Dropped Frames, Vol 3, the third installment of Mike Shinoda’s instrumental series, is out now on his own Kenji Kobayashi Productions (ADA). The 14-track album builds on the catalog of music that Shinoda has been creating live on Twitch in collaboration with thousands of fans around the globe. Like Vols. 1 and 2, Vol. 3 incorporates an array of digital samples to create a thematic soundscape, but with more live instrumentation than its predecessors.
Highlights include “License To Waltz,” which melds Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz Of The Flowers” with Beastie Boys, Reggaeton and ASMR, and “Robot Yodel,” which is a fan-requested mashup of country, alt-folk and Bulgarian Yodeling. Shinoda also illustrated the cover art inspired by the Twitch streams, which features an alien-abducted cow. The image is now available on several new merch items in his official store.
Another track that contains elements sent by fans is “Shoreline,” which debuts with some heavy Romanian church bells.
The Dropped Frames series was conceived at the onset of quarantine, when Mike Shinoda began creating music and art live on Twitch in front of and in collaboration with thousands of fans each day. He committed to a daily 10am PT livestream, making music four days per week and visual art one day per week, something that continues to this day. Viewers participated in the creation of these tracks by tuning in and communicating via the live chat. Fans earned points called ShinodaBucks which they could spend on things such as “Suggest A Musical Theme.”
A fan suggested one of Romania’s highly appreciated bands, that manages to stay underground, in spite of their success. The project is called Subcarpați and Shinoda was in awe of their traditional raw sound, combining folklore with dub, hip hop, breaks and electro music since 2010. The song is called ‘Punkareala‘ and left Shinoda wanting for more. He played it in two of his Twitch live streams and he even requested the translation of the lyrics, as the Romanian band seems to have truly captured his interest: “My gut says anybody who makes something this wild, that has got this much exciting stuff going on in one video, that the lyrics are not gonna be trash! It can’t be, they can’t be! I’m definitely checking for Subcarpati!“
With suggestions ranging from “Mariachi,” to “Bollywood Hip Hop” to “90’s Boy Band Pop” – Shinoda then mashed them together, live, in one track. “The fans have been a part of every track in the Dropped Frames series—watching, commenting, and suggesting the whole way through. Some days, that’s like being the driver of a car with a couple thousand navigators…other days, it’s like piloting a spaceship with a community of eager passengers,” explains Shinoda. “We have a lot of fun on my channel, and I think it shows.” The stream essentially became a new instrument, and in the process, turning what might’ve been a creative low point into a communal creative revitalization.
‘Dropped Frames, Vol. 3‘ Tracklisting 1. Dream Fragment 2. Sound Collector 3. Dust Code 4. No Delete 5. Robot Yodel 6. Vibe Train 7. Mike’s Gonna Mike 8. Shoreline 9. Goodbye Cow 10. Genesis Supernova 11. Sidechain Gang 12. Overcast 13. A Thousand James 14. License To Waltz
Mike Shinoda is a songwriter, performer, record producer, film composer and visual artist with a B.A. in illustration and Doctorate of Humane Letters from Art Center College of Design. He is best known as co-lead vocalist for multi-platinum Grammy-Award winning rock band, Linkin Park, who has sold over 55 million albums worldwide and commanded a massive fan following, holding the title as the most-liked band on Facebook and amassing over 7.7 billion YouTube views. Shinoda is the founding member of the group, which achieved the best-selling debut of this century with their Diamond-certified album, ‘Hybrid Theory,’ selling over 10 million copies in the U.S. alone. Collectively, they sold out stadiums around the globe and earned a multitude of accolades including 2 Grammy Awards, 5 American Music Awards, 4 MTV VMA Awards, 10 MTV Europe Music Awards, 3 World Music Awards, and most recently, “Rock Album of the Year” at the 2018 iHeartRadio Music Awards for their seventh studio album, ‘One More Light.’ In 2005, Shinoda launched his first solo project, Fort Minor, releasing ‘The Rising Tied’ to critical acclaim and the single “Where’d You Go,” which hit #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In June 2018, Shinoda released his second solo effort, ‘Post Traumatic.’ The deeply personal 16-track album garnered critical raves and unanimous acclaim, earning praise from the likes of various media outlets, as well as TV shows like The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Shinoda toured across the globe, including festival sets at Reading and Leeds (UK) and Summer Sonic (Japan).
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