Key Change: Demi Adejuyigbe on The Strokes

My guest today is Demi Adejuyigbe. One of the things that makes Demi so special is how hard it is to summarize him in an intro like this, because he has so many talents and applies them in so many different ways. He is a standup comedian, with a brand new one-hour special out on Dropout TV. https://www.dropout.tv/He co-hosted the podcasts Gilmore Guys https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gilmore-guys/id923957904and Punch Up the Jam. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/punch-up-the-jam/id1325197667 He’s a screenwriter, who wrote on TV shows like The Good Place. He’s famous on the internet for his parody songs, spoofing artists like Will Smith and Lana Del Rey; and for his September videos, where, for years, he made increasingly elaborate videos of himself, dancing to the Earth, Wind & Fire song. And he used the popularity of those videos to raise over a million dollars for charity. He’s also directed several music videos, including one that he made for one of my songs, back in 2022. And for this episode, we’re talking as much about a music video as the song within it. And that song is "You Only Live Once" by The Strokes. https://music.apple.com/gr/song/you-only-live-once/299740483 Demi's new special, Demi Adejuyigbe is Going to do One (1) Backflip, is on Dropout TV. https://www.dropout.tv/ For more info, visit songexploder.net/demi-adejuyigbe. https://songexploder.net/demi-adejuyigbe

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 18th. 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 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.

• 1:39Hrishikesh 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.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  Support comes from Wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the globe. Fed up with losing out to hidden fees when you send your money abroad with your everyday bank? Choose the smart way: Wise. You can count on the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google. No unwelcome surprises. Plus, ditch that "where's my money" feeling. Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart, get wise. Download the Wise app today. Ts and Cs apply.

• 2:27Hrishikesh Hirway?

  This is Key Change, where I talk to fascinating people about the music that changed their lives. My guest today is Demi Adejuwebe. One of the things that makes Demi so special is how hard it is to summarize him in an intro like this, because he has so many talents and applies them in so many different ways. He's a stand-up comedian with a brand-new one-hour special out on Dropout TV. He co-hosted the podcasts Gilmore Guys and Punch Up the Jam. He's a screenwriter who wrote on TV shows like The Good Place. He's famous on the internet for his parody songs, spoofing artists like Will Smith and Lana Del Rey, and for his September videos, where for years he made increasingly elaborate videos of himself dancing to the Earth, Wind & Fire song.

• 3:09Hrishikesh Hirway?

  And he used the popularity of those videos to raise over $1 million for charity. He's also directed several music videos, including one that he made for one of my songs back in 2022. And for this episode, we're talking as much about a music video as the song within it. And that song is...

• 3:26Speaker 02

  "You Only Live Once" by The Strokes.

• 3:28Hrishikesh Hirway?

  If my math is right, you were 13 years old when that came out?

• 3:32Speaker 02

  Wait, so this album came out 2006, I believe. So I do believe I was 13, yes.

• 3:39Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Is that when you first encountered the song?

• 3:41Speaker 02

  No, I must have encountered it a little bit later. So I... My introduction to The Strokes as a whole only came because of Guitar Hero. That must have been around 2005, I want to say. And this album came out a year later, but like, I didn't get really into The Strokes until I was 15. And this album was my first favorite album. And this song, crazing up... The music video for this song is a video that I... It convinced me that I wanted to work in film, that I wanted to do visual graphics, actually. And I wrote an essay about it that was my college application essay and got me into the college I went to. Genuinely, this song is responsible for a large trajectory of my current career.

• 4:21Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Wow.

• 4:21Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:21Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Let's go back to the Guitar Hero part. Was that an important game for you?

• 4:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. It was such a big thing to me because I did not have my own sense of musical taste. Like, I had an iPod, and it was just filled with like, "I've heard the song on the radio. I like this. Sure, I guess." And it wasn't until these games came along, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and had like, soundtracks that I was invested in. And it was like, "I'm playing this because I'm playing the game, but I have an active connection to this song, this soundtrack, that makes me go, 'Oh, these are the songs I like.'" And I feel like I didn't have musical taste that wasn't from... Video games for a long time after this. I think going into college, it became like, oh, I'm learning about new bands and being told about this. And I'm, I have an active sense of discovery, but before that it was just like, I'm playing a motocross game and this song plays a lot. I'm going to put it on my iPod.

• 5:09Speaker 02

  And then playing this game was the first time I was like, oh, I'm learning who these artists are. I'm seeing their discographies. Let me see what else they got. And The Strokes was the first one where I was like, I like the way that playing this song feels. Oh, I want to learn to play this on piano. I want to learn different instruments to play these instruments. Cause it's like, I think just the act of playing an instrument for the first time really with Guitar Hero made me just feel like, oh, this feels nice and I wish I could do this for real. And you know, you get the sensation of being able to mime it with Guitar Hero and then with drums on Rock Band. But with The Strokes, it felt like the music was so appealing to me in a way that it was like, this is for me now.

• 5:48Hrishikesh Hirway?

  So those games were your gateway to learning music?

• 5:50Speaker 02

  Correct. I taught myself to play piano in fourth grade, but it wasn't until like Rock Band and Guitar Hero that I was like, this is what it feels like to play guitar. I understand the appeal. I understand the feeling. I want to do this for real and I'm going to pursue it. And my trajectory with drums was also Rock Band came out and I was loving playing the drums to the point that it was like, oh, I know how to map out the Rock Band drums in front of me. I want to imagine playing these with real drums. And it was like, there was a promo video they had for Rock Band where I think Stuart Copeland from The Police is playing drums and being like, it's just like playing the real drums. And I, even at the time I was like, I know you're getting paid to say this, but it worked on me. And I was like, I do feel like it is close enough. And it was like, then I started mapping out just real drums in my head.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  And for years I would be like, I'm learning the drums without playing the drums. Like sort of karate kid, just like, you'll play on air, you will wash this car, you will never set foot in a dojo. And I'm like, that's, it's not a great way to do it, but it was like, because of Rock Band, I was like genuinely dedicated to doing it. And it's like, it was fully my introduction to music and playing music.

• 6:51Hrishikesh Hirway?

  And it was a gateway in another way because the song you're talking about, You Only Live Once, wasn't on Guitar Hero, right? So first the game had to lead you to the band and then to?

• 7:01Speaker 02

  To then this album, which is First Impressions of Earth. And it felt both futuristic and sort of like classic to me in a way that I was like, oh, my God, they're talking about the future. They're talking about the climate. They're talking about love and all these things and like, oh, I want to ask this girl to prom. What if I sing this song to her? And it's like, thank God I didn't now, but I just imagine every time I hear the song, Red Light, I'm like, this was the most romantic song I had ever heard in my life up until that point. And You Only Live Once was just such a fun song. It's got so many like high moments in it and it's so like moving, but also has like a bit of a quiet build in the beginning. And I think it just felt very much like a song that was accessible, but also interesting to me.

• 7:42Hrishikesh Hirway?

  So did you already know the song when you first saw the music video? Or is the music video the first time you heard the song?

• 7:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, I think that I'd already known the song. And there are actually two music videos, which is one of the reasons that I was, I think, so obsessed with the one that I wrote the essay about because they have the official music video, which is like them performing in this room that slowly starts filling up with oil. And I was just like, cool, music video, whatever. But there was another music video that is almost entirely just like CGI and digital graphics. It was made by Warren Foo. I don't know the story behind it. If it was like just an alternate video or whatnot, but it's set in space and it's like this spaceship that is projecting footage of them as other tasks are happening. And I remember being so enamored by it. I remember thinking like, this is a really cool application of what like visual graphics can do. This is what I want to do when I came to LA being

• 8:33Speaker 02

  like, I'm going to be a visual effects guy. This video I watched on loop so many times. And I still remember like little moments of like bars loading and things coming out of like a console. And I was just like, how they do that? None of this is filmed. How did he do this? It also reminded me that music videos as a whole can just be art pieces. And it's like, you don't really have to tell a story. You can, but you can just be like, I'm going to do something with video graphics. And that really sort of captivated me.

• 8:58Hrishikesh Hirway?

  How did you even find the video, especially if it wasn't the official video?

• 9:02Speaker 02

  It was on Vimeo. It was like on the director's Vimeo. And I'm now like, what, how did I find that at all? And I think it was like, You know that thing of like, you get so involved into a band and you just get so into them, you just start looking for new things like this was on the Japanese release and this was on the New York release of this album. I think this is one of the things that people were like, this is the unofficial video. Like he made this, but didn't release it, or the label didn't like it or whatnot. There are a lot of things in my life like that when I was younger where I get really invested in something and just go like digging for every ephemeral thing around it. But I think that's how the video came to me.

• 9:34Hrishikesh Hirway?

  How did you decide that that was going to be the subject of your college essay?

• 9:37Speaker 02

  We had to do presentations in high school in my English class. And I did one on this music video and like did a bunch of visual effects stuff around it and like after effects. And my teacher was like, that's really good. I think you should write about this. And shout out to Ms. Dobbs, my 12th grade English teacher for that inspiration. And I did, and I got into UT and I was like, wow, cool. Time to do visual effects. And I kind of did not. I did, but also then was like, oh, writing, huh? Yeah, I can do that.

• 10:05Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Do you think if you'd seen the exact same music video, but with a different song behind it, it would have hit you in the same way?

• 10:12Speaker 02

  I think it would not have. I'm also so specific when it comes to music, which is why I'm really bad at discovering music to this day.

• 10:19Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Really? That's so surprising to me.

• 10:21Speaker 02

  Really?

• 10:22Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Yeah, because I think of you as such a music obsessive. You have such strong feelings and such in-depth thoughts about music.

• 10:31Speaker 02

  I think that is true, but I think it's always about the same things. Like I think for the last maybe 10 years now, my Spotify wrapped has just been the same artist sort of like rotating.

• 10:41Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Yeah.

• 10:41Speaker 02

  When I find an artist I like, I get really invested in them and I care about them so much and I think so deeply about their work and like it inspires me and I'm like, oh, that's the kind of thing I would love to make if I made music. But then I think in terms of discovering new things, I'm really bad about doing that. I think if this was a music video that was set to another song, I would just be like, this isn't the feel of the song or like it doesn't create that sort of like synchronicity in my head of like, this is what the song is supposed to feel like. And I think even when I watched the original music, like the official music video, I'm just sort of like, this is good, but it's not the feel of the song to me.

• 11:15Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Yeah.

• 11:15Speaker 02

  So I think having that music video be exactly how it feels, even down to like, in my head, it's like, there are colors for this song. The real music video is too bright. That doesn't work. It's weird that it's all white, but this one is dark and it's like neon and that's what the album is, so that's right to me.

• 11:31Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Before you came over, I was thinking about the distinction between the song that changed your life the most and your favorite song. They don't have to be the same thing.

• 11:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I mean, I think a song can change your life and be a song I absolutely hate. But I also, I don't think, I don't think I'd call this my favorite song, but I also, I don't think I'd call them my favorite band for a while. They were my first favorite band, for sure. Like, they were the first band that I was like, this is something that I've chosen, that I am actively engaged in. And I would classify the band and the song as having changed my life because they made some of my strongest and first friends in college, because we bonded by just our love of The Strokes. I would like sit in the common area and hear this other guy play The Strokes and talk to him about it. And then we both befriended this other woman, who then told us about Radiohead, and that's how I became a fan of Radiohead. And it changed my life in that it gave me a sense of taste, I think, and also just made me realize what I

• 12:26Speaker 02

  wanted to do with my life, like professionally. It's like, I just wanted to work in some visual medium. I don't think I would have found that without this song in this video. And I wouldn't say that it is my favorite of any of, it's like, probably not even my favorite music video, but...

• 12:40Hrishikesh Hirway?

  But it was the first step towards...

• 12:42Speaker 02

  Yes, towards being able to say, this is what I like and this is what I don't like.

• 12:46Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Yeah. Yeah, I remember having a moment in college. Have you seen Zabriskie Point?

• 12:51Speaker 02

  No, what is that?

• 12:51Hrishikesh Hirway?

  It's a movie from the 70s directed by Antonioni. There's a moment where a house blows up, and the music in that moment is done by Pink Floyd with Jerry Garcia. It's this incredible scene. They blow up this house, and then there's this long sequence where all the contents of the house are just floating in space, and this psychedelic music plays. And I remember seeing that in college, and suddenly this thought that had kind of only been in the back of my head came rushing forward, which is that I want to make music for films. It was such a big moment for me, and yet it's not my favorite movie.

• 13:27Speaker 02

  Do you ever watch a movie and think like, I don't like the way this music is synced to this scene and think about how you do it differently?

• 13:35Hrishikesh Hirway?

  I feel like I have three different kinds of reactions to music and films. Either I notice it because I love it, or I notice it because I really don't like it, or I don't notice it at all. And that could be good because it's just serving the scene, or it could be bad because it's bland. But either way, I just, I'm not paying attention to it. But I don't know that my brain then goes, what would I have done differently?

• 14:02Speaker 02

  I think with a lot of movies in general, I find myself going, here's what I would have done different. And I don't think I'd have the sense of being able to know what it is about those things until I developed my own sense of taste. And it's like, this album and this song felt so fresh to me at the time, even though it's like structurally so simple. I mean, two verses and two choruses, and then it kind of goes out. It feels like it cuts short in a way that I'm like, oh, I like it. It builds in the right way to me.

• 14:31Hrishikesh Hirway?

  More with Demi Adejuyi Bay after this.

• 14:39Hrishikesh Hirway?

  So You Only Live Once helped establish your taste initially, but what about nowadays? Like, when you go to make new work, whether it's something for yourself or you're making a music video for somebody else, are you consciously thinking about the things that you liked or the reason why that appealed to you nowadays still?

• 14:59Speaker 02

  You know, what's funny is I think until you asked me that, I was like, I don't know that I do. And I'm like, no, I actually do, because I think there's a lot of times where like, I hear a certain sting or like a small section of a song. And I'm like, it feels so important to me that that has to sync up with the song. Like, in any visual representation of what I do, it's like, that little bit has to be connected, because it's just like, that is- It's like if I hear a long piece of music and it's like there's a part in there that just sticks out in a way, in my head, it's like everyone who hears that is gonna think that sticks out and I don't want the video to ignore it. And so I do think that because in my head, there is a right way to interpret the song or to have listened to it, when you're like actively listen to every piece of it and

• 15:42Speaker 02

  you're like, the drums do this thing here or like the bass does something here, like this changes in some way here, I'm like, it has to do the same thing in the video. And I think that is such a weird instinct within me for someone who's also just like, videos don't have to be anything, they can just be sort of like a piece of art attached to the song. But I think when I'm making it, I'm like, it's a piece of art that tells the same story that the song does.

• 16:05Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Is this a song that you still listen to these days? Like, I'm wondering, has your taste grown to include more things? Or has it evolved in a way that left stuff that you listened to earlier in your life behind? Like, are the Strokes gonna show up in your year end list?

• 16:20Speaker 02

  I don't think they'll show up in my year end list, but here's another thing that shows how bad I am with discovery. When I get into my car, when I'm just like, I want music to listen to, I will always, always just listen to the same starred playlist that I've been starting since 2011. It's just, if I like a song, I'll add it to that. So it's just like thousands of songs in this one playlist, but because of that, like Strokes songs still come up and I still feel like every time I hear one, it'll be nostalgic, it'll be this like transporting me back to like, oh, remember when I was sitting in the dorms talking to my friends about this song? It still feels like I am having the same connections to all of these songs, to this one especially, because I think, just the other day, actually, I think the same day that I told you I wanted to do this song, I was like, you know what, I haven't played

• 17:03Speaker 02

  this song on this set of drums and I'm gonna play it. And I remembered that another thing I love about this song is that the way that the drums are mathematical in a way. God, and I'm like, I don't know how to describe this without either sounding crazy or like I'm doing a Beautiful Mind thing up here, but it basically is like going into the chorus, the pattern that Fabrizio Moretti plays on the drums, it's like crash, hi-hat twice, crash, hi-hat once, crash, no hi-hat. And I've always been so fascinated by that because I think when I can see math in a pattern, I go, got it, makes sense to me. And so hearing that in the song made me go, oh, I understand how to play these on drums and it's such a fun part to play.

• 17:46Speaker 02

  I got an electronic drum kit maybe a year and a half ago. Cause I was like, I want to get back into playing drums and I have the space to do it now. And then I was like, I'm going to post videos of me playing drums as I'm getting back into it and like getting better at it. And the first song that I ever played was You Only Live Once. And it was just comforting to play that again, like just understanding that pattern and seeing it just made me feel like, oh, I really do get this. It's playing a rhythm game again.

• 18:11Hrishikesh Hirway?

  When you hear the song, is there a specific scene that you get transported to? Like a specific time and place in your memory?

• 18:18Speaker 02

  I get transported to my bedroom, my parents' house, where I have a big rug mat that says Dead End, like the Dead End sign, and then a dartboard with Homer Simpson and Bart on it. And I used to have a record player and I would play so many of those records until they just got warped. That's where I get transported to, just to playing this record and hearing the crackling of the album. And then it going to the

• 18:43Speaker 02

  and I'm like, ah, yeah, I'm, I'm home. I feel cool. I, I think it's also, that's what it was to me. It's like this record felt cool. It's my taste, it's no one else's. Like this wasn't like a band that was big amongst my friends in school. It wasn't a band that my parents got me into. It was a band that's like, yeah, they're big enough to make it into a rhythm game like this. But to me, it was like, I discovered them and they are mine. And I think it just felt cool to be like, I have taste that like, I know people who are older than me and are cool also like them. But I like them too sincerely, and that makes me cool. And so I think I just feel like I'm back in my bedroom in high school, just being like, I love The Strokes.

• 19:21Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Have you ever heard this early version of the song that The Strokes did? An early version that was called I'll Try Anything Once?

• 19:27Speaker 02

  I had heard I'll Try Anything Once in college, I believe. And I remember listening to it and being like, I don't like this as much as You Only Live Once. But I also remember thinking, it's so cool that you can just have like demo versions of a song like this or other versions of a song like this. And it sort of doesn't feel the same, even though it's like. It's the same melody, it's the same harmony. And I don't think I had the words to be like, this is what that is. But just kind of feeling like, wait, it's a different version of the song? Why not just release this as its own version? And I think that introduced me to the process of like demo tapes and of being like, what else can a song feel like?

• 20:03Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Well, and I love the way that that idea connects back to this phenomenon, that there were two videos for this song and that they each had their own feeling.

• 20:11Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 20:11Hrishikesh Hirway?

  I guess related to that idea, have you ever thought about doing a parody of a Strokes song?

• 20:17Speaker 02

  No, but I, I, I think that I couldn't only because when I do a parody of something, I think it's because I have such a grasp on like the little hallmarks of their musicality.

• 20:27Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Yeah.

• 20:27Speaker 02

  But I think a lot of my favorite bands are like known for songwriting or for like strange choices. And it's like, I like them because I can't do that or I couldn't like come up with that.

• 20:37Hrishikesh Hirway?

  You said that you wanted to talk about this because it feels like it was a piece of the trajectory of your career.

• 20:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:43Hrishikesh Hirway?

  But because of where that piece falls, would it be overstating it to say that the entirety of your career kind of hinges on having seen this video?

• 20:51Speaker 02

  No, I mean, I think it's a fair thing. It's like me being here now and being in LA and doing any of the things that I've ever done is all because I was like, I want to write about this music video. I think music videos are cool. Because I was so attached to this song, I decided to look into the band. Because I decided to look into the band, I found out about this video. I found out about Warren Foo and I looked into his filmography. And like, there are so many things he's done now that I'm just like, people are like, oh my God, he's worked with Taylor Swift, he does this, he's done this. I'm like, it's the guy that made the Strokes video also. Like that, to me, he will always be that. Like friends have been like, oh, he works out at my gym. And I'm like, that's awesome. Will you tell him that I loved the video that he did for the Strokes? That never fully like officially came out. But I think it's like little works like that.

• 21:34Speaker 02

  And I think a lot about that too, when there are things I make and I'm just sort of like, I don't know that this works or that this is gonna matter to anyone. It's like, yeah, but that's might have been what he thought about this. And maybe he's really proud of it and I'm just putting words in his mouth. But the idea that this is something I only found on Vimeo and it wasn't like, this is everywhere, this is what people considered the official video for this song. And it wasn't even on YouTube at the time. I'm like, oh, that little thing that he made changed the trajectory of my life. And I think is so important, is so cool. So I don't think it's unfair to say that at all. I think it's correct. I think that like- My passion for this song and just connection to it and connection to the video made me realize that I liked music videos, that I like art, that I like directing,

• 22:16Speaker 02

  that I'm really into visual effects. And it's like, all of these things are completely responsible for me being a writer in a weird way and being into film and being a comedian and being like, oh, all of these things that I want to do as a purpose of getting to one day do visual effects, let me do the other things first. And then be like, oh, I like the other things. Oh, I just like making movies. I just like filmmaking. Yeah. So I think it's important to trace it to that moment.

• 22:39Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Thank you so much, Demi.

• 22:41Speaker 02

  Thank you so much for having me.

• 22:43Speaker 03

  That's incredible. It's crazy to hear that.

• 22:46Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Here's a little postscript.

• 22:47Speaker 03

  Hi, Demi. It's Warren Foo.

• 22:49Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Warren, could you explain what the backstory was a little bit of how you made that video?

• 22:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, it was my first music video. That song came out and it really inspired me. I said, this is like the most perfect song. So I had this idea, this visual came into my head of this story around that. And I was like, how do I get this to The Strokes? I just Googled them, found their address, Wizkid Management. Okay, write that down. They're on RCA Records, write that down. And I made two copies of this presentation of storyboards, sent it off, two packages. I got an email back from RCA Records saying, who are you? And, you know, I think they sniffed out that I wasn't a professional music video director at that time. Fortunately, the management side of things, they opened

• 23:37Speaker 03

  up that package. They saw the artwork and everything like put together and then they showed it to Julian.

• 23:42Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Julian Casablanca is from The Strokes.

• 23:44Speaker 03

  And then I got a call from Julian and he said something like, wow, this is like so perfect. Unfortunately, we just shot the Sam Bayer video, obviously a legendary director, and they did an incredible video. And I was, but I was bummed that they already shot it. So all the money is gone. But he said, you know, can you ask the label for a little bit of money so we could still make this as an alternate version? When I say I directed that video, a lot of people say, oh, you did the one where they're, you know, in this big white room and there's oil rising up. No, I'm like, no, I did this other one that nobody saw. And so I just, I would not expect it to affect and inspire another artist in that way. You know, the theme of the video is sort of like, I was always fascinated with,

• 24:29Speaker 03

  you know, the Voyager missions, like when I first heard about Carl Sagan and then they put this little beacon, this little capsule of who we are as humans and it's launched into space and there's just like this beacon land somewhere and is there anybody there to hear it? Yeah. And so the video is sort of like that too, because it's this video I launched out there, not a lot of people saw it, but it seems like he found the beacon. He's a super talented person and I'm honored to be a part of his journey.

• 25:06Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Demi's comedy special is called "Demi Adidjewibe is Going to Do One Backflip", and it's out now on Dropout TV. You can also follow Demi on Instagram and other places. He uses the handle @Electrolemon. He is very fun to follow. Also, check out all of Warren Fu's incredible work at warrenfu.com. And on his website, you can find the video he made for the "Stroke Song: You Only Live Once." Visit songexploder.net/keachange for more Key Change episodes and for a playlist with all the songs that have been discussed. This episode was produced by me and Mary Dolan, with production assistance from Tiger Biscuit. Huge thanks to Warren Fu for being part of this episode, and a special thanks to Lisi Webb.

• 25:49Hrishikesh Hirway?

  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. And if you'd like to hear more from me, you can subscribe to my newsletter. You can find a link to it on the Song Exploder website. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at songexploder.net/shirt. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway. Thanks for listening.

• 26:20Speaker 01

  Radiotopia.

• 26:23Speaker 01

  From PRX.