Friendly Fire

"Friendly Fire"
"Friendly Fire"
Single by Linkin Park
from the album Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023
Working title:	Friendly Fire
Recorded:	2016-2023
Released:	February 23, 2024
Format:	Digital
Length:	2:56
Writer:	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jon Green
Producer:	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Andrew Dawson, Andrew Bolooki, Jon Green, Corin Roddick
Label:	Warner Records
Linkin Park singles chronology
Linkin Park singles chronology
Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023 tracklist
	Crawling; Faint; Numb/Encore; Papercut; Breaking The Habit; In The End; Bleed It Out; Somewhere I Belong; Waiting For The End; Castle Of Glass; One More Light; Burn It Down; What I've Done; QWERTY; One Step Closer; New Divide; Leave Out All The Rest; Lost; Numb; Friendly Fire;

"Friendly Fire" is a song originally written for Linkin Park's 2017 studio album One More Light by Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, and Jon Green. It was released as the lead single of Linkin Park's career-spanning compilation Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023 on February 23, 2024. The compilation itself was released on April 12, 2024 in digital, CD and vinyl formats. "Friendly Fire" is among the last songs Linkin Park recorded with vocalist Chester Bennington, who passed away in July 2017.

Background

"Friendly Fire" was a song that was written for One More Light by Mike, Brad, and Jon Green. The title was first seen on a song board in a picture Joe Hahn posted on September 6, 2016 alongside songs that made the album. ^[1]

Jon Green is the singer of the English band The Bonfires. Both bands were at the Larrabee Studios in November 2015 and Jon proceeded to work with Linkin Park throughout 2016. While two songs with Jon made One More Light, "Nobody Can Save Me" and "Battle Symphony", Linkin Park worked with Jon on at least two more songs - "Friendly Fire", released in 2024, and "Tidal Wave", which is unreleased. Mike Shinoda went on to say Jon Green related really well with Chester.^[2]

When the album was released in May 2017, Jon wrote on Instagram, "Still assuming they meant to hit up the other Jon Green, who by the way is total quality. Total honour to have a couple of tunes on this record & to have got in the room with such a genuine & brilliant bunch of guys. Congrats @linkinpark all their team and all involved."^[3]

In a December 2016 issue of the Kerrang! magazine, Mike Shinoda announced Linkin Park had collaborated with Canadian musician Corin Roddick from Purity Ring,^[4] but when questioned about the collaboration, Roddick said it "does not exist".^[5] However, he is credited for additional production and additional programming on "Friendly Fire".

Following the release of One More Light, Mike said he would try to get demos and studio content that didn't make the album out to fans because there is some cool stuff.^[6] Brad Delson added, "There's definitely a few gems that we've got in our back pocket. But I would say the vast majority of those songs fortunately will never see the light of day. They were just a part of the journey; the ones that were the most satisfying and exciting were the ones we ultimately focused on and finished and make up the album."^[7]

In a stream on June 17, 2020, Mike confirmed "Friendly Fire" was completely finished and had vocals from Chester on it. "There was a song, a One More Light song, that we mixed. We mixed more than the finished album and we mixed a couple other songs just to see if one of them would make the cut or if we would use it for a b-side. And it was Friendly Fire. A Jon Green co-write. I wrote that with Jon, I think it was me, Jon, and Brad mostly. I still love that song." He went on to say that the song wouldn't be coming out soon, but would likely be released. This was the first public mention of Jon collaborating on the track.^[8]

When asked a few days later about more unreleased One More Light songs, Mike said, "Every album we've got so many songs that we make and you know, they're not... some of them are just in really like, half cooked, half baked conditions. So I mean, I think fans tend to be very overly optimistic about those types of things. In their imagination, there's some gem that's the best Linkin Park song that's sitting on a hard drive somewhere. I promise you that's not the case. The best stuff is always the stuff we put on the record. There are some songs where we were like, "oh this is really good", but it's not better than the record. Some of it is like, a verse and chorus copied twice and that's the second verse as well... it's like half done, it's not done."^[9]

"Friendly Fire" was finally released in 2024 as part of the greatest hits album Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023. Upon release, Brad Delson said:

“‘Friendly Fire’ was always one of our favorite songs from the One More Light sessions. Something about it wasn’t quite right so as close as it got to the finish line, we chose to set it aside for later. When we started looking for an unreleased track to include on our greatest hits collection, I was blown away by the power of the song, the power of the storytelling, the power of the vocal, the sonic landscape and I actually thought that it was closer than maybe we had realized at the time.

We got together to work on it and connect some of the missing pieces that for whatever reason hadn’t revealed themselves during the recording of One More Light. I can’t wait for people to hear it. It’s such a beautiful, compelling, heartbreaking, hopeful story and it really resonates with me today.”^[10]

A behind the scenes video was released on March 29, 2024 showing the band working on the song at Larrabee Studios in April 2016 and Mike and Brad finishing the song at Mike's house in December 2023. Brad said, "We started working on 'Friendly Fire' with our good friend Jon Green. It was always one of our favorite songs from the One More Light sessions. Something about it wasn't quite right. So as close as it got to the finish line, we chose to set it aside. When we started talking about putting together a greatest hits collection, some of the folks on our team resent us the song. I was actually blown away by the power of the song, the storytelling, power of the vocal. And I actually felt like it was closer than maybe we realized at the time." While working on the song, he explained to Mike, "What I'm feeling is that our post-chorus which is the 'fire.' That's a post-chorus, however that almost feels like a chorus because it's like the clearest kind of release. And it doesn't happen a lot. So I know it's how we make this song flow more clearly and also really to celebrate that part." He finished his commentary by saying, "I went to Mike's house to work on it together and just connect some of the missing pieces that for whatever reason hadn't revealed themselves during the One More Light writing sessions and it pretty quick stride. We completed what is now the finished product. It just raised its hand at the right time like a little magic trick and privilege of being able to finish it. It's certainly about conflict and despair and it's just as much about hope and love. It's such a beautiful compelling and hopeful song."^[11]

Tracklist

Digital Single

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Friendly Fire	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jon Green	2:56

A Capella + Instrumental

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Friendly Fire (A Capella)	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jon Green	2:58
2	Friendly Fire (Instrumental)	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jon Green	2:56

LPU Vinyl

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1	Friendly Fire	Mike Shinoda, Brad Delson, Jon Green	2:56
2	QWERTY	Linkin Park	3:21

Music Video

The official music video for "Friendly Fire" was directed by Mark Fiore and premiered on February 22, 2024 at 9pm PT, coinciding with the radio premiere of the song.^[12]^[13] Fiore joined the YouTube Live Chat room at 8:30 pm PT to talk about the video.^[14] He said: "some great footage o Chester in this video. it will make you feel happy hardest part about the video was making it worthy of the song guys the song is so good. you are gonna be so happy to have a another new LP song this TOP 5 for sure I remember connecting deeply with this song while filming the band in the studio years ago, so it was really special for me when I got asked to create this video. this is what MS said to me about the song.... "The song is about looking into the distant past with a loved one, and realizing that sometimes best intentions can still cause hurt.""

He also pinned a message to the chat which read: "“Friendly Fire” is an amazing song! I am really happy with the way the video turned out and I hope the video does this song justice… thanks everyone for being here for the premiere… Enjoy! -Mark"

The music video consists of studio footage from the One More Light sessions and various live performances dating from 2015 and 2017. The video contains shots from the The Hunting Party Chinese Tour 2015 on July 17 and July 22 and the One More Light European Tour 2017 on July 3.

Video Credits^[15]

Directed and Edited by: Mark Fiore
Produced by: Amigo and Company
Executive Produced by: Devin Sarno and Linkin Park
Colorist: Loren White

Versions

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

Studio

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Friendly Fire	Friendly Fire Papercuts - Singles Collection 2000-2023 Friendly Fire / QWERTY	2:56	2016-2023	February 23, 2024
Friendly Fire (Instrumental)	Friendly Fire: A Cappella + Instrumental	2:56	2016-2023	March 29, 2024	Official instrumental version.
Friendly Fire (A Capella)	Friendly Fire: A Cappella + Instrumental	2:58	2016-2023	March 29, 2024	Official acapella version.

Live

"Friendly Fire" got its live debut at the first full show of the From Zero World Tour in Los Angeles, coming after the new arrangement of "My December". The song was dropped from the set in Dallas, with its slot getting replaced by "Over Each Other", though the song came back to replace "My December" at the band's second night in Sao Paulo.

Promotion

The song had its world premiere on KROQ on February 22, 2024 at 9pm PT.^[13]

A physical single CD was released to promote "Friendly Fire", making it Linkin Park's first single to receive a CD release since "Heavy" in 2017. EMP Germany sold an exclusive bundle which paired the CD with a Papercuts Bucket Hat.^[16]

Personnel

Linkin Park

Chester Bennington - Vocals
Rob Bourdon - Drums
Brad Delson - Guitar
Joseph Hahn - Programming
Phoenix - Bass
Mike Shinoda - Keyboards, Programming, Vocals

Additional Musicians

Additional Guitar: Jon Green
Additional Programming: Andrew Dawson
Additional Programming: Corin Roddick

Production

Writer: Mike Shinoda
Writer: Brad Delson
Writer: Jon Green
Producer: Brad Delson
Co-Producer: Andrew Dawson
Vocal Producer: Andrew Bolooki
Additional Production: Jon Green
Additional Production: Corin Roddick
Engineer, Producer: Mike Shinoda
Engineer: Josh Newell
Engineer: Ethan Mates
Assistant Engineer: Alejandro Baima
Assistant Engineer: Warren Willis
Drum Technician: Jerry Johnson
Mixer: Manny Marroquin
Masterer: Brian "Big Bass" Gardner

Lyrics

Album Version

Tell me the words I've forgotten
What we were fightin' for
Starin' right into the darkness
Through an empty open door

Can't put back what's been broken
Can't change the moment
We went too far

We're pulling apart for no reason
We're pulling a trigger in a useless war
And if we come back and go into the black (black)
What are we fighting for?
What are we fighting for?

I was supposed to protect you
No matter what's to come
Somehow forgot when they told me
"We hurt thе ones we love"

Can't put back what's been broken
Can't change the moment
We went too far

We're pulling apart for no reason
We're pulling a trigger in a useless war
And if we come back and go into the black
What are we fighting for?
What are we fighting

It's just friendly fire, fire
Fire, fire

We're strangers in between the darkness
Diving underneath
I'll find you out in the horizon
We'll never be enemies

Can't put back what's been broken
Can't change the moment
We went too far

We're pulling apart for no reason
We're pulling a trigger in a useless war
And if we come back and go into the black
What are we fighting for?
What are we fighting

It's just friendly fire, fire
Fire, fire
Fire, fire
Fire, fire