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

“I'm Yours”

Jason Mraz | 2008

Jason Mraz re-emerged after his disappointing second album with this lead single, a Jack Johnson-esque ditty about giving yourself fully to someone else. The success of the reggae-tinged song (it earned two Grammy nods and a spot on the Billboard singles chart for well over a year) was something the folk-pop singer never predicted when he wrote it in 15 minutes at home. "I played a happy-hippie chord progression that would probably work without 50 different Bob Marley songs," he told Rolling Stone. "I thought, 'It's too novelty. This is a nursery rhyme,'" concluding that "you can never guess what's gonna be a hit."

More Song Stories entries »

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