987FM Talks to Mike Shinoda

987FM talks to Mike Shinoda about what music gets him excited, what's his best memory about Singapore and his plans after Post Traumatic tour

šŸ“… August 2018

šŸ“ŗ 987FM

šŸ“– 3 min read

J: Hey, it’s Joakim Gomez for 987, with one of my heroes in life right now - Mike Shinoda. And I want to actually begin with a story. Back in 2000, I was 12 at that point in time. I got my hands on the Hybrid Theory album. And then 2003, I was 15 when Meteora was about to be released, I remember taking a bus right after school to the nearest CD shop to get a CD, Meteora. Are there any musicians of today that excite you the same way I got excited for Linkin Park?

M: Oh man! When I was around the same age, that was the way I was about a lot of artists too. I always loved Public Enemy. I loved Rage Against the Machine, later I loved Nine Inch Nails. And I actually went in a weird direction, I went backwards and fell in love with Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. I don’t know, in terms of new artists I really like Kendrick, he’s really exciting. I know I should say like a hundred artists but I could do that forever so I don’t even know where to start.

J: That’s fine. And I’m not sure if you remember this but back when Fort Minor were here in Singapore, I think this was 2006, I was there and I remember you teaching us how to do the sign for LA before you did the song ā€œBack Home.ā€

M: Yeah! That’s funny.

J: What’s your best memory of Singapore so far in all the times you’ve been here?

M: I haven’t had a ton of time here. I feel like Singapore is underrated. I love coming here and part of it is the culture, part of it is the food. I have a couple of friends here. As soon as I landed I stopped in at Mark Ong’s studio. I actually bought these shoes from him months ago, and he held them until I got here. All of those things, it’s not just the city, it’s people.

J: In the song ā€Nothing Makes Sense Anymoreā€œ one of the lines includes ā€I used to sleep without waking up.ā€œ Are you a light sleeper or are you a deep sleeper?

M: I’m a pretty deep sleeper. There have been days when I kind of like got 5 hours, 6 hours, and then also 12 hours of sleep. Like, my body just decides when it’s time to sleep and nothing can wake me up.

J: How did you record ā€Broodingā€œ? Was it just you in the studio hitting the record button, just playing all the instruments available?

M: Yeah, I mean all of the songs on Post Traumatic are kind of done that way. Like a lot of them started as jams or they started as little loops in my computer, sometimes in my phone. The interesting thing about ā€Broodingā€œ - it’s the only instrumental on the album. And the reason that’s the case is that I tried to put lyrics over it and I didn’t like the sound of my voice on it. So I just left it the way it was.

J: Alright, one final question. What’s next after Post Traumatic? Are you gonna take a short break for awhile or are you gonna keep putting out more music?

M: That’s a good question, I actually don’t know. One of the things that Post Traumatic - not just the album but the whole moment in time - is about opening up paths on this journey. So, is it making more solo music, is it writing or producing for other people, is it doing more art - all of those things are possibilities, and right now I’m not definitively deciding to do one. I’ll just kind of do a little bit of all them and see what happens.