Linkin Park Speak About Reuniting & New Line-Up In New Apple Music Interview
This week, Linkin Park joined their long-time friend Zane Lowe on Apple Music 1 for an in-depth candid conversation about the incredible legacy of the band, the 7-year long journey to new music, welcoming new members Emily Armstrong (of critically acclaimed band Dead Sara) as co-vocalist and Colin Brittain (songwriter/producer for G Flip, Illenium, One OK Rock) as drummer, their excitement for the future and more.
You can watch the interview in full below, but if you scroll down, you can preview the contents by reading some thoughts from the band about the new era of Linkin Park and their upcoming album From Zero.
Pre-order From Zero here.
Mike Shinoda tells Apple Music about forming the new band organically:
Mike Shinoda: We didn’t say, “Hey, let’s get the band started again.” We didn’t say, “Hey let’s do tryouts.” Let’s find somebody for whatever. It was even suggested to us at one point like, Hey, you guys could do a competition show on TV and have all these dudes have the best singers. And you pick the Linkin ones being in… And anything you can imagine, any crazy idea that a person comes up with that’s like, oh, you could have done it this way. That came to us. They all came to us.”
Zane Lowe: “I’m not trying to say there’s any such thing as a bad idea, but that’s tough to acknowledge. The idea that in the midst of trying to figure out how you reappear for yourselves in a way that’s authentic so that the fans, so that we embrace it because authentic to do that through the filter of entertainment would’ve been I think nearly impossible.”
Mike Shinoda: “I think that bands are more and more rare these days. And so maybe it escapes a lot of people that one of the fundamentals of a band is that there’s a bunch of people who are sharing everything, all the creative space and the touring and these decisions and stuff. And you’ve got to spend a lot of time together and you’re sharing all of that stuff in a more intense way than you would be if you were a smaller group or if you’re a solo artist. So for us, talent just gets you in the door. Talent.
“We expect that if somebody’s going to come in and we’re going to do a little writing session can play. Of course, they got to be able to do that. It’s not about that. It’s on top of that. What’s the vibe in the room? What’s the dynamic between the people in the band and the conversations we have that aren’t related to the music? What kind of people? Are they good people? All that stuff becomes so, so important. So for us, the idea of tryouts or the idea of finding somebody through a talent, it’s too rigid. It’s not about the talent, it’s about the person.”
Mike Shinoda tells Apple Music about Rob stepping away from the band and Colin Brittain stepping in as a drummer.
Mike Shinoda: “Rob, we had a conversation a little while ago, I want to say it’s a couple years ago at this point, where he said he wanted to step away. We didn’t talk about that in public because we didn’t really know how that was going to work out. The fans noticed it. I mean, they’ve seen that we put out, as we did Papercuts, we released a bunch of things. We celebrated Hybrid Theory and he wasn’t part of any of the interviews or marketing or whatever. And that’s why. We’ll always love the guy. We’ll always respect the wonderful things we built together. And with his absence being a real thing, I was already working with Colin, and Colin is, I didn’t even think of Colin as a drummer because…”
Zane Lowe: “He’s a record producer really.”
Mike Shinoda: “He writes, he produces, he does everything. He plays guitar really well. He plays piano well, but his main instrument is drums.”
Emily Armstrong tells Apple Music on how she joined Linkin Park:
Emily Armstrong: “We started writing actually in 2019. We did a couple songs and it was just everything was a question mark. It was just fun to go in and write some stuff. And then of course the pandemic happened, and it wasn’t until a couple years later or whatever, a few years later you called me and I was like, yeah, I would love to come in. And it was at that point, I felt like I was really open to what would eventually be what this is, but at the time, I didn’t know what it was. I felt an energy I did. That’s all I could kind of go after. And I just knew at that point going in and working with Mike, and at the time it was just a few questions.”
Mike Shinoda: “It wasn’t everybody, it was just certain people certain days.”
Emily Armstrong: “And Colin, I got to know Colin, and I just knew that I loved going back and I learned more and it was fun. I think from that point, it just became, it wasn’t like a moment where it was like, “Oh my gosh, this could be it.” It was just like, what’s going on? And I like this, and the more and more creative that everybody else got, and it was infectious and it was really, really fun. And that’s what I love about being in a band. Having been in a band for 20 years, it’s like, it’s the fun. It’s the magic. It’s that, and I was just all about it and it was like, okay, this is what we’re going to do, Emily, so we’re going to start booking some shows. And I was like, okay.”
Pre-order From Zero here.