I made personal music because I felt like I had to

Chester’s death. The rest of the album is a perfect mix of his musical talents combined with a searing honesty, making the final product poignant and extremely powerful.

Why release it as Mike Shinoda and not Fort Minor? “It was logical, it was less emotional,” he says emphatically. “The emotional part was that I knew I was making personal music because I felt like I had to. I felt if I was going to write a song, it would be stupid to write about something else and I also felt like it was helping me sort through things. “Also it was helping fans understand where I was and where I might be going. With all of that said, it’s a very personal process and in choosing between Fort Minor and my own name, I feel like the more accurate thing is to use my name.” Then there’s the title. “It’s post traumatic, not traumatic. So, what do you do after something like that happens?” he says. “The experience of going through all of this stuff, felt unique. People lose someone, you know, that happens. But when you do it in a public way, when you lose someone who is one of the pillars of the thing you’ve built for many years... I was defining myself as a founder of Linkin Park – this is what I do and who I am. When people think of Linkin Park they think of me and vice versa.

“And so, if I’m asking myself, are we going to play music anymore, then I’m asking myself what is my identity?

“These are the types of questions that were happening in the beginning. I was finding answers to certain ones or at least narrowing it down. And where I ended up today, it’s not all clear, it’s not like I have answers to all those things, but I definitely have more of a sense of it all than I had a few months ago.”

In August he will take to the stage at Reading and Leeds festival.

“I’m going to add some people to the stage, not anybody you know, it’s not like an all-star line-up and I’m not bringing Linkin Park out, but I’ll add a couple of layers just to round up the experience and make it a little more live,” he teases.

Music aside, Mike is also a talented artist. He explains with passion the process of looking at artwork from afar, to provide perspective, and how that can be applied to music.

“You have somebody else come into the room and listen to it with you, and hear it through their ears. I don’t even need their opinion, I will be hyper-critical when another human being comes into the room.

“It doesn’t matter if it is a six-year-old with no idea, it could be one of my kids and they could love everything I do, but the second I play it with them in the room, I will hear the song differently and I will find something wrong with it.”

For this album though, that might prove a near-impossible task.