Song Exploder
Episodes
Kelela - Rewind
28 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Kelela is a singer and songwriter based in Los Angeles. In 2015, she released Hallucinogen, and landed on critics' lists in The New York Times, The Wa...
MGMT - Time to Pretend
19 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
MGMT was formed by Ben Goldwasser and Andrew VanWyngarden in 2001. The song Time to Pretend was one they wrote early in their career. It first came ou...
Courtney Barnett - Depreston
07 Jan 2016
Contributed by Lukas
Courtney Barnett released her debut album in March 2015. By the end of the year, she had been nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist, Spin named h...
Björk - Stonemilker
17 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In January 2015, Björk released Vulnicura. She described it as "a complete heartbreak album." And in November, she released Vulnicura Strings, a comp...
Dustin O'Halloran - Transparent (Main Title Theme)
11 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Transparent is an Amazon original series, created by Jill Soloway. The story centers on a family where the father, played by Jeffrey Tambor, comes out...
Wilco - Magnetized
03 Dec 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Wilco formed in 1994, and 21 years later, they released their 9th album, Star Wars. In this episode, Jeff Tweedy, the band’s singer and principal so...
Natalia Lafourcade - Hasta la Raíz
23 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Natalia Lafourcade has won eight Latin Grammys, including three for the song Hasta la Raíz, which won the 2015 Song of the Year and Record of the Yea...
Youth Lagoon - The Knower
16 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Youth Lagoon is the moniker of Trevor Powers, who has been releasing albums under the name since 2011. In this episode, Trevor breaks down “The Know...
The Arcs - Put a Flower in Your Pocket
05 Nov 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The Arcs is a new project from Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys. He started the band with some of the musicians and producers he's worked with over the ...
Chet Faker - Gold
26 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Chet Faker is the stage name of Australian singer and songwriter Nick Murphy. His debut album, Built on Glass, won five ARIA Awards, Australia’s ver...
Harry Gregson-Williams - The Martian
15 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In the film "The Martian," astronaut Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon) is stranded on Mars, forced to rely on science and his ingenuity in order to s...
Deradoorian - A Beautiful Woman
05 Oct 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Angel Deradoorian has been a member of the bands Dirty Projectors and Avey Tare's Slasher Flicks, and has contributed to albums by Vampire Weekend, Fl...
The Magnetic Fields - Andrew in Drag
24 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Stephin Merritt has fronted the band The Magnetic Fields for over twenty-five years. In this episode, he breaks down the song "Andrew in Drag" from th...
Joey Bada$$ - Hazeus View
15 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Joey Bada$$ released his debut album on January 20, 2015: his 20th birthday. It hit the Top 5 on the Billboard charts. For the track "Hazeus View," he...
American Football - The One With The Tambourine
03 Sep 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The band American Football formed in 1997, and released only one album and an EP before breaking up about three years later. Their critically acclaime...
Best Coast - Feeling Ok
27 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno of the band Best Coast take apart their song "Feeling Ok," from the 2015 album California Nights. Th...
HEALTH - Stonefist
18 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The band HEALTH formed in Los Angeles in 2005. Their newest record, Death Magic, came out in 2015. They spent four years trying to make it. They descr...
Unknown Mortal Orchestra - Multi-Love
10 Aug 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Multi-Love is the title track from the 2015 album by Unknown Mortal Orchestra. In this episode, Ruban Nielson tells the story of how he made the song ...
Thundercat - Them Changes
30 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Thundercat is the alter-ego of bassist and singer-songwriter Stephen Bruner. He’s played bass for both Suicidal Tendencies and Erykah Badu and went ...
Death Cab for Cutie - El Dorado
20 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Death Cab for Cutie released Kintsugi, their 8th album, on March 31, 2015. The song El Dorado, like other songs on the record, was written in the wake...
Sylvan Esso - Coffee
08 Jul 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Sylvan Esso has two members, Amelia Meath and Nick Sanborn, who met while they were both working on other projects. Amelia asked Nick to do a remix of...
U2 - Cedarwood Road
29 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
10 Cedarwood Road is the address of Bono’s childhood home in Dublin. For the U2 song "Cedarwood Road," Bono looked back to his life there as a teena...
Will Butler - Anna
22 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Will Butler is a member of the band Arcade Fire, and he co-wrote the score for the film Her, which earned him an Oscar nomination. In March 2015, he p...
Ramin Djawadi - Game of Thrones
11 Jun 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Game of Thrones premiered on HBO in April 2011 and became the most watched show in HBO's history. The main title theme was written by Emmy-nominated c...
Brian Tyler - Avengers: Age of Ultron
29 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The title card for Avengers: Age of Ultron comes up twelve minutes into the movie. Against a black background, the Avengers logo takes up almost the e...
tUnE-yArDs - Water Fountain
18 May 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Merrill Garbus of tUnE-yArDs breaks down "Water Fountain." It's a song that draws inspiration from the politics of drought and danceh...
My Morning Jacket - Spring (Among the Living)
23 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Jim James is the lead singer of the Grammy-nominated band My Morning Jacket. Since starting in 1998, they've put out six albums, and in this episode, ...
Toro y Moi - Half Dome
14 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Over the past five years, Chaz Bundick, aka Toro y Moi, has made music that's spanned a range of genres and styles. On his newest album, What For?, he...
RJD2 - Games You Can Win (feat. Kenna)
01 Apr 2015
Contributed by Lukas
RJD2 has been making music since 2002. His song "A Beautiful Mine" was turned into the opening credits music for Mad Men. He's a producer and beatmake...
How to Dress Well - Pour Cyril
25 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In an interview with Belgian filmmakers the Dardenne brothers, talking about the kinds of stories they tell, Luc Dardenne says, "Human suffering; that...
White Hinterland - Ring the Bell
13 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
Casey Dienel is a producer, singer, and songwriter who goes by the name White Hinterland. In this episode, she'll break down her song Ring the Bell. T...
Warpaint - Love Is to Die
03 Mar 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In 2013, Warpaint starting working on their sophomore album. They retreated away from their home in Los Angeles to the nearby desert oasis of Joshua T...
Jeremy Zuckerman - The Legend of Korra
20 Feb 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In 2005, Nickelodeon premiered an animated series called Avatar: The Last Airbender, about a young boy and his friends who have to keep peace and bala...
The Long Winters - The Commander Thinks Aloud
30 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
On February 1, 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia broke apart while reentering the earth's atmosphere. John Roderick, singer and songwriter of The Long ...
Blonde Redhead - Penultimo
19 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
The band Blonde Redhead formed in 1993. Twenty-one years later, in 2014, the trio released their 9th album, and in this episode, they deconstruct Penu...
Ghostface Killah - The Battlefield
07 Jan 2015
Contributed by Lukas
In November 2014, Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang Clan released his 11th album, called 36 Seasons. A lot of people worked on it: soul band The Revelat...
The National - Sea of Love
22 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The National formed in 1999. They've released six albums, and have been nominated for a grammy. Their music is everywhere from Game of Thrones, to Bob...
Tycho - Awake
08 Dec 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Tycho is the project of designer-turned-musician Scott Hansen, along with guitarist Zac Brown and drummer Rory O'Connor. For this episode, which was r...
Stars - No One Is Lost
26 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Stars is a band from Toronto, who have been making music together since 2000. Their seventh album was released in October 2014. For this episode, I sp...
The Books - Smells Like Content
12 Nov 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Before The Books broke up, they released four albums that combined composed music and found sounds. In this episode, Nick Zammuto explains how he cra...
Julia Holter - Horns Surrounding Me
29 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Julia Holter studied composition, and in the song Horns Surrounding Me, she arranges not only acoustic and electronic instruments, but also layers of ...
Valley Lodge - Go
15 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Dave Hill is a comedian and host of his own podcast which, like Song Exploder, is on the Maximum Fun network. He's also the frontman of the band Valle...
RAC - Let Go (feat. Kele & MNDR)
01 Oct 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Andre Allen Anjos is better known as RAC, a musician who first found success by remixing other people's songs. His remixes for artists like Lana Del R...
The Thermals - No Culture Icons
18 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The Thermals originally began as Hutch Harris's solo recording project. He sang and played all the instruments on the 2003 Thermals record More Parts...
Anamanaguchi - Prom Night
02 Sep 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In addition to guitars, drums, and bass, the band Anamanaguchi makes their music with the 8-bit sounds that were built into Nintendo video game consol...
Spoon - Inside Out
19 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Spoon was formed in 1993 by singer Britt Daniel and drummer Jim Eno. They've released eight albums, including their most recent record, They Want My S...
Brian Reitzell - Watch Dogs
06 Aug 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In May 2014, the video game company Ubisoft released Watch Dogs, about a vigilante hacker in Chicago in the near future. Here's how the game is descri...
Open Mike Eagle - Dark Comedy Morning Show (feat. Toy Light)
15 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, rapper Open Mike Eagle talks about making the song Dark Comedy Morning Show, along with the track's producer, Walker Ashby, aka Toy L...
The Microphones - I Want Wind to Blow
01 Jul 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In the fall of 2001, Phil Elverum released the album The Glow Pt 2 on K Records. Pitchfork named it the best album of the year. In this episode, Phil ...
Converge - Dark Horse
19 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The band Converge formed in 1990, when its members were teenagers. They've been making music that lives somewhere in the intersection of punk, hardcor...
Nite Jewel - One Second of Love
02 Jun 2014
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we'll get a deconstructed view of the song One Second of Love by Nite Jewel. I spoke to Ramona Gonzalez of Nite Jewel and her partner...
Garbage - Felt
15 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
The band Garbage formed in 1994 when three guys from Madison Wisconsin — Butch Vig, Steve Marker, and Duke Erikson, met Scottish singer Shirley Mans...
Poliça - Smug
01 May 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Ryan Olson is a member of the band Polica. Though he doesn't perform with them live, he put the band together, produces the songs, and co-writes them....
Loren Bouchard - Bob's Burgers (Theme Song)
15 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Loren Bouchard is the creator of the animated television comedy Bob's Burgers, a series about a family and the restaurant they own and live above, cur...
Jeff Beal - House of Cards (Main Title Theme)
01 Apr 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Composer Jeff Beal deconstructs the main title theme music to the Netflix original series House of Cards. The show has been nominated for multiple Emm...
Daedelus - Experience
17 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Alfred Darlington, better known as Daedelus, takes apart his song Experience. This early track of his is made with only acoustic sounds, but Alfred st...
Sea Wolf - Kasper
01 Mar 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Alex Brown Church of Sea Wolf breaks down Kasper, a song from the album Old World Romance. He talks about his songwriting process, collaborating with ...
Baths - Miasma Sky
14 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Will Wiesenfeld of Baths breaks down his song Miasma Sky, which came out last year on his highly-praised sophomore album Obsidian. Will talks about us...
YACHT - Plastic Soul
01 Feb 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Claire and Jona of the band YACHT deconstruct their brand new single Plastic Soul, a fun pop song about human suffering. They explain how technology i...
The Album Leaf - The Outer Banks
15 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Jimmy LaValle of The Album Leaf takes apart The Outer Banks, a song he recorded in Iceland with members of Sigur Ros accompanying him. He reveals how ...
The Postal Service - The District Sleeps Alone Tonight
01 Jan 2014
Contributed by Lukas
Our first guest on Song Exploder is Jimmy Tamborello, aka Dntel, aka one half of The Postal Service (the other half being Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for...