Hong Kong-bound Mike Shinoda on Post Traumatic, his first album since Linkin Park frontman Chester Bennington’s suicide
Post Traumatic chronicles the bruising aftermath of Bennington’s death in July 2017 and reveals a different side to the typically methodical, analytical Shinoda – though not necessarily by choice
Mike Shinoda’s wife used to joke that his tear ducts were broken. Not any more.
As the sonic mastermind behind American rock band Linkin Park, this southern California native spent years painstakingly creating carefully detailed tracks – dense with serrated guitars and throbbing hip-hop beats – that showcased the signature wail of the group’s talented-but-troubled frontman, Chester Bennington.
Shinoda, 41, did more than program and produce; he rapped too, and with plenty of aggression to match the band’s forceful attack. Even at his most intense, though, Shinoda as a vocalist always put across something of an intellectual quality – outraged, but not agonised.
“By nature I’m very analytical,” he says before hitting the road for a tour that will bring him to Hong Kong for a show at Kitec in Kowloon Bay on August 7. “So even if I’m going to talk about something that’s really emotional, I’ll communicate it in a way that’s organised.
“Maybe it’s because I’m half Japanese and was raised with that Japanese approach to things,” he adds, laughing quietly. “I’m sure there’s a Japanese word for it that I’m forgetting.”
