Please welcome Mike Shinoda!
-♪ ♪ -(cheering and applause)
Hi, guys!
(cheering and applause)
Thank you for having me.
-So good to have you here. -Your crowd is really loud.
-Oh, yeah. This is... Are you kidding me? -Dude.
-This is the best crowd in late-night. -(cheering)
Listen to that. What?
-Does it... does it make you jealous? Yeah? -Yes.
Well, that's... That's why it was surprising.
It's like, "Oh, I... You know, it's much louder than my crowd."
You-you say that, but you know that's not true.
I-I've been lucky enough to see some of your live shows,
and your audience is loving everything that you're doing.
Before we get into-into the current album,
let's talk a little bit about your journey
moving into being a solo artist.
-You're back onstage again. -Yeah.
You know, the journey of Linkin Park and yourself
has been one with many ups and downs,
-many emotions attached to it. -Yeah.
What has it been like getting back onstage again?
You know, I... in the beginning, um,
after Chester passed, we...
I think, for weeks, I didn't... I didn't leave my house.
It was hard for me to...
You know, I grew up drawing and painting and making music,
and it was hard for me to do any of those things.
Um, and so, you know, fast-forwarding a bit,
like, the idea of getting onstage,
um, was just, like... it was impossible, you know?
Um, to-today,
to be able to go out and-and do shows
is... it's like... for me, it's like a personal vi...
it's this victory. It's like this miraculous thing.
Um, and-and one of the things that drives me to do it
is the knowledge that
I've been through something that's-that's...
while it's unique in some senses
-because it's on this larger scale, -Right.
um, it's-it's universal
in a sense that we all lose somebody.
We all go through, you know,
uh, tragedy and-and trauma.
And I feel like I made a decision early on
to share that with people and talk about it in the open.
Right. And-and you-you've really spoken about that
as much as you can, you know?
When the news came out that Chester Bennington
of Linkin Park had taken his own life, people were traumatized.
-Yeah. -People always ask similar questions.
And-and what I've really, uh, admired about your message
is that you've come out and said, "Hey,
"let's-let's figure out a way to remove the stigma
that anyone might have around any mental health issue."
-Yeah. -That-That's really been key for you.
It has-- thank you.
(applause and cheering)
The thing about it, for-- like, i-it was so weird to be,
like... given a membership to this club
-that I never wanted to be a part of. -Right.
Um, it was something that I didn't have
so much experience with in terms of these things
that we're now talking about.
And, um, I think, for me, what I've learned along the way--
Like, one thing I've learned is that in terms of,
you know, mental health, um, we talk often now about,
-you know, it being like physical health. -Right.
Right? So you wake up in the morning if you have a physical--
-Say you got a bad back. -Uh-huh.
You wake up in the morning, your back kind of hurts.
You go, "Oh, I need to take it easy today."
You might wake up and say, "Oh, it's a little bit worse
than I thought; I need to take some medication today."
And then even-- if it's even worse than that,
"Wow, I-I really need to see the doctor today."
Mental health should be the same way.
Mental health is just health.
So if you-- and the way that we get to that point
is to actually check-in with ourselves and say,
"Oh, do I need to take it easy?
Do I need medication? Do I need to see a professional?"
Like, those are things you can do.
Above all, I think the number one--
the gateway into all of that,
-is just being able to talk about it. -Right.
So that's one thing that, you know,
having a conversation like this,
putting an album out like this.
And even on stage, I find myself, like,
kind of talking, maybe too much.
I-I find-- Can I tell you that that's what I found is one of
the most beautiful things about your performances now on stage.
You know, as we get into the album,
you-you've written an album that really is
-a diary of your feelings, your-your journey. -Yeah.
And when you're performing live with the audience,
it's been really beautiful to see how there's a family now
with Linkin Park fans where it seems like you're having
a conversation intermittently through the music.
Has that become therapeutic
for yourself and the fans, in a way?
Yeah. I feel like every show I do, every performance,
you know, you know, a whole concert at a venue,
or, like, just a couple, uh, songs--
Today I did something in, like, an Apple store,
-I did three songs. -Right.
And it's-- it does feel like, like there's a communal element.
There's, like, a family element.
One thing that I think people,
maybe they forgot about or they didn't know about,
about our fans and our band,
-is it, it kind of always has been that way. -Right.
People just didn't know.
Like, ever since the beginning, like... (stammers)
Because when Hybrid Theory, our first album, came out,
you know, however many years ago,
it was-- when the label told us,
"You guys, your album was the best-selling album
on the planet this year,"
and we all looked at them like...
What? Where's the, like, punchline?
-"Oh, it's amazing. Yeah, right." -Right.
And people, literally, you know, people grew up with this thing.
And over a course of-of different albums,
it was, it was one of those things where they, you know,
it was a cultural, um, family.
-Right. It really has felt like that. -Yeah.
And in the songs that you've written here,
has it been tough for you?
People, I think, thinking that every single song
-is about pain and every song is about Chester. -Yeah.
Because, I mean, I know that people do that
with music all the time, you know, if you're in a situation.
Whenever people hear the music,
they go like, "Oh, is this also about that?
Is it also about that?"
Was that hard for you to navigate, or did...?
You notice it a lot. You...
So, you notice a lot if-if, like,
say there's, like, a celebrity breakup.
-Right. -Every cover is like,
"Oh, he's wearing blue today because the breakup."
It's like, "No, I just felt like wearing blue." Right?
That happens to people all the time.
So when it's something like this, um...
you know, this, you know, the person we're talking about
who wore blue, like, that doesn't hurt their...
-That doesn't make them-- bring them down. -Right, right.
-Right, right. -For me, if I'm just doing my...
going about my day and somebody's like,
"Oh, he's doing that because of Chester,"
-like, that makes me feel, like... (groans) -Right.
-I can imagine. -So heavy.
And I... So, I intentionally as I made the album...
The album is 16 songs-- it's a lot of music--
and halfway through the album...
The song you just played is "Crossing a Line."
That's the point at which I-I felt like--
in the music and because this was true
in my life in the last year--
there was a point at which I-I was looking backward,
and then there's a point
at which it shifted towards the future.
And even the present, too.
-But also, like, there was a hope. -Right.
And I realized, oh, it's like...
you know, you get dealt a hand of cards,
and you just, you play them.
You do your best with what you've got.
And this, you know, this isn't the outcome
that I would have ever wanted,
but if this is what I've got, then I'm gonna look at it
and see what's the best thing I can do with it.
And actually, you know, um...
reaching out to fans in this way
and having these types of conversations
about mental health, about different things,
I feel like that's, for me, a very productive way
and a positive way to-to use the platform
and-and to use... well, to express my art.
Which is something you've always done.
You know, you-you've used your art.
You-You're a graphic designer.
You are a painter.
You are a musician.
Um, I-I noticed in one of your performances this week,
you performed a song
I-I believe you had written about your family's history,
-which was really intriguing for me. -Oh, yeah, yeah.
Like, you-your grandparents, I believe,
were in a Japanese internment camp.
-Is that true? -Correct. So, this is a song
-not on the Post Traumatic album. -Right.
It's a song that I did a while back.
And the song is called "Kenji."
Uh, my middle name is Kenji.
Um, my-my dad's family, you know, being Japanese,
he was what we say is, uh, we call nisei.
He was the first generation born in the United States.
And, as you know, in the '40s after Pearl Harbor,
the government came and basically told everybody,
um, that anybody of Japanese descent
-or who kind of felt like they were Japanese -Oh, wow.
-got pulled... -Wow, that's...
-Yeah, not-not really... -That's a weird one to go with.
-Not really cool. -Like...
Because there were people who weren't actually Japanese,
-Right. -and they were like, "Oh, you're close enough.
You're coming to the camps."
They took all the people on the west coast,
and where my family went first was...
Just imagine you're in your house and they say,
"Okay, you're going. Pack two bags.
You're out of here."
And my family built up from nothing.
They had built, like, this wonderful mercantile--
barber shop, gas station, pool hall.
Like, it was in the center of town, and it... and it was...
They were very successful, and they were told
you're out of here.
Two bags, get on the bus.
Where are we going? They don't know.
They took them to the Santa Anita race track
and stuck them in the horse stalls.
They stayed there while the government built,
um, barracks that were made of wood in the desert.
There was no air conditioning, there was not heating.
Um, the stories that I remember hearing
from my aunts and uncles were that they would wake up
and shake the dust off of-- like all the dirt and stuff--
-off of their blankets. -Right.
They'd go to set up their breakfast, and by the time
they had actually put the food down on the table,
-the dirt was back all over everything again. -Right.
So this is... These are the types of things,
and-and when you hear... When I hear these stories
of the things that have gone on in the past week, for example,
-I immediately go to those memories... -Right, right.
...of my aunts and uncles, like, telling these stories.
It's really not that...
First of all, it's really not that far back in time
that this actually happened.
I mean, it wasn't until, uh, the mid-eighties in... with...
under the Reagan administration that the U.S. apologized
officially for the thing.
And yet, here we are only a couple decades later,
a few decades later saying, "Uh, we forgot all about that."
Like, "No, no, this is a tot..."
Or... or, "This is a totally different situation, though."
-Right, Right. -And it's not that different.
It's not that different.
It's scary, it's not that different, and, uh,
I'm really glad that you use your music
and your platform to speak about it.
The-the album is your first, uh, solo venture.
What are you hoping people will take away?
What do you people will-will understand
about Mike on his own?
People know you through Linkin Park,
-but what do you want people to know about you? -Well, the...
I-I... As I started this album, I didn't...
I was just using the art--
the painting and the music-- as just therapy.
-It was meditative for me. -Right.
And so, the first thing is, like, if you're going
through something difficult, like, I...
Art therapy is very real,
so I always encourage people to do that. Um...
-(applause) -Thank you.
And I'd say the other thing is...
Chester was one of the best rock singers of all time,
so let's not forget that. I do my...
(applause and cheering)
I... I didn't grow up celebrating,
like, Dia de los Muertos,
or in Japanese, we have the Obon Festival.
Like, I didn't really grow up doing those things
or understanding those things,
but to be able to look at the tragedy of the past
and celebrate the, you know,
family members and friends we've lost,
and then take our thing-- the-the...
as I said, the cards that we've been dealt,
and do something positive with them...
Um, there's a lot of...
There's a... there's a wonderful feeling that comes from that,
especially when you... you're doing it not in selfish way.
Right. I know what you mean.
You're doing it for other people
and connecting this community.
And I feel like this is a... This is my effort...
It's the beginning of an effort, uh, to do that.
It's an amazing effort, man.
-Thank you so much for being on the show. -Thank you.
(applause and cheering)
Post Traumatic is available now.
Mike Shinoda, everybody.