In The Studio

What's New?

  • Producing a New Cypress Hill Song

    December 17, 2008 46 Comments

    Back in 1991, I saw Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill A Man" on YO! MTV Raps, and was instantly hooked. I asked for the CD for Xmas, but my mom saw the song titles ("Pigs," "Hole In The Head," "Light Another") and decided that I shouldn't be listening to lyrics like those. This meant, of course, that I was dead-set on getting it and listening to it 24 hours a day.

    Fast forwarding to today, I recently got word back from B-Real, Sen, and their management: a track I did for them is going to be on their next record. I didn't do a verse on it, just music / production. It's a slightly darker, laid-back track, but has a great vibe. I wanted to get back to the mood from their first three albums, without trying to sound like Muggs (not that I could, that dude has made some classics). I made a track from guitar, bass, mellotron, and drums (and even played a little harmonica) to give it a vintage sound, then sampled my own performance. It sounds like I sampled it off of vinyl, but it's actually all original music. Pretty fun.

    Anyway, it's probably going to be a while before their new record comes out, but I figure I'd give you the early heads-up here.

    mike

    http://www.cypresshill.com/ (PS: What up Bobo!)

  • ProTools 8: Mike in the Studio

    December 10, 2008 92 Comments

    Thanks to DigiDesign, I got a chance to preview the new ProTools 8. I made a short new instrumental song on it. Here's a link to the video, which includes audio of the song.

    Sparkart is working on making the videos embeddable. For now, please just put the link up if you want to pass this around.

    http://www.mikeshinoda.com/video/Videos/protools_8_linkin_parks_mike_shinoda_in_the_studio

  • In Studio: June 2008 (Flashback)

    December 7, 2008 113 Comments

    yo1

    These pics were actually from earlier in the year (right after we shot Road To Revolution, I think--we came home and worked for about a month in the studio). Our engineer Josh just sent these jpegs to me. Phoenix was trying some cello on a song, Chester and I were "helping."

    (a little more after the jump)

  • New Album: Working

    November 23, 2008 155 Comments

    It was just Brad and me in the studio this week, but we did get a visit from Mr. Bourdon the drum head.

    yo1

    More pictures after the jump.

  • NEW LINKIN PARK ALBUM IN 2009?

    November 10, 2008 170 Comments

    We're working on the new Linkin Park album right now. Will we have a new album out in 2009? Absolutely!

    And, of course, by "Absolutely," I mean, "Absolutely, as long as things go smoothly and the ideas are flowing, and we don't hit any scheduling problems or massive writers block."

    Jokes aside, the pic below is from my studio; Chester and I were listening to all the demos I've been writing in the past 6-12 months in busses, studios overseas, and my studio.

    yo1

    When we're out on the road doing shows, I generally keep the music on a safe hard drive, in a format that you can't download onto your iPod (gotta be careful). I also don't like playing stuff for anyone unless I feel like I've given it a proper amount of love. That means I go for months where I write stuff and don't really play it for anyone.

    This week, we went through about 35 new demos, most of which had only had my hands on them thus far. The process is a little scary; it's like saying, "here are the songs that I think should make up our next album." Luckily, nobody hates the songs (at least most of them!), and we're looking forward to getting started on this album in the coming months.

    I just did an insightful interview with a gentleman named Mikael Wood for a piece in an upcoming issue of Revolver magazine. Check for it in the coming months, I think it was an '09 music preview article.

    mike

    Previous related posts: http://www.mikeshinoda.com/blog/Linkin_Park-In_The_Studio/new_linkin_park_music-1

  • New Linkin Park Music

    October 25, 2008 148 Comments

    yo1

    I've been making songs on my own at home or in the bus, but hadn't gotten to work with the other guys until this week. A few days ago, Joe, Phoenix and I were having some fun at Joe's, and started a couple things. Of the two songs we worked on, one was a heavier, fast-tempo song with heavy guitars and distorted sampled drums, and the other was a little less aggressive, but still dark and upbeat, and had a really interesting chord progression. Joe's got this new MIDI keyboard-turntable unit, where he can make his vinyl play tones that you hit on the keyboard, and we can scratch them in real time. It's pretty cool--I think there's a lot of potential for that thing.

    Anyway, more updates to come later. We're preparing for a more defined studio schedule in the coming weeks.

    On a random note, Joe gave me Ableton Live, a program where I can make dope mixtape-mashup-projects...I'm making one that I'll hopefully be able to post here on mikeshinoda.com soon, which will feature some old songs by other artists that I think are cool.

    mike

    PS - I have to call The Phoenix out on the shirt he was wearing that day. The funny thing is, he knows it's questionable, but he wore it to amuse me and Joe.

Photos