"There were a few people in the band who were like, ‘Hey, stupid, this is a big deal. It’s Michael Bay, don’t be an idiot.'" How one of Linkin Park's biggest songs solidified their place as an essential part of the Transformers film franchise

When Linkin Park were first approached to appear on the soundtrack for Michael Bay's live-action Transformers, they were in the middle of a huge upheaval of who and what they wanted to be.

Their career up until 2007 had been defined by their position at the peak of nu-metal's powers. From the influential industrial grit that made up 2000's Hybrid Theory to the more refined by no less seething Meteora in 2004, they had gone from pissed off upstarts to one of the biggest bands in the world. Though when it came to piecing together their third full-length album, the tides were turning. The genre that they had called home was very much a thing of the distant past, and they knew it.

"We had exhausted that sound," Mike Shinoda admitted during the band's official documentary on the making of Minutes To Midnight. "It was easy for us to replicate, it was easy for other bands to replicate and we just needed to move on."

"What we were preparing ourselves for was to try and redevelop the sound of the band from every aspect, which is kind of a scary thought," Chester Bennington added, clearly shaken by the pressure that comes with a complete upheaval of everything that you have represented. The result of that searching led to a record that is as varied as it is volatile. From the crushing intent of Given Up to the tear-stained flourishes of Leave Out All The Rest, the party-starting thrills of Bleed It Out to the mournful atmosphere of Shadow Of The Day, it is a record that weights emotion, both sides of the spectrum, firmly on its sleeve.

And in the middle of all of that was What I've Done.

A song that despite how big it ended up being was actually the last piece of the album to be written and recorded. In many ways, it was born from frustration, a realisation that after a year of prodding and poking at the album's other tracks that something was still missing. Though pressure always produces diamonds and from Mike's home studio to a return to NRG Studios, following the previous bout of recording taking place at Rick Rubin's space in Laurel Canyon, the final piece was conjured in record time.

"We spent a long time on the other songs, and we decided we needed one more to round out the album and to sum up everything we put into this record musically," Mike explained during an episode of Stripped from 2007. "And that's a real challenge, to say, 'Everything you've done right, in the last year, every song that's taken 3, 6, 9 months to write... do another one in like 2 weeks.' It was a stressful, pressure thing. I feel like the guys stepped up and it came together in about a week and a half."

And off the back of all of this soul-searching, of summing up the feeling of figuring out exactly who they wanted to be moving forward, an opportunity came up that spoke to the kids they used to be.

What I've Done (Official Music Video) [4K Upgrade] - Linkin Park - YouTube

Watch On

Michael Bay was first brought on by Steven Spielberg to direct a live-action Transformers movie in 2005, who was serving as an executive producer on the project. By the time that 2007 rolled around and the soundtrack was being put together, Bay approached the band asking if they would be interested in being included.

Though the wide-eyed wonder that comes with being associated with something that you spent your childhood playing with, Mike was sceptical about what the result on the big screen would be.

"I was a little on the fence just because I was like, ‘What is it going to be like’?' he recently admitted to Jack Coyne on the Track Star Podcast. "I was kind of like, ‘This could be kind of corny,’ and we’re in the middle of making our record, and I just wanted to focus on this. I don’t want this distraction of this other thing."

The first to admit that he doesn't always have the full perspective on things outside of his own artistic remit, it took the rest of the band to make him realise just how huge the opportunity was.

"I think there were a few people in the band who were like, ‘Hey stupid, this is a big deal. It’s Michael Bay, don’t be an idiot’," he continued with a laugh. "They showed us a cut of the movie, a couple of semi-finished frames with the robots and then a bunch of stuff where it looked like they were made out of clay. The whole screen was grey but you could see them fighting or talking. And we were like, ‘Oh, this is going to be so sick’."

Taking pride and place at the conclusion of the film, the ticking intro serving as a backdrop to a stirring speech from none other than Optimus Prime, it's a track that perfectly suits the atmosphere of the finale. The idea that things will never be the same again after this moment, and to try and return to the way things once were is impossible. In the same way that Autobots have to get used to their new life on Earth, the band were coming to terms with the new world that they had created for themselves.

"Joe [Hahn] came up to Mike and me and asked us to take the whole idea of Minutes to Midnight and apply that to how the band has changed," Chester told MTV in 2007. "So, in a way, it’s us saying goodbye to how we used to be…The lyrics in the first verse are, ‘In this farewell, there’s no blood, there’s no alibi,’ and right away, you’ll notice that the band sounds different: The drums are much more raw, the guitars are more raw and the vocals aren’t tripled. It’s just us out there …. and that’s how Rick Rubin wanted it."

New Divide (Official Music Video) [4K Upgrade] - Linkin Park - YouTube

Watch On

Two years later, and another Transformers film would be nearing completion, and this time, following just how successful What I've Done ended up being for both the movie and the band, LP were asked to work on something original for it. That would become New Divide, and if they thought the turnaround for What I've Done was quick, they hadn't seen anything yet.

“New Divide” was tough because, being a song for a big summer movie, it had a tight deadline," Mike admitted to Total Guitar in 2009. "To be honest, the movie people had other bands they were considering in the beginning; all were successful bands worthy of having a song teamed with this movie. We were constantly under the time pressure to show Michael Bay and his team that our song would be the best one. Once we delivered it and they came back with a positive response, it felt we had won a race."

That race started with Mike penning four different demos all named after different names associated with the franchise; Optimus, Bumblebee, Starscream and Megatron. Megatron would turn out to be the pick of the bunch, seeing the band take to the studio and start piecing it together. Being able to more closely write about the actual goings on in the film - in this case the ever-increasing divide between former allies, that being the human race and the Transformers - it also meant that the sound of song could work through rather than during one particular moment.

That also meant a lot to the film's overall score too. Working alongside composer Steve Jablonsky and producer Hans Zimmer, New Divide was interpreted in several different iterations, meaning that the DNA of song was able to run through the whole feature.

"[We] created a song that we felt fit the spirit of the movie and the characters and also obviously stayed true to the spirit of the band," he told Billboard. "I’ve never tried to write music to visuals. It’s a type of working that’s new to us, and it’s really fun."

Iridescent [Live in Red Square 2011] - Linkin Park - YouTube

Watch On

The third and final time that the band and Bay would collaborate together would come as the third film in the franchise was unveiled. That would be Dark Of The Moon, and the song that would be appear on it would be Iridescent, an album track that features on the band's 2010 full-length A Thousand Suns that Mike had been considering making a single. In this case, it was actually how positively the fans had reacted to it since its release that cemented its place.

"When Michael Bay came to us about the new movie, we were in the middle of a touring cycle and we didn’t have anything new to give him," Mike admitted at the World Premiere of the movie in Moscow, where the band would also play a huge show in Red Square to celebate the release. "I told him that we were planning for Iridescent to be a single at the time because the fans have always been really loud about that song during the concerts. He was interested in that and started plugging the song in the movie. The last one had a lot of jokey things going on and he said specifically this one had less of that and was a bit more serious and that the song fits it."

Bringing an end to the original Transformers trilogy, the band's association with the franchise hasn't faded with time, and much of that has to do with just how effective What I've Done was in 2007. it has even got to the point where fans will attach the track to other movie endings, just because of how perfectly dramatic it is.

But more than anything, it all goes back to something even more sentimental. It all stems from living out the dream that you hoped as a kid your adult self would have the chance to make possible. That behind all of the red carpets and studio sessions, the searching for solace and attempt find your place, it is that childlike wonder that still carries you.

"The thing that sold us on the idea was that we really remembered playing with the Transformers toys as a kid and watching the cartoon," Mike hammered home to Classic Rock 105.1 in 2011. "I personally loved Transformers and when I think of it that’s the stuff that I still really think of."