Songfacts®:

• Many of us experienced dark times during the COVID era, and Korn was no exception. Singer Jonathan Davis went through an especially brutal time that stretched out several years. It included the deaths of his estranged wife, Devon, and his mother, as well as long-term coronavirus. This is a self-help song where Davis determines to fight the dark thoughts tormenting him and "start the healing."
• Korn released "Start The Healing" as the first single from their 14th studio album, Requiem. Recording during the pandemic gave the band an opportunity to experiment, and this song finds them adding new-wave influences. "There's still that core sound there, but this time we did this we had the luxury, we were on a forced time-out," Davis told Audacy's Carlota. "We had all the time in the world."
• Davis utilizes a softer-than-usual vocal approach during the verses, offering a sense of comfort amid the harsher instrumentation. His singing ties in with his lyrics about looking for light in the darkness.
• The Korn frontman spent a lot of time patiently layering vocals, using different microphones. "I'm at a point in my life where I have the freedom and the ability and the means to really do what I want, and take the time to really present something in a way that's artistic and that I love," Davis revealed to Audacy. "That track has 18 or 20 different vocal lines going on, but the way it's layered, it's really cool."
• The five band members wrote the song with Lauren Christy. The English songwriter co-penned three songs on their 2019 album The Nothing, including the single "Cold." Her other credits include Avril Lavigne's "Complicated," G-Eazy and Bebe Rexha's "Me, Myself & I," and Dua Lipa's "Blow Your Mind (Mwah)."
• Korn produced the song with:
  
  David "Beno" Benveniste, the CEO of Velvet Hammer Music and Management Group, which represents Korn.
  
  Drummer and engineer Chris Collier.
• Tim Saccenti (Flying Lotus, Run The Jewels, Depeche Mode) directed the live-action animated music video in collaboration with the 3D artist Anthony Ciannamea. The band plays the song amidst an array of preternatural creatures and humanoid entities. "I wanted to take the viewer on an emotional journey, as the song does," explained Saccenti. "A visceral, cathartic death and rebirth that will hopefully help transport the listener through whatever their personal struggles are."