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A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Feb 12, 2020 at 10:43am PST

Dan Snaith has been making Caribou records since 2001. He won Canada’s Polaris music prize in 2007, and this month, he’s releasing the seventh Caribou album, Suddenly.

In this episode, Dan breaks down the song “Home.” He talks about how he managed to get past several moments of creative uncertainty to figure out the final track.

You can buy or stream “Home” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
“Home” – Gloria Barnes
Kieren Hebden aka Four Tet
Igor – Tyler, the Creator
Colin Fisher – saxophone

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A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Jan 29, 2020 at 1:43pm PST

When Laetitia Tamko started making the second Vagabon album, she really wanted to produce the entire thing on her own. It would be a new sound, and producing was still a relatively new skill to her, but she wanted to tackle it head on, and do it all herself. On this song, though, “Water Me Down,” Laetitia actually has a co-producer, Eric Littmann. It’s the one exception to her otherwise entirely self-produced album. In this episode, she breaks down how she and Eric made the song, and why it was worth making that exception.

You can buy or stream “Water Me Down” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Korg MS-20 synth
Korg Minilogue synth

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A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Jan 15, 2020 at 10:04am PST

The song “Closing Time” by the American rock band Semisonic came out in March 1998. It hit #1 on the Alternative charts, and was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Song. It gets played in stadiums, Weird Al covered it, and it’s the last song of the night in countless bars.

Since then, Dan Wilson, the lead singer and songwriter of Semisonic, has become a powerhouse songwriter who has written or co-written for artists like John Legend and Taylor Swift. And he’s won Grammys for his songwriting with the Dixie Chicks and Adele. But over two decades ago, Dan and his bandmates John Munson and Jacob Slichter were in Minneapolis, getting ready to start work on their second album, Feeling Strangely Fine. In this episode of Song Exploder, Dan breaks down how that process led to “Closing Time.”

You can buy or stream “Closing Time” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Nick Launay, producer
Elizabeth Bishop
Robert Frost
ZVEX Effects Fuzz Factory guitar pedal

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