Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda – HuffPost 7.29.13

Mike Ragogna: What advice do you have for new artists?

Mike Shinoda: I always tell new artists that the key to their success as they’re beginning is to not worry about other people helping them out. It’s really that they have the power to get their music to the next step completely on their own at this point in time, whether it’s talking about making the music, recording the music, playing the music live or just spreading the word about the music, there are so many tools out there, especially online, for people to just make amazing stuff and they don’t really need anybody’s help. That’s not a knock against the label, I think the label can be really useful once you’ve already established something but don’t look to some label or some producer or some deal to get you to the next step, especially if you’re doing it just to get famous. I never related to that. To me, it’s always been about making great art and being able to stand behind that at the end of the day.