Under what circumstances did you contact Mike Shinoda?
There was a personal meeting behind it. It started with the fact that in March 2019 we performed with the members of my group at his Prague concert as a front band. We have stayed in touch ever since. He gave me personal contact, so it didn’t go through the managers.
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I was told that Shinoda chose the front band from five or six names. The Czech promoter of the concert included me among them. I thought it would be great if he chose us, but I let it go. And it worked out, Mike and his musicians chose us.
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At the last minute, I was approached to sing a duet with him, the song Make It Up As I Go, which she sings with K. Flay. I was preparing for it literally in a minute or twelve, but it turned out great on stage. After the performance, we talked about music in the locker room. Mike stood on the edge of the stage throughout our concert, watching us, so he was interested in our next plans. He also told us that he enjoys our music.
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I don’t even know how it happened anymore, but suddenly we talked about possible cooperation. After a few days, I wrote to him and thanked him once again for the opportunity to speak with him. I also wished him good luck at the next stops of the tour, which continued at the time. So far, I have not wanted to mention any cooperation. I didn’t get to that until later, at the beginning of 2020.
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Did he react positively?
He responded with an apology that he has some other activities and projects and that we will wait. The covid started, so nothing happened all of 2020.
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At the beginning of this year, I sent him a package of songs and he came up with the idea that he would choose one and produce it live on Twitch. He chose Lithium, and I agreed with his idea.
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What is Twitch?
It is a platform for live broadcasting of anything. It’s mostly used for the gaming industry, but Mike shows his art and graphics and decides to produce my song live. In front of those who care, he worked with her to give her the best possible shape.
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Did the song Lithium be created specifically for collaboration with Shinoda?
No. I wrote it in 2017 and its pre-production was done by my colleague and producer Ondřej Fiedler. I folded it all at the piano and soon the text fell out. It was supposed to be on my album Weird & Wonderful from 2020, but after recording and listening to it, we came to the conclusion that it would be too slow, so we eliminated it. If she came out then, she would look different than she does now.
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How would she be different?
Mike Shinoda changed the rhythm. He asked us for traces of individual instruments and songs so that he could work with the composition. He left some of Ondra’s production ideas and got rid of some. But in the middle of a broadcast on Twitch, he got the idea that he could totally change the rhythm.
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He said in that account: I don’t know if Lenny will kill me now, but I decided to dig through the whole rhythm. I have such a crazy idea …
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Do you like the idea?
It took me a long time to get used to that version. When you listen to a song in your head since 2017, and after three years, someone comes to change the rhythm in it, it’s complicated.
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But over time, I began to like it. At first, I wondered if it was because it was produced by Mike Shinoda, or if I really liked it. Eventually, I found myself excited about her.
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When Mike delivered the final product, he wrote that he was proposing to finish the live loop. I didn’t have the money in the budget anymore, so I took the savings and we went to the studio to record live parts of string instruments. That made the song complete.
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Did you record your singing until the end?
On the contrary, I sent it to Mike at the beginning. I filmed it at home, in my little studio. I’m not exactly a sound engineer, but I think there’s an authentic emotion in that singing.
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A video clip will soon appear with the song. Where did you shoot it?
In the Canary Islands. Director Ondřej Kudyn and I flew to Las Palmas and I thought he decided to shoot at an active volcano on the island of La Palma. But it was just a relationship of geographical names, Las Palmas is on the island of Gran Canaria.
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I was in the Canary Islands with my mom before, when I was three years old. I didn’t remember them much, but I have to say that there is an incredible range of visual possibilities in Gran Canaria. There is a desert like somewhere in Saudi Arabia, there are mountains that evoked American Nevada, there is a sea, it is just a colorful island. Ondra Kudyn had been there several times, so he had a look at the locations there and went for sure.
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Lenny pictured from a concert at the Karlín Forum in Prague in 2019, when she preceded Mike Shinoda.
Photo: Milan Malíček, Právo
When will you play the song live?
Already on December 9 in the Prague club Roxy. But it will be without live strings, due to the smaller stage we will have to use the opportunity to replace them with synthetic sounds. But I promise we will use the most plausible alternative.
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Are you planning a new album?
Yes, I’m working on it. I now have a so-called studio period, I really enjoy my stay in recording studios. First at home and also in Berlin, where I started going on holiday. These are my lucky places.
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I started working with the Dutch singer Remm in Berlin, we have already written something together. Of course, I also work with my permanent colleagues or, newly, with musician and producer Marcus Tran, who works with my partner Marpa.
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New songs are written or being created. But I’m already at the point where I need to say what I’m stuck in the lyrics. I would like a new record to be released next year.
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