Several interesting facts jotted down about Mike from various sources.
-- It irks Mike to see Engineers come into the studio using ProTools and not know how to use the hotkeys. To see them scroll through all the track layers drives him nuts. Mike knows ALL of the hotkeys and maneuvers through the program flawlessly.
-- He's a control freak / perfectionist.
Mike: "I'm a f***ing control freak." || Chester: "I wouldn't say 'f***ing control freak,' I'd say: A Mother-F***ing control freak."
-- Has a Linkin Park house studio. The hallway connecting both studio rooms was made into a vocal booth. The walls are deadened. One of the rooms has a piano and microphones. The other room has his desk with his specks, computer, keyboards and guitars.
-- Has a lot of say into the producing process of their albums in the studio, just as much (if not more) than the actual producers. Always overshadowing and ensuring things are done right and to the highest standards.
-Until "The Hunting Party," when Mike finally branched off to become a self-producer; with Brad as his right hand.
-- Creates beats, rhythms, guitar chords, etc. for Rob and Brad during studio time; creating the tracks on computer and emailing the files to them. Sometimes Chester and Mike will question how to make the parts more difficult for the other band members, creating intricate / difficult parts to challenge their band mates, musically.
-- Mike and Brad are the lead writers for LP.
-- Mike and Brad have known one another since they were 13
-- Fans refer to him as the Dad of LP. He once tweeted that Him and Anna (wife) like when the fans call them Mom and Dad.
-- Loves guitars and collects them. His guitar collection is bigger than LP's lead guitarist.
-- Received an Honorary Doctorate of Human Letters in 2009 from Art College of Design.
-- Favorite Pizza is: Ham and Pineapple.
-- Loves Pokemon: his favorite is Charizard Ex.
-- Weirdest thing he ever signed: a real life baby.
-- Did Ancestory.com search after his brother Jay. Discovered he's related to Jesse James.
-- Favorite folk music is Norwegian Folk music.
-- Uses iMachine while on tour. He uses a lot of virtual syncs, plugins and gear.
-- Uses the Apple watch to record audio of him singing / rapping for song ideas, while he drives. The car is where Mike gets the MOST ideas for songs.
-- If Mike doesn't do something creative, he goes stir-crazy. "I get unbearable. I'm TOTALLY unbearable."
-- Got his first cassette 4-track and sampler [and all that] at the age of 15. Had an Akai S 900; "Task M"(?) 4 track; Alesis HR 16 (little drum machine // uses it as his sequencer)
-Used to have a Calculator set beside it to count seconds, because the sequencer didn't have a loop; it relied on math.
"I'd have my snare and 1200 seconds of silence, and it'd bounce around and loop back. --By the way guys -- it was 12 BIT, and floppy disk."
-- Music Creating with LP: Mike said, "We call it a Meritocracy [not a democracy]. It's not just that you decide on something, it's that it's the BEST thing. And everyone has to leave their ego at the door and to really be honest about what's the best thing. We strive for unanimous, which is hard with 6 guys."
-- Enjoys watching NigaHiga and some Pewdiepie (Interviewer: You're a Pewdiepie fan? -- Mike: "I am a fan of trolling.")
-- Dir en Grey opened for Linkin Park for 2 nights; November 23rd and 24th of 2007 at Saitama, Japan.
-- Mike can't touch his shoulders; the closest he can get is about an inch. He doesn't know if it's because of his elbow or his shoulder.
-- One of his favorites artists (painters) is Antony Micallef. "I'm a HUGE fan of his. He's incredible."
-He has an original Antony Micallef painting in his home studio. (hanging above the couch).
-The painting on the wall with the guitar boat is by Conor Harrington.
-The painting on the wall (where the vocal booth hall exists), is by "Futura" a graffiti artist, he got that back in 2008.
-He has a hand-painted, traditional Japanese flag hanging on the same wall as Micallef's art. It's a vertical flag.
-- In the song "I. O. U." from Post Traumatic, there is a line: "'Cause even when I'm sleepin', eyes keep 'em open. Stripe across 'em both the color of your hemoglobin"
In an annotation, Mike explained, "All my close friends know this–and most have seen it–I literally sleep with my eyes open. They’re open a tiny bit, and I will watch people moving around the room. The result of this is that I have a red line across the middle of both eyes. It’s worse on days when I’ve gotten less sleep."
-- When working hard on a song, Mike will literally dream about it. He' ll wake up singing it and thinking about how to make it better.
-- In an interview during Fort Minor, Mike once said: "I'm not blood-related, but my lineage can be traced back to Tchaikovsky."
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the romantic period during the 19th century, whose works are among the most popular music in the classical repertoire.
