You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.

I'm Rishikesh Herway.

James Vincent McMorrell is a singer-songwriter whose first albums fell somewhere on the folk music side of things,

but his sound has changed over the years, incorporating elements of R&B and electronic music.

On the album We Move, James worked with a producer 1985, whose credits include tracks by Drake and Nicki Minaj.

In this episode, James breaks down the song Get Low from that record, and how it was inspired by clips, minimalism, and Los Angeles.

I loved the way you're high, and I know you're in love with your heart, you're in love with your heart, even when you smile, you're so cruel, loving with your heart, you're in love with your heart.

My name is James Vincent McMorrell.

I tend to base everything off a rhythm initially, so like this song was based on a drum pattern.

That was the inception of the song, and it was a total Neptune's thing, with the little bongo on the Konga hits.

It was totally me doing a silly little foral thing.

Like Grindin' by Clips.

I'm on your show.

From the Neptune's.

I wouldn't go as far as to call out the perfect song, because it's like, there's no music in it until this tiny little thing comes in at one point.

It's such a perfectly executed track, isn't it?

You know what's crazy about that song?

The first keyboard I ever owned was like Quark Triton, and if you go to, I think it's Procution Bank 1 on the presets that come within it.

The first four keys on the left-hand side are the entire beat for Grindin' by Clips.

That was a huge thing for me when I was a kid, because it was just like, when you want to produce or you want to make beats and you won't grow up loving hip hop production.

It's such a harder thing to figure out, because there's so much gear you need to buy and there's so much learning you need to do, but it was just like, I don't need to own an NPC or be super proficient in how to cut up a sample.

So, I just liked the energy of the drum pattern, and then I had the chorus pattern. It was like a right-hand part on like a roadsting that had written one day.

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