Song Exploder is a podcast where musicians talk about a song that they created and break down each part of the song and exactly what it means. This episode of the podcast centers around Phil Elverum and the creation of his first song on his new record “I want Wind to Blow.” He wrote this song in Philadelphia mid-tour in his friend’s parents’ upstairs bedroom. Elverum explained how this song was one of the few that came to him before he recorded it. He goes into great depths of how he created this song by showing snippets of audio and how the song was created from short sounds and became fully functional. Recently, Elverum had a hit album called “The Glow, Pt 2, which Pitchfork named the album of the year. Additionally, Calvin Johnson, who had a large part in the recording of Elverum’s album shares his thoughts on working with Elverum. By the end of the audio, we hear the full “I want Wind to Blow” song put together from the audio snippets we heard earlier in the podcast. In this song you can clearly hear every spec of sound which Elverum was building up to.
The podcast episode opens up with trendy music and clearly explains what the episode is going to be about. It grabs the listener by leaving them with many questions about Elverum’s inspiration in his music creation. It fits really well as a podcast as it takes us through his music creation audibly. For example, Elverum talks about the different melodies he uses in the first song on the record, there are sounds playing in the background where you can hear a higher and lower melody corresponding to the one he is speaking about. Additionally, when Elverum describes the type of music he played in a band with a former girlfriend, called the ‘Thunder Clouds,’ the music plays in the background. This gives the listener a clearer understanding of the music he created. The podcast also took advantage of every little scenario Elverum talked about. Elverum describes how he enjoys the quiet parts of human life. In between performances, you can hear utensils clicking and a soft sound of footsteps approaching. As Elverum continues to speak about the creation of his song he talks about where the power of the song comes from– through a pulse and release sensation. As he is speaking, the music gets louder and builds up until it eventually stops mimicking the release Elverum is talking about. Elverum plays a recording where he is in his studio scraping the bottom of his snare drum, inspiring a sound for his song. He distinctly explains how his love of sound got him into recording, not because he wanted to write songs. This sound being played throughout the podcast is extremely important as you can follow the story Elverum is telling better. Overall, this needed to be a podcast and would not have worked as a written story. There are many elements of sound that people need to hear in order to understand Elverum’s full story. This podcast took full advantage of sound incorporating it to tell Elverum’s story of creation.
Matt's Blog 