Linkin Park’s new singer is not attempting to emulate Chester Bennington | singer

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grey placeholderGetty Images Mike Shinoda and Emily Armstrong of Linkin Park perform in New York. Emily, in the foreground, closes her eyes and kneels as she sings into a mic, held in both hands. She has bleached blonde hair worn loose and wears a white and purple sweatshirt. Mike, in the background, plays guitar and sings while wearing an orange jacket. Getty Images

Emily Armstrong was revealed as Linkin Park's new singer earlier this month

Linkin Park founder Mike Shinoda has insisted the band's new singer is not making an attempt to substitute unique frontman Chester Bennington.

The band introduced a comeback earlier this month and revealed new music recorded with vocalist Emily Armstrong – a alternative that has angered many fans.

Chester took his personal life in 2017 and his son, Jaime, has accused the remaining Linkin Park members of “quietly erasing” his father's “life and legacy in real time”.

Speaking to Radio 1's New Music Show on Monday, unique bandmate Mike Shinoda mentioned their return was “not meant to be a redo or a rewrite of Linkin Park”.

The band have racked up billions of streams and are one of many best-known rock acts on this planet.

Their 2000 debut album, Hybrid Theory, was named “one of the most important albums of all time” by Kerrang! journal.

They introduced their reunion with a comeback gig the place they carried out new music and a few of their greatest hits, with Emily singing Chester's components.

“This is intended to be a new chapter of Linkin Park,” Mike informed Radio 1.

“The old chapter was a great chapter and we loved that chapter.

“It ran its course and now we have been confronted with a problem of: ‘properly OK, for those who begin from scratch with one other voice, what do you do?'”

grey placeholderGetty Images Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington performing in 2015. They both sing, Chester with his hand on Mike's back as they lean forward off the stage. Mile wears a black cap and T-shirt, Chester wears jeans and a grey T-shirt, revealing heavily tattooed arms. Getty Images

Until now, Linkin Park had not released new music since former frontman Chester Bennington took his own life in 2017

Mike told host Jack Saunders he'd been meeting Emily – from hard rock band Dead Sara – and writing music since 2019 but the “intention wasn’t to begin the band up once more”.

“We have been simply slowly coming collectively after which ultimately issues simply began to fall into place with Emily and with Colin our new drummer,” he mentioned.

“We talked about placing her voice on issues we’d already written that solely had my voice on them.

“Once we did that, we were like, ‘that sounds really good, we should try that on even more songs'.”

The set listing for his or her world tour, which lands in London later, contains a mixture of new music and traditional hits.

grey placeholderGetty Images Emily Armstrong and Mike Shinoda on stage in Hamburg as part of Linkin Park's From Zero world tour. Mike smiles at Emily, who's facing away from the camera, her long bleached hair loose down her back as she wears a pink sports shirt with her name and '0' on the back. Mike has cropped dark hair and a short beard and holds a guitar in one hand and his earpiece in the other.Getty Images

Mike praised new singer Emily, telling Radio 1 she's “just 100% her”

Mike did not handle criticisms from Chester's family throughout the interview.

The singer's mum told Rolling Stone magazine she felt “betrayed” and that she'd not been informed prematurely.

His son Jaime additionally criticised Emily personally, elevating issues about her alleged ties to the Church of Scientology and her past support of convicted rapist Danny Masterson.

Emily distanced herself from the previous sitcom actor in a press release however did not handle her hyperlinks to Scientology – the controversial motion arrange as a faith within the US within the Nineteen Fifties by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

Mike targeted on Emily's singing, saying “passion is the driver” of her voice.

“When she sings, it’s like the passion and she’s just 100% her, that’s the best part,” he mentioned.

“She’s not trying to be Chester, she’s not trying to be anybody else.

“She’s her and that’s why it really works.”

Despite the criticism, their lead single The Emptiness Machine peaked at quantity 4 within the UK Official Singles Chart and made it to 25 in Billboard's Hot 100 within the US.

The band has also sold out gigs in London, New York and LA.

“We rehearsed extra for this than we’ve ever rehearsed for something in our lives,” says Mike.

“These exhibits are us determining our intuitive methods of how we transfer and play on stage and making it much more easy.”

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