You're listening to Song Exploder,
where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made.
My name is Tao Nguyen.
John Darnielle has been writing and recording songs as the Mountain Goats since 1991.
He's released 17 studio albums and also written two books of fiction.
In April 2019, the Mountain Goats released the album In League With Dragons,
and in this episode, John Darnielle breaks down a song from it called Cadaver Sniffing Dog.
We'll hear his original demo,
and then hear how the song evolved at Blackbird Studios in Nashville with the help of John's band,
some incredible session musicians, and producer Owen Pallant.
Also, stick around after the song to hear more from John in our new segment, Instrumental.
My name is John Darnielle.
I am the singer from The Mountain Goats.
I keep little notebooks.
They're not that much bigger than a credit card,
and I've been carrying those around for over 10 years.
The notebook has grocery lists, and it has notes I take if I'm watching a movie,
but there's one page that just has song titles.
I just write them when I get an idea.
And Cadaver Sniffing Dog had been around for a while.