Shinoda's mother encouraged him to take classical piano lessons when he was six. Shinoda was born on February 11, 1977, in Panorama City, California and raised in Agoura Hills, California. In March 2018, Shinoda announced through social media that he was working on a new solo album under the same name the record was released on June 15, 2018. On January 25, 2018, Shinoda released the Post Traumatic EP, which contained three songs about his own feelings at the aftermath of Chester Bennington's death on July 20, 2017. He has painted several pieces of artwork, some of which have been featured in the Japanese American National Museum. Outside of music, Shinoda is an artist and graphic designer.
Shinoda is also the co-founder of Machine Shop Records, a California-based record label. The band later signed a record deal with Warner Bros Records. Chester Bennington replaced Wakefield as the lead vocalist in 1999. He has also served as a producer for tracks and albums by Lupe Fiasco, Styles of Beyond and the X-Ecutioners.īorn in Panorama City, California and raised in Agoura Hills, Shinoda formed Xero, which later became Linkin Park, with two of his high school friends: Brad Delson and Rob Bourdon in 1996, later joined by Joe Hahn, Dave Farrell and Mark Wakefield. Shinoda later created a hip-hop-driven side project, Fort Minor, in 2004. He co-founded Linkin Park in 1996 and is one of the band's vocalists, as well as rhythm guitarist, keyboardist, primary songwriter and producer. Michael Kenji Shinoda ( 篠田 賢治, Shinoda Kenji) ( English pronunciation: Expression error: Unrecognized punctuation character "["., born February 11, 1977) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, rapper, record producer, and graphic designer.