Shoutweb: Where are you? They told me that you would be calling from the RV travelling across the country.

Mike Shinoda: We just got out of Dallas, the biggest and most confusing airport in the world. It's so big and so ridiculously complex. They don't need to make it as difficult as it is.

Shoutweb: What's complex about it?

Mike: It's got too many driveways and all these ramps. You need to go on at least five ramps per street. Let's put it this way, I'm not used to it and it confused the hell out of me!

Shoutweb: You're not driving at the moment, are you?

Mike: I am not driving. I'm in the back of the RV being car sick.

Shoutweb: Oh no!

Mike: Yeah, I'm totally car sick right now. I was laying sideways or something. You know how when you read and you're driving, do you ever get that?

Shoutweb: Yeah, motion sickness. That's the worst.

Mike: I'm retarded. What's up there?

Shoutweb: We have CMJ in town this week in New York so it's craziness. Plus the Limp Bizkit album came out today.

Mike: There were quite a few kids of theirs going to get the midnight release at Tower Records for the Limp Bizkit record over at U of T in Austin. We were thinking of going in and checking out the scene. We already have the album.

Shoutweb: What do you think?

Mike: I think it's cool. I like Limp Bizkit so I'm all about it.

Shoutweb: We have all of these bands in town. Some of them are playing at the new WWF venue called The World. They have that new WWF show on MTV now too.

Mike: I love the WWF show! I think it's so funny. I love it.

Shoutweb: What would your name be as a professional wrestler?

Mike: I'm not a wrestler. I'm a manager. Our wrestling partners are our other singer, Chester, and our DJ, Mr. Hahn... they're the Sugar Brothers.

Shoutweb: What is this I heard about him getting naked?

Mike: Chester? He just likes to show his butt. He wouldn't have the tights that most wrestlers have. He would have a G-string.

Shoutweb: Does he at least work out? Does he have some buns on him or what? (laughter)

Mike: No, he doesn't have any buns. He's a scrawny little guy like me.

Shoutweb: Well, I'm a photographer so maybe when we do a photo shoot we can explore that.

Mike: That will be fun. Maybe he can give you a little butt-ocks.

Shoutweb: So, is everybody healthy?

Mike: No! Not me. Germs and more germs in the camper.

Shoutweb: You have to keep the temperature cold so germs don't grow. You do know that, don't you?

Mike: Why? This is a germ culivation facility! (laughter) We are culivating new strands of every illness that you can think of. You thought you had the cold that went around the block. We've invented five new mutations of that same cold.

Shoutweb: So they told me, "You're going to be interviewing Mike... the rapper."

Mike: Yeah, "the rapper". That's all I do. I just rap.

Shoutweb: What is your rap, Mike? (laughter)

Mike: When people ask I tell them that I'm the lead emcee and I'm the backup vocalist for Chester. He's doing the harmonies when I'm rapping so we're patting each other's backs.

Shoutweb: Chester's got some good vocals going on there.

Mike: He's got some lungs.

Shoutweb: Yeah, some real pipes there!

Mike: He's alright. We'll keep him. Did you hear how we ran into Chester and how we found him in the first place?

Shoutweb: No, you should tell us that for those that haven't heard. Do you know about Shoutweb or should I go into what we're about?

Mike: Oh no. I've been there a number of times!

Shoutweb: Okay, because there are people from all over the world. People from Japan. People from Europe.

Mike: I'm half Japanese. I like Japan.

Shoutweb: Really?

Mike: I'm half Japanese and half hick. That Japanese audience... those are my brothers and my sisters. Those are my peeps. (laughter) But yeah, I totally enjoy the site. We actually have a link to Shoutweb from our web site.

Shoutweb: Yeah, to the Top 40. That's cool. Do you work on the web site and on the bio on there?

Mike: We work on everything. The web site is changing every week.

Shoutweb: So how did you find Chester or did Chester find you?

Mike: The band has been together for over four years I believe at this point. I had the idea to start a band like this when I got out of high school. I thought, "These are my friends. This is what we're going to do." Brad, our guitarist, and I were friends since we were thirteen. Joe I had met in college and Rob, or drummer, we had known from a high school nearby. That was in the northern San Fernando valley area. That was all very natural but there came a point a couple of years ago where we wanted and really needed to find somebody who was just an amazing singer. We had been sending out demos and instrumentals. Chester got it and called us about it. He skipped his 23rd birthday party. He just lust left everybody there. He recorded his thing and called us the next morning and said, "Okay, it's done." We were like, "What? It's done already?" He said, "Yeah, how do you want me to get this to you? I'm ready." We said, "Can you play it for us over the phone?" So he played it for us over the phone and we told him to fly out. It was awesome and we were ready and totally convinced.

Shoutweb: When was that?

Mike: That was almost two years ago. (Mike's got a bad cough)

Shoutweb: You sound like you're getting sick.

Mike: Three shows ago I thought I was going to throw up all over myself. I'm not about to skip any shows especially for some stupid sickness. That was probably the hardest show for me to play yet.

Shoutweb: Where was that?

Mike: That was Tulsa, Oklahoma. I played the Dallas show completely exhausted. The Austin show wasn't as bad but the Dallas show was terrible for me. Nobody knew I was sick but I just felt like crap. In Tulsa, Oklahoma I was sick as a dog!

Shoutweb: You're out with Kottonmouth Kings now?

Mike: That is correct. We love the Kottonmouth Kings tour. The guys are the sweetest guys. They are totally fun to hang out with. Fun to play with. I don't know if they would describe themselves as such but I would say that they are the hippie Beastie Boys. They are all about peace, love, and marujuana and playing an amazing, energetic show that is so entertaining. There are massive amounts of kids that come to see them. The line-up is basically - Rehab, who plays first. They're awesome. It's a hip-hop duo a la Everlast, Kid Rock type of thing. We play, then Corporate Avenger and then Kottonmouth. It's a totally fun tour to be on. We're really stoked about it. This tour is going to end on Halloween so that's going to be a big, huge party. It's going to be in our hometown. They're from Orange County so we're going to be home on Halloween.

Shoutweb: What are you guys going to dress up as?

Mike: That's a secret. To be honest, I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to wear. Chester knows what he's going to do but I don't know what I'm going to do.

Shoutweb: If it's your last show then you guys can go out as the Kottonmouth Kings.

Mike: I thought of that. I swear I did! Rehab actually has two nurses who dance and take off their clothes. I told Chester that he and I should dress up as Brooks and Danny and Brad and Scott, our guitarist and bassist, should dress up as nurses. Nobody really went for my idea though. I'd do it in a minute. Chester would do it in a minute.

Shoutweb: Then you have P.O.D.

Mike: Then we have P.O.D. That's going to be awesome. I can't wait. P.O.D. is a group that I've had their album and I've listened to it a lot. I'm so excited to be playing with them and (hed)p.e. and Project 86. It's going to be an exciting tour. A lot of our fans like those groups as well. I think it's going to be out of hand.

Shoutweb: You guys are "the buzz band".

Mike: The "buzz" band... are we popular? Are we in with the cheerleaders? We're going to get some pom-poms and yell our name. (laughter)

Shoutweb: You're "the rapper" of "the buzz band". (laughter)

Mike: What does that mean the "buzz" band? Let's label a few more things while we're at it. (laughter) I love it. We can talk about "the single" or "the video".

Shoutweb: I haven't even seen the video yet. I saw some quick commercial thing and it was all green hair.

Mike: Yeah, I got red hair. The video is very green and very dark. It was shot in Los Angeles in an underground, abandoned subway tunnel that is adjacent to an abandoned V.A. hospital. It's an extremely scary place to hang out and shoot a video. The air was very thick and filled with minerals and dust and dirt. It's very hard to breathe down there. But we endured. We had a lot of fun. Somebody just told me that they heard that most bands don't have a good time shooting their video or they don't like their first video. I think we had a blast. Our DJ and I went to art school together. I graduated with a major in illustration at the Arts Center in Pasadena. He left after his first year to go do special effects in the film industry so when it came time to do the video, he was right there with the idea for the treatment for the video. He knew who he thought we should look into for directors. We hooked up with Gregory Dark who is amazing. Joe and Gregory hit it off. Gregory is an extremely experienced and talented individual and really helped us achieve our goals as far as a first video goes. Our budget wasn't so huge. It was our first try at being in front of a camera in that way. We had a lot of fun. It came out great. Joe did a great job. Gregory and everybody in the crew kicked ass. It was awesome. You'll see. It's very dark but it's really colorful at the same time. We have floating monks.

Shoutweb: (laughter) Noooo!

Mike: I'm serious. We have floating monks. We have awesome artwork in the background by some friends of ours from school. Just in general, we were really happy with it.

Shoutweb: Did you study graphic art in school as well?

Mike: I went for illustration. I didn't have a minor in graphics but I studied graphics heavily so when I got out of school I got a graphics job right away. I did graphics illustration and worked on that while I was starting the band.

Shoutweb: I heard also that you guys are going to be going out with Papa Roach in December.

Mike: You know! That's a rumor... but it's a damn good one. And we like that rumor. It's looking really good. We are totally stoked to have the opportunity to possibly play with those guys. It looks really good. Not too many people know about that but it's looking really good.

Shoutweb: It's on Shoutweb already so a lot of people know about it.

Mike: It will probably happen. I think that if it's not already confirmed then we're close. We met Coby and Toben, the other guys for only a moment, at the 99X Big Day Out show in Atlanta, Georgia. It was just awesome. Those guys are the coolest guys. They're such nice guys. They play an amazing show. We played with them also in Arizona. We saw them there but we never got to hang out with them there. We saw the show and were like, "Whoa, those guys kick ass!" Then we saw them in Atlanta and actually got to sit on stage with them and hang out with them. They sat on stage for our performance and of course we got no attention because everybody kept trying to talk to Coby. Just kidding. But there were some girls up front yelling, "Coby! Coby!" (laughter) We were like, "Okay girls, were trying to do a show here. Go to the side of the stage and do that over there. Do not interrupt what is going on up here." (laughter)

Shoutweb: It's all about the art, man. Come on, have some respect! (laughter)

Mike: He's awesome. We hung out and had a great time. They are amazing performers and we had a great time.

Shoutweb: They just did Leno last night and they played "Broken Home". They were amazing. They did an awesome job.

Mike: Did he swing the mic around? He throws that mic and it kills me. I think he's going to hurt somebody and he never does. He said he's got it down to a science now where he can project how long the cord has to be and throw it at the front row of the audience. He throws it at their head and it drops right in front of them without hitting them. Then he pulls it back up and swings it around.

Shoutweb: Usually he just bashes the mic into his forehead until he bleeds.

Mike: Did he bleed for the camera last night?

Shoutweb: Just from this soul.

Mike: He bled emotionally.

Shoutweb: Let's talk a little about the record, shall we?

Mike: I love to talk about the record.

Shoutweb: I love all the songs. Of course "One Step Closer" is blowing up all over the place. I also love "Crawling", "Runaway", "In The End" and "Pushing Me Away" but I think it's because I am partial to Chester's vocals. I love them.

Mike: We write a lot of the songs together. The choruses are so important for example that everybody has a little bit of a say in what goes on. You never hurt anybody's feelings by talking about any parts of the songs. Everybody has their say and writes the songs and we're all really proud of what we've come up with. Those songs are some of my favorites as well. I'm totally excited for people to hear them. We've been sitting on this record for a couple of months now. No one's had a chance to listen to it yet. I think I am going to have a fit when people have a chance to go into the store and buy it.

Shoutweb: October 24th is the day. You're our band of the week next week.

Mike: Yea! We love Shoutweb!

Shoutweb: I love songs that you can sing along to and actually hear the vocals.

Mike: We definitely want people to be able to hear the words. We wrote out all the lyrics in the album liners so when people pick that up they can read all the lyrics not to mention all the really cool artwork. In each song we are going in one direction. Never on this album do we go out in two different directions. We keep it consistent. We're both talking about the same thing. We want to give people a starting block with the lyrics so that they can relate their own story to it. Our songs come from something that happn to us or an emotion that we feel. We want it put it out there in a way that is as accurate to the way we feel as we can say it. Somebody said that to Chester the other day. That they felt that way a hundred times but they couldn't figure out how to say it. They thanked us for putting it in a way that they could relate to it. For saying in a way that I wanted to say it. Now I've got that and I can use that. I totally apreciate that. I love that. To be able to put something out there that somebody can relate to and something that can make sense to them.

Shoutweb: Those are the songs that last too. It's a footprint in that life of your life or that relationship you're going through or that girl you could never talk to or whatever it is.

 

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