CHVRCHES Drop Three-Hour Linkin Park Spoof Video

It’s not exactly the musical feud anyone expected but Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda and Glasgow trio CHVRCHES are somewhat embroiled in a minor squabble, that all began when Shinoda dismissed CHVRCHES for making “Disney commercial music.”

A few days ago in an interview the Scottish band called “bullshit” on his “pointless dig” with CHVRCHES’ singer Lauren Mayberry shrewdly pointing out, “it’s not a coincidence that his band has a record to sell and he mentions several bands that people are writing about.” Adding, “I don’t really like being called a sell-out by the guy who wrote the music for the MTV VMA’s. Just saying.”

Now the band have cheekily apologised for the comments, in the form of a three-hour spoof video. The clip, titled Mike Shinoda 3 hr Chvrches Megamix, features an image of Shinoda with a speech bubble saying “I love Chvrches” all as My Sharona, dubbed as Mike Shinoda, plays on loop. Chvrches tweeted out the video along with the message, “Sorry mike ;-)”.

The comments that sparked this whole scenario were made by Shinoda during an interview with Noisey earlier this year. “There’s so much music out there,” he told the publication. “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. And I’m confused by that.”

The Linkin Park vocalist has since taken to his personal website in his own attempt to clear things up. “As we released The Hunting Party,” he wrote. “I spoke on various occasions about the inspiration of the album. Part of the answer is that the album is a response to a surplus of danceable, safe, indie-pop music that’s taken over ‘rock’.”

“A year ago, we knew the indie-pop thing was a style that our band is capable of making,” he continued. “But we were not interested in pursuing it. Why? Because there is a LOT of it out there. It seemed far more exciting for us to go against the grain.”

Aside from his assertion that Linkin Park is firstly capable of making an “indie pop” album and that said album would not be interesting enough, Shinoda went on to blame media sensationalism and the existence of “click bait” for making “a fight where there is none.”

“I felt like the genre as a whole was suffering from a surplus of bands in that vein – bands that, in many cases, came after the ones I mentioned. And I made it abundantly clear that my comment was not a dig,” he continued. “I said their names because I was telling the story of how our album began: not because I hate that style music, but because I hate the volume of it.”

In her interview Mayberry concluded that Shinoda’s opinion is “not one I would worry about hugely”. “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.”

If you’ve got a spare three hours, check out Chvrches’ Mike Shinoda megamix below, followed by their interview with Swiss TV channel Joiz.

Watch: Mike Shinoda 3hr CHVRCHES MEGAMIX

Watch: CHVRCHES respond to Mike Shinoda

Photos: CHVRCHES – Metro Theatre, Sydney 04/02/14

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