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.

This episode contains explicit language.

King Princess is the project of McAleast Rouse, a singer, songwriter, and producer from Brooklyn.

She's a platinum-selling artist, and she put out her second album in July 2022.

The last track on the album is the song Let Us Die, Rolling Stone called it The Banger of the Year.

In this episode, McAle takes the song apart, along with two of her collaborators,

co-producer and co-writer Ethan Gruska, and multi-grammulating producer Mark Ronson.

You'll hear the original voice memo that McAle recorded, and the demo she made with Ethan.

And you'll hear the drums recorded by the late Taylor Hawkins, the legendary drummer of Who Fighters,

and the latest morsel, who passed away earlier this year.

I'm King Princess.

I was in upstate New York in this house that's really important to me and my family

by this lake that I go to.

I was super depressed and upset going through some relationship stuff.

You know, my girlfriend and I were going through this period of like, she was like,

am I happy being with you and your constant need to be seen by everyone, including me.

And I was like, well, please don't leave me.

That was one of the most adult conversations I've ever had.

It was like really look at myself and be like, am I hurting this person that I love by being me?

And is she hurting me by being her?

That's what I wanted to get through in this song.

...