Song Exploder Exploder (ft. Hrishikesh Hirway)

Unthinkable with Jay Acunzo

Hrishikesh Hirway is a musician and creator/host of the popular podcast Song Exploder. The show has a simple but powerful premise: each episode, a musician breaks apart a single track and, piece by piece, tells the story of how it was made. He's interviewed Madonna, Billie Eilish, Rick Astley, Lorde, U2, Yo-Yo Ma, and plenty of lesser-known artists creating beautiful music. Vulture even called the show "the best use of the podcast medium ever," and in 2020, Song Exploder became a TV show on Netflix, running for two seasons.

Today, we turn the tables on Hrishikesh and ask him to break apart his work -- an episode of Song Exploder featuring the band The War On Drugs.

We also examine this idea that artists and successful people are rarely asked questions that stick close to their work. There's a precedent set by big-picture interview shows and mass media hosts that leads to general advice or end-to-end biographies.

Hrishikesh shares why starting his show was born out of a frustration with that approach, and he reveals what you can find when talking narrowly about the work.

Plus, the creative strategy behind Song Exploder and why Hrishikesh removes almost all of his voice.

This is a beautiful, existential, inspiring exploration of creativity -- all emerging from the tiny parts and pieces of doing the actual work.

Because there's magic in the minutiae.

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INSIDE THIS EPISODE:

• Hrishikesh Hirway: Website | Twitter | Music: Spotify, Apple | "Still Dreaming" music video
• Song Exploder: Website | Apple Podcasts | Spotify | others

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PRODUCTION CREDITS:

- Creator, host, writer, editor, sound design: Jay Acunzo

- Producer and researcher: Ilana Nevins