You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece

tell the story of how they remained.

My name is Tao Wen.

John Darniel has been writing and recording songs as the mountain goats since 1991.

He's released 17 studio albums and also written two books of fiction.

In April 2018, the mountain goats released the album in league with dragons.

And in this episode, John Darniel breaks down a song from it called Cadavra Sniffing Dog.

We'll hear his original demo and then hear how the song evolved at Blackbird Studios in Nashville,

with the help of John's band, some incredible session musicians, and produce her Owen Palette.

Also, stick around after the song to hear more from John in our new segment, Instrumental.

Sniffing Dog.

My name is John Darniel.

I am the singer from the mountain goats.

I keep little notebooks.

They're not that much bigger than a credit card.

And I've been carrying those around for over 10 years.

The notebook has grocery lists and it has notes I take if I'm watching a movie.

But there's one page that just has song titles.

I just write them when I get an idea.

And Cadavra Sniffing Dog had been around for a while.

I think it probably came at an airport.

I mean, airports rather a lot and they have drug sniffer dogs and you're not allowed to pet them and it sucks.

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