at an Israeli airport on tour. The tour videographer was subjected to "extra screening" (Mike's politically correct way of saying it)... all the videographer's stuff was torn up and sifted through and the hard drive was stolen during the process. This is why there was no Hold It Together video. He said it was hard to wrap his head around doing another video for the song, sadly.
- When asked about his favorite venues to play in the USA outside of California, he mentioned that he loved the Pier Rooftop venue in NYC he played on the Post Traumatic Tour. He said Red Rocks is amazing and the Gorge is amazing. He also remembers TLA in Philadelphia being amazing.

- He is totally ok with fans taking the CoronaJams and remixing them, writing over them, etc and posting them online as long as they aren't monetizing them.

Thank you to Justin for helping summarize the chat today - we'll be back with more summaries!

6 hours ago, linkin_boss said:

Can we get them to negotiate with the guys that recorded smokeout 2003 so they can finally release it 😂?

Well that's Meteora, try in a few years lol

The Lockout guy wants $50,000 for that footage. LP has their own footage like this (see: Esaul on Frat Party) so I doubt they'd want to spend such an insane amount of money for a video like this. They probably even have videos filmed at that rehearsal spot too.

Following last month's successful Hybrid Theory 20 stream with Mike, Joe, and Phoenix reacting to an unreleased Linkin Park show in San Diego during the Hybrid Theory tour, the band has started posting each song in full on YouTube.

Two songs will be released each Monday and Thursday until the full show is up!

Visit the show page for more information about the performance, which had a completely unknown setlist until this year.
 

CORRECTION: Yesterday we posted that Mike will be releasing a new EP, entitled Open Door. The song will actually be released by itself and there will not be an EP. We apologize for the mistake.

As you all have known by now, Mike has released his demo of "Open Door" to fans and asked them to submit their own vocals for possible inclusion on the final song. He has also opened the process up to collaborate with fans artistically as well, as the winner of the #DesignOpenDoor contest will have their artwork chosen as the cover of the Open Door single.

Typespire is the company Mike is working with to pick the fans for the artwork, and they say, "During this time of uncertainty, especially with fellow freelancers and small business owners, we want to bring some opportunity and good news in this crazy world. So... Typespire are teaming up with Linkin Park & Fort Minor's Mike Shinoda in a bid to find him some cover artwork during our isolation period!"
 

This past weekend Mike showed us a look at working on Open Door again, with fan vocals, via Instagram Live.

Today, the top 50 submissions have been chosen by Typespire and Mike will now pick the winner from those top 50. Mike posted a note on his Instagram story from Typespire, saying, "A huge thank you to everyone who took part in #designopendoor with Mike Shinoda.

We have seen some really brilliant submissions you have all put together in no less than a week. We hope you've all enjoyed it as much as we all have seeing all of your designs.

We're glad we could bring the community together whilst under quarantine to really showcase the power of connectivity, creativity, and community. We present to you our top 50. Of which Mike Shinoda will be handpicking his winner to be chosen on the cover of his EP Open Door, along with a $1,000 US prize!"

CORRECTION: Yesterday we posted that Mike will be releasing a new EP, entitled Open Door. The song will actually be released by itself and there will not be an EP. We apologize for the mistake.
 

So it appears that Open Door will become a new single! Mike has been working via YouTube Live, Twitch, Facebook Live, and Periscope (following Instagram Live) for weeks now, giving fans a look into his process at making new music. He will go live for over an hour at times, showcasing new beats and instrumentals he is writing. Videos of these songwriting sessions can be found on Mike's YouTube page.