Song Exploder is one of my favourite podcasts and so when I saw that Hrishikesh Hirway was playing a set at SXSW this year, it was a pretty easy decision to see what his music is all about. Honestly, as a man who has spent the better part of the last few years dissecting some of the best tunes from some of the most highly regarded artists in the world, I was also expecting his songs to be quite good for some reason.
I was not disappointed- Playing with Jenny Lee Owens, Hrishikesh played a set of deeply personal acoustic tunes filled with great arrangements and nice hooks. His tracks reminded me of Death Cab for Cutie’s Plans era in that it did well in balancing tender notes and delicate vocals and lyrics.
As this was his first show in many years, the set started off with some nerves He spent the first six minutes giving a backstory for a two minute song- but it was all good as the dude is an expert when it comes to speaking.
Hrishikesh Hirway’s album comes out at the end of the month and is worth a check out. Wondering if he’ll do a Song Exploder episode on his own song?