MIKE SHINODA On LINKIN PARK's Comeback: 'We Rehearsed More For This Than We've Ever Rehearsed For Anything In Our Lives'

In a new interview with BBC Radio 1's New Music Show With Jack Saunders, LINKIN PARK's Mike Shinoda spoke about the band's return with new music and a new vocalist, seven years after the 2017 death of lead singer Chester Bennington.

Earlier this month, LINKIN PARK debuted new singer Emily Armstrong and drummer Colin Brittain on a livestream. The pair have joined returning members Shinoda, Brad Delson, Dave "Phoenix" Farrell and Joe Hahn, with Armstrong sharing vocal duties with Shinoda. Guitarist Alex Feder is filling in for Delson at all LINKIN PARK concerts for the foreseeable future.

LINKIN PARK has already released two new songs, "The Emptiness Machine" and "Heavy Is The Crown", both of which will appear on the band's upcoming album "From Zero", due on November 15 via Warner. It will mark LINKIN PARK's first full-length effort since 2017's "One More Light", which was the last LINKIN PARK album before Bennington's death.

Regarding how LINKIN PARK's comeback has been received and how it came about, Shinoda said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "It's insane. I mean, we have been planning this moment for a long time. So to take you back, I met Emily in 2019, I think. [I] just had heard her name through some friends. We wrote a couple things and just kind of messed around. And it was more about meeting than it was about writing a song. The songs were fine, but it was more about who is this person. And eventually we just started — Joe and Dave and I started — getting together more and more often. And the intention wasn't to start the band up again or whatever. We were just slowly coming together, and eventually things just started to fall into place with Emily and with Colin, our new drummer."

Asked when the idea of bringing LINKIN PARK back actually felt possible to him, Shinoda said: "The new album, it came together as the band came together. We were doing sessions with some other writers and other singers and other performers and stuff. We just found ourselves wanting to call Emily and Colin back. And I remember Joe and I talked about putting her voice on some things that we had already written and only had my voice on them. And once we did that, it was, like, 'Oh, that sounds really good. We should try that on even more songs.'"

Regarding how he felt when he heard Emily's voice for the first time, Mike said: "Her band that she was in was called DEAD SARA, and I heard a song called the 'Weatherman'. And her singing, just the way she approaches the way she sings, the passion was the driver and the style was a function of — it was the vehicle that got it out of her system. And I always love that."

Addressing LINKIN PARK's future plans and overall approach to honoring Bennington's legacy, Shinoda said: "The album comes out the second week of November. And I hope that when people hear it, they really understand this is not meant to be a redo or a rewrite of LINKIN PARK. This is intended to be the new chapter of LINKIN PARK. It's, like, the old chapter was a great chapter and we love that chapter. And that ran its course. And now we were faced with the challenge of, 'Okay, if you start from scratch with another voice, what do you do?' And Emily's voice, like when she sings the thing, man, it's like the passion… She's a hundred percent her. That's the best part, is she's not trying to be Chester, she's not trying to be anybody else. She's her, and that's why it works."

Asked if he feels the bond between him and his new bandmates is evolving as they continue bringing LINKIN PARK's music to the masses, Mike said: "Yeah, it's a constant evolution. I mean, we rehearsed more for this than we've ever rehearsed for anything in our lives. My reference point is always like a good basketball team — you don't get the behind-the-back pass, the no-look pass unless you just know where everybody's gonna be. You know exactly where they're gonna be. For me, that's the metaphor, is like these shows are us figuring out each other's intuitive way we move and play on stage and still making it even more effortless and more muscle memory."

So far, LINKIN PARK comeback mini-tour has hit four cities in the U.S. and Europe: Los Angeles, New York, Hamburg and London. All four shows featured LINKIN PARK performing a two-hour set on a high-tech stage shaped like an aircraft carrier, allowing for a unique production as well as a greater-than-usual number of tickets sold at each venue.

"Heavy Is the Crown" is the 2024 League Of Legends World Championship Anthem, marking the band's first collaboration with Riot Games.

Earlier this week, LINKIN PARK added three November dates to the "From Zero" tour, in Paris, Dallas, and São Paulo.

Photo credit: James Minchin III