Hrishikesh Hirway and the Perfect Song Myth

Hrishikesh Hirway — the creator and host of Song Exploder — joins me this week. We talk about the strange identity crisis of becoming known as “the Song Exploder guy” while still trying to reconnect with himself as a musician and songwriter. We also get into collaboration, writer’s block, vintage clothing, obsessive music listening, and the making of his beautiful new record, “In the Last Hour of Light.” Hrishikesh opens up about interviewing hundreds of artists, how Song Exploder changed the way he thinks about creativity, and why working with other people ultimately helped him fall back in love with making music. We also talk about recording live with almost no takes, working with Iron & Wine, the emotional weight of memory and grief, and the challenge of making deeply personal work in public. This is one of my favorite kinds of conversations — two people trying to figure out what it actually means to make things for a living.