Fort Minor: Live In KL

Live In Kuala Lumpur!
Proudly Presented by Hotlink!

Lushington Entertainments and Jojo Entertainment are proud to announce Fort Minor's first dates in Asia, which will kick off at the Indoor Arena, Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club on Tuesday, 28th February 2006 in Kuala Lumpur.

"It's called Fort Minor, instead of my name because there are a bunch of other people involved in the project. But I only wanted to work with family and friends; people that I feel are really close to me and we see eye-to-eye. Besides that, Fort has a militant meaning and Minor in music is a smaller, darker, sadder note, so the name is a reflection of the music." Mike Shinoda

How do you thrive in the shadow, substantial and arena-sized, of a group that has sold over 35 million albums? If you're Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, the answer is: shine your own light. Shinoda is half the vocal firepower of the multi-platinum, Grammy-winning band Linkin Park, trading diaphragmatic diatribes with singer Chester Bennington and infusing the searing alternative rock with equally intense hip-hop. From album to album, Shinoda and his bandmates have garnered a reputation based on their appetite for striking new ground. On his first outing alone, Shinoda is ready to show people that he is still hungry.

Shinoda's rap roots have always had to share space with other elements-until now. Fort Minor is a wholly unique, unadulterated hip hop album, owing as much to Shinoda's polished lyricism as his musical adeptness. The variety of themes, styles, and moods he creates make this "side project" likely to do much more than simply satisfy existing LP fans; it threatens to expose Shinoda as a rap devotee who is as at home in hip-hop as he is in the cross-genre hybrid of Linkin Park.

The Rising Tied, the much-anticipated debut of Shinoda's Fort Minor, is released by Machine Shop Recordings/Warner Bros., on November 22, 2005. Executive Produced by Jay-Z (who collaborated with Linkin Park on 2004's Collision Course), The Rising Tied is produced and mixed by Shinoda, who wrote every track, played nearly every instrument and "slaved over every detail."

While Shinoda chose the name Fort Minor to reflect the dynamic between opposites - something big and strong vs. something small and slight (or musically dark) - the name of the album is also a play on words. All of the guest artists on The Rising Tied, says Shinoda, are coming up together in the music world. Among them are Machine Shop acts Styles of Beyond and Holly Brook, as well as Common, John Legend, Kenna and Black Thought (of The Roots), among others.

While remaining an essential shard in the mosaic of Linkin Park, the desire to create songs that resonated with his youth as a hip-hop producer and MC led Shinoda to write, then record, a progression of hip-hop-rooted songs. As they began to coalesce into an album bearing Shinoda's solo imprimatur, he also felt it was essential to keep it "organic," making his own samples and breakbeats with live instruments, and avoiding sequenced keyboards. The Rising Tied, channeling some of the signature dynamics and frustration of Linkin Park, reveals a more personal range of themes slagged inside a distinctly hip-hop crucible.

Not to say that it's an entirely homogenized collection. On the track "Believe Me," excerpts from a decaying relationship tremble over a seismic breakbeat, infused with Latin percussion and a cello-bass line that reflects Shinoda's love of classic rock. "High Road," bouncing to Billy Joel-like piano progressions, adopts a humorous tone even as it gives the finger to someone who once told him to "stick to keyboards, don't rap."

Clearly, the most unique song of this album - or any album, for that matter - is a rap-flavored recollection of the U.S. internment of Japanese citizens during World War II. "Kenji," featuring the voices of Shinoda's aunt and father who were interned in the U.S. during the 1940s, paints a bleak picture of those who lost everything after being thrown into what were known then, euphemistically, as "relocation camps."

With Fort Minor and The Rising Tied, Shinoda appreciated the chance to tackle a new theme outside the normal subject matter of Linkin Park.

Tackling big goals seems to be Shinoda's modus operandi. Notwithstanding an expectation to pursue a career in the visual arts, Mike decided instead to become a musician while working toward his B.A. in Illustration from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Having already taken ten years of piano lessons, he first began to work as a hip-hop MC and producer. In the mid-1990s Shinoda joined with guitarist Brad Delson, turntablist Joseph Hahn, drummer Rob Bourdon, bassist Phoenix and vocalist Chester Bennington to form Linkin Park. The band's debut, Hybrid Theory, became the worldwide #1-selling album of 2001, earning a Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance ("Crawling") and various other awards. Its subsequent albums - Reanimation, Meteora and Live in Texas - have continued to widen the band's fan base and critical acclaim; all together the catalogue has sold upwards of 35 million albums. On July 2 in Philadelphia, Linkin Park performed as part of the African aid/debt relief effort Live 8, to a live audience estimated at nearly one million people.

Don't' miss this Golden Opportunity of this decade's most dynamic and remarkable band in A one-day only exclusive concert, proudly presented by HOTLINK and supported by Red Bull, Hard Rock Café Kuala Lumpur, Hitz Fm, StarWorld and Channel [V].

Hotlink will be providing FREE Shuttle Services between the Bangsar PutraLine LRT station to Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club on concert date, from 5.00pm to 8.15pm, at intervals of 15 to 20 minutes.

The return shuttle services from Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club will be from 10.00pm to 11.15pm.
Places available are on a first-come basis. Look out for the colourful Hotlink Shuttle Coaches (A) and (B) when you come off the Bangsar LRT station on the Bangsar Utama side of the station.
Fort Minor's debut album 'The Rising Tied' is out in stores now from Warner Music Malaysia.