Mike Shinoda

Michael Kenji Shinoda (born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, singer, rapper, songwriter, and record producer.

Michael Kenji Shinoda (篠田 賢治) was born on February 11, 1977, in Panorama City, California, and raised in Agoura Hills, California.

His father is Japanese-American, he has a younger brother named Jason, and he was raised as a liberal Protestant.

Shinoda's mother encouraged him to take classical piano lessons when he was six.

By 13, he expressed the desire to move toward playing jazz, blues, and hip hop.

He later added the guitar and rap-style vocals to his repertoire during his middle school and high school years.

Shinoda attended Agoura High School with future Linkin Park bandmates Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon.

The three formed the band Xero, and began to make a more serious attempt to pursue a career in the music industry.

After graduating high school, Shinoda enrolled in the Art Center College of Design of Pasadena to study graphic design and illustration.

He attended classes with DJ and turntablist Joseph Hahn.

While studying at the Art Center College of Design, he experienced a form of identity crisis.

Years later, he told an interviewer:

"I think it was probably in college that I realized that there was a difference between Japanese and Japanese-American. That's important to realize. It's not the same thing and then eventually with Linkin Park, I toured in Japan. I've been there now I think four times. I remember the first time I went, how familiar it seemed, just getting out of the plane, it smelled like my aunt's house, in the airport, it smelled like Japan. I don't know if anybody else even noticed it but I walked out of the plane and thought this is definitely familiar to me, didn't even see anything yet. And then going to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagoya, you just recognize things about the way people act, the small things that people do such as how you'll grab a piece of paper. There are things that are more obvious like taking somebody's business card with two hands. You don't do that in the States. When I saw somebody do that I went, 'Oh yeah, my uncle always does that,' you know.

There are little things that culturally come from Japan but they also exist in Japanese American culture and it made me feel like the connection was there and I kind of hadn't realized how much of it was there."

He co-founded the rock band Linkin Park in 1996 and is the band's co-lead vocalist, as well as rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, primary songwriter and producer.

Born in Panorama City, Los Angeles, California, and raised in Agoura Hills, Shinoda formed Xero, which later became Linkin Park, with two of his high school friends: Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon in 1996, later joined by Joe Hahn, Dave Farrell, and Mark Wakefield.

Shinoda founded Linkin Park with Rob Bourdon and Brad Delson in 1996.

They eventually brought in turntablist Joe Hahn, bassist Dave Farrell, and vocalist Mark Wakefield.

The earliest incarnation of the band was called Xero.

The band was limited in resources and originally produced and recorded music in Shinoda's bedroom, which resulted in the release of a four-track demo tape, entitled Xero, in 1997.

When the band was unable to find a record deal, Wakefield and Farrell left the band to pursue other musical interests, though Farrell's departure turned out to be temporary.

The band later recruited Chester Bennington and successfully landed a record deal with Warner Bros Records.

Linkin Park's first studio album, Hybrid Theory went on to become a breakthrough success and helped the band attain international success.

Shinoda is closely involved in the technical aspects of the band's recordings, and over the subsequent releases that role continued to expand.

Shinoda, with guitarist Brad Delson, engineered and produced the band's Hybrid Theory EP, and performed similar roles in the recording of Hybrid Theory.

He has contributed to the instrumental and lyrical composition on most of Linkin Park's songs.

Though Bennington primarily served as Linkin Park's lead vocalist, he occasionally shared the role with Shinoda.

Bennington had a higher pitched and emotional style of singing, whereas Shinoda has a baritone hip-hop style delivery.

Shinoda graduated in 1998 with a Bachelor of Arts in Illustration and obtained a job as a graphic designer.

Chester Bennington joined Linkin Park in 1999, replacing Wakefield as lead vocalist.

The band later signed a record deal with Warner Bros Records.

Shinoda is also the co-founder of Machine Shop Records, a California-based record label.

Outside of music, Shinoda is an artist and graphic designer.

He has painted several pieces of artwork, some of which have been featured in the Japanese American National Museum.

Shinoda organized and oversaw the band's first remix album Reanimation in 2002, contributing his own production of remixes that he made in his home studio for "Crawling" and "Pushing Me Away".

Shinoda collaborated with graffiti artist DELTA, graphic designer Frank Maddocks, and bandmate Joe Hahn to prepare Reanimation's artwork.

Mike also collaborated with the Flem, Delta, James R. Minchin III, Nick Spanos, and Joe Hahn for the artwork of the band's second studio album Meteora.

Shinoda later created a hip-hop-driven side project, Fort Minor, in 2004.

He has also served as a producer for tracks and albums by artists such as Lupe Fiasco, Styles of Beyond, and the X-Ecutioners.

In 2018, Shinoda released his debut solo album Post Traumatic, which consists of 18 songs about his feelings following the death of Chester Bennington.