Song Exploder

Action Bronson is a rapper from Queens who’s been making records since 2011. He also stars as the host of two TV shows about food on Vice’s channel, "Viceland." His third album, "Blue Chips 7000," came out in 2017, and features this song – “The Chairman’s Intent.” It was produced by his longtime collaborator, producer Harry Fraud. In this episode, Action Bronson and Harry Fraud tell the story of how “The Chairman’s Intent” was made.

Jhené Aiko is a Grammy-nominated singer and songwriter. She’s released three albums so far. In addition to her own records, she’s been a featured guest vocalist on songs by Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Childish Gambino, and many, 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...

I interviewed the Scottish band CHVRCHES back in March 2016, in Austin, Texas. A few weeks ago, in May 2018, they released a new album called "Love is Dead." It features contributions from David Stewart of the Eurythmics, and another past Song Exploder guest, Matt Berninger of The National. So in honor of CHVRCHES new record, I wanted to go back and listen to their episode again. Here it is:

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 how they made the closing track from the record, the song "Here You Are."

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...

In November 2015, I interviewed Kelela about her song “Rewind,” from her debut EP, Hallucinogen. Since that EP was released, she's gone on to collaborate on songs with Gorillaz and Solange, and released her first full-length, Take Me Apart, which was named one of the Top 10 albums of 2017 by Vulture, Pitchfork, Cosmo, and a bunch of others. So I wanted to go back and revisit Kelela’s episode, which originally came out in January 2016.

Jon Hopkins is an electronic music producer whose been nominated twice for the UK’s Mercury Prize. Along with his frequent collaborator, Brian Eno, he co-produced Coldplay's Grammy-award winning album, "Viva la Vida." In May 2018, Jon Hopkins released his fifth album, "Singularity." It was named Best New Music by Pitchfork...

In 1993, Liz Phair released her debut album, Exile in Guyville. It was an instant hit, critically and commercially. It sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Spin and The Village Voice named it album of the year. Soon after, Rolling Stone put her on the cover of their magazine. Now, twenty-five years later, Exile in Guyville is being reissued as a deluxe boxset with photos, essays, and Liz Phair's original four-track cassette recordings...

Arcade Fire is a Grammy-winning six-piece band originally from Montreal. They’ve released five albums, and the last three have all debuted at number one on the charts. In this episode, singer Win Butler takes apart "Put Your Money On Me," from their 2017 album Everything Now. He breaks down how the influence of Marvin Gaye, Harry Nilsson, and ABBA all helped shape how the song eventually turned out. You’ll hear the original demo, and an alternate version of the song that was never finished...

Kimbra is a singer from New Zealand. Her first album came out in 2011, and in 2013 she won two Grammys for her collaboration with Gotye, the multiplatinum hit song "Somebody That I Used to Know." In this episode, Kimbra breaks down a song from 2018 called "Top of the World," a song she also made in collaboration—this time with artists Skrillex and Diplo.