Mike Shinoda Makes Bold Statement About Linkin Park’s Culture

Linkin Park have debuted their new lineup and in the recent From Zero podcast with Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong, Shinoda makes a bold statement about the band’s current culture.

The podcast itself offers some more personal insight into the dynamics of the band as they put together this iteration and the positive experience it’s been for those involved.

What Mike Shinoda Said About Linkin Park’s Band Culture

Within the chat, Shinoda and Armstrong had used the word “gratitude” to describe a bit of where things stand for the group these days as they prepared for this next phase of the group’s career.

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

Making sure the sentiment of his remark was not misconstrued, he then added, “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 continued, before serving up an example. “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 fucking crazy feeling.”

Mike Shinoda’s Realizations About Working With Chester Bennington

Within the chat, Shinoda also addressed his longtime working relationship with co-vocalist Chester Bennington and coming to the realization of how good they had it in his working relationship with the singer.

“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,” confesses Shinoda. “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.”

But as Shinoda ventured outside Linkin Park he began to realize how truly unique that relationship with Bennington was.

“When I started working with other people, I started to realize it’s harder to find. That’s unusual,” said Shinoda.

“‘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 added, offering an example of how having all the right elements doesn’t always yield something special.

“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,” he adds, then revealing how it applies to where Linkin Park is now.

READ MORE: The Moment That Kickstarted New Linkin Park Music

“That was the thing we ended up looking for more than anything that I think we finally now have got it,” he concluded in speaking about the band’s current lineup.

Linkin Park in 2024

Linkin Park have been making the touring rounds in support of their new album, From Zero. The record is set for a Nov. 15 street date and it’s available to pre-order through the band’s website. You can also get ticketing information for the remaining Linkin Park tour dates through the website as well.

Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda + Emily Armstrong on the From Zero Podcast