My guest today is Ahmir Thompson, aka Questlove, the drummer and founding member of The Roots, as well as an author, a DJ, and an Oscar-winning film director.

A song that changed my life is “Double Trouble” by The Roots, and the liner notes that Questlove wrote to go with the song. There’s a change in the drum sound in that song that blew my mind, and Questlove wrote a little bit about the effort that went into getting that drum sound. And as a drummer myself, I wanted to know everything about that. And that moment 26 years ago was maybe when the first seed for Song Exploder got planted in my brain. So getting to talk to him for this is really special for me.

Questlove has an encyclopedic knowledge of music. It’s really astounding. He knows so much about so many artists, and he’s just directed a new documentary about Earth, Wind & Fire, which is out now. But one of the artists he knows best is Prince. He was recently asked by Rolling Stone to rank the top 100 Prince songs. And for this episode, we talked about the song that he put at #1 on the list.

You can buy or stream “Little Red Corvette (Special Dance Mix)” by Prince here.

footnotes:

“Streetwave” by The Brothers Johnson
“Soft and Wet” by Prince
Right On! magazine and The Midnight Special TV series
Donna Summer
1999, What Time Is It? by The Time, and the debut album by Vanity 6
“Thriller” by Michael Jackson
Stevie Wonder and James Brown
Scott Storch
“Mellow My Man” by The Roots

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My guest today is the actor Tatiana Maslany. One of the things I find so compelling about Tatiana and her career is that the roles that she plays often contain multitudes—literally. She played over 10 different characters-clones, but with distinct personalities-in the TV show Orphan Black. And in the Marvel Universe, she played She-Hulk, who also had the very different alter ego of Jennifer Walters, a lawyer. And right now, she’s starring in the show Maximum Pleasure Guaranteed on AppleTV. When Tatiana prepares for her roles—and the roles within the roles—she often uses music to inspire and motivate her. Today, I got to talk to Tatiana about a song that’s been really important to her and her process. And that song is “Faceshopping” by Sophie.

If you’re not aware of Sophie’s music, she was an incredible, groundbreaking electronic artist from the UK. She was trans, and she passed away far too young, in 2021. But even in a short time, she made a big impact. In addition to her own music, she also produced tracks for Charli XCX, and Madonna, and more. In 2018, she released her breakthrough Grammy-nominated album, Oil of Every Pearl’s Un-Insides, which dealt a lot with her trans identity. And that’s the album that has the song “Faceshopping.”

You can buy or stream “Faceshopping” by Sophie here.

footnotes:

BIPP by Sophie
Beastie Boys, “Gangsta’s Paradise” by Coolio, and “Gonna Make You Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” by C+C Music Factory
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
The Streets, Dizzee Rascal, and Prodigy
System of a Down

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My guest today is the bestselling author Emma Straub. Her books include This Time Tomorrow, Modern Lovers, The Vacationers, and more. And with her husband, Michael Fusco, she co-owns the beautiful Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic.

I’m so thrilled to have her on because, not only is she a wonderful writer, but Key Change is a series about music fandom and identity. And Emma’s newest novel American Fantasy is also about music fandom and identity. That story is set on a cruise ship centered around a nineties boy band and their fans.

But today, Emma’s going to tell me her story about her own relationship with the music of the Magnetic Fields. Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields was just named one of the greatest living American songwriters by the New York Times, and Emma’s introduction to their music was their 1999 triple album, 69 Love Songs.

You can buy or stream 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields here.

footnotes:
Claudia Gonson
LD Beghtol
Future Bible Heroes, The Gothic Archies
“Epitaph For My Heart,” “Long-Forgotten Fairytale,” “Grand Canyon,” “The Book of Love,” “It’s Only Time,” and “Walking My Gargoyle”
Emma Straub’s Magnetic Fields tour blog

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