Song Exploder - King Princess - Let Us Die

Episode Date: October 5, 2022

King Princess is the project of Mikaela Straus, a singer, songwriter, and producer from Brooklyn. She’s a platinum-selling artist, and she put out her second album in July, 2022. The last track on the album is the song "Let Us Die." Rolling Stone called it "the banger of the year." In this episode, Mikaela breaks down the song, along with two of her collaborators on it: co-producer and co-writer Ethan Gruska, and multi-Grammy winning producer Mark Ronson. You’ll hear the original voice memo that Mikaela recorded, and the demo she made with Ethan. And you’ll hear the drums recorded by the late Taylor Hawkins, the legendary drummer of Foo Fighters and Alanis Morissette, who passed away earlier this year. For more, visit songexploder.net/king-princess.

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 Hirwe. This episode contains explicit language. King Princess is the project of Michaela Strauss, a singer, songwriter, and producer from Brooklyn. She's a platinum-selling artist, and she put out her second album in July 2022. The last track on the album is the song Let Us Die. Rolling Stone called it The Banger of the Year. In this episode, Michaela takes the song apart.

along with two of her collaborators, co-producer and co-writer Ethan Gruska, and multi-Grammy-winning producer Mark Ronson. You'll hear the original voice memo that Michaela recorded and the demo she made with Ethan. And you'll hear the drums recorded by the late Taylor Hawkins, the legendary drummer of Who Fighters and Alanis Morissette, who passed away earlier this year. I'm King Princess. I was in upstate New York in this house that's really important to me and my family

by this lake that I go to. was super depressed and upset and going through some relationship stuff. You know, my girlfriend and I were going through this period of like, she was like, am I happy being with you and your constant need to be seen by everyone, including me? And I was like, well, please don't leave me. Like, you know, that was like one of the most adult conversations I've ever had was to like really look at myself and be like, am I hurting this person that I love?

by being me and is she hurting me by being her. That's what I wanted to get through in this song. I was actually out on the lake in the rain and I started singing the melody. It's the only way I love you is the last time. That's while I was getting off the boat walking up to the house. That's why I sound a little winded. I live the only way. So that's how it started was just the chorus melody in my head.

My name is Ethan Gruska, and I co-produced and co-wrote Let Us Die with King Princess. The first day we ever got together was for this song. I had a good feeling about Ethan, and then I was like, I want to show you this idea. Michaela walked in with this fully formed chorus, and originally you played me the idea, I think, on piano. But yeah, no, this had to be a big rock song. And so we grabbed this instrument that I have that my friend Rubin made. It's like an acoustic tenor guitar that he retrofitted to be a bass with something called a rubber bridge. And it creates this tone like somewhere in between a guitar and a bass.

It's very round and it's very hungover and sluggish sounding. We were just looking for something like kind of raw and like having a different kind of energy. And so I remember just showing you that instrument and you just kind of immediately. ran with it, started playing, and that was kind of an initial spark. And so I kind of put my head down and just started writing. And so I wanted the rhyme scheme to be cyclical, this kind of word puzzle of rhymes that I felt was indicative of what my brain was doing during this period of fighting and contemplating whether this relationship is going to work.

We're always going back and forth with figuring out a way to have you be really honest and human and like raw, but like have these stranger, more glitchy tones being inserted into like an emphemic rock song. We were on the Melatron. I really wanted a spoken word poem in this song. I love the feeling that you're on the phone with someone and you're like throwing down the ultimatum. idea that's something I would end a phone call with or that would be a voicemail. Being on the phone, we were doing a lot of phone communication, me and my girl at that point, so it felt right. And if it means you can't have.

So we ended up taking this song, as I do with some of my projects, like Mark kind of comes in towards the back half. My name is Mark Ronson. He's a producer. He's a songwriter. He's like my mentor. She brought me this demo. And I just loved it. I just needed to hear it again and again.

He was really obsessed with this song and really obsessed with the finishing of this song. We were listening to this song and he was like, first of all, there needs to be more guitars. Mark was just like, by the last chorus it needs to explode into like just insane, chugging barcord symphony. The final lyric is, if the only way to love you is to let us die, drive the car off the bridge and let us dive. And it's not to say that I want to live without you, but I will if I have to. And then I just had this idea. I was like, I think that this really just needs a phenomenal drum performance. He was like, Michaela, there needs to be a human drummer on this.

What about Taylor Hawkins? She was like, holy shit, do you think he would? You know, Taylor played with Alanis and was this phenomenal drummer for so many people, so many songs that we love a lot of female. like lady lady rock, which I love. I thought that was so cool. And then I obviously loved the foo fighters. I love them so much.

And I sent it to him. He really dug the song. He loved her voice. He loved the energy and the aggression of the lyrics. And that was it. And I was like, oh, wow. I don't think I'm ever going to forget that day. And this was like November 2020.

It was nighttime. We had worked all day. Taylor was in L.A. I was in New York at my dad's, and before he started, Mark got him on FaceTime, and I was like, hey man, I was kind of nervous, honestly. And he was just so lovely and supportive, and just like, I love the song, I'm gonna do a bunch of takes. And the song starts, and he starts playing,

and I just burst in the tears. I was just like, oh my god, this song just went from a seven to a 50. She had only ever heard it with the program drums, and the first time he gets to the chorus and rolls through it. I just saw her. She almost looked like in the Matrix when they get punched in the stomach in slow motion.

It's just like, roo. And Mark was just like dying laughing because I was so emotional, and he was also, I think, emotional. And then he got to the end of the song, the first pass, and it was just like, he just went crazy. Taylor was just playing these, like, walloping takes.

and then rushing out the booth, like, sweaty on FaceTime. Like, what did you guys think of that? We're like, what do you mean? What do you think? It was amazing. And then he'd be like, I'll go and do another one. He just kept playing. You know, and you could, like, feel him, like, smiling, like, if that makes sense.

Like, he loved it. Like, he loved playing on it. And I think that that was what was the most wonderful as a young artist was like, I want to be like that. Like, I want to love to play forever. That, to me is what I took away the most out of that. After we've tracked the guitars, and he tracked his drums.

I felt like it was in a really good place, and then I went into the mixing process. I went in with Sean Everett, who Ethan and I both adore. He is a mad scientist. I remember being at my dad's studio, and my dad was there, and we were listening to this song. My dad is named Oliver Strauss,

who has been a studio owner for 20 years. My dad's studio is in my childhood home, and I grew up partially at his house, partially at my mom's and he was always recording. You know, we've worked really hard on our relationship. I think it was interesting going into this record because it was the first time that I, in a really long time, like, since I was a kid, that I was like, what's your opinion? Her dad is just like, you know, a great engineer and producer and knows all the tricks of the

trade. I said, Dad, you know, we're having kind of an issue with making the chorus hit really hard because the verse hits really hard. Like the minute the drums come in, you feel. like, ooh, that's a moving train. And you want the train to go faster in the chorus. And I was like, Dad, what do you think? And he was like, oh, just make the verses mono

and the chorus is stereo. And Sean and I both were like, oh shit. Dad, after that, he got very comfortable by the end, being like, ah, Sean. It was funny. It was cute. And I'm happy we shared that. And that note made a huge difference.

Since I was a little kid, I've always written music to try to express my feelings to other people. my feelings to other people. I'm way less articulate. I feel like when I'm speaking than I am when I'm writing a song for somebody. Songs force you to be concise, and I tend to not be that concise.

And so when I put out music or bring music home and show it to people, there'll always be these moments, these kind of hard moments of like, oh, this is how you were feeling. You got to express yourself somehow, or else you're going to be consumed in your shitty feelings all day. In March 2022, the song was done basically, but it hadn't come out yet. And then on March 25th, Taylor Hawkins passed away while foo fighters were on tour in South America. I felt devastated.

Just the tragedy of losing someone that is such a beacon and a light. Yeah, I mean, I didn't even know what to think. Weeks or maybe even months later, we broached the discussion of what is the respectful thing to do, you know, is the respectful thing to do? you know, is the respectful thing to not release it. What I came to is like, it's really the decision of his family, if that's something they'd like to be out in the world. So he asks, you know, we said, what do you feel about this? I can't even begin to tell you how sorry I am

and how I do not mean to burden you with this question. But, you know, they basically were like, if he loved the song and he wanted to be on it, then it should come out. So we went back to turn the drums up. I was like, we're turning up every Phil, seven DBSs. And I spoke to Dave Grohl because I told him the story how we turned up all the Taylor's fills. And he's like, that's exactly how he would have wanted it.

You know, you get to work with people. Sometimes everyone's in a blue moon that you're like, wow, like this is, this means something to me as a musician. And he was one of those people. It was brief, but he made me feel, like I was legitimate as a musician, and I just am so appreciative, you know. And now here's Let Us Die by King Princess, in its entirety.

Visit SongExploder.competor.com. You can find links to buy or stream Let Us Die, and you can watch the music video. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishikesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations

about the process of making music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me.

So every show that I'm playing will begin with a conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzukas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage, and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now.

You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, rishikash.co, or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. Song Exploder and the show's theme music were created by me, me. I produced this episode with Craig Ely, with artwork by Carlos Lerma, music clearance by Kathleen Smith, and production assistants from Chloe Parker and Mary Dolan. 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. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Rishi Hereway, and you can follow the show at Song Exploder. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at Songexploader.net slash shirt. I'm Rishi Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening.