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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by Tiger Biskup

Episode 316: Hayley Kiyoko

“Girls Like Girls”

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Hayley Kiyoko is a singer, songwriter, author, and director from Los Angeles. She was a child actor on Disney and Nickelodeon, and briefly in a girl group called The Stunners. But then, she started her career as a solo artist. In 2015, she put out the EP This Side of Paradise, and one of the songs on it was “Girls Like Girls.” She co-wrote it with Lily May-Young and Owen Thomas, and it was produced by James Flannigan. Hayley co-directed the music video for it, and when the song and the video came out, it was an absolute phenomenon. It became a lesbian anthem; Rolling Stone named it one of the most inspiring LGBTQ songs of all time. Hayley’s legion of fans gave her the nickname “Lesbian Jesus.” In 2023, Hayley adapted the song into a bestselling coming-of-age novel. And in June 2026, she made her feature film directorial debut, with the movie adaptation of “Girls Like Girls.” So for this episode, Hayley and I talked about how it all started with the making of that song.

You can buy or stream “Girls Like Girls” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
NSYNC
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, TV On The Radio, and M83
Imogen Heap

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