Yo La Tengo formed in 1984. The band is made up Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew. In March 2018, they released There’s a Riot Going On, their 15th album. They made the record themselves—they recorded it entirely in their rehearsal studio with James handling the engineering duties. The album came together slowly, over a few years. In this episode, Georgia, James, and Ira break down the experiments and accidents that led to the the closing track from the record, the song “Here You Are.”

Buy or stream “Here You Are” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Casio drum machine
The Sun Ra Arkestra

Wolf Alice is a band from North London. Their second album, Visions of a Life, was released in September 2017. In this episode, singer Ellie Rowsell and drummer Joel Amey tell the story of how they made the song “Don’t Delete the Kisses.” The album was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and coming up later, you’ll hear some of his thoughts, as well. The song went through a lot of versions. A home demo that Ellie made, another demo with the full band, plus studio versions they recorded in LA with Justin. There were a lot of ideas that were created and then scrapped. In this episode, they trace the path through those ideas, as well how the song was influenced by Father John Misty, PJ Harvey, and the film Frances Ha.

Buy or stream “Don’t Delete the Kisses” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
“True Affection” – Father John Misty
Garageband
Miku Stomp – The “anime” guitar pedal
LinnDrum
“All & Everyone” – PJ Harvey

Jon Hopkins is an electronic music producer whose been nominated twice for the UK’s Mercury Prize. Along with his frequent collaborator, Brian Eno, he co-produced Coldplay‘s Grammy-award winning album, Viva la Vida. In May 2018, Jon Hopkins released his fifth album, Singularity. It was named Best New Music by Pitchfork. In this episode, Jon Hopkins takes apart the song “Luminous Beings,” which was inspired in part by the meditative and therapeutic effects of psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in magic mushrooms. Jon talks about his own experience with drug, and how it shaped this song. He also details the less magical moments where he hated the music was he making, and had to destroy it as part of the creative process.

Buy or stream “Luminous Beings” here. And click here to try Ableton Live 10 for free.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Korg Trinity synth
Ableton Live
Echo Boy plugin
Korg MS-20 synth
Joshua Tree National Park
Altiverb plugin
Una Chorda plugin