987FM Talks to Mike Shinoda

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 “Back Home.”

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 ”Nothing Makes Sense Anymore“ one of the lines includes ”I used to sleep without waking up.“ 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 ”Brooding“? 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 ”Brooding“ - 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.