So many times you appreciate a musician with some degree of remove.

There's literally like a stage that they're on.

And I always had this desire for a song's voter to be a way to listen to an artist that you

might admire and just see how mortal they were or something, how much this great piece of work

that they created came out of the series of small, very human instincts and decisions.

So my guest today, Rishikesh, here we, he's been making music for as long as he can remember.

And as an adult, spent years building a career in the industry, writing, performing,

producing and touring. But it was a moment where he took a bit of a pause to re-evaluate that

led him to record an interview with a friend about the story and creative decisions behind a single

song that would change everything. That conversation eventually became the opening episode of the podcast

song exploder, which itself then exploded into a global phenomenon that I have been obsessed with

since hearing that very first episode. As you'll hear in the conversation, I literally know

where I was years ago when I listened to the first conversation. And now it's grown into not

just an award-winning podcast, but also a Netflix original television series where musicians

break down the creative process behind their songs, featuring many of the biggest names in music,

people like Alicia Keys, Billy Eilish, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Do-A-Lipa, the killers, and so many others.

And building on the success of song exploder, Rishikesh has also now grown a network of shows,

producing and co-hosting the award-winning podcast Home Cooking with chef and author,

Simeon Nozrat, who is a former guest on our show as well. And the West Wing weekly with actor Joshua

Melina, he's also the host and producer of the partners podcast. And while he's continued to

write and perform music of his own, he's released albums under the moniker, The One AM Radio,

and an EP with Moors, his project with Lake Heath Stanfield. As a composer, he's written music for

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