In a new episode of the Live One Podcast, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda discussed working with other musicians and how it compared to working with the late frontman Chester Bennington.
“With Chester I had another human being that I could feed him ideas and he could bring them to life like nobody else. He was amazing,” Shinoda said of his late bandmate. “I didn’t know any better. I hadn’t had so much experience with anybody else. I was just like, ‘Oh this is what it’s like to have a really good singer you can say ‘Hey what about this?’ and they try it and then you both go high five.’ That’s great.”
He also detailed what it’s like working with other singers: “When I started working with other people, I realized that it’s harder. That’s unusual. [I was like,] ‘They are really good at singing and I think I know how to write a vocal.’ And then we get together, we do it, and everybody’s good at what they do.”
After Bennington’s passing in 2017, the band took a break that lasted seven years. This year, they reunited with Emily Armstrong, but many fans reacted harshly both to Linkin Park continuing with a new singer and Armstrong ‘trying to sound like Chester.’ “We talked about putting her voice on things we’d already written that only had my voice on them. Once we did that, we were like, ‘that sounds really good, we should try that on even more songs,’” the rocker said during an interview.
“When she sings, it’s like the passion and she’s just 100% her, that’s the best part. She’s not trying to be Chester, she’s not trying to be anybody else. She’s her and that’s why it works,” Shinoda added.
Even with the criticism, their lead single ‘The Emptiness Machine’ hit number four on the UK Official Singles Chart and reached 25 on Billboard’s Hot 100 in the US. The band also sold out shows in London, New York, and Los Angeles.