Shinoda Explains Why Iridescent

In an interview with MTV, Linkin Park vocalist Mike Shinoda explained why Iridescent was chosen to be remixed for the Transformers: Dark of the Moon soundtrack (video below).

"The 'Transformers' collaboration has been really fun for us. I mean, we grew up playing with the toys," Shinoda explained. "When we first got approached on the first one, we said yes based on the idea of taking that thing that we loved so much and bringing it to life in a modern way. As it's gone on, that's still a big part of it for us."

So when director Bay approached the band to contribute a song for the third film, Shinoda said the tune that came to mind right away was "Iridescent." It's been a fan favorite at live shows, even though it doesn't have the kind of bombastic sound that you'd expect for the battling-robots flick. "We put out the record in the late part of last year and even though it's never been a single up until this point, [when we played it live] you could really hear the singing pick up momentum during that song. It was just something that seemed a natural fit."

Though it's less of what Shinoda called an "in-your-face" kind of tune, he said the somber, hopeful tone of the song appealed to both the band and to Bay. "We loved that part of it when we were in the studio, but Michael actually loved pairing it with the movie because there's something that he feels it speaks to about the story line."