AP.net Interview: Linkin Park
 

Our interview with Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park can be found here.

From the Interivew

Minutes to Midnight was like taking a step outside the house, A Thousand Suns was just running off and leaving. With the new record, with Living Things, I feel like we had come back from those experiences and it felt comfortable with our band. We felt comfortable with ourselves. When I brought in demos that had that Linkin Park flavor again, the guys were excited about developing those and doing their things with them. That’s kind of how this album came together. We made an effort to bridge the gap between the old and the new styles of the band, and even pull that into the future.

lolwut

Pretty excellent interview. Really illuminating on how they write music. Sounds like they're more a collective of collaborative musicians than a traditional band. I'm glad you asked about Fort Minor, I love that album.

Very jealous Jonathan. I'd love to see them play Forgotten live and hopefully they bust it out during the HC tour. I've been looking at their international setlists and they brought back A Place so anything is possible.

Awesome to see some LP love.

This album sounds NOTHING like their "old" stuff, unless by old, he meant A Thousand Suns.
Seriously, the new album sounds like A Thousand Suns B-sides, Dead By Sunrise leftovers with a hint of dubstep mixed in. If you've listened to it without bias, you can't really honestly disagree.
It has a ton of Shinoda rapping and dubstep-esque undertones/background noise with a lot of Chesters' "softer work" and "slower work" mixed in. Nothing really hard, fast or remotely heavy that could be comparable to their first couple albums that were full of energy and in-your-face emotion.
There was 1 song that slightly reminded me of the LP that I loved, and it's only like 1:46 or something, not really a complete song.
Don't get me wrong, I've been a huge fan of these guys since before Hybrid Theory came out and I can really get into most of their slower songs, its not that I only like their heavy stuff, but the ones on the new album are...awkward. Actually, if I had to sum up the entire new album in 1 word, it would be "awkward".

that's really cool. always will have a special place in my heart for Linkin Park.

lol he mad

We get it, Mike. Very deep.

The new album has some great moments.

Pretty much completely agree. Absolutely sounds like a collection of post-minutes to midnight b-sides . I would also use the terms "lazy," "half assed" and "phoned in." Easily their worst album- in fact, in my opinion, the only bad one. I actually loved the last 2.

I absolutely love track 1 though, and I think it's the only song that really does sound like old stuff mixed with new stuff.