During a recent appearance on the Zach Sang show, Linkin Park’s so-lead singer Mike Shinoda explained how he convinced his bandmates to hire Emily Armstrong.
Shinoda revealed that it was his work with Armstrong in 2019 on an unrelated project that opened his eyes to realizing she may be the right person for the job.
“I was a little more of a believer earlier because I spent the most time with Emily so I was like, ‘Yeah she’s good,’ and I think the guys are going to like her but I don’t want to be pushy about it. I want to just present what I think I know and let them react. So we just started doing some sessions and I played them.” Shinoda said. “I even made them like a little very short Dead Sara playlist.”
Shinoda continued, recalling how the rest of the band reacted to Armstrong. “Kind of out of nowhere Joe [and I] were sitting there talking about the new music that we were writing and we had over a dozen songs at that point that we liked. Em had sung I think lead on one or a part like a chorus on one or two of them and sung backgrounds on a couple. That was it.”
“It was just me and Joe and Dave [Farrell], and Joe [Hahn] was like, ‘Do you think Emily would just sing? Could we just have her sing all of the stuff?’ He wasn’t being silly, he was like serious. He’s like, ‘Do you think we could demo her voice as the lead on certain songs just her on the whole song just to hear what that sounds like?’ I heard him say that I was like, ‘This dude’s a believer!’ I know she’ll be down to do it, I know he’s gonna hear it, and he’s gonna like it. I’m positive. The fact that he came to that conclusion before even I suggested anything was really, like, that was a big deal.”
