Elektro Magazine have published an interview with Mike Shinoda on their website where he discusses the various experimental endeavours that he and Linkin Park have undertaken over the years. Among the things covered in the interview is the future of Shinoda's side-project Fort Minor. Not for the first time, Shinoda suggests that he might make more Fort Minor material in the future: Shinoda also touches about what he feels is a stagnancy in the world of rock music: Is this indicative of the creative direction Linkin Park might be taking for their sixth studio album? Though the band have given fans inconsistent hints regarding the progress in the songwriting, the band members have been quoted several times this year saying that the music they've been working on is "heavy" and "high-energy". Read the full article here, and discuss on our message board! Source: Elektro Magazine via Andreina
There might be a huge possibility of having another Fort Minor album sometime after LP6. Especially since there's also a reference in the STB remix.
Hmmm... This would mark the second response Mike Shinoda has made about how stagnant rock has gotten in mainstream. He dished out some sick rhymes on LP:RECHARGED. And Today we all receive news that Hybrid Theory will be played in full next year. ...inb4 RETU4N 2 NU-M3T4LZ! But in all seriousness; judging from his voluntary outspoken attitude as of late towards the bands craft and creativity, I have a strong feeling that LP6 will trump LIVING THINGS at the very least.
It's interesting that the guy who was all about experimentation a couple years ago is now "sort of obsessed with" how rock music is "getting soft." I'm not accusing him or lying or anything else, it just looks like a big turn around.
^ I hear ya. What Mike has been speaking out about on the genre is warranted, but it is in a sense hypocritical coming from him seeing as their experimental phase in their previous 3 albums have whisked away a lot of the heavier elements. However, I doubt he is fully conscious of it, and nor do I fault him for said comments on his blog and on this interview. Think of it this way, he's in the thick of it year after year on tour for months on end performing a pretty high-energy set with tracks from their "heavier" albums. In turn, it is pretty easy to overlook the fact that their albums as they've never abandoned their heavier songs. It's easy to call themselves a band that still rocks the house, so to speak. Perhaps their next studio effort will reflect Shinoda's itch for going into a heavier, and raw production and
To me, they should focus more on making their own music more interesting to listen to, before venturing in another drastic soundchange. If he thinks that "heavy" music is lacking these days, okay, cool, make some! But your band has problems to solve, the biggest one being: stale song-structure. The drastic soundchange on ATS was part of the reason why it was more enjoyable, but what makes it worth returning to are the more interesting song-structures. I know that LP can make interesting sounds, but I want to be introduced to a different side of theirs, one that, again, experiments with how a song flows and progresses. At this point, their priority isn't how they sound, it's what they do with their sounds.
Adding to this, the interesting sounds are always reduced to "just the cool thing in the intro before the guitarz appear". What makes "A Thousand Suns" interesting is that those elements are central to the songs and they help each one to sound and feel unique, as opposed to just being the interchangeable intro synth loops that they were in the band's earlier music. Linkin Park may well make some great "heavy" music for the next album; I just hope that they focus on challenging themselves creatively before they go about trying to save what they perceive to be a stale genre.
Yeah, probably this. Because there's definitely been "energetic" rock the last few years, just nothing in the mainstream.
I don't see how one excludes the other. They can both experiment and keep high energy, which is exactly what I predict will happen. The new album will not be "nu-metal heavy", but just energetic and heavy in a new way. Again, that does not equal guitarzzz.
Even though Mike used "soft" here in the context of current rock music lacking energy; it should be noted that in the article he wrote for Pidgeons and Planes about a month ago he stated the following: and I think Mike's frequent claims about high energy music, are less centered on the concept of returning to an old sound (as everyone is automatically assuming) and more in regards to current rock music sounding rather vanilla and not having any punch or real impact to it. And honestly, it's easy to see why he can think that. You listen to the artists on EDM channels on Sirius and all of their songs are high energy, fast paced songs designed to excite and hype up the listener. To make them dance, or feel something. The songs sound different, and they're experimental. A lot of rock music plays it safe now in comparison, and it shows. Mike's likely not going to ask Linkin Park fans to dance anytime soon, but I think that level of energy from that genre has rubbed off on him. I think he's hungry to make music that hits hard and relentless and punches people in the face. That doesn't mean his creativity is going out the window, it just means whatever we get is probably going to be far more fast paced and energetic than ATS or MTM (and even parts of LT).
Whenever Derek defends the band he always instantly wins an argument in a thread. Back on topic, Mike's statements really fuel my anticipation for LP6. Hopefully it's not rushed.
I agree. And while reading the thread's comments I wanted to point out that Mike's "obsession" with rock music going soft doesn't necessarily mean that he will take steps back with LP, it's not all about the instrumentation, it's about the lack of wanting to transcend and add other elements to make the music more fresh and be more cutting edge. A regular rock band plays guitar, bass and drums but in order to "retake" the front page of the music industry you gotta add up to that and innovate, because otherwise it gets to feel "repetitive" or unattractive to the wide audience. That's how I interpret his words, because to discuss about that piece of this interview you have to read the Pidgeons and Planes blog post Derek mentioned to get into context. Otherwise his words get misleading. Also, remember that what drives an album into a particular direction in Linkin Park is a "recurring theme". The recurring theme for example in MTM was to get out of the nu metal box and try to follow up to the songs as they came without caring about the sound influence. In "ATS" lyrics started to come out with an apocalyptic tone to it and they took it from there, and in LT it was about "firecrackers" and "compact energetic songs" using the . This time the frame is probably this particular subject. Who knows.
The whole problem lies in the mental framework of people who think that heavy music can't be innovative.. Thread/
http://www.earmilk.com/2013/11/05/earmilk-interview-mike-shinoda/ No news, but for the sake of the conversation here.
In another interview, (http://hypetrak.com/2013/11/a-conversation-with-mike-shinoda-of-linkin-park/) , Mike is quoted saying that So, IF the next album happened to be heavier, I doubt it would be heavy in the common sense of the term. I mean, if Mike thinks the heavy music now isn't as innovative as it should, he won't make non-innovative heavy music. That would be total nonsense lol. But anyway, I don't believe in LP "saving heavy rock music". They have never been that of an heavy band to begin with, especially regarding their 3 last records. I really doubt they can make a huge turn around now and become a monster kick-you-in-the-face band, even for one album.
"Rock music sucks now" is a dumb statement. It's just not at the forefront of popular music like it once was.