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.

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Laufey - From The Start

09.20.2023

Laufey is a singer and songwriter originally from Iceland. She studied piano and cello as a kid. When she was 15, she was a guest soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, ...

Song Exploder episodes:

09.20.2023 Laufey - From The Start Laufey is a singer and songwriter originally from Iceland. She studied piano and cello as a kid. When she was 15, she was a guest soloist with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. She went to Berklee College of Music in Boston, ...
08.30.2023 Re-issue: Janelle Monáe - So Afraid This summer, in June 2023, Janelle Monáe put out her fourth album, The Age of Pleasure. Listening to it made me want to revisit her Song Exploder episode, from 2018. One thing on Song Exploder that I personally love is ...
08.16.2023 Siddhartha Khosla - Only Murders in the Building (Main Title Theme) The "Skip Intro" button first got introduced to us through Netflix in 2017, and, I know, a lot of people use it – including me. But, if I can get into old-man, back-in-my-day mode for a second, I have so ...
08.02.2023 Local Natives - Dark Days It can be hard to be in a band, or really, in any kind of group where there’s creative collaboration, and you’re supposed to act like it's a democracy. Because what do you do with an idea that you love, ...
07.19.2023 Bakar - Hell N Back Bakar is a singer and songwriter from London. In 2018 he put out his first release, Badkid. A year later, he put out the EP, Will You Be My Yellow?, and this September, he’s releasing his second full-length album, Halo. ...
06.28.2023 Natalie Merchant - Sister Tilly Natalie Merchant is an award-winning singer and songwriter from upstate New York. She was the lead singer of the band 10,000 Maniacs until she left in 1993. And then, as a solo artist, she’s put out nine albums over the ...
06.14.2023 Re-issue: Julien Baker - Appointments This week, I wanted to go back and revisit an older episode. I recorded an interview with singer and songwriter Julien Baker in 2018. It was a few months after her second album came out. Since then, she’s put out ...
05.31.2023 Feist - In Lightning Feist is a singer/songwriter from Canada. She put out her first solo album in 1999. She’s won 11 Juno awards, including two for Artist of the Year, and she has four Grammy nominations. She’s also been a member of the ...
05.17.2023 Madison McFerrin - Run (feat. Bobby McFerrin) Madison McFerrin is a singer, songwriter, and producer from New York. She’s sung with legends like Aretha Franklin, George Clinton, and De La Soul & The Roots. Madison’s first EP came out in 2016, and last week, she released her ...
05.03.2023 New Order - Blue Monday In May 1980, the band Joy Division was devastated by the death of lead singer Ian Curtis. The three remaining band members, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris, decided they would keep making music together, and a few months ...
04.19.2023 Re-issue: Mobb Deep - Shook Ones, Pt. II It’s usually hard to pin down when a genre of music starts. But people point to this one party in August 1973 in the Bronx as the moment where hip-hop was born. That makes this year the 50th anniversary of ...
04.05.2023 Yaeji - Passed Me By Yaeji is a singer, songwriter, and producer from New York. During her childhood she moved between Queens, Atlanta, and Seoul. While she was at college in the States, she started DJing and releasing her own music. That led to two ...
03.22.2023 Seal - Kiss from a Rose Seal is a multi-Grammy-winning singer and songwriter from England. His song “Kiss from a Rose” was first released in 1994, on his second album. It was a huge hit, thanks in part to being featured in the movie Batman Forever. ...
03.08.2023 Kenny Beats - Still Kenny Beats is a hip-hop producer who’s been making beats and producing songs for other artists since 2010. He’s got a long list of collaborations, with rappers like Vince Staples, Freddie Gibbs, and Denzel Curry. In 2022, he did something ...
02.22.2023 Re-issue: Kimbra - Top of the World Last month, in January 2023, Kimbra put out her fourth album. I was listening to it, and it made me want to go back and revisit her Song Exploder episode from 2018. Here it is: Kimbra is an artist from ...
02.08.2023 MUNA - What I Want MUNA is a trio from Los Angeles, made up of Katie Gavin, Josette Maskin, and Naomi McPherson. They’ve been making music together since 2013, when they met in college. Their third album, which is self-titled, came out in 2022, and ...
01.25.2023 Noah Kahan - Stick Season Noah Kahan is a singer and songwriter from Strafford, Vermont. Last year, in 2022, he released Stick Season, his third record. The title track from that record went viral on TikTok when Noah was first writing it, and posting pieces ...
12.21.2022 Sampa the Great - Let Me Be Great (feat. Angélique Kidjo) Sampa The Great is a songwriter, rapper, and singer from Zambia. She was based in Australia for years, but came back to Zambia in 2020, shortly before the pandemic hit. When she couldn’t travel, she decided to make her next ...
12.07.2022 Son Lux - This is a Life (from 'Everything Everywhere All at Once') Everything Everywhere All at Once is a sci-fi comedy independent film that came out in the spring of 2022. It’s a huge hit that made over $100 million at the box office. It’s already been named the best movie of ...
11.16.2022 Omah Lay - Never Forget Omah Lay is a Nigerian singer, songwriter, and producer. He’s one of the young stars of Afrobeats, the West African genre that's become a global phenomenon. His new album Boy Alone features a collaboration with Justin Bieber. But for this ...
11.09.2022 Book Exploder: James McBride - Deacon King Kong The final episode of Book Exploder is with author James McBride. He was born in New York City and raised in Brooklyn’s Red Hook Houses housing projects until the age of seven. That housing project became the setting for his ...
11.02.2022 Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth In 2002, Sam Beam’s first album as Iron & Wine was released on Sub Pop Records. He’d given them a bunch of demos, and rather than have him re-record these songs, they released the demos themselves. Since then, he’s put ...
10.26.2022 Book Exploder: George Saunders - Victory Lap George Saunders has won the Booker Prize, and he’s the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant. He won the Folio Prize for his collection of short stories, Tenth of December, which includes the short story “Victory Lap.” In this episode, ...
10.19.2022 Santigold - Ushers of the New World Santigold is a singer, songwriter, and producer. She’s put out 4 albums since 2008, and she’s been featured as a collaborator on songs with Jay-Z, Beastie Boys, Diplo, and more. In this episode, Santi takes apart her song "Ushers of ...
10.12.2022 Book Exploder: Celeste Ng - Little Fires Everywhere Celeste Ng is an American writer and author of three novels. Her second novel, Little Fires Everywhere, was published in 2017 and became a #1 New York Times bestseller. A television adaptation of the novel, starring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry ...
10.05.2022 King Princess - Let Us Die King Princess is the project of Mikaela Straus, a singer, songwriter, and producer from Brooklyn. She’s a platinum-selling artist, and she put out her second album in July, 2022. The last track on the album is the song "Let Us ...
09.28.2022 Book Exploder: Tayari Jones - An American Marriage Tayari Jones is the author of four novels. She won the 2019 Women's Prize for Fiction, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award in Fine Arts from the Congressional Black Caucus. Her novel An American Marriage was an Oprah's Book Club ...
09.21.2022 Panic! At the Disco - Viva Las Vengeance Panic! at the Disco is the Grammy-nominated project of Brendon Urie, who originally started it as a band with his high school friends from Las Vegas in 2004. In the eighteen years since, Panic! at the Disco has won American ...
09.14.2022 Book Exploder: Carmen Maria Machado - In the Dream House Carmen Maria Machado is the award-winning author of In the Dream House, a memoir where each chapter has its own vivid style of storytelling. It won the Folio Prize in 2021, and was named one of the best books of ...
09.07.2022 Re-issue: Björk - Stonemilker (This is a re-issue of Björk’s episode from December 2015.) In January 2015, Björk released Vulnicura. She described it as "a complete heartbreak album." And in November, she released Vulnicura Strings, a companion album that stripped away the electronics. In ...
08.31.2022 Book Exploder: Michael Cunningham - The Hours Michael Cunningham is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hours. He’s the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship. The Hours was published in 1998, and in addition to the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, ...
08.24.2022 Madonna - Hung Up Madonna is the best-selling female recording artist of all time. She has twelve albums that have gone multi-platinum. She’s won seven Grammys, and has had fifty songs reach number 1 on the Billboard Dance chart. That’s more number 1s than ...
08.17.2022 Book Exploder: Min Jin Lee - Pachinko Min Jin Lee is the author of the best-selling novel Pachinko. She’s a Guggenheim Fellow, and the recipient of South Korea's Manhae Grand Prize for Literature. In Pachinko, she tells a sweeping, multi-generational story of a Korean family that moves ...
08.10.2022 Kae Tempest - Move Kae Tempest is a songwriter, rapper, an award-winning poet, and best-selling novelist. They’ve been nominated for the UK’s Mercury Prize and Brit Award. Their most recent album is The Line is a Curve, which came out earlier this year. It ...
08.03.2022 Book Exploder: Susan Orlean - The Library Book Introducing a new miniseries: Book Exploder, where authors break down a passage from one of their books, and discuss the creative process that went into writing it. Every other week, in between episodes of Song Exploder, you’ll hear from a ...
07.27.2022 Sudan Archives - Selfish Soul Sudan Archives is a singer, songwriter, producer, and violinist. She grew up in Cincinnati before moving to LA. Her music has been called "viscerally gorgeous" by The Guardian, and "stunning" by Pitchfork, who gave her in ‘Best New Music.’ This ...
07.13.2022 mxmtoon - Mona Lisa Maia from mxmtoon released her first EP in 2018. She was 18 years old, recorded it in her bedroom, and self-released it. It went on to be streamed over 100 million times. This year, she put out her second album, ...
06.29.2022 Monica Martin - Go Easy, Kid Monica Martin is a singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. Before that, she was based in Madison, Wisconsin, where she was part of the indie rock band Phox. She’s been a featured guest vocalist on songs by James Blake ...
06.15.2022 Maren Morris - Humble Quest Maren Morris is a Grammy-winning, multi-platinum artist. She’s also won multiple country music awards, including CMAs for Female Vocalist of the Year, and Single of the Year in 2020, but her feelings about the country music industry are kind of ...
06.01.2022 Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up Rick Astley is a singer and songwriter from England, whose debut single, "Never Gonna Give You Up," became an international smash hit. The song came out in July 1987 and won the BRIT Award for “British Single of the Year.” ...
05.18.2022 Kevin Morby - This Is a Photograph Kevin Morby is a singer and songwriter based in Kansas City. He’s put out seven albums since 2013, including his most recent one, This is a Photograph, which just came out last week. For this episode, I talked to Kevin ...
05.04.2022 Arooj Aftab - Mohabbat Arooj Aftab is a singer and composer based in Brooklyn. She grew up in Saudi Arabia, but her family is from Pakistan. And earlier this year, she made history by becoming the first Pakistani artist to win a Grammy. Her ...
04.20.2022 Partners: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss This week, I want to introduce you to another podcast that I make, called Partners. It’s a show about partnerships that was born out of Song Exploder. I’ve made a bunch of episodes with bandmates, or co-writers, or an artist ...
04.06.2022 Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her Peaches is a musician, producer, and performance artist. She’s released six albums and in 2015, she won the Polaris Heritage Music Prize. Her fourth album, Impeach My Bush, came out in 2006, and features the song “Boys Wanna Be Her.” ...
03.23.2022 Steve Reich - Different Trains: America, Before the War Steve Reich is a legendary composer who was one of the pioneers of minimalism. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music, and the New York Times called him “America’s greatest living composer.” I had the incredible honor of getting ...
03.09.2022 Re-issue: Perfume Genius - Slip Away This week, I want to revisit one of my favorite episodes of Song Exploder, with Perfume Genius telling the story of making Slip Away. This episode originally came out in May 2017. The album the song’s from, No Shape, went ...
02.23.2022 Sarah Kinsley - The King Sarah Kinsley is a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Her most recent release is an EP called The King, which came out in 2021. When she made it, she was in college in New York— and actually, at the moment, she ...
02.09.2022 Brandi Carlile - You and Me On the Rock (feat. Lucius) Brandi Carlile is a singer and songwriter from Washington State. She's released seven albums and won six Grammys. Her most recent album is In These Silent Days, which debuted at number one on Billboard’s folk and rock album charts. It ...
01.26.2022 Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out The band Franz Ferdinand formed in 2002, in Glasgow, Scotland. They’ve won the Mercury Prize and two BRIT Awards, they have five Grammy nominations, and they’ve sold millions of albums. One of their first singles is this song, “Take Me ...
01.12.2022 Joy Oladokun - Look Up Joy Oladokun is a singer and songwriter from Arizona, now based in Nashville, who’s been releasing music since 2015. Last year, she was named an Artist to Watch by NPR, Spotify, and Amazon, and she was #1 on Vogue’s list ...

Older episodes

Song Exploder

What's Song Exploder about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Song Exploder episodes:

Laufey - From The Start

Re-issue: Janelle Monáe - So Afraid

Siddhartha Khosla - Only Murders in the Building (Main Title Theme)

Local Natives - Dark Days

Bakar - Hell N Back

Natalie Merchant - Sister Tilly

Re-issue: Julien Baker - Appointments

Feist - In Lightning

Madison McFerrin - Run (feat. Bobby McFerrin)

New Order - Blue Monday

Re-issue: Mobb Deep - Shook Ones, Pt. II

Yaeji - Passed Me By

Seal - Kiss from a Rose

Kenny Beats - Still

Re-issue: Kimbra - Top of the World

MUNA - What I Want

Noah Kahan - Stick Season

Sampa the Great - Let Me Be Great (feat. Angélique Kidjo)

Son Lux - This is a Life (from 'Everything Everywhere All at Once')

Omah Lay - Never Forget

Book Exploder: James McBride - Deacon King Kong

Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth

Book Exploder: George Saunders - Victory Lap

Santigold - Ushers of the New World

Book Exploder: Celeste Ng - Little Fires Everywhere

King Princess - Let Us Die

Book Exploder: Tayari Jones - An American Marriage

Panic! At the Disco - Viva Las Vengeance

Book Exploder: Carmen Maria Machado - In the Dream House

Re-issue: Björk - Stonemilker

Book Exploder: Michael Cunningham - The Hours

Madonna - Hung Up

Book Exploder: Min Jin Lee - Pachinko

Kae Tempest - Move

Book Exploder: Susan Orlean - The Library Book

Sudan Archives - Selfish Soul

mxmtoon - Mona Lisa

Monica Martin - Go Easy, Kid

Maren Morris - Humble Quest

Rick Astley - Never Gonna Give You Up

Kevin Morby - This Is a Photograph

Arooj Aftab - Mohabbat

Partners: Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her

Steve Reich - Different Trains: America, Before the War

Re-issue: Perfume Genius - Slip Away

Sarah Kinsley - The King

Brandi Carlile - You and Me On the Rock (feat. Lucius)

Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out

Joy Oladokun - Look Up

Other shows like Song Exploder: