Linkin Park’s Mike Shinoda On How ‘Lost’ Got Lost

“In terms of tone, it had too much in common with ‘Numb'”

Mike chats with us via Video Call back in 2020.

Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda has spoken about the recent release of the single ‘Lost’, an unearthed gem from the ‘Meteora’ sessions that will appear on that album’s 20th anniversary edition.

The single has already had huge success, hitting No.1 on the US Rock Airplay Chart and the UK Rock & Metal Chart, with Mike describing it upon its release as “like finding a favorite photo you had forgotten you’d taken”.

In a new interview with Vulture, Shinoda has spoken further about why the song took so long to appear:

“We made 20-something tracks for Meteora. We knew the album was going to be 12, and “Lost” was the 13th track. In terms of tone, it had too much in common with “Numb,” so we put it to the side, with the intention of putting it out. We actually thought the label was going to want B-sides for the Japanese release, or a European CD release and we’d put it on there. Then we just didn’t do any of that.

He continued “When we got to the next album, we wanted to completely reinvent the band. In 2007 or whatever, the idea of going back to an old demo would’ve been the opposite of what we were supposed to do.”

The animated music video has now been viewed over 33 million times on YouTube and revealed the inspiration behind the clip:

“We were like, “How do we acknowledge the cultural impact of the Linkin Park AMV back in the 2000s?” People were uploading videos to YouTube for the first time and they ran out of home videos. They started editing together stuff they loved, and then they started adding music. All of a sudden Dragon Ball Z and Naruto were being edited together with Linkin Park music, which was basically the 2003 version of a TikTok. We knew it. We included a nod to Gundam in “Somewhere I Belong,” and then we really went in when we did “Breaking the Habit.” So that community knew it was us high-fiving them. We couldn’t do Meteora 20 without saluting that.”

The ‘Meteora’ 20th anniversary box set will be released on April 7.

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