Rock Extreme: Most people have heard your first single, "One Step Closer", but few people have gotten to hear everything else you have to offer, what do you expect to be the next single off of your album?

Mike Shinoda: Umm, honestly we don’t know, but my favorite songs are "Papercut" and "In The End" because both of the songs are well rounded and show what the band has to offer.

RE: I know that you guys played at "That Damn Show" on the 21st of September in Arizona. Were there any bands that you liked that performed? Disliked?

Mike: We had a really good time, probably at that point, that was the biggest crowd we had played for, and I really liked playing with some of the bigger bands that were there. We really liked talking to the guys in Incubus, and getting the chance to play with some of the bigger bands like the Deftones, and our friends in Orgy.

RE: Are there any bands that you would particularly like to play with in the future?

Mike: Umm, I can tell you that we just got confirmed with P.O.D, (hed) P.E, and Project 86. We got a chance to talk with P.O.D before Damn Show, they were in the same hotel as us, and we talked in the lobby; they are the coolest guys, so we are really excited about getting the chance to play with them.

RE: You guys are set to play with P.O.D, (hed)p.e., and Project 86 starting on November 7th, are you looking forward to playing with any of these bands?

Mike: Oh yeah, absolutely, like I said, we have talked with Hed and P.O.D, we haven’t gotten a chance to meet with the guys from Project, but the other bands are so cool that I am sure that they will be great.

RE: You’re on the road right now with The Kottonmouth Kings, Corporate Avengers, and Rehab, How is that going for ya?

Mike: It’s awesome, we are having a lot of fun, they are a lot less conservative then we are, those guys are just wild, so its going great for us. They are just nuts, I mean Rehab has these nurses that just practically strip on stage, and we got a chance to play Down Town Disney and the cops were there almost immediately, the nurses almost got arrested, it was crazy.

RE: When you guys first formed your band, did you have any real goals? Did you think you would be as big as you already are, without even releasing a CD?

Mike: It has never been our goal to be like popular, if you ask different people in the band they will have different answers, but my goal was to blend the different types of music, and not to say, this is going to be the hip hop part and this is going to be the rock part, we want you to hear our songs and know that your listening to Linkin Park.

RE: Does your name have some sort of a story behind it? Care to tell?

Mike: The story behind the name Lincoln Park is actually a place in Santa Monica, and originally we wanted our name to be Hybrid Theory, but for legal reasons we had to change it. We came up with the name Lincoln Park, but because we had such a big internet fan base, and how much money it would have cost for us to buy lincolnpark.com, we decided to make it Linkin Park, we thought it looked a lot cooler anyway.

RE: After your P.O.D, (hed) p.e., and Project 86 tour, do you have anything planned?

Mike: Holiday vacation we are going to stay at home for a little bit with our families and loved ones, it will be nice to get a little time off with our families because for the rest of the year we are going on one tour after the other.

RE: What happened that inspired the writing of the song "One Step Closer", if anything?

Mike: Its very self-explanatory I think that the reason that people are gravitating towards it is because it is so self-explanatory, me and Chester were just fed up with everything that was going on and we got to the end of our ropes and wrote the song.

RE: What do you think about MTV, if given the chance, would you like to be on it?

Mike: MTV it has gone into the positive and into the negative for me, there are times that I like to watch it, and there are times that I don’t like to watch it... I mean our video is basically done, and now it is in MTV’s hands, and they are looking at it. When I was young, I would love a band, and when I saw them get to MTV I would be mad that they got a hold of it, but now I have a better understanding of how important it is for kids to be able to support their music, and MTV and the radios are great for doing that by putting your band on the top ten.

RE: Anything you want to say to your fans?

Mike: Come to the shows, come and meet us, because we love to hang out, every time we have a show we will come to our merchandise booth and we will meet all of you and talk and sign autographs or whatever, just come out.

by Rock Extreme