Moses Sumney is a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles. His first album, Aromanticism, came out in September 2017, but before that, he’d already worked with an impressive and diverse list of collaborators, from Sufjan Stevens, to Solange, to Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, to Skrillex.

That spirit continues with the song Moses takes apart in this episode, which has contributions from producer Cam O’bi, Paris Strother, and legendary bassist Thundercat.

You can get “Quarrel” on iTunes.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Brandee Younger (harpist) – NPR Video
Stereolab
Radiohead
Joanna Newsom

Bleachers is the moniker of Jack Antonoff, a songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He won two Grammy awards as a member of the band fun., and another for his production work on Taylor Swift’s album 1989. He’s also co­-written songs with St. Vincent, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lorde, Sia, and more.

In June 2017, Antonoff released his second album as Bleachers, Gone Now. In this episode, he breaks down a song from that album, called “I Miss Those Days” and traces the process of making it—from the original demo, to the final song.

You can get “I Miss Those Days” on iTunes.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Emu Emulator II
Tubular bells
Vocoder

Julien Baker is from Memphis, Tennessee. She released her second album, Turn Out The Lights, in October 2017, on Matador Records. The New York Times called her music “devastating”, Pitchfork gave the album Best New Music, and Stereogum included her album at #13 in their Top 50 albums of the year. In this episode, Julien tells the story of her song “Appointments,” and how writing it helped her work through her thoughts around addiction, depression, and relationships. Julien also takes apart the track “Over,” which was written as part of Appointments, but then split off as a separate track.

You can get “Appointments” on iTunes.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.