Linkin Park Talk Next Album From Moscow's Red Square

LP's performance of 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon' single 'Iridescent' in historic landmark airs Friday at 8:55 p.m. on all MTV channels.
By James Montgomery, with reporting by Josh Horowitz

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda and Chester Bennington (file)

Linkin Park's voluminous A Thousand Suns was a departure, to say the very least. And, from the sound of things, they're getting ready to depart once again with a brand-new album that's already in its infancy.

At least that's what Linkin Park told MTV News in Moscow, where they'll perform the Suns song — and lead single from the "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" soundtrack — "Iridescent" on Friday from the iconic Red Square, in conjunction with the film's world premiere (a performance that will air on MTV, MTV2, mtvU, VH1 Classic and Palladia at 8:55 p.m. ET/PT). Turns out they've been working on new material for months now, and things are finally beginning to take shape.

"We're always writing. It's hard to explain to people in simple terms what it means to us; the way we do it is a little weird and unique," LP's Mike Shinoda said. "We kind of write it and record it at the same time; we can do it on the road at all times. I mean, I was in my hotel room throwing something together at, like, 2 a.m. But what it takes to go from one of those demos to a finished song, I mean, we really obsess over it. It takes a while."

And to that end, Linkin Park said there's still no firm release date for the new album (which will once again be produced by Rick Rubin), but they do know that it will see the light of day sooner rather than later, which, for them, would be yet another departure.

"We do have a really great head start. We've got some great music, some good ideas. The creativity has continued to flow for us for the last few years, consistently," Chester Bennington said. "So, we do plan on having this record out much quicker than what we've turned out in the past — that was one of our goals — and I feel like we're in a really good place now."

Of course, the next logical question would be: What does the new album sound like? And while LP weren't about to give up all the details ("Right now, it sounds like blips and bleeps and pieces," Bennington laughed), they're adamant that it will most certainly sound different than any of their previous efforts ... mostly because that's been the goal with every record they make.

"The fans, what they always ask is, 'What's it going to sound like?' " Shinoda said. "And, for us, when we go into a record, from the beginning until now, the attitude has been 'We're going to challenge ourselves, and try to be better songwriters, try and come up with something that's original.' And we can't say, 'Oh, it's going to sound like one of our other records,' because the goal is actually not to do that."

Linkin Park's Red Square performance will premiere Friday, June 24, at 8:55 p.m. ET/PT on MTV, MTV2, mtvU, VH1 Classic and Palladia.

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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1666401/linkin-park-a-thousand-suns-album.jhtml

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