Mike Shinoda recently sat down with Kerrang to discuss his new solo track, ‘Already Over,’ and to delve into his musical influences and past experiences. During the conversation, he also recalled the first time he heard Rage Against The Machine.
While discussing the inspirations behind his latest music, Shinoda reminisced about his initial exposure to Rage Against The Machine:
“I had a bunch of different things in mind, but, like, if you look back, I don’t know why I write such dark sh*t! It’s just the type of music I have always gravitated to forever. Even when it was in rap music – I grew up on rap, mostly hip-hop, in the ’90s, and most of it was hyper-violent. Lots of bragging, lots of violence, lots of mean stuff.
And then metal and stuff like that was always simmering in the background. I remember one of my oldest friends playing me Rage Against The Machine. He’s like, ‘Oh, you like this type of rock and you like rapping – you’re gonna love this band!’ And I was like, ‘Jesus, this is the best thing I’ve ever heard!’ And it’s not happy stuff!”
When talking about ‘Already Over,’ Shinoda shared that he wrote the song with a fresh perspective, and it’s way different than his early works:
“For me, with this song, there’s a lot of chordal movement. If you play guitar and you follow along with all the chord changes and how the lyrics and the vocals follow along with it, this is not the type of song that I could have written 15 years ago. There’s a lot more to it in the way it’s put together that I wouldn’t have been in tune with back then.
Specifically, if you go back to early Linkin Park, I would write a track, and then I would put vocals on it. And once the track got written, I really wouldn’t change it very much. For the most part, if I rewrote a part, I was rewriting a vocal to fit into the track that I had already deemed finished. But nowadays, I don’t do that anymore, and part of that is informed by all the writing experiences I’ve had with other people in the past 10 years.”
Linkin Park fans will recognize the DNA of ‘Already Over,’ as Shinoda told Rolling Stone. The inspiration for this track struck while he was playing his favorite guitar, the same instrument behind hits like ‘What I’ve Done’ and his recent 2023 release, ‘In My Head,‘ which features Kailee Morgue and found its way to the ‘Scream VI’ soundtrack.
You can listen to Mike Shinoda’s ‘Already Over’ below.
