Halsey is an award winning singer and songwriter from New Jersey. She’s been nominated for two Grammys, and sold over a million records. In August, she released her fourth album, “If I Can’t Have Love, I Want Power,” which was produced by the Grammy and Oscar winning duo of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, from Nine Inch Nails. Halsey wrote one of the songs on the album, “You Asked for This,” with Greg Kurstin who’s won 8 Grammys himself, including Producer of the Year. In this episode, Halsey tells the story of making this song while pregnant with her son, and how that shaped the lyrics and the music.

You can buy or stream “You Asked For This” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
My Bloody Valentine – “When You Sleep”
Shoegaze
Gewn Stefani
No Doubt

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The movie Dune was released on October 21, 2021. It’s the most recent adaptation of Frank Herbert’s epic science fiction novel from 1965. The film was directed by Denis Villeneuve, and the score was written by Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer . Hans Zimmer has scored over 200 films, been nominated for Oscars eleven times. He and Denis Villeneuve first worked together on the film Blade Runner 2049. Dune tells the story of the Atreides family as they relocate from their home world to the desert planet Arrakis. When Hans Zimmer first started working on the music, he made what he calls a “sketchbook” – creating motifs and themes that might occur in the film. And in this episode, he takes us through the first sketch he did for Dune. It’s called “Paul’s Dream.”

You can buy or stream “Paul’s Dream” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Loire Cotler, vocals
Lisa Gerard, vocals
Suzanne Waters, vocals
Edie Lehmann Boddicker, vocals
Tina Guo, cello
Guthrie Govan, guitar
Pedro Eustache, duduk
Joe Walker, film editor
Duduk, instrument
Pink Floyd – “Eclipse” from Dark Side of the Moon
Klaus Schulze – “Frank Herbert”
Alejandro Jodorowsky
David Lynch’s Dune
John Williams, composer of Star Wars

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The War on Drugs is a band from Philadelphia who formed in 2005. They won the Grammy for Best Rock Album in 2018. This year, they put out their fifth album, I Don’t Live Here Anymore. Adam Granduciel is the singer and lead guitarist in the band, and I talked to him at his recording space here in Los Angeles. In this episode, Adam breaks down the title track from I Don’t Live Here Anymore, from the original demo to the version that was hammered out after months of work. And he explains how the song was influenced by Bob Dylan and his own newborn son.

The War On Drugs is Adam Granduciel, Robbie Bennett, Anthony LaMarca, David Hartley, Charlie Hall, and Jon Natchez.

You can buy or stream “I Don’t Live Here Anymore (feat. Lucius)” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes

Lucius
Bob Dylan – “Desolation Row”
Bob Dylan – “Shelter from the Storm”
Eric Slick, drummer for the band Dr. Dog
Kurzweil
Marshall Amp

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