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.

The film La La Land tells the story of Mia, an aspiring actress played by Emma Stone,

and the story of Sebastian, a jazz pianist played by Ryan Gosling, both struggling artists

in Los Angeles.

The musical was written and directed by Damian Chazelle in collaboration with composer Justin

Herwitz.

It's the third film they've made together, the follow-up to the Oscar-winning film,

Whiplash.

In this episode, Justin Herwitz breaks down a song from the film sung by Emma Stone,

called Audition, The Fools Who Dream.

Plus, we'll hear some thoughts from Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, who wrote the lyrics.

This episode is part of a series I'm doing in partnership with New York Magazine's

Site Vulture, highlighting awards-worthy film music.

For more, go to vulture.com slash awards.

My name is Justin Herwitz, I'm the composer of La La Land.

The film is written and directed by Damian Chazelle.

Damian first talked to me about working on this project in 2010.

We had made another musical.

The first feature film either of us made, respectively in college.

That movie, Guy in Madeline, on a park bench, got into some festivals, a few people saw

...