Mike Shinoda Gushes About the New Linkin Park 'Dynamic' Audio Ink Radio

Mike Shinoda Gushes About the New Linkin Park ‘Dynamic’

2024-10-27

Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park says some surprisingly things and talks about the state of the band in a new podcast episode. – Author: Charles Ken, Photo via James Minchin III

Linkin Park are back with a new lineup, and longtime multi-instrumentalist Mike Shinoda is showing so signs of regret for resurrecting the band with a new lineup. The band sadly came to an end after frontman Chester Bennington took his own life on July 20, 2017, at the age of 41. Now, the band is back with new vocalist Emily Armstrong, and Shinoda pretty much says things are better than ever.

Mike Shinoda Says Linkin Park’s ‘Dynamic is So Good’

During an October 18 episode of the From Zero podcast with Shinoda and Armstrong, Shinoda gushed about Linkin Park’s current culture. The goal of the podcast is really to give a personal look into the dynamic of Linkin Park as they rise from the ashes with this new lineup. During the talk, both Shinoda and Armstrong discussed how grateful they are to have this group at this time in their lives.

“The dynamic of everybody in the band, but especially those of us that have the most history together, the dynamic is so good,” Shinoda said. “It’s really good. To me, it’s easily the best culture we’ve had.”

Shinoda then, perhaps realizing how that statement could be taken, ensured fans that, “I’m not saying that as a knock on the old lineup. I’m saying that specifically about the growth of Brad and Joe and Dave and me.”

“Everybody is in a really good place and part of that is maybe the gratitude of being able to do it again,” he added. “What’s your favorite thing to do in the world and now imagine you get that taken away. You can’t do it. It’s gone. And then living in that for a while and then coming back later and being like, ‘Ok, guess what? You can have it back.’ That’s a … crazy feeling.”

Mike Shinoda Talks Chester Bennington

Also during the podcast, Shinoda talked about his working relationship with Bennington and said he realizes what a fantastic working relationship they had.

“With Chester, I had another human being where I could feed him ideas and he could bring them to life like nobody else. It was amazing. And I didn’t know any better,” Shinoda said. “I hadn’t had very much experience with anybody else so I was just like, ‘Oh this is just what it’s like to have a really good singer and be like what do you think about this?’ Here’s an idea and you both try it and then you go high five. That’s great.”

He added that when he “started working with other people, I started to realize it’s harder to find. That’s unusual.”

Shinoda elaborated on how even a good singer doesn’t always make for a great fit when it comes to writing and the chemistry of a band.

“‘Oh, they’re really good at singing and I think I know how to write a vocal and then we get together and we do it and everybody’s good at what they do. There’s other people in the room,’ and yet the thing we made, it’s good. It’s fine. It’s a B+,” he said. “I started to realize over time there’s something else. There’s an unknown thing that you can’t quantify it, you can’t measure it, you can’t plan it. It’s either there or it’s not.”

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Charles Ken

Meet the expert - Charles Ken is a graduate of Michigan State University where he studied writing and history. He's a longtime music buff and covers classic rock for Audio Ink Radio. Contact him at ken@audioinkradio.com.