Mitski - Your Best American Girl

In 2016, Mitski did an episode of Song Exploder about her song “Your Best American Girl.” She had just released her second album, Puberty 2. Later, Pitchfork named “Your Best American Girl” one of the top 10 best songs of the past decade, and Billboard named it as one of the songs that defined the decade. And in honor of the 10th anniversary of the album, there’s a new deluxe version that’s out digitally, and a limited edition vinyl is coming in October. I thought this would be a good time to revisit Mitski’s episode, where she and her collaborator Patrick Hyland break down how “Your Best American Girl” was made. To learn more, visit songexploder.net/mitski http://songexploder.net/mitski

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Hrishikesh Hirway?

  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 Rishi Kesh Hirway.

• 0:11Hrishikesh Hirway?

  I'm going to be on tour, playing some shows this fall. I'm going to be in London on Wednesday, November 18. I'm going to be performing solo at Rough Trade Records on Denmark Street. And I'm going to be in conversation about my music, moderated by one of my favorite actors and writers, Matthew Bainton. And a ticket to the show also gets you a copy of my album on vinyl or CD. And in December, I'm going to be on tour supporting S. Carrie. We're going to be playing a bunch of shows in the Northeast US. So I hope to see you in one of those places. You can find all the details and get links to tickets at songexploder.net/live. That's songexploder.net/live.

• 0:55Hrishikesh Hirway?

  This episode is sponsored by the podcast, What It's Like to Be. Do you ever think about what other people's workdays look like? Satisfying some of that curiosity is the idea at the heart of bestselling author Dan Heath's podcast, which is called What It's Like to Be. In each episode, Dan interviews someone from a different profession to find out what it's like to be a professional Santa Claus, or a Secret Service agent, or a long-haul truck driver, or an aerospace engineer at NASA, just to name a few examples. The show gives you an insider view into all kinds of jobs from a wide range of industries, answering questions like, what do mail carriers learn about us from our mail? There are so many jobs out there that exist only as titles

• 1:39Hrishikesh Hirway?

  in our imagination, if they even register that much. This show is a chance to reach beyond what you know or think you know. If you're curious to learn more about the work lives of other people, check out What It's Like to Be, wherever you get podcasts. There's a new podcast called Before the Moment with Nile Rodgers. In every legendary music career, there's a moment right before it all changes. And in every episode of this podcast, Nile Rodgers talks to a legendary musician about the choices, the events, and the relationships that shaped their career before the moment that everything changed for them. Every story is unique and opens a window into the lives of some of the biggest names in music. And Nile is the perfect person to lead these conversations, because for over 50 years,

• 2:24Hrishikesh Hirway?

  he's played guitar with artists like Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Daft Punk, and Beyoncé. In the first season of the podcast, some of Nile's guests include John Legend, Miguel, and more. New episodes are coming out every other Tuesday. Listen to Before the Moment with Nile Rodgers wherever you get your podcasts.

• 2:48Hrishikesh Hirway?

  In 2016, Mitski did an episode of Song Exploder about her song, "Your Best American Girl." She had just released her second album, Puberty II. Later, Pitchfork named "Your Best American Girl" one of the top 10 best songs of the past decade, and Billboard named it as one of the songs that defined the decade. This year is the 10th anniversary of the album. There's a new deluxe version that's already out digitally, and a limited edition vinyl is coming in October. So I thought this would be a good time to revisit Mitski's episode, where she and her collaborator, Patrick Highland, break down how "Your Best American Girl" was made.

• 3:58Speaker 01

  My name's Mitski. My full name is Mitski Miyawaki.

• 4:04Speaker 01

  I never grew up with musical instruments or with equipment to record. The way I learned to write was just writing things down on paper and hearing it in my head and kind of hoping for the best. And I don't, I don't work in a band, so I'm alone in my own head. So the lyrics and the vocal melody are king in my songs. They always come first.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  The chorus came first. I was on a bed and I wrote down the words. "Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me, but I do, I think I do. And you're an all-American boy. I guess I couldn't help trying to be your best American girl."

• 5:45Speaker 01

  I was in love with somebody, but I just felt like our backgrounds, or the places we come from, or how we were raised, were just so completely different. And it felt like something that couldn't be overcome by love. I grew up very nomadically. I grew up moving around a whole lot, and not just in the US, but abroad. And my mother is Japanese and my father's American. And so I, I never grew up with a sense of community. My sense of family is very different. I think I grew up more with a sense of everything will be lost at some point. Like, you have to prepare yourself to let go at all times, because I just kept moving so much.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  And I kept, you know, you can only say goodbye so many times before you start to like automatically prepare yourself for that. So my upbringing was just very, very different from the average Americans.

• 7:09Speaker 01

  I wanted to be accepted by an environment or a family situation where, you know, people lived in the same place all their lives and knew the same people and know where they're from and know their place in the world. That was very foreign to me, and I didn't feel like I could, I could learn how to be part of that.

• 7:35Speaker 01

  The next thing is the bassline. So it's not even the chords, it's just kind of the roots. And then I kind of build off of that.

• 7:48Speaker 01

  I picked up guitar in college, you know, so I just was too lazy to actually learn all the finger formations. And so what I do is actually just tune the guitar to a D major chord, so that if you strum the guitar, just a D major chord immediately rings out.

• 8:06Speaker 01

  So I could just pick up the guitar and play simple chord progressions without thinking about it.

• 8:17Speaker 01

  I make things really loud in my headphones, and I think I was crouching over my guitar. So basically, you can hear the click if you, if you listen really closely.

• 8:31Speaker 01

  Patrick is really good at layering.

• 8:52Speaker 02

  Hi, I'm Patrick Highland, and I produced and recorded and played instruments on the song.

• 9:14Speaker 02

  Those synths that come in right before it hits, that was the most spontaneous thing in the song. Like, the song was pretty much mixed and almost totally done. And then I, I just thought the transition from the verse to the chorus was too abrupt. And so I thought to myself, how can I turn this awkward moment into its own event and make it a special thing? So with what the chords do there, this could sort of bloom into a big lush thing right before the whole song Exploder.

• 9:53Speaker 02

  She sung that vocal, and then I'm manipulating the timbre. It's a formant shifter. I don't even think of it as a voice, I think of it as an instrument.

• 10:19Speaker 02

  If you had to boil the song down to one moment, I would say it's when the first chorus hits. The intensity of that.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  For most of my quote unquote career of playing music and performing it, I've been doing it solo with either a piano or a guitar. So with literally just your voice and one instrument, your biggest asset is volume change. So from the beginning, like I would use drastic changes in volume, changes in tone to keep the audience's interest and keep the music going. So those things kind of become your band members.

• 11:33Speaker 01

  This is a Hallmark card, but really you always want what you can't have. And that All American thing, like from the day I was born, I could not enter that. How hard I tried, I could never enter that dream. That All American white culture is something that is inherited instead of attained. And so, yes, it's a sad song, but I wanted to make sure that it reflected all of the contrasting feelings. Like you can be heartbroken about a relationship, but also from it realize that you are you and you're okay with who you are or you're okay about where you came from.

• 12:20Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Coming up, you'll hear how all of this came together in the final song. We're also doing a giveaway of some Mitski merch. And after the song plays, I'll tell you how you can win a Mitski shirt or vinyl.

• 12:32Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Song Exploder is sponsored by DistroKid. If you're an independent artist, DistroKid is now offering a new way to start selling merch without dealing with inventory or running an online store. DistroKid Direct automatically turns your existing album artwork into merch products, like shirts and hoodies, posters, totes, all kinds of things. And you choose what to sell, you set your prices, you connect PayPal, and DistroKid handles the printing, the shipping, and the customer support. They don't take a commission, so you keep 100% of your merch sales. It's a simple way to add another revenue stream to your music career without adding more work to your plate.

• 13:12Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Artists can learn more and launch a merch store at distrokid.com/direct. Sometimes I remember how easy it is to upgrade your life just by getting the perfect little thing that'll make your home a little more dialed in. Thanks to Wayfair, I can find those things really easily. I've gotten big stuff like rugs and even a dishwasher from their site. But most recently, I got a ceramic spoon rest because I've spent so much time cooking, trying to balance a spatula on the edge of a pot so I don't splatter stuff on the counter. Well, I found a beautiful one from La Crusée that matches a pot from La Crusée that I also got on Wayfair. You can shop for thousands of products across every style and budget,

• 13:54Hrishikesh Hirway?

  whether it's furniture or an appliance or just the perfect little accessory. Find pieces made for real life and get even more value with Wayfair Rewards. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5% back on every purchase. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W A Y F A I R dot com. Wayfair, every style, every home.

• 14:20Hrishikesh Hirway?

  This episode is sponsored by Tidal. If you're an artist or if you know somebody making music, you should know about Tidal Upload. It's a way to share and sell music without the usual barriers. You can upload your music directly to Tidal at no cost. You decide how you want to release it. You can share it publicly with Tidal listeners or you can keep it private until you're ready. Or you can sell your music directly through Tidal Upload. Your music will also be considered by Tidal's editorial team for their playlists. And if your track is selected for their spotlight program, you'll get $1,000 bonus and you'll be on one of their marquee playlists. And now, Tidal has dropped its platform fee to 0%, which means you keep more of your earnings there than on any other platform.

• 15:04Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Visit tidal.com/songexploder to create an account and start uploading your music for free. That's tidal.com/songexploder for zero platform fees on every sale. Your music, your earnings. And now here's "Your Best American Girl" by Mitski in its entirety.

• 15:41Speaker 03

  If I could, I'd be your little spoon and kiss your fingers forevermore. But big spoon, you have so much to do and I have nothing a little of me.

• 16:12Speaker 03

  You're the sun, you've never seen the night, but you hear it sung from the morning birds. Well, I'm not the moon, I'm not even a star, but awake at night I'll be singing to the birds. Don't wait for me, I can't go. You're a mother who'll prove how my mother raised me,

• 16:56Speaker 03

  but I do, I think I do. And you're an all-American boy, I guess I could help try to be your best American girl.

• 17:29Speaker 03

  You're the one, you're all I ever wanted, I think I'll be good as best.

• 17:50Speaker 03

  You're a mother who'll prove how my mother raised me, but I do, I finally do. And you're an all-American boy, I guess I could help try to be the best American girl. You're a mother who'll prove how my mother raised me, but I do, I think I do.

• 18:58Hrishikesh Hirway?

  For a chance to win a deluxe LP version of Mitski's newest album, "Nothing's Gonna Happen To Me", share a link to this episode on social media and tag @songexploder, @mitskileaks, and @themitskiverse. Plus, three people have the chance to win a Mitski t-shirt. Again, just post the link and tag us in your post. And visit songexploder.net/mitski to learn more about Mitski and to watch the music video for "Your Best American Girl". By the way, you might also like the Song Exploder episode with Son Lux about "This Is A Life", the Oscar-nominated song from the film "Everything Everywhere All at Once", which features Mitski and David Byrne on vocals. It's episode 245, which came out in December 2022.

• 19:42Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Song Exploder is produced by me, Craig Ely, Kathleen Smith, Mary Dolan, and Tiger Biscum. The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made the show's theme music and logo. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at radiotopia.fm. I'm Rishi Keshi-Hirway. Thanks for listening.

• 20:13Speaker 04

  Radiotopia, from PRX.

• 20:22Speaker 05

  This show is supported by Odoo. When you buy business software from lots of vendors, the costs add up and it gets complicated and confusing. Odoo solves this. It's a single company that sells a suite of enterprise apps that handles everything from accounting to inventory to sales. Odoo is all connected on a single platform in a simple and affordable way. You can save money without missing out on the features you need. Check out Odoo at O D O O dot com. That's O D O O dot com.