With last week’s announcement of the title for the next Spider-Man movie, you might be reminiscing about the web-slinger’s greatest moments on film. Perhaps you’re thinking of the end of 2004’s Spider-Man 2, when Mary Jane Watson tells Peter Parker to “go get ’em, tiger” before he begins swinging through the city and Dashboard Confessional‘s “Vindicated” starts playing.

For Dashboard frontman Chris Carrabba, he still feels a strong connection to that song, especially in the context of Spider-Man 2. As he tells ABC Audio, “Vindicated” made it onto the film’s soundtrack thanks to a Sony film music executive named Lia Vollack, who was a fan of his music.

“She backed me,” Carrabba explains. “I was relatively unknown at the time, especially on the radio side of things, and the general pop landscape.”

Carrabba recalls Vollack telling him, “You’re a little left of center, I want to put you in front of everybody, because I believe in you.”

That gamble on Dashboard was — ahem — vindicated when the song became Carrabba’s biggest radio hit, not to mention becoming synonymous with a beloved movie.

“You know, you get a shot every now and again where somebody believes in you and you can rise to the occasion,” he says. “I got lucky that I was given that opportunity, and I like to think that I rose to the occasion. And when I see the movie every now again, I feel like I did, and that feels good.”

Of course, there have been many more incarnations of Spidey since Tobey Maguire‘s three-film stint as the wall-climbing hero, including the upcoming Tom Holland-starring No Way Home. So, how would Dashboard soundtrack the newest Spider-Man film?

“I guess I’ll let you know when I write it,” Carrabba says.

By Josh Johnson
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