Mike Shinoda's solo album will be released on June 15th.
Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda spoke about the songwriting process for Post Traumatic , his solo album to be released in June.
“It started in a very dark place. At first, I wasn’t leaving my house. It was very claustrophobic, having lost one of my closest friends and collaborators. We associate who we are, to a certain extent, with what we do, so I felt very lost. The experience of this last year has been crazy, and I wanted to put it into the music, not just to put a label on it and say, ‘This happened,’ but also to allow the fans and the people I’ve been with to guide them on this journey of following my narrative or understanding where I am.”
Asked about how difficult the emotional process of making this type of music was, Mike said: “Life was hard; the music was easy. The music made things easier. We started talking, ‘Maybe mental health? Do you want to get involved, for example, in suicide prevention? Do you want to get involved with organizations that deal with depression, even addiction?’” And I thought, first, some of those things that I don't have much experience with—you might think I do, because one of my best friends dealt with them, but I personally don't suffer from those things—and I think the most powerful thing I can do for people is really take what I've learned and share it. So, for example, with mental health, I've learned that we should treat it like physical health, so if you say, 'I'm feeling sick,' or if you wake up and say, 'I'm feeling unwell,' what would you do? Take medication, and if it's really bad, you can say, 'I need to go to the doctor. This is really bad.' But for some reason, we don't do that when it comes to mental health.”
“Sometimes you have to feel sad and you have to wait until it stops ,” he said. “I’ve had terrible days and now I have fewer bad days. And eventually, I’ll find a new ‘normal.’ And that’s the journey I’m on. On this album, you’ll see. When I go on tour and talk to fans and have different conversations with different people, it will evolve.”