Song Exploder

Hrishikesh Hirway

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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Our Editor's Take

Song Exploder is a podcast that opens its audience to new ways of listening. Songs touch people, move people, and even change their lives. They are ancient and central to the human experience. And though a song is always playing, there's so much that goes unheard. What is a song, really, and what is it that makes a good one so meaningful? What makes it a hit? These are the questions this podcast is here to answer.

Song Exploder takes on the mysteries of songwriting, one song at a time. Host Hrishikesh Hirway, who also produces the show, introduces a different artist's song in each episode. After a bit of background on the artist and song of choice, a small part of the song plays. Then, the artist takes the mic. Though the strategy is formulaic, no episode is ever the same.

Listeners can expect deep dives into classic favorites. They'll also gain insight into songs they've never heard before. A fun mix of genres, artists, and themes, Song Exploder leaves no musical stone unturned. In each episode, artists talk about inspiration and their creative process. They discuss what makes their composition so unique by breaking down the lyrics, themes, and sounds in the song. Listeners will come away with a changed perspective on the sounds that surround them.

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Episodios

Re-issue: Jon Batiste - We Are
02-10-2024
Re-issue: Jon Batiste - We Are
For the last couple weeks, I’ve been getting ready for a trip I’m going to make to Connecticut, to moderate a conversation between Jon Batiste and his wife, the author Suleika Jaouad. So I’ve been deep in my prep and research, and I thought about the first time I ever spoke to Jon Batiste, which was for a Song Exploder episode that came out back in March 2021. A lot has happened for Jon since then. At the time, his album We Are was brand new. The next year, he ended up getting 11 Grammy nominations, and winning 5 of them, including Album of the Year. Jon and Suleika were also the subjects of the award-winning documentary American Symphony. I really enjoyed our conversation, and I wanted to revisit it. So here it is: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 with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Jon is also a recipient of the American Jazz Museum’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and on weeknights, you can see him as the bandleader on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In March 2021, he put out his new album, We Are. But the title track from it actually came out much earlier, in June 2020. In this episode, Jon talks about how he drew from his roots, both at a personal level and at a cultural level, and wove all of it into the song.For more, visit songexploder.net/jon-batiste.