Song Exploder

The band Mastodon formed in 2000 in Atlanta, Georgia. They’ve won a Grammy and been nominated for 5 others, and three of their albums have debuted at #1 on Billboard’s Hard Rock charts. For most of their history, they were a four piece, made up of Brann Dailor, Troy Sanders, Bill Kelliher, and Brent Hinds. But in March 2025, Brent Hinds left the band. And later that year, he died in a motorcycle accident. For this episode, I spoke to Brann, Troy, and Bill about making the song “Your Ghost Again,” which came together in the wake of Brent’s death, and the death of Brann’s mother. Along with their new members, Nick Johnston and João Nogueira, they released their 9th album, Marrow Deep, in August 2026. I went to their studio in Atlanta, and talked to them about everything they went through and everything that went into the song “Your Ghost Again.” 
For more info, visit songexploder.net/mastodon.

Listen to 'In the Last Hour of Light' here – lnk.to/inthelasthouroflight
Listen to "Never Going Anywhere" here — lnk.to/nevergoinganywhere
Dropbox archive of demos, photos, and more – hrishikesh.co/albumarchive 
I wanted to share this conversation that I had with my friend Jason Mantzoukas earlier this year. It was on stage, here in Los Angeles, at my album release show on May 14, 2026. Before playing my songs, I had this in-depth conversation with Jason about music and creativity, and my own creative process. And if you don’t already know Jason Mantzoukas, he is a comedian and actor and improviser and writer and podcast host—you might have seen him in John Wick, or The Good Place or Parks and Rec, or The League, or you might know his voice from Big Mouth—or you might know his podcast How Did This Get Made? 
I love talking to Jason about music and film and TV, and our conversation kind of touched on all of those things. But principally, it’s about this album that I made called In the Last Hour of Light, which is my fifth full-length, but my first one in 15 years, since before I started making Song Exploder.
For more info, visit songexploder.net/jason-and-hrishikesh.

Allison Russell is a singer and songwriter originally from Montreal and now based in Nashville. She’s a Grammy-winner and an eight-time Grammy nominee. And she’s also won Canada’s Juno Award, an Americana award, and more. She starred in Hadestown on Broadway. She spent years in bands and collaborating with others before she released her first solo album in 2021. Her most recent album came out in 2026, and is called In The Hour of Chaos. But for this episode, Allison and I talked about the title track from her second album, The Returner, which came out in 2023. She recorded it with an all-female ensemble that included Wendy & Lisa of The Revolution. It was co-written with JT Nero, her husband, and Drew Lindsay, her brother-in-law, and the two of them also co-produced the song with Allison.
For more info, visit songexploder.net/allison-russell.

30 years ago, DJ Shadow released his debut album, Entroducing… and it changed my life. I listened to it so much. And when I first started Song Exploder, he was on my list of dream guests. And then 10 years ago, that dream came true, and I got to make an episode with him in honor of the 20th anniversary of the album. Well, now it’s the 30th anniversary, and DJ Shadow is on tour this fall, celebrating it with a set that just focuses on songs from Endtroducing… And, there’s a special edition of the album on vinyl. So, in the spirit of all that, I wanted to go back to this episode of Song Exploder from back in 2016. 
For more info, visit songexploder.net/dj-shadow.

Elvis Costello is a singer and songwriter whose career spans five decades and over 30 albums. He’s a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriter Hall of Fame. He’s won Grammy Awards, Ivor Novello Awards, a BAFTA, and he’s on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest songwriters of all time. He put out his first album, My Aim Is True, in 1977. This month, he released a 49th anniversary edition of the album. So for this episode, I spoke to Elvis Costello about the making of “Alison,” from that debut album. Coming up, you’ll hear the isolated tracks from the original recording, as well as some additional parts that didn’t make the cut. And, in discussing the origin story of his song, we also ended up talking about the origin story of Elvis Costello himself.
For more info, visit songexploder.net/elvis-costello.