Song Exploder Podcast
The podcast I decided to listen to is a podcast called song exploder, hosted by Hrishikesh Hirway. Song exploder follows a musical artist and one song that they released and details how the song was created and produced from the beginning of the song to its final product.
The particular episode that I listened to followed Lorde’s song “Sober” and had three really interesting audio clips that added to the podcast’s charm and overall entertainment value: the audio clips of Lorde’s layered vocals, the lack of any kind of background noise when Lorde was being interviewed, and a sample of a tiger’s roar.
The clips that Lorde presented to Hrishikesh of her vocal tracks soloed out of the mix were eye-opening because she explained how harmonies would come in an go out and very specific times throughout the prechorus of her song. So instead of just having one melody line and one harmony line, she recorded a ton of harmony tracks that are layered on top of each other to highlight certain phrases in her song. This is part of the appeal of song exploder because that type of sound goes unnoticed by most listeners of the song and when Lorde explains it and then gives the audio clips for listeners to hear, it makes people hear her song completely differently in context, giving credence to the show’s design.
Secondly, when Lorde is speaking to Hrishikesh there is no buzzing or ambient noise whatsoever in the room they are in, so her voice when she is speaking sounds like a vocal track on a song. The lack of background noise isolates the person speaking and gives the show a feeling as though the interview is happening in a vacuum. It feels almost surreal and is immediately jarring because it doesn’t feel as though there is any life or hustle and bustle outside of the person talking, so it gives Lorde’s words a sense of magic because Hrishikesh designed the sound to make her words the most important aspect of the show. I think the picture below captures that sense of magic in silence pretty well, as the one person in the photo is surrounded by endless blue.
Lastly, Lorde showed her audience that leading into the bridge of “Sober” there is actually the sound of a Tiger’s roar. Again this is something that most people would miss just listening casually and it validates the charm of the show, but it also gives listeners a glimpse into the world of producers. It shows the creativity, care, and whimsy that an artist expresses when they make songs in an aural medium. All in all, song exploder is a wonderful glimpse into the lives of musicians and uses sounds and the lack there of, to its best advantage. To conclude here is a picture of a tiger roaring:
