Linkin Park are trying to move on from the tumultuous announcement of their new singer by making their way into the late-night circuit.
The band played "The Emptiness Machine" — their first track with supposed Scientologist Emily Armstrong — for the first time on TV on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night (September 17). Before that, Mike Shinoda talked to Fallon about the band's comeback, sans controversy, of course.
"I think the important thing for us is that we never set out to, like, 'Let's bring the band back' or 'Let's find a singer.' That was never our intention or our goal," Shinoda said of their new iteration, before continuing: "It was almost like this new record… we wrote it, we came up with the music while we were creating the new band. When we started the music we didn't have a band and it just came together while the music came together."
Armstrong got milkshake ducked almost immediately after her integration into Linkin Park was announced, when it was revealed she has ties to the Church of Scientology, and initially showed support for Danny Masterson outside his trial. Armstrong responded to the claims without mentioning her ties to the church, saying after "unimaginable details emerged," she has "never spoken with [Masterson] since."
Watch the Fallon performance and Shinoda's interview below.