Michael Kenji "Mike" Shinoda
(born February 11, 1977 [1]) is an American musician, record producer, and artist from Agoura Hills, California. He is best known as the rapper, songwriter, keyboardist, vocalist and rhythm guitarist of rock band Linkin Park, and as a solo rapper in his side-project, Fort Minor. He also provides artwork, production and audio mixing for both groups.
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MIKE SHINODA TICKETS
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Biography
Early life
Shinoda was born and raised in the Los Angeles suburb of
Agoura Hills.
His father, Leslie, is
Japanese American while his mother, Kim, is of
Russian,
Hungarian [2] and
Native American descent.
[3] [4] He has a younger brother named Jasons. Shinoda attended Parkman Elementary and Lindero Canyon high School.
As per his mother's wishes, Shinoda began his classical piano training with lessons around the age of six, his enthusiasm eventually growing. At the age of thirteen, he expressed the desire to move towards playing
jazz,
blues, and even
hip-hop.
[5] During his middle school and high school years, he added the
guitar and, eventually, rap-style vocals to his repertoire.
After his teens, Mike Shinoda's rap interests found a source of encouragement in
Brad Delson, with whom he started to write and record songs in a makeshift studio set up in his bedroom. Shinoda attended
Agoura High School with
Linkin Park bandmates
Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon as well as with members of the band
Hoobastank. By the end of high school, Bourdon had become involved in their musical ventures. The trio formed the band Xero, and began to make a more serious attempt to pursue a career in the music industry.
Chester Bennington came along a few years later.
After high school, Shinoda enrolled in the
Art Center College of Design to study
graphic design and
illustration.
[6] It was here that he made the acquaintance of
DJ and
turntablist Joseph Hahn, who, along with Delson's college-mate Dave "Phoenix" Farrell, was soon added to Xero's line-up. At only 21 years old, Shinoda eventually graduated from college with a degree in illustration, securing himself a job as a
graphic designer right after graduation.
With his background as a
graphic artist, Shinoda has taken it upon himself in designing all of Linkin Park's artwork with Hahn, and has even designed the album cover for
Styles of Beyond's debut album,
2000 Fold
. In later years he would go on to showcase his art skills; he had his debut art showcase (Diamonds Spades Hearts & Clubs) at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles in the time leading up to Linkin Park's album
Minutes to Midnight
.
Linkin Park
thumb
Shinoda's band (at this point called
Linkin Park; used to be called Hybrid Theory before a legal issue with another band) brought in second vocalist
Chester Bennington, replacing Mark Wakefield. From the onset, Shinoda was closely involved in the technical aspects of the band's recordings, and over the subsequent releases that role continued to expand. Shinoda, with guitarist
Brad Delson, engineered and produced the band's Hybrid Theory EP, and performed similar roles in the recording of the
Hybrid Theory album. Mike executively organized and oversaw the band's remix album
Reanimation (2002), contributing his own production remixes that he made in his home studio for "Crawling" and "Pushing Me Away." In his spare time, he produced and performed on a song by The X-Ecutioners entitled "It's Goin' Down."
On the second Linkin Park Warner Bros. studio release
Meteora
(2003) Shinoda continued to expand upon his duties as a musician and studio technician/engineer. Additionally, for the backbone of the album artwork, Shinoda collaborated with graffiti artist DELTA, graphic designer
Frank Maddocks, and band-mate
Joe Hahn.
By the release of the
Linkin Park and
Jay-Z 'mash-up' album
Collision Course
in 2004, Shinoda's involvement in the creation of the albums continued to grow. He produced and mixed the album, which won a Grammy Award for "best rap / sung collaboration" later that year.
[7]
The band released their latest album,
Minutes to Midnight
, on May 15, 2007. On this album, Shinoda shared a production credit with producer
Rick Rubin, overseeing the musical evolution of the band's sound. This album was also the first time that Shinoda, best known for his rapping, sang a featured vocal. Mike sang in the songs "In Between" and the b-side song, "No Roads Left," as well as rapping and singing in the song "Hands Held High." Despite the uncommonness of Shinoda-fronted singing tracks, Hit Parader ranked Mike at number 72 of the Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time.
[8]
Fort Minor
Shinoda formed a
side project named "
Fort Minor" between 2003 and 2004 because he couldn't demonstrate as much of his hip-hop background in Linkin Park. He explained the name of his project in an interview:
[9]
The debut album from
Fort Minor, titled
The Rising Tied
, was released on November 13, 2005, and includes guest appearances from
Styles of Beyond,
Lupe Fiasco,
Common,
Black Thought of
The Roots,
John Legend,
Holly Brook,
Jonah Matranga, Celph Titled, and features
Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) as an executive producer.
For the
NBA 2006-2007 season, "
Remember the Name", the second single from
The Rising Tied
, became the soundtrack for NBA Overtime on TNT. It was an NBA remix version, and remains the staple song for
NBA on TNT to this day. Furthermore the
Big East used "Remember the Name" as its theme song for the Big East Basketball Tournament in 2006.
He also scored a Top 10 smash with the surprise hit single "
Where'd You Go", which peaked at #4 on
Billboard Hot 100 chart.
[10]
After the release of the album, Shinoda also contributed to the
iTunes Store by creating his own
celebrity playlist.
Fort Minor won an
MTV VMA for "Best Ringtone" in 2006, and was featured in the following films and TV programs (2005-2006): Entourage, Boston Legal, Gridiron Gang, Freedom Writers, Friday Night Lights (TV), and Numbers.
Shinoda has also continued his
Fort Minor musical style in an executive producer role on the upcoming
Styles Of Beyond album, "
Reseda Beach
" He is contributing music and vocals to the album, which is slated for release sometime in 2009.
Art and painting
Mike was the youngest of his graduating class from
Art Center College of Design of Pasadena in 1998, with a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration. He has had a hand in most artistic facets of
Linkin Park's imagery, including album artwork, band merchandise, web design, and on-stage production art.
During time off in 2003, he did a collaborative "remix" shoe for
DC Shoes, remixing the "Clientele." He reworked the colors and materials for the shoe, and additionally designed all the packaging and print advertisements.
[11] The following year, he also designed a customizable
Kid Robot "Munny" doll for a charity auction.
[12]
In 2004, Shinoda created a series of ten paintings which became the basis of the
Fort Minor album
The Rising Tied.
That series became the backbone for the packaging of the album, and was featured in Shinoda's first public art show "Diamonds Spades Hearts & Clubs."
[13]
In addition to the ten Fort Minor pieces, the show also featured thirteen more original works and five collaborative pieces. “Diamonds Spades Hearts & Clubs” opened at Gallery 1988 on Sunday, November 19, 2006.
Additionally in 2004, Shinoda started a college scholarship at
Art Center College of Design to benefit future illustration and graphic design students. Named the Michael K. Shinoda Endowed Scholarship, it is awarded based on financial need and merit. The scholarship was awarded for the first time in 2006.
[14] The scholarship fund is made possible through the sale of his original artwork on his website (mikeshinoda.com), art shows and his DC Shoes projects.
[15] [16]
2008 has proved to be a busy year thus far artistically for Mike. On July 11, Shinoda’s second public art show “Glorious Excess (BORN)” premiered at the
Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. The show included nine new pieces, with an exclusive signing on opening night. The show served as part one of the “Glorious Excess” two-part series, with the second installment “Glorious Excess (DIES)” due at JANM in January 2009.
[17]
Concerning the inspiration behind the Glorious Excess series, Mike stated that it:
"Got to a point where the pervasiveness of “celebrity news” concerned me. It seemed like it has jumped out of its niche into places where it doesn’t belong. I would be watching the news, and thinking, “of all the things going on in the world right now, why are they covering so-and-so’s breakup?” It didn’t make sense to me. Add to that the fact that I’m supposed to somehow “belong” to that celebrity group—and I really don’t feel like I do in a lot of ways—and you can see how the topic started to become really interesting to me. The Glorious Excess (BORN) show was my way of diving into those topics, trying to find answers. It follows a central “celebrity” character, who is filthy rich, slightly violent, and famous without any particular skill or talent."
Also in 2008, Mike partnered up with DC Shoes again on a second DC Remix Series project. The project would feature a "great juxtaposition of Mike's unique influences: accomplished artist versus recording-breaking musician, American upbringing versus Japanese heritage."
[18]
The MS/DC limited edition remix has two different versions - Xander and Pride. Roughly 2000 pairs of the limited edition shoes were made available for purchase when the sneaker was released on August 1, 2008.
In an interview with Sneaker Freaker Magazine, Shinoda had this to say about the latest DC Shoe project:
"This remix is a little slimmer than most of DC’s skate shoes; the Xander feels almost like the skate shoes I grew up wearing in the late 80s. But the art brings it up to date—my work is laser-etched into the panels on the side of the shoe, and the sole is a clear gum sole with a koi fish pattern, and four-color artwork beneath. That way, when you’re walking, and your foot lifts up, it’s a little surprise under there. We also took the time to add extra padding and a satin inner lining to make it as comfortable as possible. They come with three pairs of lightly waxed laces instead of two, because I like to flip up the look sometimes. Each pair also comes with a booklet of my art."
[19]
Production
Shinoda produced
The Rising Tied, the debut album by his side-project
Fort Minor. He has also produced tracks for albums by
Lupe Fiasco and
Styles of Beyond, as well as producing or co-producing all of
Linkin Park's non-studio albums, including
Reanimation
,
Hybrid Theory EP
, the collaborative
EP with Jay-Z,
Collision Course
, and for the first time producing a studio album in 2007, the group's third studio release
Minutes to Midnight
. In 2004 Shinoda, with drumming assistance by his Linkin Park band mate Rob Bourdon, remixed "
Enjoy the Silence" by
Depeche Mode. Shinoda and Bourdon also worked together to create an instrumental piece entitled "Lockjaw" while previewing
Digidesign's
Pro Tools 8 software. Some other notable production credits include:
- Styles of Beyond - "Marco Polo" (from the album 2000 Fold
)
- The X-Ecutioners - "It's Goin' Down" (from the album Built from Scratch
)
- Depeche Mode - "Enjoy the Silence 04" (remixed and produced)
- Lupe Fiasco - "The Instrumental" (from the album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor
)
- Styles of Beyond featuring Celph Titled - "You Cannot Fuck With This" (from the Razor Tag
mixtape)
- Styles of Beyond - "Hard [MS Remix]" (from the Razor Tag
mixtape)
- Styles of Beyond - "Second To None" (from the upcoming album Reseda Beach
)
- "My December" - Linkin Park
- "What I've Done (Distorted Remix)" - Linkin Park
- Scored the 2005 MTV VMAs (contributed all original music)
- "Fort Minor: We Major
" Mixtape - including S.C.O.M., Bloc Party, Dolla, 100 Degrees, Spraypaint & Inkpens (feat. Lupe Fiasco and Ghostface Killah)
- Busta Rhymes feat. Linkin Park - "We Made It" (co-produced with Cool & Dre)
- "L.O.A.T.R." (M. Shinoda Remix) - Linkin Park
- "Lockjaw" - Linkin Park
- "Death to Analog" (Mike Shinoda Remix) - Julien-K (from the album Death To Digital
)
- "New Divide" - Linkin Park
- "Gold Guns Girls" (remix) - Metric
Other musical activities
- In 2005, Mike hosted the Rock Phenomenon
Mixtape CD with DJ Vlad and Roc Raida. The CD is the first (and to date, only) in DJ Vlad's Rock Phenomenon
series (which itself is a spin-off of Vlad's Rap Phenomenon
Mixtape series), and features a Mash-Up of Linkin Park's Papercut
, and David Banner's Like a Pimp (Remix)
. The Mixtape was re-released on July 10, 2007, with new artwork.
- In October 2008 Mike and Mark Wakefield recorded and released the song "Barack Your World" under the name White Pegacorn. It can be heard on and at .
Influences
Shinoda's musical influences and favourites include
U2,
The Police,
Boogie Down Productions,
Led Zeppelin,
Nine Inch Nails,
Bloc Party and
Dr. Dre.
[20] As an
artist his influences include
Mark Ryden,
Corey Sandelius [20] and
Banksy [22].
Personal life
Mike Shinoda has been married to Anna Hillinger since May 10, 2003. She is now a
children's author. According to Shinoda, the song
Where'd You Go
was written for her.
[23] In 2004 he found his way on an episode of
Punk'd
in which a
fire hydrant was placed next to his Acura SUV during a pretend fire. In 2005 he was interviewed by
Ike Barinholtz &
Bobby Lee of
MADtv at the 2005
Billboard Music Awards which was later aired on the series. In an interview, he has revealed that his father was born during the
Second World War, when talking about his song "
Kenji" from "The Rising Tied" album. Mike is a third generation Japanese American. His father was born in the United States and was interned during World War II.
[24]
Shinoda also had a small appearance in an episode of
Rob Dyrdek's Fantasy Factory.
References
- Mike Shinoda Biography, AOL Music. Retrieved June 27, 2007
- ''Mike Shinoda - Biography''
- ''Getting Back to His Roots - Interview''
- MIKE SHINODA Fan base
- http://www.lptimes.com/article/RS_032603.html
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=11:fnfuxqujldae
- U2 dominates Grammy night
- http://www.hearya.com/2006/12/04/hit-paraders-top-100-metal-vocalists-of-all-time/
- http://www.fixins.com/fortminor/ ''Fixins.com'' Retrieved on 06-04-07
- Billboard Hot 100: Where'd You Go. ''Billboard.'' Retrieved February 11, 2008.
- Transworld Snowboarding.com
- Machine Shop Recordings
- Mike Shinoda, [1]. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
- LINKIN PARK RAPPER AND ARTIST MICHAEL K. SHINODA PARTNERS WITH DC SHOES, [1]. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
- Fort Minor News [1]. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
- Mike Shinoda [1]. Retrieved December 17, 2007.
- Mike Shinoda Official Website[1]
- About[1]. Retrieved October 3, 2008.
- [1] Retrieved October 3, 2008.
- http://www.artcenter.edu/accd/pdf/publications/boundless_shinoda.pdf
- http://www.artcenter.edu/accd/pdf/publications/boundless_shinoda.pdf
- http://www.mikeshinoda.com/blog/art_i_like/banksy-2
- The Making of ''The Rising Tied'' DVD
- YouTube - Mike Shinoda Interview-Insights from family on Japanese-Ams