"Friends" is a song by American pop project Francis and the Lights featuring

Bon Iver Bon Iver ( ) is an American indie folk band founded in 2006 by singer-songwriter Justin Vernon. Vernon released Bon Iver's debut album, ''For Emma, Forever Ago,'' independently in July 2007. The majority of the album was recorded while Vernon ...

and uncredited contributions from

Kanye West Ye ( ; born Kanye Omari West ; June 8, 1977) is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and fashion designer. Born in Atlanta and raised in Chicago, West gained recognition as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records in the ea ...

. The song was released as a single on July 7, 2016, accompanied by a music video featuring

Francis Farewell Starlite Francis Farewell Starlite (born Abe Morre Katz-Milder; 14 June 1981) is an American musician, record producer, singer, songwriter, and dancer. He is best known as the founder and lead vocalist of the pop band Francis and the Lights. He is pri ...

Justin Vernon Justin DeYarmond Edison Vernon (born April 30, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist. He is best known as the primary songwriter and frontman of indie folk band Bon Iver. Known for his distinct falsetto voic ...

and

. The song was sampled in Chance the Rapper's song "Summer Friends" from his 2016 mixtape ''

Coloring Book A coloring book (British English: colouring-in book, colouring book, or colouring page) is a type of book containing line art to which people are intended to add color using crayons, colored pencils, marker pens, paint or other artistic media ...

''. "Friends" was sampled in "Summer Friends" before it was officially released independently as a single by Francis and the Lights. Red Bull named it as the 15th best song of 2016. Francis and the Lights, Vernon and West collaborated again in 2019 on the song " Take Me to the Light."

Music video

A music video for "Friends" was released on July 7, 2016. The video was directed by

Jake Schreier Jacob Stacey Schreier (born September 29, 1981) is an American commercial, music video and film director. He was a founding member of Waverly Films, a Brooklyn-based filmmaking collective, and joined Park Pictures in 2006, releasing his first f ...

. Knowing each other since childhood, Francis and Schreier have been making single-take, minimalist performance videos since 2008. They wanted to do the next iteration of what they had been doing before. In a 2016 interview, Schreier said, "We had never done a synchronized dance in a video or really had other protagonists in the video, so that's what we wanted to add to this one." ''

Pitchfork A pitchfork (also a hay fork) is an agricultural tool with a long handle and two to five tines used to lift and pitch or throw loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. The term is also applied colloquially, but inaccurately, to ...

'' named it as the 18th best music video of 2016.

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

named it as one of the best music videos of 2016.

Track listing

Charts

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Friends (Francis and the Lights song) 2016 singles 2016 songs Francis and the Lights songs Bon Iver songs Songs written by Justin Vernon Songs written by Rostam Batmanglij Song recordings produced by Ariel Rechtshaid Songs written by Benny Blanco Song recordings produced by Benny Blanco Songs written by Cashmere Cat Song recordings produced by Cashmere Cat Song recordings produced by Rostam Batmanglij Music videos directed by Jake Schreier Songs written by BJ Burton