Imagine Dragons are a Grammy-winning band from Las Vegas, Nevada. They’ve sold over 20 millions albums so far, and they were the most streamed band on Spotify in 2018. In March of this year, they released the song “Follow You.” Singer Dan Reynolds started the song at home, and then later, the band took it to the studio Shangri-La, to record parts of it with legendary producer Rick Rubin. In this episode, Dan breaks down the song, which tells a deeply personal story of his relationship to his wife.

You can buy or stream “Follow You” here.

For a transcript of this episode click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Joel Little, producer
Rick Rubin, executive producer

Marie Ulven is a singer, songwriter, and producer from Norway, who makes music under the name girl in red. She just released her debut album in April 2021, but she already has a big fanbase and she’s gotten a lot of critical acclaim from two EPs and singles that she’s released online, including a couple of songs that went gold. The New York Times included her work in their best songs of the year in both 2018 and 2019. Last year she was nominated for Best Newcomer at the Norwegian Grammys, and this year she won International Success of the Year. “Do you listen to girl in red?” has also become code on TikTok, a kind of shibboleth, to ask if someone’s a lesbian. In this episode, Marie breaks down the song “Serotonin,” a song that started as a video she posted to her own TikTok in the early days of lockdown in 2020. You’ll hear the original version she recorded on her own, before collaborating with Norwegian Grammy-winning producer Matias Téllez, and later, with Grammy-winning artist and producer Finneas O’Connell, in order to finish the song.

You can buy or stream “Serotonin” here.

@girlinred

feelin like posty ##fyp ##foryoupage ##worldinredbaby

♬ original sound – girl in red

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

Porter Robinson is a Grammy-nominated electronic artist and DJ from North Carolina. In 2014, his first album hit #1 on Billboard’s Dance chart, he was named MTVU’s Artist of the Year, and one of the top DJs in the world — but then, he got stuck. He didn’t release his second album for seven years, until April 2021. In this episode, he talks about what he was grappling with in those intervening years, and how all of that became part of his song “Get Your Wish.”

You can buy or stream “Get Your Wish” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes
Daft Punk
Bon Iver