Exclusive: Mike Shinoda Discusses Linkin Park's New Record

We just got off the phone with Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, who filled us in on the details of the band's first album in three years, Minutes to Midnight, out May 15. Shinoda, who, along with the rest of LP, spent an impressive 14 months recording Midnight, told us to expect lots of seemingly un-Linkin Park-like new sounds on the album.

Here are our favorite details:

• Minutes to Midnight is composed of sounds made by a practically Arcade Fire-esque array of instruments including banjos, marimbas and vintage guitars and amps. "People have always tried to lump us in with the whole rap/rock stereotype, but we don't intentionally want to be part of that scene. We've always had our own personality and I think it really shows on this record."
• Shinoda tells us the title of the album has two meanings: "It's definitely a reference to the doomsday clock, the Apocalypse, a metaphor for death and rebirth, but it could also be applied to the music industry, sort of tongue-in-cheek."
• While there are no special artists featured on the album, Shinoda shares a co-producing credit with the Grammy award-winning producer (and all around badass) Rick Rubin, "I was raised on his music and to now be working with him, to be mentored by him, is such a huge thing."

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

More Song Stories entries »

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