Dirty Projectors mastermind Dave Longstreth is such a meticulous composer that he’s a natural for Song Exploder, the podcast on which songwriters pick apart and explain all the individual parts of their songs. Longstreth is the latest guest, and he appears to talk all about “Up In Hudson,” one of the early singles from the recent self-titled Dirty Projectors album. On the show, Longstreth talks about wanting to get away from the band’s organic rock-band sound and trying to make his own version of the Diwali riddim, the dancehall beat that took over the world in 2003. The podcast also features Tyondai Braxton, the former Battles member, and Mauro Refosco, the Brazilian percussionist, both of whom helped Longstreth put the song together. He also talks about attempting to condense his entire recently-dissolved relationship into one song, lyrically, though he doesn’t get too deep into that. The episode is a fascinating listen, and you can hear it below.

https://soundcloud.com/hrishihirway/song-exploder-dirty-projectors

Dirty Projectors is out now on Domino. Check out some other Song Exploder episodes here.