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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Willow Smith is a singer and songwriter from Los Angeles. She’s also a member of one of the most famous families in the world. From a very young age, she followed in the musical footsteps of her parents, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, and released her first single when she was just ten years old. Since then, she’s released four albums, and was named one of TIME Magazine’s 100 Most influential people in the world. This year, on her most recent album, she put out this song, “Transparent Soul,” which was co-written with her longtime collaborator Tyler Cole, and features Travis Barker from Blink-182 on drums. I talked to her about how her upbringing and her musical evolution from her early pop star days influenced the way she made this song.

You can buy or stream “Transparent Soul feat. Travis Barker” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes

Wicked Wisdom, Jada Pinkett-Smith’s band
TMZ

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This summer, I gave a TED Talk at the TED Conference. My talk was about what you discover when you really listen. It was based on how making Song Exploder has changed the way I think about conversations and connecting with people. My talk came out today on the TED website and on the TED Talks Daily podcast, and the very nice folks at TED asked if I would also put the audio of the talk here, on Song Exploder. And I normally wouldn’t put this much of myself on here, but they asked, and like I said, they were very nice. I hope this isn’t too meta, to talk about the show, and what I get out of making it. But it also features some music, including beautiful cello played by Yo-Yo Ma, so there’s that to look forward to. Here it is, my TED Talk on what you learn when you listen closely.

You can listen to my song with Yo-Yo Ma here.

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For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

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