Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, featuring on a recent installment of Complex’s Idea Generation series, spoke about some of the absurd suggestions the band received in the lead-up to their debut smash hit record Hybrid Theory.
“When we got signed, it was really basically a development deal. It was like a wait-and-see kind of situation,” Shinoda said in the interview. “I don’t think we really knew that when we signed it.”
Shinoda said during those days, the band had to be insistent in pushing back at the record label to maintain their own vision for Linkin Park.
“Usually we told them, ‘No,’” Shinoda said. “[The A&R guy] had us meet with this guy who choreographed and helped stage stuff on rap and R&B shows and this dude comes in and … literally suggested, ‘You need to have a thing onstage, like a gimmick where, for example, you could come up to the microphone, step out to the side and step out of your shoes or kick a shoe off.' We were like, 'What the fuck?' That was a literal suggestion.”
Shinoda added he could see why ideas like shoe sacrifice were flying around: “I don't want to make it seem like he was a crazy person. He was shooting from the hip, it was something that just popped into his head.”
Besides the shoes, Shinoda said he had other major concerns during the process of assembling Hybrid Theory, particularly when it came to selecting a candidate to mix the album.
“A real thing that happened as we finished Hybrid Theory, we were like, ‘The person who is going to mix Hybrid Theory is Andy Wallace,’” Shinoda said. “[Wallace] mixed these records over here that blend samples and rock music and industrial sounds in a way that feels modern to us … It’s expert-level mixing.”
Wallace’s mixing credits prior to Hybrid Theory included Soulfly’s self-titled album, Limp Bizkit’s debut Three Dollar Bill, Y’all, Rage Against The Machine’s self-titled album and Evil Empire, as well as Nirvana’s Nevermind, among many others according to his AllMusic page.
Shinoda said Linkin Park received a scare from the label that Hybrid Theory would never reach Wallace.
“The next thing we knew, our A&R guy had done a test mix with somebody else,” Shinoda said. “It was because of politics and stuff going on on his side, and we were scared to death that this guy was just going to take our record and do his own thing with it and they were going to put it out that way.”
Shinoda said it was another instance where the band had to fight for what they wanted. Those who take another look at the credits for Hybrid Theory will see Wallace’s name right where it should be, listed as mixing the landmark album.
“Those were the places where we had to put our foot down and have difficult conversations with people and fight for our own vision,” Shinoda added.
Linkin Park went on to titanic success, with songs like “In the End” crossing over multiple charts and reaching all the way to number two on the Billboard Hot 100. Considering LP’s crown as one of the most successful and significant rock bands of the 21st century, it seems that it paid off for those scrappy young artists working on Hybrid Theory to stand strong and put their foot down - and keep their shoes on while doing it.
Linkin Park, now returned in full force with their new album From Zero, are gearing up to embark on their 2025 world tour with guests including Architects, grandson, Spiritbox and more.
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