FLASHBACK: Mike Shinoda talks ‘Post Traumatic’ with Pierre Robert

Mike Shinoda has certainly gone through the rock and roll crucible. The titanic momentum of Linkin Park came to a screeching halt after the passing of Chester Bennington. As time would tell, the band would move forward with Emily Armstrong joining the band as a lead vocalist.

In the space between, Mike (and all of us for that matter) needed to grieve his friend and bandmate in his own way. This cultivated in 2018 with his first solo record Post Traumatic. Pierre Robert went up to NYC to chat with Shinoda before a show in conjunction with the record.

For Pierre, these moments were never interviews. They were always conversations. It was an opportunity to really get to understand and know a person. What makes them tick. His initial inquires for Mike Shinoda were about his childhood involvement in music.

While music was a primary focus, Mike wound up going to school for graphic design. "I'd love music, but I thought I would do album covers and album packaging and maybe even get into posters for movies and books and things like that" says Mike.

They also discussed Chester Bennington at length and how the solo album was a way to move through the grieving process. It was raw as according to Mike the album was "... essentially a diary of the first like nine months after Chester passed away". The journey does evolve as Mike explains "So it starts in a really dark place and then it starts to, then hope starts to arrive".

The pair also discusses Pierre's love of the Linkin Park ballad "Iridescent", the impact of fellow artist lost too soon Chris Cornell, and the philosophical question of how do we reach enlightenment? These and other can't miss stories await you: