Mike Shinoda: "The fans can watch me design songs"

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Musician Mike Shinoda in his home studio: "Name any genre and I can write a song in that style"

Anna Shinoda

SPIEGEL: During the Corona lockdown, you discovered the daily streaming and production of new music on the Twitch gamer network. What do you like about it?

Shinoda: If you have to kill a lot of time, it helps to structure the day. That's why I stream every day at 10 a.m. for three hours. I can tell from the popularity of the fans that the longing for community is currently quite great. In many social networks, the mood is quite aggressive. Music, on the other hand, delights everyone.

To person

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Mike Shinod a, born 1977 in Panorama City, California, is one of the co-founders, rapper, guitarist and producer of the successful rock band Linkin Park ("Somewhere I Belong"). After the death of singer Chester Bennington, he released a grief EP called "Post-Traumatic" in 2018. Shinoda is also a trained graphic designer and visual artist, some of the paintings by the American of Japanese descent have already been exhibited in the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

SPIEGEL: You involve your fans, implement their suggestions - and even let some of them sing on your songs. What do you expect from so much closeness? 

Shinoda: There is no plan, no concept. I start from scratch every day. But after three hours, something interesting usually happened. It's all about this. 

SPIEGEL: Do you also comment on failed attempts? 

Shinoda: Failure is relative. Some things are so grotesque that it's funny again. But every few weeks I publicly admit when something has totally backfired. 

SPIEGEL: For this experiment, you chose the Twitch network, which was previously mainly used by gamers and is now increasingly becoming the focus of the music world. How did you get on Twitch? 

Shinoda: I've been a gamer for ages. Not as extreme as some of the others who seem to be playing around the clock, however. I like to play, but I never really mean it. Still, I've been familiar with Twitch as a live streaming platform for gamers for a long time. During the lockdown, I realized that some musicians were starting to use Twitch: DJs streaming their sets there, rappers and bands performing music - a small music community among all the gamers. I decided that I wanted to use this platform that way, but differently. I wanted to play - with the production of songs. 

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Performer Shinoda (2018 in Inglewood, Los Angeles): "Fans can earn" Shinoda Bucks "

Scott Dudelson / WireImage / Getty Images

SPIEGEL: You are juggling music that goes beyond the genres of metal and hip-hop that you are familiar with.

Shinoda: Tell me any genre and I can write a song in that style! A lot of people don't trust me because they only associate the Linkin Park sound with me. If someone, for example the fans on my Twitch channel, wants to hear a Motown-style song, 90s R&B, 80s hip-hop, or just modern metal or EDM, I write it off the cuff, because I do understand the DNA of each genre. This idea is the nucleus of this project: The fans can watch me design songs and tell how it works. In addition, watching becomes a game, the fans can earn "Shinoda Bucks", and those who have had enough of it can ask a question, make a music suggestion or make an individual GIF. 

SPIEGEL: Doesn't it rob the music of the secret of letting the fans participate in everything? 

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Mike Shinoda

Dropped Frames, Vol. 1

Label: Kenji Kobayashi Productions

Label: Kenji Kobayashi Productions

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Shinoda: No, because the way I produce music on Twitch, I don't do my own albums in the studio. There are certain things I would never do publicly, like recording the vocals for a Linkin Park album. This is time consuming and emotional and is not suitable for the public. Who wants to watch me mutter to myself for hours? It's really boring to look over my shoulder in the studio when things get serious. 

SPIEGEL: "Dropped Frames" is the name of the album series in which you publish the results of the sessions with your fans. The first two volumes just appeared. What does the title mean?

Shinoda: This is a term that indicates when streaming that the quality is poor. One of the side effects of the lockdown in LA at the beginning of the pandemic was that the dramatic increase in home office video conferencing caused the quality of data transmissions to decline in some areas of the city. My internet connection was also unusable at the beginning of the lockdown, and I was always offline. Now it's back to normal, but the title is meant as a joke reminder of it. 

SPIEGEL: Is your Twitch music solely due to the excess lockdown time or do you see it as an evolution of the music industry?

Shinoda: When this is all over at some point, I will continue to be active on Twitch. I think interacting with the fans is an exciting new experience. Also, I put a lot of work into it, why should I throw it all away? But when the music industry returns to normal, everyone will have less time again. Maybe one day the musicians will just play games. Would be okay too. At the moment, however, the proportion of music on Twitch is still increasing. 

SPIEGEL: Songwriting teams have been in fashion for a long time. Now there are songs with fans. Is the lonely, ingenious songwriter in a quiet room a thing of the past? 

Shinoda: The creative process is in no way dependent on how many individuals are involved. Pop songwriting teams are pretty successful right now. And the vast majority of songwriters I know prefer to write with others than alone. I like both. I just saw this clip the other day with the two teenagers listening to Phil Collins's "In The Air Tonight" and freaking out when that incredible drum kit kicks in. I checked it again: The song was actually written by him and mostly recorded by himself. Collins is really a one-man band. And something like that will never die out.