Song Exploder

By Hrishikesh Hirway

Music

What's Song Exploder about?

Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. Each episode features an artist discussing a song of theirs, breaking down the sounds and ideas that went into the writing and recording. Hosted and produced by Hrishikesh Hirway.

4.8

4,762 ratings

Download our free app to listen on your phone

LAST EPISODE

Lianne La Havas - Can't Fight

04.07.2021

Lianne La Havas is a singer and songwriter from London. She’s been nominated for a Grammy and a Brit award, and in 2020, she released her third album. In this episode, she breaks down her song "Can’t Fight," and traces ...

Song Exploder episodes:

04.07.2021 Lianne La Havas - Can't Fight Lianne La Havas is a singer and songwriter from London. She’s been nominated for a Grammy and a Brit award, and in 2020, she released her third album. In this episode, she breaks down her song "Can’t Fight," and traces ...
03.24.2021 Jon Batiste - We Are Jon Batiste is a pianist, songwriter, and composer from New Orleans. He’s been nominated for multiple Grammys, and just won the Golden Globe and got an Oscar nomination for the soundtrack to the Pixar film Soul, which he composed along ...
03.10.2021 Glass Animals - Heat Waves Glass Animals is a band from Oxford, England. They’ve released three albums since forming back in 2010. One of their biggest hits is the song "Heat Waves," which came out in June 2020. It was certified Gold in several countries, ...
02.24.2021 Sasha Sloan - Until It Happens To You Sasha Sloan is a singer and songwriter based in Nashville. She put out her debut album, Only Child, last year. Before that, she’d written songs for artists like Katy Perry, John Legend, and Charli XCX, and she’s been a featured ...
02.10.2021 PJ Morton - Say So (feat. JoJo) PJ Morton is a singer, songwriter, and producer. He’s the first artist ever to be nominated for a Grammy for the Best R&B; album three years in a row. In 2020, he won the Grammy for Best R&B; song for ...
01.27.2021 HAIM - Summer Girl HAIM is a band from Los Angeles, made up of the sisters Danielle, Este, and Alana Haim. They’ve released three albums, and they’ve been nominated for three Grammys. Over the years, they’ve worked extensively with Grammy-winning producer Ariel Rechtshaid. Danielle ...
01.13.2021 Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Father and Son The legendary singer/songwriter Yusuf / Cat Stevens released his first album in 1967. He’s a member of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and his albums have sold millions. In 2020, he released Tea for the Tillerman², a re-imagining ...
12.16.2020 Common - A Riot In My Mind Common is a Grammy- and Oscar-winning rapper, actor, and activist from Chicago. He’s been making records since 1992, and in October, he released his thirteenth album, A Beautiful Revolution. In this episode, he breaks down how he made the song ...
12.02.2020 Jewel - You Were Meant For Me Jewel is a singer-songwriter from Homer, Alaska, who’s received four Grammy nominations and sold over 30 million albums worldwide. Her debut album, Pieces of You, came out in 1995, and a 25th anniversary edition was released in November 2020. That ...
11.18.2020 Billie Eilish - Everything I Wanted Billie Eilish started releasing music when she was 14 years old. Her debut album came out last year, when she was 17. It debuted at Number 1 on Billboard, went triple platinum, and won five Grammys. Billie made that record ...
11.11.2020 Re-issue: Phoebe Bridgers - Scott Street This episode is a little different. It’s a re-issue of Phoebe Bridgers’ Song Exploder episode from January 2019, along with a brand new segment where she and I talk about dealing with writer’s block. Phoebe Bridgers is a singer-songwriter from ...
11.04.2020 Deftones - Ohms Deftones are a Grammy-winning band from Sacramento who’ve sold over ten million albums. Their ninth album, Ohms, came out this year, on September 25th, 2020. In this episode, singer Chino Moreno breaks down how the title track came together, and ...
10.21.2020 Run the Jewels - JU$T Rapper Killer Mike and rapper/producer El-P first met in 2011. They both had established rap careers, but they entered a new era when they started making music together as Run the Jewels in 2013. They’ve been nominated for a Grammy, ...
10.07.2020 Dua Lipa - Levitating Dua Lipa is a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter from London. Her second album, Future Nostalgia, came out in March 2020. It hit #1 on the charts in thirteen countries, and it was shortlisted for the UK’s Mercury Prize. Dua co-wrote ...
09.23.2020 Selena Gomez - Lose You to Love Me Selena Gomez is a singer, songwriter, and actress, who’s spent most of her life in the public eye. She started her acting career as a child, and put out her first albums as a teenager. She’s had three number one ...
09.16.2020 Reissue: Ludwig Göransson - Black Panther On August 28, 2020, actor Chadwick Boseman died. He was only 43 years old. Unbeknownst to many, even some of his closest collaborators, he’d been battling colon cancer since 2016. His family released a statement, and in it, they said, ...
09.09.2020 Kelly Lee Owens - On Kelly Lee Owens is an electronic music producer and songwriter originally from Wales. She’s released two critically acclaimed albums and done remixes for Björk and St. Vincent. Her most recent album is is called Inner Song. It came out in ...
08.26.2020 Black Pumas - Colors Black Pumas formed in Austin, Texas in 2017, when singer Eric Burton met producer Adrian Quesada. Their self-titled debut was released in June 2019, and got them a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist. In this episode, they break down ...
08.12.2020 The 1975 - The Birthday Party The 1975 are a band from Manchester, England, made up of Matty Healy, Adam Hann, Ross MacDonald, and George Daniel. They started playing music together in 2002, when they were teenagers. Since then, they’ve released four albums, won three Brit ...
07.29.2020 Waxahatchee - Fire Katie Crutchfield is a singer and songwriter from Birmingham, Alabama. She’s been making music under the name Waxahatchee since 2010. Her fifth album, Saint Cloud, came out this past March. Pitchfork named it Best New Music, and The Guardian called ...
07.15.2020 Khruangbin - So We Won't Forget Khruangbin is a band from Houston, Texas, who first formed in 2010. NME called them the "low key superstars" of psychedelic music. They’ve released three albums. The most recent, which came out in June 2020, is called Mordechai. In the ...
07.01.2020 Apparat - Goodbye (Theme from "Dark") The Netflix original series Dark debuted in December 2017. It’s a really mysterious, mind-bending German science fiction show with a unique tone. A big part of that tone is announced every episode with the music in the show’s opening title ...
06.17.2020 Mobb Deep - Shook Ones, Pt. II The rappers Prodigy and Havoc met when they were still in high school in New York. Havoc grew up in Queensbridge, the biggest public housing projects in the country, and as a teenager, Prodigy lived there for a while, too. ...
06.04.2020 Reissue: Michael Kiwanuka - Black Man in a White World Instead of a new episode this week, revisiting this episode originally published in May 2017. Please consider donating to local and national organizations engaged in the work of racial equality. Here are some links: American Civil Liberties Union NAACP Legal ...
05.20.2020 100 gecs - Money Machine 100 gecs is a duo, made up of Laura Les and Dylan Brady. In 2016, they put out an EP called 100 gecs, and three years later, they released their first album, called 1000 gecs. It was named the Best ...
05.06.2020 Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter Laura Marling is a singer and songwriter from London. She won the Brit Award for Best British Female Solo Artist—she’s been nominated five times for that, along with the Mercury Prize, and the Grammy for Best Folk Album. Since 2008, ...
04.22.2020 Tame Impala - It Might Be Time Tame Impala is the project of Kevin Parker, a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer from Perth, Australia. Since putting his first EP in 2008, Tame Impala has been nominated for two Grammys and won eight of Australia’s ARIA Awards. Multiple albums ...
04.08.2020 FKA twigs - Mirrored Heart FKA twigs is a singer, songwriter, and producer from London. She’s released three EPs and two albums. Her most album, Magdalene, came out in November, 2019, and was named one of the best albums of the year by Rolling Stone, ...
03.25.2020 Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright Nathaniel Rateliff is a singer and songwriter from Colorado. He’s released four solo albums, and two with his band, the Night Sweats. Those two Night Sweats albums were produced by Richard Swift, who passed away in 2018. In a statement, ...
03.11.2020 Eric Nam - Love Die Young Eric Nam is a Korean-American pop singer from Atlanta. He’s currently lives in Seoul, South Korea, where he found fame as a K-pop star. He was named “2016 Man of the Year” by GQ Korea, and Forbes named him one ...
02.26.2020 Soccer Mommy - Circle the Drain Sophie Allison makes music under the name Soccer Mommy. Her debut album came out in 2018, when she was 20 years old, and the New York Times named it one of the best album of the year. Her second album, ...
02.12.2020 Caribou - Home Dan Snaith has been making Caribou records since 2001. He won Canada’s Polaris music prize in 2007, and this month, he’s releasing the seventh Caribou album, Suddenly. In this episode, Dan breaks down the song “Home.” He talks about how ...
01.29.2020 Vagabon - Water Me Down When Laetitia Tamko started making the second Vagabon album, she really wanted to produce the entire thing on her own. It would be a new sound, and producing was still a relatively new skill to her, but she wanted to ...
01.15.2020 Semisonic - Closing Time The song “Closing Time” by the American rock band Semisonic came out in March 1998. It hit #1 on the Alternative charts, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Song. It gets played in stadiums, Weird Al covered ...
12.25.2019 Vampire Weekend - Harmony Hall The band Vampire Weekend started in 2006, in New York. Their third album came out in 2013, and was named one of the best albums of the year all over the place, and it won a Grammy. But it took ...
12.17.2019 Intro Theme and Thao's Farewell Thao Nguyen has been guest hosting Song Exploder this year, with Christian Koons producing, to give Hrishikesh a little room to daydream. That’s all been possible because of the support of Radiotopia listeners. In this bonus episode, Thao says goodbye, ...
12.11.2019 Meek Mill - Trauma Meek Mill is a rapper from Philadelphia. He’s put out five albums. His most recent, Championships, debuted at #1 on the charts, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Album. Back in 2007, He was arrested on a ...
11.27.2019 Bat for Lashes - Kids in the Dark Natasha Khan makes music under the name Bat for Lashes. She’s released five albums, including Lost Girls, which came out in September 2019. In this episode, she breaks down the making of the lead single from that album, called “Kids ...
11.13.2019 Jay Som - Tenderness Melina Duterte goes by the name Jay Som. She’s a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. She’s released three albums as Jay Som, and has produced, engineered, and mixed each one. Her third album, Anak Ko, came out in August 2019. And ...
10.30.2019 Slipknot - Unsainted Slipknot is a Grammy-winning metal band from Des Moines, Iowa, who first formed in 1995. They’ve sold over 30 million records. In this episode, guitarist Jim Root breaks down how Slipknot made the song, “Unsainted,” from their 2019 album We ...
10.16.2019 Raphael Saadiq - Kings Fall Raphael Saadiq is a Grammy-winning songwriter, producer, and artist from Oakland, California. He was the lead singer of the legendary ‘90s R&B; group Tony! Toni! Tone!. As a producer, he’s worked with D’Angelo, TLC, Mary J. Blige, Whitney Houston, Solange ...
10.02.2019 Clairo - Alewife Claire Cotrill is a singer, songwriter, and producer who goes by the name Clairo. She started releasing music in 2014 as a teenager. A few years later, songs she had uploaded to YouTube had racked up over 40 million views. ...
09.18.2019 Brittany Howard - Stay High Brittany Howard is the guitarist and lead singer of the four-time Grammy-winning band Alabama Shakes. This month, she’s releasing her first solo album, called Jaime. In this episode, Brittany breaks down the song “Stay High,” which was the album’s first ...
09.04.2019 Robyn - Honey Robyn is a Swedish singer and songwriter. Her first album came out in 1995, when she was 16 years old. It went platinum in the US, double-platinum in Sweden. Since then, she’s been nominated for five Grammys and started her ...
08.21.2019 Bon Iver - Holyfields, Justin Vernon founded the band Bon Iver in 2006. Bon Iver’s released four albums, and won two Grammys, including Best New Artist. The most recent album, i,i, came out in August 2019, and in this episode, Justin breaks down a ...
08.07.2019 Sleater-Kinney - The Future Is Here Sleater-Kinney was formed in 1994 by Corin Tucker and Carrie Brownstein. Drummer Janet Weiss was a member of the band from 1997 until 2019. In Time Magazine in 2001, author and critic Greil Marcus named Sleater-Kinney “America’s Best Band.” Over ...
07.24.2019 Denzel Curry - RICKY Denzel Curry is a rapper from Miami. He started his career at age 16 as part of the hip hop collective Raider Klan. He released his first solo album while still in high school. In May 2019 Denzel released his ...
07.10.2019 Jamila Woods - BALDWIN Jamila Woods is a singer, songwriter, and poet from Chicago. She’s released two albums, and she’s collaborated with artists like Chance the Rapper, Noname, and Macklemore. In May 2019, she put out her second album, LEGACY! LEGACY!, to critical acclaim. ...
06.26.2019 Big Thief - Cattails Big Thief is a four piece folk-rock band from Brooklyn, New York. In May 2019, they released their third album, U.F.O.F., to critical acclaim. Pitchfork named it “Best New Music.” In this episode, singer Adrianne Lenker and drummer James Krivchenia ...
06.12.2019 Sheryl Crow - Redemption Day (feat. Johnny Cash) Sheryl Crow is a singer-songwriter from Missouri. She’s released ten studio albums, sold over 50 million records, and has won nine Grammys. In April 2019, Sheryl Crow released a new version of her song “Redemption Day,” which was first released ...

Older episodes

Song Exploder

What's Song Exploder about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Song Exploder episodes:

Lianne La Havas - Can't Fight

Jon Batiste - We Are

Glass Animals - Heat Waves

Sasha Sloan - Until It Happens To You

PJ Morton - Say So (feat. JoJo)

HAIM - Summer Girl

Yusuf / Cat Stevens - Father and Son

Common - A Riot In My Mind

Jewel - You Were Meant For Me

Billie Eilish - Everything I Wanted

Re-issue: Phoebe Bridgers - Scott Street

Deftones - Ohms

Run the Jewels - JU$T

Dua Lipa - Levitating

Selena Gomez - Lose You to Love Me

Reissue: Ludwig Göransson - Black Panther

Kelly Lee Owens - On

Black Pumas - Colors

The 1975 - The Birthday Party

Waxahatchee - Fire

Khruangbin - So We Won't Forget

Apparat - Goodbye (Theme from "Dark")

Mobb Deep - Shook Ones, Pt. II

Reissue: Michael Kiwanuka - Black Man in a White World

100 gecs - Money Machine

Laura Marling - Song for Our Daughter

Tame Impala - It Might Be Time

FKA twigs - Mirrored Heart

Nathaniel Rateliff - And It's Still Alright

Eric Nam - Love Die Young

Soccer Mommy - Circle the Drain

Caribou - Home

Vagabon - Water Me Down

Semisonic - Closing Time

Vampire Weekend - Harmony Hall

Intro Theme and Thao's Farewell

Meek Mill - Trauma

Bat for Lashes - Kids in the Dark

Jay Som - Tenderness

Slipknot - Unsainted

Raphael Saadiq - Kings Fall

Clairo - Alewife

Brittany Howard - Stay High

Robyn - Honey

Bon Iver - Holyfields,

Sleater-Kinney - The Future Is Here

Denzel Curry - RICKY

Jamila Woods - BALDWIN

Big Thief - Cattails

Sheryl Crow - Redemption Day (feat. Johnny Cash)

Other shows like Song Exploder: