Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda Performs with Deftones’ Chino Moreno & Machine Gun Kelly on ‘Lift Off’ Video
Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda has released a video for his solo track “Lift Off“, which features guest spots from Deftones frontman Chino Moreno as well as Machine Gun Kelly.
The black and white clip features studio shots of the musicians adjusting sound levels, Kelly taking notes and watching Shinoda rap. Moreno bobs back and forth as Shinoda performs then holds his head with both hands when he emotes into the mic. And Kelly gesticulates wildly as he spits his rhymes.
"Lift Off" is from Shinoda's solo album Post Traumatic, which came out June 15. Previously, he released clips for other tracks, including the first single, "Crossing A Line," which dropped April 3.
Much of Post Traumatic was written about coping with the loss of Linkin Park bandmate Chester Bennington, who committed suicide July 20, 2017. Shinoda told Kerrang! that at first he had a tough time even thinking about working without Bennington.
"A week after Chester passed, the idea of the studio was scary," he said. "And it wasn't just the idea of attempting to make a song and being overwhelmed by those memories. There's another layer of fear for artists in this situation that is, 'What if I can't make anything good [without that person]?' Those hurdles start to accumulate, whether that's fear or depression or the chaos of the outside world, it creates an echo chamber of anxiety. That was one of the things for me, I needed to make some stuff - whether it was usable or not didn’t matter. I was making bad '90s grunge songs, making bad rap songs... and then I made something good. I'd make all these things with no intention of putting them out, but just diving into some of the ideas that were already in my head."
As he worked, Shinoda came to the realization that by writing songs about how he felt he was not only keeping himself busy but he was also engaging in much-needed therapy that helped him cope with his loss.
"In the beginning, I didn’t care what I made as long as I was doing something," he wrote in Vulture. "Sometimes it would just be for fun, and then eventually I was making some serious stuff about what was going on with me, and those became the first three songs I put out. Since then, I’ve kept going and realized that, since grief is such a personal thing, this had to be a solo album. I’m basically trying to sum up in the most truthful way the things that are happening in my head as I go. Some days that’s really dark, and some days it’s totally not. Hopefully, as I go, the lighter days become more frequent."
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