Post Traumatic

*Post Traumatic*
Post Traumatic
Studio album by Mike Shinoda
Recorded:	2017-2018
Released:	June 15, 2018
Length:	53:04
Producer:	Mike Shinoda
Label:	Warner Bros.
Mike Shinoda chronology
Mike Shinoda chronology

Post Traumatic is the first solo album by Mike Shinoda using his own name. Released in June 2018, it is Mike's second solo album following The Rising Tied by Fort Minor. The album deals with Mike's process of coming to terms with Chester Bennington's passing.

Background

Mike first began work on his album Post Traumatic about eight days after the July 20th passing of Chester Bennington.

However, Mike as far back as fall 2016 was planning to release more Fort Minor music and perform shows as Fort Minor in between Linkin Park dates on their next world tour. On the One More Light World Tour, Mike began teasing new Fort Minor merch and had already begun recording tracks on tour, one of which was "Lift Off".^[1] These sessions helped him with some material for the Post Traumatic album, but much of it was written after Chester's passing.

Tweeting in January, he said, "The hardest thing was just getting started in general. The only person I spent more time with than CB was my wife (honorable mention to Brad and Dave). Getting back into the studio was terrifying."^[2]

As he explained to Kerrang, "A week after Chester passed, the idea of the studio was scary. 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 f the ideas that were already in my head."

He told the Metro Times, "That was just life. The record is basically a diary of the first nine months after Chester passed. It was life dictating what the music was supposed to be. Wherever the record leaves off, the story has continued on the road."^[3]

He said to Vulture, "So about eight days after Chester’s passing, I went into the studio and started making some stuff. I was starting to feel like I was a little bit out of touch with reality; I wouldn’t sleep well at all and then I’d wake up and go into my studio. Half the time I would just go in there and make stuff in the dark. The connection with reality was strained or blurred: It just felt so surreal with everything that had happened. Because I was in that headspace, one day I flipped on my phone and started recording “Place to Start” — I sang it into the phone while it was playing. I liked what that looked like: It felt like I was Skyping or FaceTiming you. I started to shoot things when I was really feeling them so that the sincerity would be there. I wasn’t 100 percent sure I would release the videos that way, but the more I thought about it, the more it became obvious that it was the right thing to do."

Material for Post Traumatic stems from leftover songs from the One More Light sessions, like "Place To Start", as well as brand new material and other solo material. During an interview with KROQ on the day of the release of "Crossing A Line", Mike said that he had discussed releasing more Fort Minor material with the guys in Linkin Park and that he had their blessing to do so.

He told The Morning Call, "I had a few tracks that I was intending to eventually put out, but I always treated those tracks as something I would do in between Linkin Park things. My thought at the time was that I would, like, after we really support the launch of the record and the band’s touring is kind of in a routine, a rhythm, I would be able to find slots of weeks here or there where I can kind of finish up some of these Fort Minor songs and maybe do a couple Fort Minor shows. So part of it is just – it’s not based on any ill will with the guys in the band. It’s totally based on the thing that I would like to do on my own that not everybody else likes to do. So those things, you know, I think those things – those, like, sketches and demos – some of them did feed into the solo record – the Post Traumatic record." Several of these Fort Minor songs included "Lift Off" and "I.O.U." that Mike ended up putting on the album.^[4]

As for why the album was going under his name versus the Fort Minor name, Mike told Kerrang, "Grief is an incredibly personal thing, and I just think that everybody is on their own path, and has their own pace and their own things they need."

Mike said that all of the Linkin Park band members were supportive of him releasing the solo album. He told Billboard, "Well, I remembering thinking about how I was going to approach the subject with the guys, and I was definitely nervous about it. I told them about what I wanted to do and I had already played them some stuff, and they were more supportive than I thought they'd be. And I feel like I'd have a sense of they really were or weren't. In this group it's unusual for us to flat-out say "I don't like that"; Usually what happens is they say some semi-supportive words and you can just tell in their demeanor they don't really agree. It's not passive-aggressive; It's trying to be polite. And there's various degrees of that from person to person. And by the way, one thing I appreciated about Chester is he wasn't as much that way. If he didn't like something he would just tell me. He was the most like that in the band, besides me. But, really, when I told the guys, "Look, I want to do a solo record and here's why," they were really receptive to it. I could tell there's an honest, positive reaction. I slept really well that night. 'Cause I was really worried about it beforehand."^[5]

Writing and Recording

Mike created and wrote most all of the music on the album himself.

When he released the Post Traumatic EP in January, he tweeted, "I have a bunch of songs; some are more finished than others. I wanted to release these three today and see what the fans want me to do next. If you like these, I’ll keep going."

The music was recorded at Mike's home studio The Stockroom and at The Village Studios in Los Angeles.

Several guests are featured on the album. Mike brought in a few collaborators, including Chino Moreno of Deftones and Machine Gun Kelly on "Lift Off", blackbear on "About You", Darren King of Mutemath on "Hold It Together", and grandson and bonn on "Running From My Shadow". Additionally, two tracks were left over from Linkin Park's One More Light - "Place To Start", which features some light percussion from Rob Bourdon, and "Make It Up As I Go" which has the chorus sung by K-Flay.

Mike told Variety, "Let me shout out the guests on the record, 'cause they’re all amazing, and I was really picky about who I asked to be part of it. K-Flay I’ve known since we were making "One More Light," Machine Gun Kelly probably before that, and Chino from forever and ever ago — I think the Deftones took us to Europe for the first time in the early 2000s. blackbear is on there, and Grandson, it was funny how I met him. I just followed him on Instagram and he DM'ed me. It turns out we live not too far apart, so we went to lunch. So it ranges from a brand new artist to an iconic artist that we've been playing with forever. I feel like that's very representative of what I'm up to these days and what I'm about."^[6]

Composition

The album begins with the three songs released on the Post Traumatic EP as the "grieving" portion of the album.

According to Mike in an interview with KROQ, the album "goes from Nine Inch Nails vibes to NWA vibes." Some of the music is dark and grieving music while other music is upbeat and about different subjects.

He told Vulture, "In the beginning, I didn’t care what I made as long as I was doing something. 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."

In terms of possible collaborators or guests, Mike tweeted, "There are lots of artists I’m friends with, and artists I don’t know who I admire. If I invite anyone to be a part of this process, it’ll have to be based on a mutual understanding of the concept—they have to have lived it to speak / sing / rap / paint on it."

Mike says that the album is in order chronologically for the most part. He told Billboard, "At a certain point that processing was taking different shapes and the song topics started to change. I think you hear that on the album. It's 16 songs, and the first half of it or so is more kind of backwards-looking, and then it starts to look into the present and future a little bit as it goes. The song "Crossing The Line" is right in the middle, and the second half of the album starts to look forward to other things and even takes little breaks from what was happening -- like, there's a song called "Lift Off" which is more of a battle rap kind of song, which is just escapism and is actually a pretty fun song."^[7]

The Post Traumatic artwork is a painting of Mike's, with his signature over the top of it. Frank Maddocks, long time collaborator with Linkin Park, assisted with the artwork and packaging.

Release

The album was released globally on June 15, 2018 in physical and digital formats. The physical edition of Post Traumatic included an art book with a series of painting by Mike that deal with his journey after July 2017. The album was specially packaged around the artwork.

On December 7, 2018, Mike released a special edition of Post Traumatic with a new cover and a bonus 10" vinyl with two previously unreleased songs - "Prove You Wrong" and "What The Words Meant".

Track Listing

Standard Edition

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Place To Start	Shinoda Michael Kenji	2:13
2	Over Again	Shinoda	3:50
3	Watching As I Fall	Shinoda	3:31
4	Nothing Makes Sense Anymore	Shinoda	3:33
5	About You (feat. blackbear)	Musto Mat, Shinoda	3:26
6	Brooding	Shinoda	2:31
7	Promises I Can't Keep	Shinoda	3:22
8	Crossing A Line	Shinoda	4:02
9	Hold It Together	Shinoda	3:25
10	Ghosts	Shinoda	2:54
11	Make It Up As I Go (feat. K. Flay)	Delson Bradford Philip, Flaherty Kristine, Shinoda	3:29
12	Lift Off (feat. Chino Moreno & Machine Gun Kelly)	Andrew Rory, Baker Colson, Dawson Andrew, Moreno Chino, Shinoda	4:00
13	I.O.U	Shinoda	2:42
14	Running From My Shadow (feat. Grandson)	Benjamin Jordan, Delson, Golan Ross Jacob, Hissink Kevin, Shinoda	3:24
15	World's On Fire	Shinoda	3:15
16	Can't Hear You Now	Shinoda	3:27

Special Edition Bonus Tracks

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Prove You Wrong	Shinoda	3:29
2	What The Words Meant	Shinoda	3:32

Personnel

Production

Written and produced by Mike Shinoda
Except "About You" written by Mike Shinoda and Mat Musto
"Make It Up As I Go" written by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson and Kristine Flaherty
"Lift Off" written by Mike Shinoda, Chino Moreno, Colson Baker, Andrew Dawson and Rory Andrew
"Running From My Shadow" written by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Ross Golan, Jordan Benjamin and Kevin Hissink
"Lift Off" co-produced by Andrew Dawson
"Running From My Shadow" co-produced by Boon
Additional production on "About You" by Aaron C. Harmon & Jordan Reyes
Mixed by Manny Marroquin "Ghosts" and "Can't Hear You Now" mixed by Serban Ghenea
"I.O.U." mixed by Jaycen Joshua
"Place To Start," "Brooding (Instrumental)," "Hold It Together" and "World's On Fire" mixed by Mike Shinoda
Additional editing by Ethan Mates and Josh Newell
Mastered by Michelle Mancini

Additional Musicians

Percussion on "Place To Start" by Rob Bourdon
Live drums on "Hold It Together" by Darren King
Additional guitar on "Running From My Shadow" by Boonn
Blackbear appears courtesy of Beartrap/Alamo/Interscope Records
Machine Gun Kelly appears courtesy of Est 19xx/Bad Boy/Interscope Records
K.Flay appears courtesy of Interscope Records Grandson appears courtesy of Fueled by Ramen
Chino Moreno appears courtesy of Reprise Records

Management

Worldwide representation: Machine Shop Entertainment, Ryan DeMarti, Trish Evangelista, Lorenzo Errico, Jessica Sklar and Bill Silva
Booking agency: Dennis Arfa, Michael Arfin and Robert Daligdig of Artist Group International
Europe booking agency: Scott Thomas, Jennie Wells and Sarah Medley of X-Ray Touring
Legal for Linkin Park: David Lande, David Byrnes, Mitch Tenzer and Irina Volodarsky for Ziffren Brittenham LLP
Business affairs for Warner Bros. Records: Charles Hamilton
Business managers: Todd Gelfand, Jeff Gillman and Sheila Surmani for Gelfand, Rennert & Feldman, LLP
Publicity: Laura Swanson and Jaime Rosenberg for WBR
UK publicity: Lauren Hales
Brand consultant: Toby Fancé
A&R coordination: Ryan DeMarti
Marketing director: Peter Standish