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Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park has said that the band’s new singer, Emily Armstrong, is not trying to replace late frontman Chester Bennington.
The group announced a comeback earlier this month with original members Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Dave “Phoenix” Farrell, and Joe Hahn, alongside Armstrong of LA rock band Dead Sara and songwriter and producer Colin Brittain as drummer.
Armstrong’s debut did not go down well with fans, or with Bennington’s family. Bennington’s son Jaime expressed his unhappiness on social media, accusing Shinoda of erasing his father’s life and legacy in real time and “during international suicide prevention month”.
He noted Armstrong’s support of That ‘70s Show star Danny Masterson during a sexual assault trial that saw him convicted of rape.
Shinoda, however, said their return was “not meant to be a redo or a rewrite of Linkin Park”.
“This is intended to be a new chapter of Linkin Park,” he told Jack Saunders on New Music Show of Radio 1 on Monday.
“The old chapter was a great chapter and we loved that chapter. It ran its course and now we were faced with a challenge of: ‘Well OK, if you start from scratch with another voice, what do you do?’"
Shinoda said that he had been writing music with Armstrong since 2019, but his “intention wasn’t to start the band up again”.
“We were just slowly coming together and then eventually things just started to fall into place with Emily and with Colin our new drummer,” he said.
“We talked about putting her voice on things we’d already written that only had my voice on them.
“Once we did that, we were like, ‘That sounds really good, we should try that on even more songs.’”
Armstrong, earlier this month, shared a statement addressing the backlash, in which she said she was once “asked to support someone I considered a friend at a court appearance”.
The post read: “Hi, I’m Emily. I’m new to so many of you, and I wanted to clear the air about something that happened a while back. I went to one early hearing as an observer. Soon after, I realised I shouldn’t have.
“I always try to see the good in people and I misjudged him. I have never spoken with him since. Unimaginable details emerged and he was later found guilty.”
“To say it as clearly as possible: I do not condone abuse or violence against women, and I empathise with the victims of these crimes,” she said.
Chester’s mother Susan Eubanks told Rolling Stone magazine last week that the band was “trying very hard to erase the past” and she felt “betrayed” that she wasn’t told about the comeback.
“They told me if they were ever going to do something, they would let me know. They didn’t let me know, and they probably knew that I wasn’t going to be very happy. I’m very upset about it.”
Shinoda did not address Jaime or Susan’s comments.
But he spoke glowingly of Armstrong. “Passion is the driver of her voice. When she sings, it’s like the passion and she’s just 100 per cent her, that’s the best part,” he said.
“She’s not trying to be Chester, she’s not trying to be anybody else. She’s her and that’s why it works.”
The band announced their comeback with a new single, “The Emptiness Machine”, and news of a new album on 15 November, titled From Zero. They also announced details of a world tour, which has dates in cities including Los Angeles, New York, Hamburg, London, and Seoul.
Shinoda talked about the forthcoming shows and described how the new group is coming together.
“We rehearsed more for this than we’ve ever rehearsed for anything in our lives," he said. “These shows are us figuring out our intuitive ways of how we move and play on stage and making it even more effortless.”
Music critic Mark Beaumont argued in The Independent that Linkin Park are putting their legacy at stake by reuniting.
“Ultimately, it’s in the band’s hands – not those of Bennington’s family – as to who they feel will best serve their music going forward, not to mention who they’d be happiest sharing a tour bus with for years on end.
“Reviews of Armstrong’s performances with the band have thus far hailed her as an exciting and inspired successor to, rather than a replacement for, Bennington. But unless these valid criticisms are swiftly and comprehensively addressed, the Linkin Park comeback might well be doomed from the off, in danger of stalling in the quicksand of public opinion.”
