In a recent interview with Houston radio DJ Theresa Rockface, Mike Shinoda expressed his opinion about the use of hologram technology in the music industry. He explained his pessimism about performing with Chester Bennington‘s hologram and stated he believed the late vocalist was still a sensitive topic.
Avatar and hologram technology developed considerably in the last few years and have been used to revive dead musicians for live performances or to revisit the old days. For example, ABBA has recently used avatar technology to recreate the concerts they held in their youth. So, Linkin Park fans were curious about the possibility of Chester Bennington playing with the band again through this technology years after his death.
While we don’t know the other members’ opinions on the matter, Mike Shinoda stated that he strongly opposed the idea since Bennington was still a sensitive subject, and as far as he was concerned, they would all have various feelings about how they represented him. In the interview, the musician also added that he found this type of technology and its use in the music industry ‘creepy‘ although he understood why people liked it.
Shinoda expressed his perspective on the topic as follows:
“Those are creepy. Even if we weren’t talking about us, if we weren’t talking about Chester, which is… that’s a very sensitive subject, and we would have our feelings about how we would represent that… For me, that’s a clear no; I’m not into that. But even as a viewer of, like, just a fan of another band — like I heard ABBA, for example, they’re doing a hologram show, and they’re still alive. Then you get to have an opinion about it based on, like… They’re all still here, and yet they wanna do it this way because they wanna transport you back to that moment in time where those songs were new, and it was whatever era it was. I get that; I see that. I’m not positive; even under those circumstances, I’m not positive I personally would buy a ticket to the show. But [other people] would. That’s fine.”
Based on Mike Shinoda’s approach toward hologram technology, its use, and his feelings about Chester Bennington, it seems unlikely to see Linkin Park performing with any technological image of the late vocalist. The band’s rhythm guitarist wants to keep his distance from this sensitive topic.
