From The Inside

"From The Inside"
Single by Linkin Park
from the album Meteora
Working title:	Shifter
Recorded:	2002
Released:	January 12, 2004
Format:	CD
Length:	02:55
Time signature:	6/8
Tempo:	127
Key:	C# Minor
Live debut:	February 23, 2003
Last performed:	July 6, 2017
Writer:	Linkin Park
Producer:	Don Gilmore, Linkin Park
Label:	Warner Bros.
Linkin Park single chronology Numb (2003) From The Inside (2004) Breaking The Habit (2004)
Meteora tracklist
Foreword Don't Stay Somewhere I Belong Lying From You Hit The Floor Easier To Run Faint Figure.09 Breaking The Habit From The Inside Nobody's Listening Session Numb

"From The Inside" is the tenth song on Linkin Park's sophomore album Meteora. It was released as the fourth single from the album on January 12, 2004 with its cover taken from the Meteora wall as explained by Frank Maddocks, "Here’s a photo of one of the large walls we all painted for the album packaging. Original portraits by James Minchin III Xeroxed and wheat pasted to wall. Then photographed again." A music video was filmed for it in Prague, Czech Republic, where scenes of riots were filmed for the video.

Background

In March 2003, Mike Shinoda did a track-by-track of Meteora for ShoutWeb. About "From The Inside", he said, ""From The Inside" started with an idea that Phoenix had on guitar. For the musicians out there, our songs are all in 4-4 time. That goes for the songs that we've released in the past anyway. I've tried a few things in 3-4, 6-8 or 7-8 before. Phoenix wanted to do a song in 6-8 really badly and he put it together in a way that was obviously going to work for us. We heard it and we knew that it was going to work. He felt like there was something missing. What's interesting is that Brad came in. We're all really open to other people helping us with our parts, like re-writing parts and whatever. It's not something that happens all the time but if somebody does have an idea, we're open to listening. Phoenix said, "Here Brad. Take this guitar part and make this work because it's almost there. It's just not quite right." Brad all of the sudden added this almost 4-4 style thing over top of the 6-8 verse which totally pulled the song together and makes it feel like a Linkin Park song. Finally, when it came to writing the lyrics, Chester had no problem throwing some stuff in the verses. I, on the other hand, had no reference point for 6-8 time signature rapping. There are probably only three or four songs I can think of where people have rapped in 3-4 or 6-8 time and I didn't like how they did it. I'd heard them and I wanted to do my own thing. Again, as simple as it sounds on the record, you try out ten to two different things to realize what is working and what's not. It takes a lot of time to get there. Needless to say, I've figured out what I like and don't like to do over 6-8 time. Now, the next challenge is going to be 7-8. I don't know, like a Tool or Mudvayne song. Lyrically, I am going to defer again to the person reading the lyrics because that song especially might be open to a little bit of interpretation."

On the Meteora booklet, the band wrote, "Phoenix came up with the original guitar idea for this song while recording with Mike in the back of the tour bus during the summer of 2002. The song's 6/8 time signature created an opportunity to juxtapose seemingly disparate rhythms, most apparent in the verses. When it came time to complete the song, the band ran into a challenge: Chester got sick. Unable to sing during his last week of scheduled recording, Chester was forced to finish his parts in New York, during the start of the mixing process. Down to the wire, the band was left with little margin for error. Fortunately, this song and "Somewhere I Belong" were written successfully on the third floor of Soundtrack Studios, NYC."

The song contains a scratch which is a combination of the "break" vocal from the end of "One Step Closer", and the "you" scream from the "From The Inside" bridge.

Demo

In April 2023, Linkin Park released a demo of "From The Inside" on Meteora 20 with the name "Shifter." The title was first mentioned in the March 2003 issue of Spin magazine in a piece about the recording of Meteora. It reads:

"Korn and Papa Roach's albums may have under-performed in 2002, but Linkin Park look set to survive last year's new-rock revolt with their angsty flow intact. They're the rap-metal band it's okay to still love, probably because they never made the combination seem like an arranged marriage. "We're a melting pot, not a salad bowl," singer Mike Shinoda says. "We just kind of did our own thing. And that's exactly what we're doing with this new record." The as-yet-untitled follow-up to the multiplatinum Hybrid Theory is due in early spring. Shinoda says new tracks like the tentatively titled "Breaking The Habit," "Shifter," and "Nocturnal" are pretty eclectic. "We listen to a lot of different types of music, so when we were in the studio, we'd think, 'That part should have a DJ Premier-type beat, but I really want to put this 80s-sounding keyboard hook in there.'" If they clear that Yaz sample, can we coin the phrase "nü-wave metal"? Can we? Please?"

Brad Delson did a track-by-track commentary of the Lost Demos disc for the "Super Deluxe Box Set" book. About "Shifter", he wrote:

"When Phoenix re-emerged - as H.T. was taking off - he brought with him stability, the natural powerful feel we needed on bass, and, of course, incredible good looks. While he originally helped shape this song on guitar, the bass line expresses a melodic urgency which grounds the song and propels it forward - key elements in F.T.I.'s final form.

That guitar riff is so much fun to play together with the rhythm section. The syncopated stop-start-of-it-all. The bridge is truth. The 6/8 time signature is heavy. Love the guitar tone."

Tracklist

CD Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	From The Inside	Linkin Park	2:53
2	Runaway (Live in Texas 2003)	Bennington Chester Charles, Bourdon Robert G, Delson Brad, Hahn Joseph, Shinoda Mike	3:07
3	From The Inside (Live in Texas 2003)	Linkin Park	3:00

Music Video

From The Inside Betacam SP. Photo by SomeBritBloke.

The music video for "From The Inside" was directed by Joe Hahn and shot in Prague at the same time as "Numb", but was kept under wraps until the single release. Just like with "Numb", the band worked with props and production design company Sunprops for the video. It was originally made for the UK, but the band wanted to release it in the US too and considered including it as a bonus content in the Live In Texas DVD.

Speaking to MTV about the video, Chester Bennington said, "It’s one of my favorite videos that we’ve ever made. We shot it in Prague, and the kids who were working on the video were just so intense and they were doing some stuff that we would have never been able to pull off anywhere else than where we were at. The energy that [Joe Hahn] captured in that video was pretty amazing. And the visuals of it and the intensity of it all, it makes it just a really fun video to watch."

About it's concept, Joe said, "It’s actually one of the best videos we’ve done. It’s about a riot that happens. We basically took over a historic square in Prague and let 400 people loose and we performed in the middle of the riot. It’s basically a display of someone’s power."

During a LPU chat on November 21, 2003, Chester was questioned if the milk in the video had any significance. His answer was "Yeah the milk is a visual representation of the kind of intense power the kid released when he yelled. It's not anything like "don't cry over spilled milk." When the kid screamed there's a big sonic boom, the earth shaking, and that was a simple way to show that."

Video Credits

Artist Name: Linkin Park
Song Name: From The Inside
Director: Joe Hahn
Director of Photography: Ross Richardson
Editor: Mario Mares
Producer: Matt Caltabiano
Video Commissioner: Devin Sarno
Production Designer: Rachel Holloway
Record Label: Warner Bros. Records

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Studio

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
From The Inside	Meteora	2:55	2002	March 25, 2003	Starts at the end of "Breaking The Habit". Includes transition to "Nobody's Listening".
From The Inside	From The Inside	2:56	2002	January 12, 2004	Lacks the transition to "Nobody's Listening".
Shifter (From The Inside Demo)	Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition) Lost Demos	3:25	2002	April 7, 2023	Mike Shinoda on vocals. Different lyrics.
From The Inside	Meteora - Instrumentals	2:55	2002		Official instrumental version.

Live

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
From The Inside (Live)	World Premiere Of Meteora: Wiltern 3-24-03	3:21	March 03, 2003		The CD dates from March 26, 2003.
From The Inside (Live)	Faint (Street Team Promo CD) Numb (CD 1) Meteora (iTunes) Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)	3:05	February or March 2003 (show date unknown)	September 8, 2003	Recorded live during the LP Underground Tour 2003. Previously thought to be from Hamburg 2003 for many years.
From The Inside	Live In Texas From The Inside	3:01	August 02, 2003 August 03, 2003	November 18, 2003	Recorded live August 2nd 2003 at Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX and August 3rd 2003 at Texas Stadium in Irving, TX on the Summer Sanitarium Tour.
From The Inside (Live)	What I've Done	3:31	August 13, 2006	April 2, 2007	Recorded live in Japan.
From The Inside	Road To Revolution: Live At Milton Keynes	3:24	June 29, 2008	November 21, 2008	Filmed at the National Bowl, Milton Keynes June 29, 2008.
From The Inside (Live From Sydney, 2010)	Meteora - Live Around The World	3:28	June 21, 2011	June 5, 2012
From The Inside (Live In Texas)	Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)	3:00	August 02, 2003 August 03, 2003	April 7, 2023	Edited differently from the 2003 release. Live In Texas.
From The Inside (Live In Nottingham 2003)	Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)	2:59	March 03, 2003	April 7, 2023	Mixed and edited differently from the radio broadcast.
From The Inside	Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)	3:01	July 12, 2003	April 7, 2023	DVD only. Veterans Stadium 2003.
From The Inside	Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)	3:01	October 29, 2003	April 7, 2023	DVD only. Live In Seoul 2003.
From The Inside	Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)	4:04	June 15, 2004	April 7, 2023	DVD only. Live In Manila 2004.
From The Inside	Meteora (20th Anniversary Edition)	3:34	August 30, 2004	April 7, 2023	DVD only. Live In Denver - Projekt Revolution.

Live

"From The Inside" has been a staple in Linkin Park setlists since it's live debut, the first show of the Meteora touring cycle, in Milano, Italy. Throughout the majority of 2003, the song maintained a position in the middle of the setlist. Nearing the end of the year, beginning at the band's performance at the SmokeOut festival, the song gained an extended intro (which it maintained for most of its live history following this addition), featuring a buildup of the song's intro synth and guitar. The song experienced a similar treatment throughout the first half of 2004 as it did in 2003, staying mid-set with its extended intro. Beginning on the Projekt Revolution tour (starting in Cincinnati, Ohio), "Figure.09" was added into the setlist, featuring a new extended outro transition entitled the "Blood, Anger, Suffering Outro" which segued directly into "From The Inside" with its extended intro. The song was not performed at either of the 2005 shows, but triumphantly returned in 2006 at the Summer Sonic shows. The song was brought up near the beginning of the set - as opposed the the middle - for these shows.

The song returned full force on the Minutes To Midnight touring cycle, returning with its extended intro comfortably in the middle of the setlist. With the introduction of rotating setlists on Projekt Revolution, "From The Inside" was moved around in the set. Set A and Set B featured the song relatively early on in the setlist, whereas Set C had the song in its regular mid-set position. 2008 saw the song begin to take some downtime. The initial batch of new setlists had the song only present in one of three: Set T. The song shared the same fate on the second Minutes To Midnight European Tour that year, only being featured in Set X. For the band's show in Milton Keynes, England, the band moved "From The Inside" up into the setlist to the second position after the opener, "One Step Closer" - the earliest it had ever been in a setlist up to that point. In 2009, "From The Inside" returned to the early setlist position, being performed third in the set after "Session" and "Given Up". Due to the strict censorship rules of the Chinese government, "Given Up" was dropped at the show in Shanghai, China, making "From The Inside" the opening song after "Session" - the first time it was ever in the opening slot!

"From The Inside" was initially absent from setlists on the A Thousand Suns touring cycle. It's return came with the first LPU Summit held in London, England, where it was rehearsed at the soundcheck prior to the show before being added into the setlist after "No More Sorrow". The song was only featured in Set B for the rest of the year. In 2011, "From The Inside" was performed in Set B-13 only on the A Thousand Suns North American Tour. On the following A Thousand Suns European Tour, "From The Inside" was dropped from Set B but made its way to Set C and Set D, the latter of which featured the song in a much later spot than it did in Set C. The song remained solely in Set C on the following A Thousand Suns Asian Tour, but was also performed in the altered setlist for the final show of the tour in Singapore, Singapore, where the song was featured as the second song in the set after "New Divide" opening.

The song's lifespan on the Living Things touring cycle was shortlived, only being featured on the festival set on the promotional tour in Europe. After that initial tour, the song was dropped for the rest of the cycle.

The song returned as a surprise in 2015 on The Hunting Party touring cycle, where it was put in the fourth slot in the setlist, replacing "Points Of Authority" and "With You" in both new iterations of the setlists. For the first time since it gained it, the song's extended intro was not performed with the song. However, the intro is very slightly longer, as the intro sample fades in. The song's time in this position was shortlived, as the rest of The Hunting Party North American Tour was cancelled due to Chester breaking his ankle at the beginning of the tour. The song returned during the band's run of North American shows in the summer, however. It was featured in the regular and full versions of the US Festival setlist, appearing after "A Line In The Sand". It retained this spot for the rest of the touring cycle. The song opened a show by itself for the first time ever at the Relief Live! event at the end of the touring cycle.

Mike ran a poll on Twitter at the start of the One More Light European Tour, asking fans to vote for a song they wanted to be added to the set. The vote was between "A Place For My Head" and "From The Inside," with "A Place For My Head" winning the poll. However, even though the song lost, it still ended up being performed later in the tour as the fourth song in the "heavy" rotation with "Somewhere I Belong," "Points Of Authority," and "A Place For My Head."

Variations

Last Updated: December 13, 2015

Type	Description	First Played	Last Played
Intro	Sample repeated and guitar chords building up to the heavy intro.	November 15, 2003	June 10, 2012
Intro	Messy Distortion Intro	November 14, 2015	November 14, 2015

Live Guests

Last Updated: December 26, 2015

• Benjamin Chandler (replacing Brad Delson)
• Warren Willis (replacing Joe Hahn)

Personnel

Linkin Park

• Chester Bennington: vocals
• Rob Bourdon: drums
• Brad Delson: guitar
• Joseph Hahn: records, sampling
• Phoenix: bass
• Mike Shinoda: emcee, vocals, sampling

Track 1

• Produced by Don Gilmore and Linkin Park
• Mixed by Andy Wallace
• Taken From The Linkin Park Album 'Meteora'

Track 2

• Produced and Mixed by Josh Abraham
• Engineered by Ryan Williams
• Recorded Live August 2nd 2003 at Reiland Stadium in Houston, TX and August 3rd 2003 at Texas Stadium in Irving, TX on the Summer Sanitarium Tour
• Taken From The Linkin Park 'Live In Texas' CD/DVD

Track 3

• Produced and Mixed by Josh Abraham
• Engineered by Ryan Williams
• Recorded Live August 2nd 2003 at Reiland Stadium in Houston, TX and August 3rd 2003 at Texas Stadium in Irving, TX on the Summer Sanitarium Tour
• Taken From The Linkin Park 'Live In Texas' CD/DVD

Lyrics

Album Version

I don't know who to trust
No surprise
(Everyone feels so far away from me)
Heavy thoughts sift through dust
And the lies

Trying not to break
But I'm so tired of this deceit
Every time I try to make myself
Get back up on my feet
All I ever think about is this
(Oh)
All the tiring time between
And how
Trying to put my trust in you
Just takes so much out of me

Take everything from the inside
And throw it all away
‘Cause I swear/ for the last time
I won't trust myself with you

Tension is building inside
Steadily
(Everyone feels so far away from me)
Heavy thoughts forcing their way
Out of me
 
Trying not to break
But I'm so tired of this deceit
Every time I try to make myself
Get back up on my feet
All I ever think about is this
(Oh)
All the tiring time between
And how
Trying to put my trust in you
Just takes so much out of me
 
Take everything from the inside
And throw it all away
‘Cause I swear/ for the last time
I won't trust myself with you
I won't waste myself on you
You
You
Waste myself on you
You
You
 
I'll take everything from the inside
And throw it all away
‘Cause I swear/ for the last time

I won't trust myself with you
Everything from the inside
And just throw it all away
‘Cause I swear/ for the last time
I won't trust myself with you
 
You
You

Shifter

In the golden morning

Listening to the water running through my fingers and down my hands
In the golden color of dawn, I remember back where this began
Everybody else stretched their necks to catch a glimpse of what was hid
Then they all tried their best to take it away and that's just what they did

In the golden morning
Everything else goes away, making myself a better day
As the clouds are forming
Everything else goes away, taking what's mine back today

And I am your perfect confidence
I am your childish innocence
I am what you pretend to be
And tomorrow will come to take all these things with me

Water runs through my fingers and down my hands
In the cool color of dawn, taking this back around to where it began
Thinking that I wish everybody I know could see the things I do
And know that everything that I did, it wasn't for me, it was for you

In the winter morning
Everything else is gone away, making ourselves a better day
As the clouds are storming
Everything else is gone away, taking what's ours back today

And I am your perfect confidence
I am your childish innocence
I am what you pretend to be
And tomorrow will come to take all these things with me

Me, me

Gallery

• 

  Single CD

• 

  Cardboard Sleeve Single CD

• 

  Germany Promo CD

• 

  Piece of the Meteora wall used for the cover

External Links

• From The Inside (Music Video): LPTV | LPTV2 | WBR | WMG | VK
• Shifter (From The Inside Demo): YouTube
• From The Inside (Live In Texas): YouTube
• From The Inside (Live In Nottingham 2003): YouTube
• From The Inside (Live LPU Tour 2003): YouTube
• From The Inside (Live In Seoul 2003 Clip): YouTube

References

• http://web.archive.org/web/20080513181635/http://www.forfeitthegame.com/notes.html
• http://web.archive.org/web/20080513181453/http://www.forfeitthegame.com/mike-on-met.html
• http://web.archive.org/web/20030412184824/http://www.shoutweb.com/features/linkinpark0303.phtml