Mike Shinoda

Mike Shinoda

Michael Kenji Shinoda (born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, record producer, and artist from Agoura Hills, California. He is best known as the MC, Rapper and Rhythm Guitarist of Linkin Park, and his side project, Fort Minor.

Biography

Early life

Mike Shinoda was born to a Japanese American father, Leslie Shinoda, and a Hungarian mother, Kim Shinoda. He was raised in the Los Angeles suburb of Agoura Hills. Mike has a younger brother (born 1979) named Jason.

His first exposure to the music business came during his middle and high school years, and attended a concert featuring Anthrax and Public Enemy He attended Chester W. Nimitz Middle School in Huntington Park. After that, he began taking piano lessons, studying classical pianist techniques, and later moved on to jazz and hip hop. It was during this period that 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 friend 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 bandmate Brad Delson, as well as with members of the band Hoobastank. By the end of high school, drummer Rob 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.

After high school, Shinoda enrolled in the Art Center College of Design to study graphic design and illustration.[1] It was here that he made the acquaintance of DJ and turntablist Joseph Hahn, who, along with Delson's college-mate Phoenix, was soon added to Xero's line-up. 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 at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles in the time leading up to Linkin Park's album Minutes To Midnight.

Linkin Park

Shinoda's band (at this point called Hybrid Theory) brought in second vocalist Chester Bennington, replacing Mark Wakefield. Only one six-track EP would be released under the new name before legal issues forced them once again to change it - and thus it came to pass that Shinoda and his bandmates were to call themselves "Lincoln Park". However, the domain name lincolnpark.com was already taken, so it was ultimately changed to Linkin Park.

Throughout 1999, Linkin Park continued to expand their following amongst L.A. club patrons. This growth in popularity made a record contract an even more urgent concern for the band, and Shinoda was forced to juggle his college finals with talent showcases for various major labels; while the former went well for him, Mike and the band failed to accomplish any positive results until the year was nearly over. Several labels had passed on the privilege until, finally, Warner Bros. Records made the decision to add the young band to its long list of artists. The first fruits of this union surfaced in the Fall of 2000 as Hybrid Theory, sporting a cover designed by Shinoda himself; before long the album had found its way high into the charts, launching Linkin Park as the most popular exponent of the rap-metal crossgenre.

From the start Shinoda was closely involved in the technical aspects of the band's recordings, and over the subsequent releases that role continued to expand, with the singer tackling a fair amount of the production duties for the Hybrid Theory remix album Reanimation (2002). On the second Linkin Park release Meteora (2003) Shinoda continued his multiple duties as a musician and studio technician.[2] In May 2003 he married children's author Anna Hillenger.

By the release of the Linkin Park and Jay-Z 'mash-up' album Collision Course in 2004, he had his hands in every aspect of the release, from performing and producing to mixing and graphic design. Production and remix work for various other performers including The X-Ecutioners.

The band released their latest album, Minutes to Midnight, on May 15, 2007. On this album, Mike sings "In Between" as the solo like Chester, instead of rapping and also the b-side song, "No Roads Left". Although these are his first songs that he has sang on, Hit Parader’s Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time has Mike ranked at number 72 all time.

Fort Minor

Shinoda formed a side project named "Fort Minor" between 2004 and 2005 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:

'Fort' represents the more aggressive side of the music. 'Minor' can mean a few things: if you're talking about music theory, the minor key is darker. I wanted to name the album rather than having my name on the cover, because I want people to focus on the music, not me.

The debut album from Fort Minor, titled The Rising Tied, was released on November 22, 2005, and includes guest appearances from Styles of Beyond, Lupe Fiasco, Common, Black Thought of The Roots, John Legend, Holly Brook, Jonah Matranga 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.

Production

Shinoda has also produced tracks for albums by Lupe Fiasco and Styles of Beyond, as well as producing or co-producing several of Linkin Park's albums, including Reanimation, Hybrid Theory EP, the collaborative EP with Jay-Z, Collision Course, and most recently Minutes to Midnight. He has also produced all of Linkin Park's Linkin Park Underground CDs. Some notable production credits include:

1. Styles of Beyond - Marco Polo (from the album 2000 Fold)
2. Depeche Mode - Enjoy the Silence [Reinterpreted] (Remixed and Produced)
3. Lupe Fiasco - The Instrumental (from the album Lupe Fiasco's Food & Liquor)
4. Styles of Beyond featuring Celph Titled - You Cannot Fuck With This (from the Razor Tag mixtape)
5. Styles of Beyond - Hard [MS Remix] (from the Razor Tag mixtape)
6. Styles of Beyond - Second To None (from the upcoming album Rocket Surgery)

Shinoda also produced a song named "The Awakening", featuring The Used guitarist Quinn Allman, for the movie Chapter 27. When asked by the New York Times, in an unpublished article about the movie, Mike Shinoda stated, "John Lennon was a legend, and to be involved in this project is amazing." The song was eventually pulled from the movie.

Personal life

Mike Shinoda has been married to Anna (Hillinger) Shinoda since 2003. She is now a children's author. The song Where'd You Go, according to Shinoda, was dedicated to his wife, Anna. The couple currently resides in Agoura Hills, California. In 2004 he found his way on an episode of Punk'd in which a fire hydrant was placed next to his car 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. He has also admitted to having asthma.

External links

• Linkin Park's official website
• Fort Minor's official website
• Mike Shinoda's official website