Why Shinoda says he went with EMILY ARMSTRONG

MIKE SHINODA says LINKIN PARK cover bands CREEP HIM OUT, and that they are the reason why he went with EMILY ARMSTRONG over someone who sounds like CHESTER BENNINGTON.

In a new interview with Los Angeles radio station Alt 98.7 while discussing new singer Emily Armstrong, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda revealed the moment he realized they could never hire someone who sounds like the late Chester Bennington:

“We just want Emily to be Emily. The songs are the songs. Emily is Emily… There was a time early on, like 2020-ish, 2019, whatever - Like, I remembered I was watching videos… I think a video of a cover band, a Linkin Park cover band, showed up in my feed. Fans were loving it. They were all like, ‘Oh my God, this person’s so good. They sound so much like Chester [Bennington].’

“And I was watching it and - Have you ever heard of ‘uncanny valley?’ … So ‘uncanny valley,’ it’s usually applied to like CGI. Think of Carrie Fisher in Star Wars. She passed away. The CGI version of her, you look at it on the screen and you’re like, ‘Man that looks almost exactly like a real life Carrie Fisher on the screen.’ But your brain knows the freaking difference. So that’s ‘uncanny valley.’ Your brain likes it better and better and better the more it gets more real and close to the real thing, and then the moment before it becomes exactly as real, your brain goes completely the opposite direction. It goes right back down to ‘I hate it,’ because your brain can tell that it’s trying to be tricked. And nobody’s brain likes that…

“So, when I was watching this YouTube video, or Instagram video, of this cover band, I was like, ‘That’s really cool, but it’s also creepy that it sounds so much like Chester.’ I don’t like it, it weirds me out. It made me immediately know that it wasn’t the move for us. I don’t like it. I like it for [the cover bands], I just don’t like it for us… These bands do a great job, but I wouldn’t put that in our band.”