Silvana Estrada is a singer, songwriter, and producer from Veracruz, Mexico. She won the Latin Grammy for Best New Artist in 2022, and she’s been nominated for three others, including for her song “Como Un Pájaro,” which is the song that we talked about for this episode. It’s from her second album, which came out in 2025, but she started writing the song several years before that. So we talked about all the different versions of this song, and a couple of versions of Silvana herself, that emerged throughout the process.

You can buy or stream “Como Un Pájaro” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes:
Daniel Bitrán – engineer
Roberto Verástegui – piano
Casa Estudio El Desierto
Hiyao Miyazaki, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away

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The Marías is a band from Los Angeles, made up of María Zardoya, Josh Conway, Jesse Perlman, and Edward James. They released their first EPs in 2017 and 2018, and their first album in 2021. But then, as you’ll hear, there was a period of a lot of uncertainty around the band’s future. Eventually, their second album, Submarine, came out in 2024, and it was incredibly successful. Stereogum called it one of the best albums of the year, and the band was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist. But all of that almost didn’t happen. I talked to María about the making of their hit song “No One Noticed.” The story’s beginning, middle, and end all took place during different eras of the band’s existence. In the middle section, when maybe they weren’t going to even be a band anymore, María enlisted the help of Grammy-nominated producer Gianluca Buccellati. And I spoke to Luca for this episode, as well.

You can buy or stream “No One Noticed” here.

For the Song Exploder episode with Arlo Parks about the song “Black Dog,” which was produced by Gianluca Buccellati, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Paris, Texas (film)
Arlo Parks and Biig Piig

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Leon Thomas is a singer, songwriter, producer, and actor. He’s nominated for six Grammys at this year’s Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Best R&B Album, and Album of the Year for Mutt. Mutt is his second album, and I talked to Leon about the title track, which was a breakout hit. He’d already won a Grammy for his work with SZA, but he reached a new level in his own career with this song and this album. I also spoke to David Phelps and Rob Gueringer, AKA D. Phelps and Freaky Rob, who produced the song.

You can buy or stream “Mutt” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Bizzy Crook – co-writer
“Silly Love Song by Enchantment
“Snooze” by SZA
Electric Dusk – Leon Thomas
Led Zeppelin, Kendrick Lamar, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, and
Parliament-Funkadelic
Art Tatum and John Coltrane
Bootsy Collins

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