Post Traumatic

Post Traumatic is the debut solo studio album by American musician Mike Shinoda. It was released on June 15, 2018. The album was announced on March 29, 2018, along with the release of two new songs to promote the album, "Crossing a Line" and "Nothing Makes Sense Anymore".
Shinoda himself serves as the primary producer of the album, but with additional production on few tracks by BASECAMP, Andrew Dawson, and Boonn. Linkin Park guitarist Brad Delson, blackbear, K.Flay, Deftones lead vocalist Chino Moreno, Machine Gun Kelly, Ross Golan, Kevin Hissink (Boonn), and Jordan Benjamin (grandson) helped writing a few songs whereas most of them were written by Shinoda.
Following the eponymous EP, the album contains material Shinoda also recorded most of the instruments by himself, but additional instruments were played by Linkin Park drummer Rob Bourdon, Darren King, and Boonn, written by Shinoda after the death of his Linkin Park bandmate Chester Bennington on July 20, 2017. The first three songs from the EP are included on the album.
Background
On January 25, 2018, Shinoda debuted as a solo artist with the release of the Post Traumatic EP, consisting of three tracks focusing on his feelings after the death of his Linkin Park colleague and longtime friend Chester Bennington, who died by suicide on July 20 of the previous year. Precisely because of the issues addressed in the songs, Shinoda decided to publish the album in his name, without using the previous pseudonym, Fort Minor.
In early March, he unexpectedly announced that he was working on his first solo album, inviting fans to meet him that day in Los Angeles to hear a new song and to join a music video. The album was finally announced on March 29, which includes the three tracks on the EP, and according to a statement by the artist, "It’s a journey out of grief and darkness, not into grief and darkness. If someone went through something like that, I hope you feel less alone. If it has not happened, I hope you feel grateful."
In May 2018, Shinoda unveiled the tracklist, which includes collaborations with Blackbear, Grandson, K.Flay, Machine Gun Kelly, and Deftones frontman Chino Moreno.
Composition
The album begins with the three songs released on the Post Traumatic EP as the "grieving or lamenting" segment of the album. As described by Shinoda in an interview with KROQ, the album "goes from Nine Inch Nails vibes to N.W.A vibes." Some of the music is dark and grieving music while other music is upbeat and about different subjects. In an interview with Vulture Shinoda describes,
“	In the beginning, I didn’t care what I made as long as I was doing something. Sometimes it would just be for fun, and then eventually I was making some serious stuff about what was going on with me, and those became the first three songs I put out. Since then, I’ve kept going and realized that, since grief is such a personal thing, this had to be a solo album. I’m basically trying to sum up in the most truthful way the things that are happening in my head as I go. Some days that’s really dark, and some days it’s totally not. Hopefully as I go, the lighter days become more frequent.	”
— Mike Shinoda
Writing and Recording
Shinoda wrote most all of the music on the album himself. Whereas songs like "About You", "Make It Up as I Go", "Lift Off" and "Running from My Shadow" were written with co-writers including Brad Delson, Blackbear, K.Flay, Chino Moreno, Machine Gun Kelly, Ross Golan, Kevin Hissink and Jordan Benjamin. A leftover song from Linkin Park's last album One More Light, "Place to Start", features percussion from band member Rob Bourdon. Darren King also provided percussion for "Hold It Together". Boonn produced and provided additional guitars for "Running from My Shadow". The album, primarily being produced by Shinoda, was also provided with additional production on few tracks by BASECAMP, Andrew Dawson and Boonn.
Shinoda also stated recording this album helped him in many ways but also was a difficult thing to do. As he explained to Kerrang!,
“	A week after Chester passed, the idea of the studio was scary. And it wasn’t just the idea of attempting to make a song and being overwhelmed by those memories. There’s another layer of fear for artists in this situation that is, ‘What if I can’t make anything good ?‘ Those hurdles start to accumulate, whether that’s fear or depression or the chaos of the outside world, it creates an echo chamber of anxiety. That was one of the things for me, I needed to make some stuff - whether it was usable or not didn’t matter. I was making bad ‘90s grunge songs, making bad rap songs… and then I made something good. I’d make all these things with no intention of putting them out, but just diving into some of the ideas that were already in my head.	”
— Mike Shinoda
The music was recorded at Shinoda's home studio The Stockroom and at The Village Studios in Los Angeles.