Mike Biography
Michael Kenji Shinoda (born February 11, 1977) is an
American musician and record producer.
He's best known for his work in the band Linkin Park. Along with other artists,
he's also active in a hip hop side-project known as Fort Minor.
Early life
Born to a Japanese American father [1] and a mother who has both European and
Native American ascendants, Mike Shinoda was raised in the Los Angeles suburb of
Agoura, where he resided for all of his pre-adult life. Mike has a younger
brother (born 1979) named Jason.
His first exposure to the music business came during his middle and high school
years, when he attended a concert featuring Anthrax and Public Enemy. After that,
he began taking piano lessons, studying classical pianist techniques, and later
moved on to jazz and hip hop. It was during this formative period that he added
the guitar and, eventually, rap-style vocals to his repertoire.
In his early teens, Shinoda's musical interests found a source of encouragement
in friend Brad Delson, with whom he started to write and record songs with in a
makeshift studio set up in his bedroom. Shinoda attended the Agoura High School
with Linkin Park bandmate Brad Delson, as well as with members of the band
Hoobastank. By the end of high school, percussion practitioner Bourdon had
become involved in their musical ventures. The trio formed the band Xero, and
began to make a more serious attempt to pursue a career in the music industry.
After high school, Shinoda enrolled in the Art Center College of Design to study
graphic design and illustration. It was here that he made the acquaintance of DJ
and turntablist Joseph Hahn, who, along with Delson's college-mate Phoenix, was
soon added to Xero's line-up. Shinoda eventually completed his college training
with a degree in illustration, securing himself a job as a graphic designer
right after graduation. With his experience and talent as a graphic artist,
Shinoda has taken it upon himself in designing all of Linkin Park's artwork with
Hahn, and has even designed the album cover for Styles of Beyond's debut album,
2000 Fold.
Linkin Park
Just prior to his graduation, in the final year of his studies (1999), the band
(at this point called Hybrid Theory) brought in second vocalist Chester
Bennington, replacing Mark Wakefield. Only one six-track EP would be released
under the new name before legal issues forced them once again to change it - and
thus it came to pass that Shinoda and his bandmates ultimately were to call
themselves Lincoln Park. However, it was too expensive to buy the domain name
lincolnpark.com, so it was ultimately changed to Linkin Park. Throughout 1999,
Linkin Park continued to expand their following amongst L.A. club patrons. This
growth in popularity made a record contract an even more urgent concern for the
band, and Shinoda was forced to juggle his college finals with talent showcases
for various major labels; while the former went well for him, the latter failed
to accomplish any positive results until the year was nearly over. Several
labels had passed on the privilege until, finally, Warner Bros. Records made the
decision to add the young band to its long list of artists. The first fruits of
this union surfaced in the Fall of 2000 as Hybrid Theory, sporting a cover
designed by Shinoda himself; before long the album had found its way high into
the charts, launching Linkin Park as one of the most popular exponents of the
rap-metal crossgenre.
From the start Shinoda was closely involved in the technical aspects of the
band's recordings, and over the subsequent releases that role continued to
expand, with the singer tackling a fair amount of the production duties for the
Hybrid Theory remix album Reanimation (2002). His musical role also evolved, and
the sophomore release Meteora (2003) saw him assuming a more prominent role as a
guitarist.
By the release of the Linkin Park and Jay-Z 'mash-up' album Collision Course in
2004, he had his hands in every aspect of the release, from performing and
producing to mixing and graphic design. Production and remix work for various
other performers including The X-Ecutioners, Handsome Boy Modeling School and
Depeche Mode was also undertaken from time to time.
He also said that the band expects their new album to be released in early 2007.
In the meantime he had his debut art show in Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles.
Fort Minor
Shinoda formed a side project named "Fort Minor" between 2004 and 2005 because
he couldn't demonstrate as much of his hip-hop background in Linkin Park. He
explained the name of his project in a recent interview:
"'Fort' represents the more aggressive side of the music. 'Minor' can mean a few
things: if you're talking about music theory, the minor key is darker. I wanted
to name the album rather than having my name on the cover, because I want people
to focus on the music, not me."
The debut album from Fort Minor, titled The Rising Tied, was released on
November 22, 2005, and includes guest appearances from Styles of Beyond, Lupe
Fiasco, Common, Black Thought of The Roots, John Legend, Holly Brook, Jonah
Matranga and features Jay-Z (Shawn Carter) as an executive producer.
Shinoda has also produced albums for Lupe Fiasco and Styles of Beyond, as well
as producing several of Linkin Park's albums, including Reanimation, Hybrid
Theory EP and the collaborative EP with Jay-Z, Collision Course. He has also
produced all of Linkin Park's Linkin Park Underground CDs.
Fanlistings
A fanlisting is a place for all fans of a particular show, movie, actor/actress, singer, etc. To come together and build the biggest listing of people from all around the world who are fans of that subject. In this case, It's the approved fanlisting for Mike Shinoda.
This Site
This site, it's layout and codes are made by me Maneita, I used Front Page for the layout, and Paint Shop Pro 8 for the graphics. The site is hosted on my domain, Easier To Run. The page is best viewed in Firefox or IE (but can be showed in any browser), in 1024x768 resolution or larger.
