Listen to a curated playlist of artists that inspired Michael Shinoda of Linkin Park, submitted to us by Mike Shinoda himself.
When we first spoke to Linkin Park and Stone Temple Pilots’ Chester Bennington early last month; we tested the waters by introducing a new reoccurring feature to AltWire titled “Behind The Artist Playlist”, a collection of artists (curated via YouTube videos) that shaped Chester’s early musical influences and helped him become the artist that he is today.
Little did we know how positively our readers would react to the article, and almost immediately after the article was originally published, we received many requests from Linkin Park fans for us to reach out to Michael Shinoda and see how similar and/or different his tastes are from his friend and collaborator Chester.
Mike was kind enough to respond back with not only the artists that inspired him the most but also the songs that had the biggest impact on him by those artists. While Mike did respond with some different choices than Chester, what is noteworthy is how many bands the two band members also share in common. Despite coming from different backgrounds, both Mike and Chester grew up listening to very similar artists, laying the foundation for the genre-bending sound you hear in Linkin Park today, and most notably on their latest release “The Hunting Party”.
Check out Mike’s picks below, and let us know what you think in the comments!
