Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda recently discussed the band's new album From Zero on Radio 1's Rock Show with host and musician Daniel P Carter as part of a segment called "Start to Finish" which features deep dives into full-length albums. The full 2-hour broadcast of the programme is available to listen to via BBC Sounds (and will remain so for the 30 days), and the half-hour "Start to Finish" interview segment with Shinoda begins at approximately the 1:00:30 mark. Carter and Shinoda begin by looking back on the emotions, both within the band and among devoted fans, surrounding Linkin Park's initial return with a different line-up. Shinoda assesses the overall comeback as having "gone to plan" from his viewpoint, and praises his co-frontperson Emily Armstrong for her stage presence in addition to vocal prowess. The pair then get to discussing a selection of songs on From Zero, with Shinoda giving insight into the timeline on writing and recording for each one. Among other things, he talks about how lead single "The Emptiness Machine" was one of the earliest-written songs on the album (before a Linkin Park comeback was being seriously considered), the intentional choice to have "Overflow" be a mid-album curveball after exploring a more familiar sound in the album's first few songs, and the idea of writing a "pre-Linkin Park"-style song in 2024, which resulted in "Two Faced". This is the third appearance Shinoda has made on BBC's Radio 1 during the From Zero album cycle, following two interviews a month apart, in (respectively) late September and late October; this latest interview coming at the end of November follows that pattern. You can listen to the whole interview here. Source: BBC Sounds
(I really liked they're talking over instrumentals from the record)(I think the first one is Over each Other, right?)
It's cool that Mike is acknowledging that Two Faced was meant to sound like a Xero / pre-Linkin Park song. There were many Meteora comparisons, and while there are some similarities (Figure.09-ish riff, rhyming scheme), I think the song has a whole has an aesthetic closer to what Xero would have been with a big budget, and a female singer. The synth really does sound like it was taken straight out of a 1997 demo. The song has a more raw / less cinematic atmosphere than most of Meteora. And the chorus has the same kind of harmonized melodic approach you'd find Mark Wakefield doing, versus the long sustained raspy notes found on HT / Meteora.