‘Song Exploder’ Preview: Will Alicia Keys, Ty Dolla $ign and Lin-Manuel Miranda share personal facts on show?
There are only a handful of shows on Netflix dedicated to music and unfortunately none them delves deeper into the meaning, the story and the emotions behind the songs. However, the game is about to change as the popular independent podcast show called ‘Song Exploder’ has hit the leading streaming platform in the form of a documentary series.
In the adaption we saw the host Hrishikesh Hirway reprising his role and seeking answers behind the songs we have all loved. The new series has roped in artistes like Grammy award-winner Alicia Keys, rapper Ty Dolla $ign, ‘Hamilton’ star Lin Manuel Miranda and the rock band REM. The brand new season sticks to the concept of the original podcast. Only here, we will able to see the artistes visually breaking down one of their biggest hits and sharing the emotions behind it.
The very first episode of the documentary series opens with the legendary singer Alicia Keys. The episode has been titled ‘Alicia Keys- 3 Hour Drive’. The song is from her latest album titled ‘AICIA’. The 39-year-old singer sits with the host and spills the beans on how she worked on the song with writers and musicians Jimmy Napes and Sampha. In the episode, we can see the multiple award-winning artiste sharing an unspoken bond with her teammate Sampha who reveals that he recently lost his mother. Alicia, on the other hand, became a mother recently. The singer sheds light on it and labelled it as a “crazy beautiful circle”.
In the second episode, Hirway sits down with the current hottest broadway star Lin-Manuel Miranda to breakdown the song ‘Wait For It’ from his popular Broadway show ‘Hamilton’. The American actor-singer shares a very interesting story on how he came up with the song while he was riding the subway on a way to a house party and how he then excused himself from the party just to compose the entire song. The third episode goes a little back in time. The host sits down with the late 80s and early 90s popular alternative rock band REM to know how their song ‘Losing My Religion’ became one of their biggest career hits. While breaking down the song, guitarist Peter Buck confesses how they got bored of doing the same routine for 10 years and just to come out of the boredom, they wanted to sabotage their career.
The fourth episode will see LA-based rapper Ty Dolla $ign talking about the very first song from this 2015 debut album ‘Free TC’. The 38-year-old record producer reveals that the song is based on his young brother Gabrieal, also known as Big TC, who got locked up for a murder he did not commit at the tender age of 18. We get to see a different side of Ty Dolla $ign in the fourth episode of ‘Song Exploder’ as he gets nostalgic about his city, his brother and how his entire debut album focused on getting his brother out of the jail.
You can check the trailer of ‘Song Exploder’ here: