Mike Shinoda Tells The Real Story Behind 'Breaking The Habit': "It's not about addiction"
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- Опубліковано 7 кві 2023
- Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park came and shared the true story behind their hit song "Breaking The Habit"
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So many people don't understand this band. They retroactively read all the lyrics as if it was Chester pouring out his specific experiences onto the page. But in reality, he didn't even write most of them.
True, some of they lyrics in this song were written long before Mike met Chester.
Yeah but what ppl fail to understand is that Chester gave these songs his own meaning
He gave the songs his own interpretation. How do u think he was able to show so much emotion?
the band i think is best described as a duality or multi angled. Each member of the band gave the songs and band something different from one another and it blended perfectly into a beautiful creation.
I still like to think Chester wrote many of his vocal parts. I find it weird Mike would write all of them for him, as they all feel very Chester.
My son is nonverbal autistic and he listens to this song on repeat for hours at a time. It hits different coming from his perspective and has helped me empathize with him more. With Apraxia, he literally never says what he means, the words just don't come out even though he knows what he wants to say. I could go on about each line of the whole song and how it relates to our experience, but when he rewinds and repeats the "i don't know why i instigate and say what i don't mean" line over and over again it makes me want to cry 😢
This song is one of my most favorite of all their songs. I never really think about why I like it so much, but now seeing your comment, I think it’s the same reason. That line also struck me and keeps playing in my head over and over, and yeah, I’m also autistic.
Mike is a ball of energy. He loved chester like all of us. But he got to know him better than anyone one could. I truly hope him and the band put a book out about them touring together.
I always interpreted the song as something about toxic traits or bad "habits" that we sometimes develop, that causes people to push their friends/family/significant other's away. I like how they pour different ideas into the song and it could be about a variety of things
Yes same
Me too
@G1 Mysterio that’s the beauty of music, you take the lyrics and create the narrative you want with them
ToXiC tRaItS
@@07foxmulder you’re probably toxic af
I read it as a song about suicide. The “habit” is being alive. “Clutching the cure” is the suicide method, contemplating the way out. “I’ll never be alright” is representative of how severe depression creates a core belief in you that there’s no hope and things will never get better. Perhaps I only read it because of how Chester went out, but it makes a lot of sense to me
That's honestly how I always saw the meaning too, and why it was always one of my faves from the band. "I don't know what I'm fighting for or why I have to scream/But now I have some clarity to show you what I mean/I'll never fight again/And this is how it ends" lyrics like that seem pretty self explanatory when you really read into them, and it really resonated with me when I first heard the song as a severely depressed 14-year old with suicidal thoughts. The song and lyrics capture those frustrated and hopeless feelings I had perfectly.
I thought I was the only one that heard it that way. ‘You all assume I’m safe hear in my room’.
It is.
“I’ll paint it on the walls cuz I’m the one that falls” can only be interpreted in one way. Splash.
I saw it specifically as a song about someone who decided to end their life because of whatever their habit might be. I think the habit itself is just general toxic behavior not defined by the song, if you're like chester maybe you see it as a drug addiction (since that's why he related to it.) For others it might be self harm, or maybe just mistreating others. Regardless, the narrator seems to think the only way they can stop hurting others is if they die
mike shinoda was the masterpiece that was hidden in plain sight for the biggest rock band in the world and people literally had no idea.......their own fucking record label tried to get him 86ed, that would have been warners supidest mistake would have ever made if it was allowed to happen
what does 86ed mean? removed from the band?
@@Nerv3Dyep
@@Nerv3D yes
86ed haha this guys been in the service industry
I love how their songs can mean so many different things and they never publicly said what each song was about in order to allow the fans to connect to them in their own way.
I'd always thought the song was about self-harm. I remember being a preteen and combing through every line to justify my interpretation, and honestly it was pretty easy to do. I think it really speaks to the talent of Mike's lyricism that these songs aren't just vaguely relatable to innumerable situations; you can hold them under a microscope and still have every word resonate with what you're specifically relating them to. It's almost like a bogart.
I did too, but don't forget in the music video for the song it portrayed the woman as a self harmer!
Me too, especially the references to being shut in your room and hurting. It just made sense. So many LP songs really struck me as a teen, it felt like exactly how I was feeling.
But you are so right, the songs speak to everyone no matter what we are going through
@@FoxFire4125 absolutely
@@sarasate89 Oddly enough, I've never seen the music video. I'm always moving around when I'm listening to music and this was one of those songs where I never got around to sitting down and paying attention to the video. Now I wonder if I'd seen it and forgot about it, maybe that colored my interpretation
@@FoxFire4125 The 'safe in my room' line was what made me sit down and try to analyze the song. I heard it and was like "oh, I _know_ what that's talking about"
In retrospect it's kind of funny that I was so sure of myself and ultimately just looking at my own situation and projecting lol
That's part of why they are so successful, all listeners can relate to the lyrics in one way or another.
Dave grohl said you sing a song to 60000 people and 60000 people sing in back for 60000 different reasons
Yep! Mike or Chester said so 1 time.
Mike Shinoda is a legend 🙌
Only after chester died right? Lol fake fans
Shame be got into NFTs and AI
@@NoahCanFB nah he was always a legend
@@NoahCanFB please don’t come with that negativity
@@NoahCanFB What are you even talking about? He's always been a legend with all his work with Linkin Park and Fort Minor. This has nothing to do with Chester's death you weirdo.
I know that feel of your friends "ghosting you" because they've found new friends but they try and come crawling back when you've made something of yourself 😆
If they ghosted you then they were never your friends to begin with real friends don't do that to each other
@@mthompson3509 Very true
@@mthompson3509 not unless you were a dick to that person. I left some friends behind because they were selfish users :/
@@Gio-m That's a very excellent point
ah yes, CRAWLNG IN MY SKIIIIIIIN
I feel like it’s also important as a listener to take the lyrics and apply them to your own personal experiences more than try to figure out what it means to the artists themselves. You interpret it how you need in that moment. And that’s why music is so powerful.
That part
Yes, Death of the Author definitely applies (or should do)
The thing he said about writing lyrics. Very accurate.
People project their own easiest, available, commonly thought about perspective on it. They are not at fault, of course. That's how it is.
That's what makes a song successful I think. Making people think of different things.
Also, most lyrics aren't written in one piece, rather they're put together of multiple pieces that were written at different points of time, possibly with different meanings in mind, but then you find they share a general theme that ties them together.
And yes, sometimes you just have some cool sounding lines and aren't even aware of why they just popped into your head right then. Sometimes you write the lyrics first and later discover what it was that inspired you to them, aka. what they actually mean.
At least that's my experience with writing lyrics and Mike's answer reminds me of just that.
@@LRM12o8 exactly. 100%
The evidence of their process is how drastically different their demo lyrics can be from the final versions. Go listen to the Faint demo and you can hear it's night and day.
All linkin park songs are open to interpretation
All songs are open to interpretation
All art is open to interpretation
Everything is open to interpretation
My butthole is open
To interpretation.
@@hessiankyojinSome songs are extremely obvious. Most Linkin park songs aren’t.
I'm totally baffled to hear that people thought it was a song about drugs!
Even before I knew what habit means, It seemed clear as day to me (despite my then very limited English skills) that this song was about someone trying to stop *instigating* fights with their loved ones because they can't help it not to take out their anger, pain and frustration on the innocent ones who still stick with them.
Maybe it just seems obvious to me because that's exactly what I was struggling with as a kid when I first listened to the song, but the lyrics do quite literally say that:
- the lyrical I is emotionally hurt ("memories consume, like opening the wound, I'm picking me apart again", "I hurt much more than anytime before")
- they start fights with others ("I don't know what's worth fighting for [...] I don't know why I instigate and say what I don't mean")
- they can't help it ("[Or why] I have to scream", "I had no options left again")
- they know they're in the wrong ("Inside I realize that I'm the one confused", "I don't know how I got this way, I know it's not alright", "['Cause] I'm the one at fault" )
- and (for the sake of completeness) that they want to stop this behavior of theirs ("I'll paint it on the walls [...] I'll never fight again" and of course literally saying "I'm breaking the habit" multiple times)
It’s amazing that in Linkin Park’s songs the core, the emotions are the same but stories can be different
And this is why many bands dont explain their songs😁😁
We can all fill the music to our desire. Breaking the Habit can fit so many situations like addiction, alcoholism, relationship abuse, etc.
Most of my life I've struggled with anger and stress, although not in a violent way more of a bottle it up and holding grudges.
This song always helped me manage that
That's kind of the beauty of a lot of Linkin Park songs: Lyrically, they tapped into a concept or feeling, but they were just vague enough to be universal to everyone.
Regardless of how this song was written or any of their songs were written, any fan of Linkin Park experiences or any fan of any band for that matter experiences different emotions based on the lyrics of a song. Some songs were specifically written to have meaning to have a purpose behind them and some songs were not. With that being said I give credit to the one person below : [SL] who said " All linkin park songs are open to interpretation". That's the truth for all of us. We all enjoyed their songs no matter what they were about, we all gave meaning to them with our own personal experiences as Mike & Chester did when they were writing them.
It's crazy that he wrote this song about being ghosted. When I was younger I had people in my life that I hung around with, and we weren't good for each other. We would do drugs together, waste all our time together, get in fights together, stop talking, then eventually get back together and repeat the cycle. So in a way, I had to "ghost" them to break the habit and change my life.
I feel like that's anything though. Whether you are getting your dopamine from smoking weed or playing frisbee golf you can't do the same thing forever and ever and not get bored eventually. Sometimes bad things just happen in people's lives whether it has to do with them or family and they end up attaching that to themselves like it's their fault when really life is a series of good and bad moments and not all of them have to do with doing drugs etc. Still drugs do change your brain chemistry so they can't be all that good. But they can give a different perspective which isn't always bad.
Well, parts of the lyrics anyway. Most songs have several meanings with one general theme tying the different peaces together.
It would be interesting to see exactly which lines Mike wrote with the experience of being ghosted in mind, and what the other parts were inspired by.
I guess "memories consume, like opening the wound / I'm picking me apart again", "I don't know what's worth fighting for", "I try to catch my breath again / I hurt much more than anytime before" and "I'll never fight again, and this is how it end" fit this story very well, but other lines don't quite, especially the ones that say the lyrical I is the one at fault.
I mean, they can all be interpreted in a way that makes them logical, but for the other lines, different Interpretation seem more likely.
Oh, and for the lines "you all assume / I'm safe here in my room / Unless I try to start again", I can't see at all how this would relate to being ghosted...
@@LRM12o8 To get a better sense of what Mike had in mind specifically, you should listen to the original demo that Mike brought to the band. Some of the lyrics are completely different and, to me, more easily relate back to what he discussed in this video. For example, the entire “safe here in my room” section is not present here, which seems to indicate that it was an addition from Chester.
ua-cam.com/video/zm8YU3N4w28/v-deo.html
The curious case is that we make that mistake because in an interview he said it himself, the same as Chazz who couldn't help start crying when he was recording the song.
What I love about this is how Mike explains music. Its meant to express feelings. Good feelings, bad feelings, happy feelings, sad feelings. The context is going to hit everyone different and mean different things for different people. But the feeling is what stays in tact universally.
Breaking the habit for me is about addiction and trying to break away from a toxic relationship. I feel both when I listen
I think it's about any bad habit in general and that each listener cqn relate to it with their own habits, for example sometimes I argue with people I love ( could be family friends or gf) so the " I don't know what we're fighting for or why I have to scream" part hits me the most
@@andresnavarro5978 yeah I love that part, Im glad they wrote about general feelings cause it makes it feel like any human can relate at least a something they've made
I love how this band had such an impact on so many people. Genuinely incredible, touching music.
"I thought I understood what the words meant, thought I knew the meaning behind"
I could listen to Mike talk about his craft endlessly. He’s so thoughtful about all of it.
Absolutely love that song and I always knew Mike wrote the lyrics and Chester just nailed the vocals.. Mad kudos for this! 🤟
Did Zach dirty at the end with that pause 😂
"Clutching my cure" "I'll paint it on the wall"
Mike definitely wrote way more songs in Linkin Park than Chester but Chester is also a songwriter and wrote multiple songs for LP like crawling which Mike credited Chester for, One step closer, My December, Valentine's Day, The Messenger and others. He also wrote separate lyrics for points of authority that were combined with Mike's lyrics into one song and outside it too like his Death by Sunrise project and Grey Daze, his OG band. As far as I know he wrote all the songs there.
Everyone who watches this, do yourself a favor and pause the video on the very last frame 😂
Thats the face you make when you suck good weewee
LFMAO that face dude😂😂😂😂
I really loved growing up listening to this music like it was a template. I really appreciated their ability to hit really deep on points while keeping it broad and open.
Mike has a Solo song called *"What The Words Meant"*
This song really puts everything into perspective
When different people can relate to a song in different ways, it's good lyrics. There's some sort of magic about those lyrics that can have different meanings and they all make sense.
I like that about theyre songs, the feeling and interpretation of the songs can mean drifferent things to different people.
When I was a pre teen and I'm 27 now I thought that breaking the habit was about suicide. It was just the way that song was written that made me think that
Same here, suicide or self harm is what I thought this song was about.
Yep. To me, it's an extremely dark song. 1) the person knows that they are toxic to others. 2) they have little self worth. 3) they don't see things ever getting better. 4) they have concluded that if they kill themselves, this 'habit' will be broken
@@dgthe3 sounds like me. Sadly
I’m 27 too, and went to listen to it the other day. I realise now it’s about taking accountability or reaching a breakthrough and being a new person.
Mike seems like such a down to earth wholesome chill dude
I always thought the song was about being depressed and angry and not knowing how to cope with those feelings so he is lashing out instead and regretting it later.
Need to listen to it again.
Breaking the habit is one of my favorites by them. Just listen to the instrumental it's amazing
I always connected to the song a lot through my extreme anger issues as a child/teen. Its a song that really connects to a lot of toxic traits in general, whether or not its written to be.
This is an awesome look into the early process of LP
Hearing it live in 2017 especially the acapella ending really tears you up
And that's why songs can carry layers of meanings.
I always saw it as a cutting yourself from a toxic relationship. "I don't know what's worth fighting for or why I have to scream but now I have some clarity to show you what I mean" always seemed to me like when someone's just constantly being argued with and belittled and taking it on the chin then finally just saying enough is enough and moving themselves on
Hearing Breaking the Habit slapped me so hard in the face with emotions because I swear this song is so BPD-coded its insane.
This is just how I see the song, though! Interpretations are fun and exciting to exchange! Music is so wonderful.
you need to check out the underground demos.. like what he said I assumed was the normal thing for them. they made a melody and sometimes some lyrics, then they mixed ideas and change some, but it's beautiful to be able to hear the unfinished work, that sometimes feels as good or better depending on your appreciation of their music overall. I love drawing (breaking the habit demo) at times even more than the actual song, because the demo is only instrumental.
When you listen to the lyrics again under Mike’s original perspective, it does also make sense in a way
I always thought the lyrics meant "breaking the habit" of living '-'
The "bridge" section helps to develop that idea.
"I'll never fight again
And this is how it ends"
This is the greatest thing about the music that the music by itself is a language of emotions and feelings. Music doesn't need specific situational meaning, because it has an abstract core meaning which can be related to many things at the same time.
I love mike
That’s what I love music - everyone can have a different experience & meaning with it. In many ways it’s pointless to try and know the EXACT meaning of a song.
To me this song will be always about breaking the habit of living, and their musical video for this song goes along with that concept too.
Is it, it's plain obvious. The artwork. Chester literally screaming it. To say they didn't know what it was about is only lying to themselves.
My favorite band does some similar things. They’ll write a song that’s a consistent story, but tell it from different perspectives of the people involved.
Ghosting from a close friend and how much that hurts and confuses and rankles the ghostee is something we don't talk enough about as a culture.
I noticed today that from the inside and breaking the habit loop perfectly with their intros/outros
Mike is just an absolute powerhouse!
The magic about earlier LP songs are that they are very open to interpretation from people with different mindsets
What an absolute artist.
Our own experiences will color how we interpret something. I always interpreted Breaking The Habit as being about a toxic relationship that someone couldn't get out of.
crazy that this song was in development for 6 years
The beauty of music
A good friend loves you in both rags and riches. A true friend will never ask about your attire.
This was a rumor that started flying around circa Chester's death. ODs were approaching an all-time high, Recovery was in Renaissance mode with celebrities endorsing 12-Step Programs and every song about anything was suddenly about addiction. To me the song was always more broadly about overcoming a vulnerability.
GOAT
Each Linkin Park song’s meaning changes based on your own experiences at that time. Breaking the Habit was always about addiction to me growing up and Chester dealing with it, now that I’m older it reminds me of my divorce. I’m “breaking the habit” of our love
Meteora is my favorite album with hybrid theory. Gave me life when i was suffering. Tbh i really felt/predicted chest would d when he entered 40s and when i almost finished med school.
The dude in the beginning has a similar attire to Mike’s from the Breaking The Habit video 😵💫
Anyway, the way I’ve always interpreted this song was self-sabotaging:
-You’re convinced you have nothing to live/fight for.
-There’s this never ending cycle of instigation and not thinking before you speak.
-You consistently find yourself talking/yelling over others without hearing them out.
-You know there’s something wrong inside, but can’t seem to find a solution.
-Self-Loathing. You’ve given up. It’s all your fault. It’s over. End of discussion.
Good clip, wish the title wasn’t such clickbait, but here we are lol
We still don't know what BTH meant for Mike though. Should have followed up on that with a question.
Along with the animated music video that was made for this, even as a young kid, I always presumed it was about suicide and depression.
I don't know what's worth fighting for
I don't know why I instigate and say what I don't mean
I don't know how I got this way, I'll never be alright.
Breaking the habit is the character saying "I'm not helping our relationship and I keep messing things up habitually, so I'm going to fix it permanently".
"the habit" being his perceived faults and worthlessness.
Though I love the song, it's pretty dark, especially now.
Take for example the song "Carnival of Rust" by Poets of the Fall, I've heard at least 10 different meanings of the same song depending who you ask
Personally speaking I don't know any linkin park fan who thought it was about drug addiction
we all interpret these songs differently. sometimes they find new meaning after we have had new experiences. for better or worse
I always just assumed it was about fighting depression. Never thought about it being about an addiction
Not fighting it per se, more like succumbing to it.
I think that it’s amazing that this comment section proves is that songs like this have a different and personal connection to everyone in a different way. I take this song in the way of that no matter what I do I have to check myself. My habit being depressed or negative for no reason, so I have to “Break The Habit”. Such a amazing song.
🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐🐐
its about breaking the habit of living by ending it.
Mike is interesting because he just enjoys words like even without meaning. That’s how i like rap
No matter how many times they deny it this song is about the S-word for sure. It’s always been obvious but understandably they could never officially confirm this.
It's beyond obvious, clearly a lot of these false fans never even watched the music video.
❤❤❤❤❤
I'd say most generally, it would be described as a song about indulging in self-destructive coping behaviour
I always thought that Breaking the Habit was about self harm.
Blame the music video
I thought the same and I hoped no one in the band related to that concept but I know unfortunately some listeners will
that happened to me in middle school..i statred smoking alot of bud and stopped talking to me friends. It wasnt cause i didnt like them i just had really bad social anxiety and i just would always think they wanted nothing to do with me anymore
I never think of this song as about drug addiction.
thats interesting that he would say his friend stopped talking to him because that happened to me like 2 months ago.. i literally bought my friend some gifts, i asked him his address (to send them to his house) and he didn't answer me, but he still talked to me about other things.. i let about a week pass and i asked him for his address 2 more times and he still didn't answer me.. but now he's getting quieter and eventually he's not talking to me at all about anything.. then maybe 2 weeks after that i realized he even unfriended me on playstation network.. the stuff i bought him is just sitting in my house
ohmyGod my brain has just exploded whattt!!!!!!
I thought it was about substance addiction, I was a crackhead and the song and video made all that sense to me
Interesting. I always interpreted this song as a story about self harm and suicide. Not sure what that says about me. A bit scary. Something to think about.
That's probably because of the music video.
@@RichardsLPStreetSoldier Can't speak for the Meo370Z, but I drew that same conclusion when I bought the album within weeks of it's release. And considering the fact that Breaking the Habit was released over a year after the album came out, I'd bet on a lot of people forming their opinions on it from their own listening instead of the music video.
Good art will have different interpretations to different people
Well we all have our background that gives the songs a certain meaning.
For me breaking the habit was a song about doing anything in order to break the habits of misery and taking control. Willingly shatter the idea of self in order to change.
And that's basic what most of Linkin park's songs has promoted for me. Shatter my ego and become hollow inside so that I can be in control even in my darkest hours.
This is pretty fucking cool.
breaking the habit is about the "fight" trauma response.
The vocal melody in the chorus always reminded me of Backstreet Boys - Larger That Life 😆
Great song nonetheless. ❤ LP
Y'all not ready for this truth but people only love shinoda so much now cuz chester passed.
Mike is the writer, chester is mostly the voice. Sadly people don't get that.
Nicest guy in alt rock.
But the music video also clearly depicts such a story about depression