A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Dec 6, 2017 at 10:02am PST

Trent Reznor started Nine Inch Nails in 1988. He released eight albums, sold over 20 million records, won two Grammys and was nominated for 11 more. Then, in 2010, Trent Reznor and his longtime collaborator Atticus Ross scored the film The Social Network, and they won an Oscar for it. A few years later, in 2016, Atticus Ross joined Nine Inch Nails as an official member. The duo’s most recent release is Add Violence, an EP, and in this episode, Trent and Atticus break down a song from it called “The Lovers.”

You can get “The Lovers” on iTunes and the Add Violence EP on vinyl here.

Here’s a picture of the Luminist Garden, the sound manipulator made by Folktek that’s used on “The Lovers.”

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
“Branches / Bones” – by Nine Inch Nails, from Not the Actual Events EP.
Nine Inch Nails discography

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A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Nov 22, 2017 at 10:02am PST

Due to music rights restrictions, this episode is no longer available.

Lin-Manuel Miranda is a playwright, actor, and songwriter. He’s the creator of the broadway hits Hamilton and In the Heights, and he’s a Tony-award winner, a Grammy winner, an Emmy winner, a Pulitzer Prize winner, and a recipient of the MacArthur Genius Grant. Lin-Manuel grew up in New York, and would spend summers in Puerto Rico, where his parents are from and where much of his family still lives.

In September 2017, Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria, the worst storm in the island’s history. The official death toll from the hurricane is 55 people, but that figure doesn’t include hundreds of deaths that have resulted from lack of clean water or hospitals without electricity. The response to the crisis from the US government was slow. But the day after the hurricane hit, Lin-Manuel Miranda began working on “Almost Like Praying,” a song whose proceeds could be used to raise money for hurricane relief, to get help to the island as quickly as possible. He recruited an all star cast of singers, rappers, and actors to put vocals on the track, including Jennifer Lopez, Gloria Estefan, Marc Anthony, and more; twenty-two artists total. And all of this was done in just eight days. In this episode, Lin-Manuel Miranda tells the story of how it all came together.

You can get “Almost Like Praying” on iTunes

Click here to donate to the Hispanic Federation for Puerto Rico relief.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
“Maria” – from West Side Story
Trooko (Producer)
Gina Rodriguez in Filly Brown
“Despacito” by Luis Fonsi
Coquí

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A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Nov 8, 2017 at 10:13am PST

Rachel Platten is a singer and songwriter who’s released four albums, including her 2016 album Wildfire, which went Gold. The lead single from that album, “Fight Song,” was used prominently by Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. For a normally apolitical artist, the sudden proximity to the election had profound effects, both positive and negative. In this episode, Rachel breaks down her song “Broken Glass,” which was inspired by that experience, and written just days before the 2016 election.

You can get “Broken Glass” on iTunes

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
“Fight Song” by Rachel Platten
FiveThirtyEight Elections Podcast Countdown
Nate Cyphert (Co-writer)
Jarrad Rogers (Co-writer/Producer)
Stargate (Producers)

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