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 Rishikesh Hirway.
Blood Orange is the project of songwriter and producer Devante Hines.
He's produced and co-written songs for artists like Carly Rae Jepsen,
Solange, Haim, A$AP Rocky, and others.
He's been releasing his own music as Blood Orange since 2011.
In August 2018, he put out his fourth Blood Orange album, Negro Swan.
And in this episode, Dev breaks down how he made the song Saint.
You'll hear the original version of the track from 2015,
as well as the layers and voices that were added over years to create the final version that appears on the album.
My name is Devonte Hines.
I tend not to remember the first time I start tracks,
but this song, I remember the very beginning of it.
I distinctly remember it because I'd only just moved into the place I was living in.
And obviously before taking care of anything that a human needs to survive,
I set up music equipment in the middle.
I was really into these kind of like messy beats.
that just have almost like sunny melodies over the top.
Like, Let's Go Swimming, Arthur Russell.