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.

Over the past five years, Chaz Bundek, aka Toro Imoa, has made music that span a range

of genres and styles.

On his newest album, What Four, he's shifted styles again.

Coming up, Chaz explains why.

He'll break down the song Half-Dome, named after the hiking destination in Yosemite National Park.

Here's Toro Imoa from an interview recorded live at the Noisepop Festival in San Francisco.

Hello.

My name is Chaz Bundek.

My wife asked me if I wanted to do Half-Dome.

I was like, sure.

Moving out to California, I've only been here for like three and a half years.

The nature is just crazy out in California compared to South Carolina.

So I've been really getting back into nature and trying to really see as many different

crazy natural things as possible.

I thought about it on the hike.

I could probably write about this because I'm really scared right now.

This song was written on guitar first.

I wanted the progression to have a lot of chords but not be really connected to Chaz or funk.

I knew that I just didn't want to get locked into that R&B thing again.

...