Lesson learned from 'Song Exploder' leads Hirway to an album of his own songs

Lesson learned from 'Song Exploder' leads Hirway to an album of his own songs

　　Transcript¹

　　Hrishikesh Hirway is host of the podcast Song Exploder, which examines pop songs and artists. He talks to NPR's A Martinez about releasing an album of his own compositions.

　　A MARTINEZ, HOST:

　　Hrishikesh Hirway gets to talk to a ton of songwriters. That's because of his podcast.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF PODCAST, "SONG EXPLODER")

　　HRISHIKESH HIRWAY: You're listening to "Song Exploder," where musicians take apart their songs and, piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. My name is Hrishikesh Hirway.

　　MARTINEZ: And he's talked to everyone - Alicia Keys, Metallica, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Fleetwood Mac. I mean, it's a stunning² list that just goes on and on. Hirway was himself a songwriter before he started the series. Now he's taking some of the lessons he's learned over the years, and he's written a new collection of his own songs.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "STILLNESS")

　　HIRWAY: (Singing) Oh, your stillness, let it fill this house in troubled times.

　　MARTINEZ: Hrishikesh Hirway's EP is called "Rooms I Used To Call My Own."

　　HIRWAY: I started "Song Exploder" when I kind of hit writer's block. I was feeling pretty stuck musically, and I didn't really know what to do. I wanted to do something creative and I wanted to do something with music, but I was kind of waiting things out. So that's kind of what began the show. But as I was doing the show, the writer's block kind of didn't go away, even though I was learning all these great lessons from musicians, because I think I was just focused on making the show - you know, putting one foot in front of the other. And it was only really in the last couple years that some of those lessons penetrated³ my thick skull⁴.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEAMS")

　　HIRWAY: (Singing) You said you lost a part of yourself before we met.

　　I think the biggest problem, the thing that had caused writer's block for me primarily - which was the sense of, like, pressure just to get things right and to write well and make, you know, great songs or something like that. Instead of just writing songs, I was so focused on, like, well, are they good enough to put out into the world? Are they - is anybody going to care about them? But one of the big lessons that I learned, you know, that I heard over and over again in the show, was that that's actually not the way anybody really thinks about making songs, you know? Like, you really just have to do it. There's a level of practice where you just have to go in and knock out the work. And maybe something great will come out of it. But nothing's going to come out of it if you don't try.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SEAMS")

　　HIRWAY: (Singing) Tell me the story you thought you couldn't tell.

　　MARTINEZ: Now, your new album, "Rooms I Used To Call My Own," is not your first album. But wondering - what do you hear in the music you've written and performed in the past that has maybe changed now?

　　HIRWAY: I think mainly it's different lyrically. What I'm writing about now is pretty bare-faced in terms of how it relates to my own life. I think when I was younger, I thought it was important or clever or cool to, you know, have layers of allegory and metaphor⁵ and stuff on top of everything. And I think one of the things that's changed is it's a way for me to just document who I am right now. And so I made these songs pretty directly about just the people who are closest to me and what I've been going through in my life.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BETWEEN THERE AND HERE")

　　HIRWAY: (Singing) You called out my name. Bring me some water, my love.

　　MARTINEZ: The song "Between Here And There" (ph) - that's about your mom, right? Your mom passed in the early months of the pandemic. I mean, did it help you process the grief⁶ of that?

　　HIRWAY: I think so. I'm not sure that I've processed it enough to know that - if it helped me process it.

　　MARTINEZ: Yeah.

　　HIRWAY: But it was certainly a really valuable experience, an experience that I think is part of what her death has been for me. You know, writing that song came so close on the heels after her funeral that it's kind of all wrapped up as one experience. But one thing that's been nice is having this thing that reminds me, at least, of what I was going through in that time, and also something that isn't just grief. Because I think the song - while it's, of course, sad because I wrote about my mom after she passed away - it gives me some continuing sense of connection to her in the present.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BETWEEN THERE AND HERE")

　　HIRWAY: (Singing) We'll have to meet in some shadow between there and here, between there and here.

　　MARTINEZ: I understand your mom also inspired the song "Memory Palace." Tell us about that.

　　HIRWAY: Yeah, that song was - it was actually first inspired by Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. She had written this public letter in the fall of 2018 where she said she had Alzheimer's, and she was essentially⁷ ending her public life and was going to sort of take a step back. And she issued this letter saying goodbye. And at that time, my mom was still alive. But my mom also had a neurological degenerative disorder⁸.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MEMORY PALACE")

　　HIRWAY: (Singing) I'm not giving up, just giving in. Yeah, I'm leaving. I'm leaving. I still love you. So I'm leaving.

　　The idea of being able to have a sense of what's going on with you and with your body, and then making a conscious decision about how you want to interact⁹ with the world because of it - it was really powerful.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MEMORY PALACE")

　　HIRWAY: (Singing) Rearrange us into strangers until the person who you are is not who you've been.

　　My mom, as part of her condition, she basically stopped being able to speak. And she used to be an incredible¹⁰ storyteller, like, joker - just wonderful conversationalist. And while she was alive for many years after her diagnosis¹¹, that part of her kind of went away. And so we were living in this kind of transitional period where she was still here and I could see her, but I felt like I had lost some part of our relationship. There's so many things that I took for granted that I don't take for granted anymore, and I tried to put some of that in the music.

　　MARTINEZ: That's Hrishikesh Hirway. He's the host of the podcast "Song Exploder." His new EP is called "Rooms I Used To Call My Own." Thanks for joining us.

　　HIRWAY: Thank you so much for having me.

　　(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HOME")

　　HIRWAY: (Singing) Strange how small it is when all that's left is...

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

3 penetrated   

adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The knife had penetrated his chest. 刀子刺入了他的胸膛。
• They penetrated into territory where no man had ever gone before. 他们已进入先前没人去过的地区。

4 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

5 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

6 grief   

n.悲伤，悲痛，悲伤的事，悲痛的缘由

参考例句：

• Don't allow yourself to sink into grief,it can do no good.不要使自己陷入悲哀之中，这样一点好处也没有。
• After her mother died,she abandoned herself to grief.母亲死后，她沉浸于悲痛之中。

7 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

8 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

9 interact   

vi.相互作用，相互影响，互通信息

参考例句：

• All things are interrelated and interact on each other.一切事物互相联系并相互作用。
• The policeman advised the criminal to interact with the police.警察劝罪犯与警方合作。

10 incredible   

adj.难以置信的，不可信的，极好的，大量的

参考例句：

• Some planets run at incredible speed.某些星球以难以置信的速度运行着。
• Her answer showed the most incredible stupidity.她的回答显示出不可思议的愚蠢。

11 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。