Multi-hyphenate Hrishikesh Hirway, the hardest working man in song since James Brown coined the phrase, keeps the tension up, his work plate full, and his emotions high.
When he isn’t honing in on particular tracks and epic albums during his raging Song Exploder podcast (and accompanying Netflix showcase), he’s been busy making quirky pop music as a band dude (under the name The One AM Radio with four fresh albums dropped between 2002 and 2011). Or as the even quirkier pop-hop duo Moors (with actor and rapper Lakeith Stanfield and its EP).
As of 2021, however, Hirway began tagging his murky music with his own name – starting with that year’s single and TED talk smash, “Between There and Here” (with cellist Yo-Yo Ma) – and even deeper well-spring of emotion. This, of course, leads up to his soon-releasing solo EP and his upcoming tour date stop at PhilaMOCA on March 18 alongside Jenny Owen Youngs.
Hirway and Metro Philly’s A.D. Amorosi talked about all this and more in anticipation of the PhilaMOCA jam.
Amorosi: Eight years in, how would you define how far you have taken the Song Exploder podcast + Netflix series thing, and how far do you believe you can take it in the immediate future?
Hirway: I think of Song Exploder primarily as a format, and as a format, it hasn’t really changed that much since the beginning. I think what’s changed is that I’ve hopefully gotten better at storytelling and editing over the years, and so most of all I hope I can continue to take the execution of the idea farther in terms of refinement. One thing that has changed, though, is the ways I’ve allowed myself to break from the format here and there, and chances I’ve gotten to do something special. I got to do an episode about John Lennon’s song “God,” thanks to an incredible invitation from his family and estate to use their extensive archives of recordings and interviews. I never would have guessed that could happen. And I did an episode with Yo-Yo Ma about his decades-long relationship with the Bach Cello Suites, which he’s recorded multiples times over the years. I think by continuing to stick with the main format and idea, I feel like it’s okay to have these little digressions and exceptions here and there. So I hope by being consistent with the show, I’ll get to take the show to places I probably can’t imagine at the moment.
Amorosi: Considering other self-designed podcasts of yours such as West Wing Weekly, Partners and Home Cooking – to go with Song Exploder – how would you define, what confining what you do as a podcast creator?
Hirway: I think one of the best ways to appreciate something is to learn about what went into it; all the small details that might get overlooked in a big picture overview. And one thing that unifies those shows is that the main question is why it happened that way. What was the intention, and how was that intention executed? So, whether it’s a asking a musician about song or a director about a TV episode or a pair of partners about their relationship or a chef about a dish, I’m interested in how people come up with ideas, and even more so, in the unique path that they take to make that idea come to life.
Amorosi: I’m so used to seeing your name as The One AM Radio or tied to Moors that a solo project seems…. unthinkable. Who are you, musically and lyrically, apart from The One AM Radio, and when and how did that first manifest itself?
Hirway: Well, The One AM Radio really is me. It was a name I chose to represent my project, and other people would come in and out of my touring band, but it was really a solo project. Changing to my own name felt like more of a statement about asserting my actual name, and a chance to mark this sort of new start for me, but musically and lyrically, it’s coming from the same place. At least I hope it is.
Amorosi: I heard “Between Here and There” and welled-up in tears. What can you say of writing that piece, and involving Yo-Yo Man?
Hirway: I wrote that song a few weeks after my mom passed away. I was back home after being gone for her funeral, and one night, I had a dream about her. We had a regular conversation, which we hadn’t been able to do for a few years due to health, and we told each other we missed each other. It was simple, but it affected me a lot. I was grateful for the experience, because it let me interact with a memory of her in such a palpable way. I felt connected to her still, and it kind of articulated, in a way, how that would be possible, separate from the cliches that you always hear around grief and how people you lose will still be with you. I wrote the song with my close friend Jenny Owen Youngs. That same week, Yo-Yo Ma and I were in conversation because I was going to moderate a discussion with him a couple days later. And I told him about how I was trying to get back to making music, but it had been hard for me to find my way. He offered me some wisdom and suggested I write a part for him. In the song, his cello solo is supposed to represent my mom’s voice in this dream. His cello playing is so expressive, as expressive as a human voice, and it felt like the perfect sound for someone whose voice I can remember but can no longer hear.
Amorosi: Do you feel as if the solo you has radically different influences than the you behind/of The One AM Radio and Moors?
Hirway: I wouldn’t say my influences have changed now; there are just more of them. I keep adding to the list of songs and albums I admire. So, I’m still influenced by Nick Drake and Björk and Sade, but also by artists I started listening to more recently: Mustafa, Arlo Parks, and Grouper, for example, have all made a big impact on me.
Amorosi: Does a solo you mean that One AM Radio and Moors might not make additional new music?
Hirway: I would love to make more music with Moors! Lakeith’s schedule, since becoming a huge star, has become understandably tight. He goes away for months at a time to film things. But we have music that we’ve finished that we’re hoping to release soon. But I probably won’t go back to making music under The One AM Radio name. My new music is coming from the same place, but it’s a later chapter in the same book.
Amorosi: Want to say something nice about your touring partner Jenny Owen Youngs?
Hirway: For a long time, in the years after starting Song Exploder but before I started writing songs again, I wanted to make music again. I’d done music work; scoring things like a film and a tv show, but hadn’t made songs of my own. And I thought maybe that, too, was just a chapter that had closed, and as much as I missed it, I wouldn’t be able to get back there. Jenny is the person who changed that for me. She is a great songwriter and an incredibly generous spirit, and before we were friends, when we were just acquaintances really, she happened to ask me if I wanted to write a song with her. The experience was so wonderful and exciting that I just wanted to do it again after we finished. So we did. We’ve written a number of songs together, and in so doing, we’ve talked about our lives and dreams and fears in such an intense way that it was impossible not to become very close. So this tour feels like a chance to hang out with my dear friend, as well as a chance to perform with the person who made the idea of performing possible for me again.
Amorosi: Want to say something nice, beyond the Jay Som jawn about what else to expect and what boundaries are to be broken with your upcoming EP due out later this Spring.
Hirway: Just at the moment when I was able to start writing songs again, my mom passed away. And all the songs I wrote over the following year, even the ones that aren’t about that, were made in the shadow of that. So all of the songs are about my family, and my attempts to hold them very close. It’s the most personal work I’ve ever made, and I hope—despite how personal they are me—that other people might find some value in them, too.
