Back in April, Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda caused a minor huff when he made comments to Noisey about the homogeneous nature of the modern music landscape. “There’s so much music out there,” he said. “There’s so much stuff that sounds like HAIM or CHVRCHES or Vampire Weekend that I’m full. The thing I’m hungry for is not that. I turn on the rock station in L.A. and it sounds like Disney commercial music.”
Not to be taken lightly, CHVRCHES have responded to Shinoda’s claims in kind. During an interview with joiz at France’s OpenAir St. Gallen festival, multi-instrumentalist Iain Cook said Shinoda’s remarks were “a pointless dig,” adding, “What does he have to gain from saying that?” For her part, singer Lauren Mayberry called “bullshit” on Shinoda’s claims, explaining that it’s no “coincidence that he’s got a record to sell and he mentions several bands everyone is writing about.” Update: According to CHVRCHESFans, the translation is wrong and Cook actually said “pointless dig,” not “pointless dick.”
Not quite yet done drawing blood, Mayberry also explained that she doesn’t “like being called a corporate sellout by the man who wrote the theme music for the MTV VMAs.” At which point she pretended to drop the mic.
Still, don’t expect CHVRCHES to get drawn into some rap-rock/synthpop feud (unless Shinoda makes his own response). Rather, Mayberry said that Shinoda’s opinion is “not one I would worry about hugely,” adding, “It’s not my kind of music. They’ve been on the radio for how long, and I just don’t listen to that radio station. That’s a smarter move then saying something for a tagline.”
In a similar display of “wisdom beyond their experience,” multi-instrumentalist Martin Doherty said the trio just tries to ignore any outside comments, be it good or bad. “We’ve developed this near super-human ability to block out whatever people are saying about us,” he said. “From the very first day we were in the public domain, we’ve known it’s as important to not listen to the praise as much as it’s not important to listen to the negative comments. Ultimatley, both have the same affect. We’ve been remarkably focused from day one.”
Even though they released the always perfect Hybrid Theory, this isn’t the first instance Linkin Park have been a bunch of fuddy-duddies as of late. In March, the band reportedly got cops to confiscate the weed belonging to Sublime With Rome while that band was on stage. Linkin Park later denied the rumors, but it’s hard to definitively shake the tag of a “narc.”
Watch the full interview below. The discussion about Shinoda begins around the 9:00 mark:
