by Tiger Biskup

Episode 318: Suki Waterhouse

“Back in Love”

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Suki Waterhouse is a singer-songwriter, actress, and model from London. She released her first single in 2016, and her first album, I Can’t Let Go, in 2022, on Sub Pop. You might have seen her in the show Daisy Jones & The Six, which came out in 2023. Since then, she’s also had her first child, with her partner Robert Pattinson. And all of that history figured into her new album, Loveland. For this episode, Suki told me about how she made the song “Back in Love” with her longtime collaborators, producer Jules Apollinaire and songwriter Natalie Findlay. It was the first single from her album, but it was the last song that was written for it.

You can buy or stream “Back in Love” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes:
Sam Ewens – horns
“Son of a Preacher Man” – Dusty Springfield
“Loaded” by Primal Scream
Aaron Dessner

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by Tiger Biskup

Key Change: Questlove

Prince

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My guest today is Ahmir Thompson, aka Questlove, the drummer and founding member of The Roots, as well as an author, a DJ, and an Oscar-winning film director.

A song that changed my life is “Double Trouble” by The Roots, and the liner notes that Questlove wrote to go with the song. There’s a change in the drum sound in that song that blew my mind, and Questlove wrote a little bit about the effort that went into getting that drum sound. And as a drummer myself, I wanted to know everything about that. And that moment 26 years ago was maybe when the first seed for Song Exploder got planted in my brain. So getting to talk to him for this is really special for me.

Questlove has an encyclopedic knowledge of music. It’s really astounding. He knows so much about so many artists, and he’s just directed a new documentary about Earth, Wind & Fire, which is out now. But one of the artists he knows best is Prince. He was recently asked by Rolling Stone to rank the top 100 Prince songs. And for this episode, we talked about the song that he put at #1 on the list.

You can buy or stream “Little Red Corvette (Special Dance Mix)” by Prince here.

footnotes:

“Streetwave” by The Brothers Johnson
“Soft and Wet” by Prince
Right On! magazine and The Midnight Special TV series
Donna Summer
1999, What Time Is It? by The Time, and the debut album by Vanity 6
“Thriller” by Michael Jackson
Stevie Wonder and James Brown
Scott Storch
“Mellow My Man” by The Roots

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by Tiger Biskup

Episode 317: Metric

“Victim of Luck”

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Metric is a band from Canada that was formed in 1998. They’ve won four Juno Awards, including Group of the Year. Rolling Stone included them in their list of the 50 Greatest Canadian Artists of All Time. In April 2026, Metric released their 10th album, Romanticize the Dive. And for this episode, I spoke to Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw about how they made the opening song on that album, “Victim of Luck.”

You can buy or stream “Victim of Luck” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Joshua Winstead – bass guitar
Joules Scott-Key – drums
Liam O’Neil – co-production
John O’Mahony – co-production
Ziggy Stardust and Almost Famous
Dave Fridmann and MGMT
Buchla synthesizers

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