Today, Hrishikesh Hirway released the 150th episode of Song Exploder, his remarkable podcast where musicians take apart their songs and tell the story of how they were made. In this episode, Lindsay Buckingham breaks down the production of “Go Your Own Way,” the first song he wrote for Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.
The episode ends with some bittersweet news: this is Hrishikesh’s last episode for the foreseeable future. After five years, he’s stepping back from hosting, editing, and producing the show, but will stay behind-the-scenes as Creative Director and hosting some live events and other Song Exploder-related projects.
I’ve adored Song Exploder since the beginning, linking to their very first episode with the Postal Service on the day it was released on January 1, 2014. We were honored to host the first live Song Exploder at XOXO 2014, with Hrishikesh interviewing Hutch from The Thermals about “No Culture Icons,” later released as an episode.
The new host will be Thao Nguyen (of Thao & the Get Down Stay Down), who guest-hosted the Neko Case episode and was featured herself on the show in 2016. I’m excited to see where she takes it from here.
Five years is a long time to work continuously on any project, and those 150 episodes are a powerful love letter to music and every musician’s unique creative process. Thank you to Hrish for making something so great.