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 Rishi Kesh Hirwe.

On September 5th, I'm going to be doing a special live Song Exploder event in Los Angeles with Boni Vair.

Justin Vernon and producer Jimmy Stack are going to be joining me on stage to tell the story behind one of the songs from the new Bonie Verre album, Sable Fable. So if you've ever wondered what a full, unedited Song Exploder conversation is like, this is your chance to be in the room. This is going to be a live event only. It's not going to be live streamed or repeated on any other night, so I hope you can make it. It's going to be at the beautiful Palace Theater in downtown L.A.

You can get tickets to this special Song Exploder Live event with Bonnie Vair at

at SongExploder.net slash live. Again, it's on Friday, September 5th in downtown L.A.

And you can get tickets at Song songexploder.net slash live.

This is Key Change, where I talk to fascinating people about the music that changed their lives.

My guest today is Gia Tolentino. Gia is the author of the essay collection Trick Mirror,

which was named one of the best books of 2019 by the New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Paris Review, and more.

She won a National Magazine Award for her work at The New Yorker, where she's been a staff writer since 2016.

Her writing covers so many different topics from Roe v. Wade to the internet, to pop culture, and music.

And today we're going to talk about the 1996 pop hit,

I Love You Always Forever by Donna Lewis.

Jia, thanks so much for being here.

Hello.

Do you remember the first time you ever heard,

I Love You Always Forever?

Yeah, I heard it.

I think I was in the third row of a minivan.

I was seven years old, and I grew up in Houston, and there was a lot of just driving,

a lot of just being put in the back of the car.

...