Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda talked about what he plans on doing next and some of the realizations he’s had while coping with Chester Bennington’s death.
Asked about the tribute concert the band held for Chester at LA’s Hollywood Bowl back in October 2017 – featuring a wide array of guest musicians – Mike told Forbes:
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“I realized [after the show], ‘God, these people were so great and nobody will ever be another Chester Bennington.’ I don’t say that in a framework of defeat, it’s just matter of fact. He was incredible.
“So let’s move on from that. You’re not gonna beat that, so you’ve gotta play a different game. You’ve gotta try something completely different. And I think this is beyond music too.
“One of the books I read this past year was ‘Option B’ by Sheryl Sandberg. She is COO of Facebook and she had written a book called ‘Lean In,’ which was more of a business book and also an empowerment book and female-centric.
“Then she lost her husband and everything changed. In a situation of what we went through and what I’m going through, you’ve gotta pivot. You’ve got to look at what cards you’ve been dealt and what your natural skills are and what you can learn and apply them and look for creative ways to apply them.
“One of the biggest themes in the past four or five years for me and the other guys, especially Chester, we’d talk about riding the wave. Ride the wave, to me, means look for opportunities that subtly present themselves in your universe.
“Sometimes they present themselves once and if you don’t jump on them, you miss them. Oftentimes, this is the strangest part of the realization, they present themselves in different ways multiple times. And you say, ‘Oh, what a strange coincidence, I was just talking about this person and now I’m seeing them.’
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“I don’t look at those things as strange coincidences or throwaway moments, I take those things more seriously and when I see an opportunity peeking its head up I think twice about it.
“And in a lot of cases, on this solo album [‘Post Traumatic’], I’m grabbing onto those opportunities and trying new things out. I actually think this is going to be a really dynamic time for me personally just because I’m not even locked into the idea of, ‘This is what I do, I am in this band or I play these shows.’
“I don’t care about any of that. If tomorrow I decide to go make an album with me and one other person or I decide to go produce somebody else’s album or join another band and tour with them for three months – don’t be surprised. I have no idea where things are gonna lead.”