A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Jul 4, 2018 at 10:06am PDT

Jhené Aiko is a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter. She released her first album in 2012. In addition to her own records, she’s been a featured guest vocalist on songs by Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Childish Gambino, and many others. In 2017, she released her third album, Trip, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard Charts, and includes the song “Sativa.” The song features guest vocals from Swae Lee, who’s one half of the band Rae Sremmurd. In this episode, Jhené tells the story of how “Sativa” was made, and how it got stuck, and then, how it got unstuck. She’s joined by producer Brian Warfield of the production duo Fisticuffs, who made the beat.

Buy or stream “Sativa” (ft. Swae Lee) here, and watch the music video below. You can buy her album, Trip on vinyl here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
No I.D. (producer)

A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Jun 20, 2018 at 10:00am PDT

Yo La Tengo formed in 1984. The band is made up Ira Kaplan, Georgia Hubley, and James McNew. In March 2018, they released There’s a Riot Going On, their 15th album. They made the record themselves—they recorded it entirely in their rehearsal studio with James handling the engineering duties. The album came together slowly, over a few years. In this episode, Georgia, James, and Ira break down the experiments and accidents that led to the the closing track from the record, the song “Here You Are.”

Buy or stream “Here You Are” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
Casio drum machine
The Sun Ra Arkestra

A post shared by Song Exploder (@songexploder) on Jun 6, 2018 at 10:03am PDT

Wolf Alice is a band from North London. Their second album, Visions of a Life, was released in September 2017. In this episode, singer Ellie Rowsell and drummer Joel Amey tell the story of how they made the song “Don’t Delete the Kisses.” The album was produced by Justin Meldal-Johnsen, and coming up later, you’ll hear some of his thoughts, as well. The song went through a lot of versions. A home demo that Ellie made, another demo with the full band, plus studio versions they recorded in LA with Justin. There were a lot of ideas that were created and then scrapped. In this episode, they trace the path through those ideas, as well how the song was influenced by Father John Misty, PJ Harvey, and the film Frances Ha.

Buy or stream “Don’t Delete the Kisses” here.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

footnotes
“True Affection” – Father John Misty
Garageband
Miku Stomp – The “anime” guitar pedal
LinnDrum
“All & Everyone” – PJ Harvey