Netflix series Song Exploder reveals secrets behind R.E.M., Alicia Keys, and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s biggest hits
- Hrishikesh Hirway’s podcast explores the creative process behind classic songs by the likes of U2, Iggy Pop, Tame Impala and Sheryl Crow
- Adapted for a Netflix series, the first four episodes dissect influential rock, pop, hip-hop, and musical theatre tracks
Among the first instruments you hear in Losing My Religion, the 1991 smash hit by R.E.M., is a mandolin. Played by guitarist Peter Buck, the minimalist melody moves through the song virtually unimpeded. Take it away and the song collapses. Opt instead for a piano, saxophone or a distorted electric guitar and it’s a different thing altogether.
But why? And how did that mandolin riff, combined with bassist Mike Mills’ fluid undercurrent, Bill Berry’s disco-informed drumming and singer Michael Stipe’s disorienting confession – “Oh no I’ve said too much / I haven’t said enough” – come to propel an already successful band from Athens, Georgia, to the next level of stardom?
“Peter … was tired of being an electric guitar god, and he wanted to explore acoustic instruments and go in a different direction,” explains Stipe in one of the inaugural episodes of Song Exploder, a new Netflix series adapted from creator Hrishikesh Hirway’s acclaimed podcast of the same name. Each of the four episodes focuses on a single song, and across 25 minutes Hirway grills the artist on how the work was created.
“It was time to do something different,” adds Buck in the R.E.M. episode, of the Losing My Religion riff. “We just thought, ‘We’ll make a record that will destroy our career and it’ll be cool.’”
Song Exploder is rich with incisive conversations on the creative process. Executive-produced by Hirway with documentarians Morgan Neville and Caitrin Rogers – both of whom in 2014 won Oscars in the feature-length documentary category for 20 Feet from Stardom – the inaugural season also features instalments with Alicia Keys, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Ty Dolla Sign.