Linkin Park: New Effort To Be Released Minutes To Midnight

Linkin Park will release their new album Minutes To Midnight, on Warner Brothers Records/Machine Shop Recordings on May 15. The first single from the collection, "What I've Done," is set to be released worldwide on April 2.

The band worked with Rick Rubin on the effort, and in a recent interview vocalist Mike Shinoda talked about what the legendary producer brings to the table.

"Rick's phenomenal. He's... The best thing about Rick is that he's just a library of musical ideas and reference points. You know, you could be writing a song that sounds like Linkin Park, and he'll say you should go listen to this band, this band and this band to inspire you for this song. A lot of times he pulls stuff out that he pretty much knows we haven't heard or haven't listened to anytime recently, and what ends up happening is that you get ideas just from the vibe of different things you listen to -- not so much to listen to and do what they do -- but more to just get inspired by people who are making great music and doing something that's revolutionary and that excitement hopefully translates into some good ideas."

The single will surely be hitting iTunes and rock radio first, but last year at the Chainsaw Awards, the band admitted they're not exactly the best judge of singles.

[Shinoda] "You pick up some records and you really like some songs -- that may be true for our records, I don't know -- but for us when we listen to our records we want to listen to it and like every song. So that's why it's hard for us to pick the singles." [Phoenix] "To add on to that, when Hybrid Theory came out we used to think that we'd be really good at picking singles, and we learned very quickly that the record company does that because they're way better at it. For us know, now we're like, 'You guys pick the singles. That's not what we're here to do. You tell us what will work in your world and we'll just write the music.'"

Speaking of Hybrid Theory, the band's debut, it has alone sold more than 18 million copies worldwide and the band has sold a whopping 40 million in total. Linkin Park has scheduled a handful of dates, but Shinoda says they're going to announce a tour with an "unmissable" line-up. Shinoda realizes unmissable is not a word, but he said that the soon to be announced tour will be "worth making up words for."