Episode Archives - Song Exploder

Episode 314: Hot Chip

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 20 May 2026 14:25:53 +0000

“Boy From School”

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Hot Chip is a band from London made up of Alexis Taylor, Joe Goddard, Al Doyle, Owen Clarke, and Felix Martin. Their second album, The Warning, came out in 2006. It was nominated for a Mercury Prize, and named one of the best albums of the year by NME and Pitchfork. And later, NME would include it in their list of best albums of all time. For this episode, I talked to them about one of the songs from The Warning called “Boy From School.” You might have heard it in the second season of the show Beef on Netflix—the band’s also in the show—or you might have heard it on The Simpsons. You could have also heard the song in my car all the time in 2006. So I was very excited to talk to Alexis and Joe from Hot Chip about how “Boy from School” was made.

You can buy or stream “Boy From School” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Elliott School
Basement Jaxx
Casio MT-70 keyboard
Vox Electric Piano
Cubase and the Roland TR-909
“Deceptacon” by Le Tigre (+ The DFA remix)
James Murphy, Tim Goldsworthy, and The DFA
“Is It All Over My Face?” by Loose Joints
Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys

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Key Change: Emma Straub

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 13 May 2026 17:33:47 +0000

‘69 Love Songs’ by The Magnetic Fields

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My guest today is the bestselling author Emma Straub. Her books include This Time Tomorrow, Modern Lovers, The Vacationers, and more. And with her husband, Michael Fusco, she co-owns the beautiful Brooklyn bookstore Books Are Magic.

I’m so thrilled to have her on because, not only is she a wonderful writer, but Key Change is a series about music fandom and identity. And Emma’s newest novel American Fantasy is also about music fandom and identity. That story is set on a cruise ship centered around a nineties boy band and their fans.

But today, Emma’s going to tell me her story about her own relationship with the music of the Magnetic Fields. Stephin Merritt from the Magnetic Fields was just named one of the greatest living American songwriters by the New York Times, and Emma’s introduction to their music was their 1999 triple album, 69 Love Songs.

You can buy or stream 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields here.

footnotes:
Claudia Gonson
LD Beghtol
Future Bible Heroes, The Gothic Archies
“Epitaph For My Heart,” “Long-Forgotten Fairytale,” “Grand Canyon,” “The Book of Love,” “It’s Only Time,” and “Walking My Gargoyle”
Emma Straub’s Magnetic Fields tour blog

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Episode 313: The xx

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 06 May 2026 14:51:11 +0000

“Crystalised”

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The xx formed in 2005, when they were still in high school. They signed to the UK label Young, and put out their first album in 2009. It won the prestigious Mercury Prize, and was named one of the best albums of the year by Rolling Stone, Pitchfork and more. Since then, the Guardian has named it one of the best albums of the 21st century. This year, the three band members, Romy Croft, Oliver Sim, and Jamie xx played together as The xx for the first time in 8 years. I spoke to them in between the weekends at Coachella, where they were opening their sets with the song “Crystalised.” It’s the first song they ever released, back in April 2009, when the lineup also included Baria Qureshi on guitar. I spoke to Romy, Jamie and Oliver, here at my studio, about how they first found each other, and how they made “Crystalised.”

You can buy or stream “Crystalised” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Rodaidh McDonald – engineer
Portishead, Mazzy Star, and The Cure
Akai MPC
Hammerhead Rhythm Station

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Episode 312: Hurray for the Riff Raff

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 15:28:04 +0000

“Alibi”

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Alynda Segarra is a singer songwriter from the Bronx. They formed Hurray for the Riff Raff in 2007, and since then, they’ve released 8 albums. Their most recent is The Past Is Still Alive, which came out in 2024. It was named one of the best albums of the year in the New York Times, the Associated Press, Entertainment Weekly, and The Atlantic, and Pitchfork called it one of the best albums of the decade so far. For this episode, I spoke to Alynda about the first track on the album, “Alibi.”

You can buy or stream “Alibi” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Brad Cook – producer
Yan Westerlund – drums
Phil Cook – guitar
Life on Earth – Hurray for the Riff Raff’s 7th album
Dolly Parton

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Episode 311: Jack Harlow

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 15:44:33 +0000

“Say Hello”

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Jack Harlow is from Louisville, Kentucky, and started performing and releasing music in 2015, when he was in high school. In 2020, he released his first album, which went double platinum. He was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rap Performance. He’s had multiple number one hits across his first three albums. For his fourth album, Monica, which just came out in March 2026, he switched things up dramatically. I was curious how and why-how did someone who had so much success as a rapper approach a new way of making music? So for this episode, I spoke to Jack Harlow about the song “Say Hello,” which is the closing track on Monica.

You can buy or stream “Say Hello” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Aksel Arvid – producer
Jermaine Paul – bass
Robert Glasper – piano
Stephane Clement – trumpet
Ravyn Lenae – backing vocals
Jackman. – album by Jack Harlow
Slum Village and Outkast

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Key Change: Baz Luhrmann

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 15:12:07 +0000

“Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper

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My guest today is Baz Luhrmann, the award-winning director whose films include Moulin Rouge!, Strictly Ballroom, The Great Gatsby, Elvis, and Romeo + Juliet. His newest film is EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, a critically acclaimed documentary about Elvis that’s playing right now in theaters and in IMAX. Before becoming a massively successful film director, Baz began his showbiz career as an actor, and as a ballroom dancer, in Australia. His first film was Strictly Ballroom, which came out in 1992, and became one of the highest-grossing Australian films of all time. It was originally a play, and there’s a song in the film that was part of the story all the way back when it was first performed on stage. And that’s what Baz and I talked about for this episode.

You can buy or stream “Time After Time” by Cyndi Lauper here.

footnotes:
“One” by John Farnham
National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), Cate Blanchett, and Mel Gibson
Ted Albert
Tara Morice and Craig Pearce

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Episode 310: Thompson Twins

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 11 Mar 2026 16:05:17 +0000

“Hold Me Now”

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Thompson Twins originally formed in 1977 in Sheffield, in the UK. “Hold Me Now,” their iconic hit, came out as a single in November 1983, and eventually on their 1984 album, Into the Gap. That album went to number 1 in the UK and went platinum in the US. The song spent 21 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. So for this episode, I talked to the founding member of Thompson Twins, Tom Bailey, and he told me how he and his bandmates, Alannah Currie and Joe Leeway, made “Hold Me Now.”

You can buy or stream “Hold Me Now” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Alex Sadkin – producer
Phil Thornalley – engineer
Boris Bransby Williams – drummer
RAK studios
Bob Marley
Oberheim synthesizers and Fairchild compressors
Bill Wyman and The Rolling Stones

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Episode 309: Silvana Estrada

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 15:20:18 +0000

“Como Un Pájaro”

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Silvana Estrada is a singer, songwriter, and producer from Veracruz, Mexico. She won the Latin Grammy for Best New Artist in 2022, and she’s been nominated for three others, including for her song “Como Un Pájaro,” which is the song that we talked about for this episode. It’s from her second album, which came out in 2025, but she started writing the song several years before that. So we talked about all the different versions of this song, and a couple of versions of Silvana herself, that emerged throughout the process.

You can buy or stream “Como Un Pájaro” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Daniel Bitrán – engineer
Roberto Verástegui – piano
Casa Estudio El Desierto
Hiyao Miyazaki, My Neighbor Totoro, and Spirited Away

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Episode 308: The Marías

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 15:53:44 +0000

“No One Noticed”

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The Marías is a band from Los Angeles, made up of María Zardoya, Josh Conway, Jesse Perlman, and Edward James. They released their first EPs in 2017 and 2018, and their first album in 2021. But then, as you’ll hear, there was a period of a lot of uncertainty around the band’s future. Eventually, their second album, Submarine, came out in 2024, and it was incredibly successful. Stereogum called it one of the best albums of the year, and the band was nominated for a Grammy for Best New Artist. But all of that almost didn’t happen. I talked to María about the making of their hit song “No One Noticed.” The story’s beginning, middle, and end all took place during different eras of the band’s existence. In the middle section, when maybe they weren’t going to even be a band anymore, María enlisted the help of Grammy-nominated producer Gianluca Buccellati. And I spoke to Luca for this episode, as well.

You can buy or stream “No One Noticed” here.

For the Song Exploder episode with Arlo Parks about the song “Black Dog,” which was produced by Gianluca Buccellati, click here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Paris, Texas (film)
Arlo Parks and Biig Piig

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Episode 307: Leon Thomas

Tiger Biskup — Wed, 28 Jan 2026 16:59:22 +0000

“Mutt”

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Leon Thomas is a singer, songwriter, producer, and actor. He’s nominated for six Grammys at this year’s Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist, Best R&B Album, and Album of the Year for Mutt. Mutt is his second album, and I talked to Leon about the title track, which was a breakout hit. He’d already won a Grammy for his work with SZA, but he reached a new level in his own career with this song and this album. I also spoke to David Phelps and Rob Gueringer, AKA D. Phelps and Freaky Rob, who produced the song.

You can buy or stream “Mutt” here.

Illustration by Carlos Lerma.

For a transcript of this episode, click here.

footnotes:
Bizzy Crook – co-writer
“Silly Love Song by Enchantment
“Snooze” by SZA
Electric Dusk – Leon Thomas
Led Zeppelin, Kendrick Lamar, Miles Davis, Pink Floyd, and
Parliament-Funkadelic
Art Tatum and John Coltrane
Bootsy Collins

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