Passenger (Mike Shinoda Remix)

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"Passenger (Mike Shinoda Remix)" is the ninth track on Black Stallion by Deftones. This remix album is a bonus disc on the 20th anniversary edition of White Pony.

Background

Mike Shinoda said "Passenger" has always been one of his favorite tracks from White Pony.^[1]

During a Twitch stream on the release day Mike commented, "I had fun with it. Did it all in Ableton. I don't usually do stuff all the way through in Ableton. Except for Dropped Frames."

Talking to iJustine on his November 19, 2020 Twitch stream he explained why he didn't stream the process of the remix and praised the mix of the original song, "There was a copyright question and then the other thing was that I did it a month or two ago. The main thing was that I didn't want to give away that they were doing it, we couldn't give away that they were doing the remix album at that point, right? So, it needed to stay secret. So, I just did it off-screen and I sent it to them. I know all the guys a little bit, but I know Chino better than the other guys. He sent back very few notes and I handled those and it was done. For me it was an easy thing to do, super fun. I have never heard their multitracks before, and especially with a song like that. Passenger has Chino and Maynard kinda singing back and forth and I think a lot of it was improvised. Like, you hear weird stuff on the track in between when they're not singing, coughs and humming, like figuring out notes. Everything, raw tracks of everything. It's great, it's super cool. Sometimes the one approach to like recording a song is that you track each thing individually to have full control over the sound of that thing. For example you don't have any vocals, or guitar or bass in the drum mics. And you don't have any drums stuff in the guitar mics, and so on, so you record them separetely. They do a lot of recording together, so you can hear stuff in each others microphones and whatever, and it made me appreciate the light mixing of the track, because they make it sound so cool and so clean, even though it's kinda more tricky sometimes to mix, I find it hard, when you've got bleed in the other microphones."^[2]

On November 23, 2021, the remix was nominated for a Grammy for "Best Remixed Recording" for 2021. Mike tweeted, "In other news, my Deftones remix just got a Grammy nomination. A friend pointed out: this is my first "Solo Grammy nom, under my name"^[3]

Music Video

Visuals for the remix were directed by Aaron Hymes and debuted at 12:12am EDT / 09:12pm PDT on Saturday, November 14th, 2020 during the Adult Swim Festival.^[4]

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Passenger (Mike Shinoda Remix)	White Pony (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition)	4:47	2020	December 11, 2020

Personnel

Lyrics

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Here I lay, still and breathless
Just like always, still, I want some more
Mirrors sideways, who cares what's behind?
Just like always, still your passenger
Chrome buttons, buckles, and leather surfaces
These and other lucky witnesses
Now to calm me, this time, won't you, please?
Drive faster

Roll the window down
This cool night air is curious
Let the whole world look in
Who cares who sees anything?
I'm your passenger
I'm your passenger

Drop these down, then put them on me
Nice, cool seats there to cushion your knees
Now to calm me, take me around again
Don't pull over, this time, would you, please?
Drive faster

Roll the window down
This cool night air is curious
Let the whole world look in
Who cares who sees what tonight?
Roll these misty windows down
To catch my breath
And then go and go and go
Just drive me home and back again

Here I lay
Just like always
Don't let me go, go, go, go
Go, go, go, go
Take me to the edge