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.

Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter started Phantagram in 2007.

They've worked on crafting a particular sound and they've had a particular way of making their dense productions since the beginning.

But for their new record, three things changed.

The song You Don't Get Me High Anymore took the band outside of their comfort zone.

In this episode, Sarah and Josh break down how they made the original demo and how outsiders like the dream and co-producer Ricky Reed influenced the way the song ultimately turned out.

My name is Sarah Barthel.

My name is Josh Carter when we play in the band Phantagram.

The first idea for this song was the drum break that I found.

This Eddie Boe hook and sling part one.

I love sampling things. It's a big part of the Phantagram sound.

I thought it was just real funky and I liked it.

The way that I chopped it almost sounded like there was like a crow kind of chirping and like on the one.

And then this too, the sound.

I took a bit of the Eddie Boe hook and sling and just pitch corrected it.

Because at the beginning of the song, he kind of says it's like an oh and I just pitch corrected it and added reverb and ran it through an amp.

I remember I loved the song and I told you the name it.

So you wrote dope, yo exclamation point parentheses according to Sarah.

He didn't love it at all. I mean he thought it was funky.

But the moment I heard it, I was like this is going to be a jam.

I give it to me immediately.

...