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.
Slay Bells formed in 2008, and in 2016 they released their fourth album, Jessica Rabbit.
In this episode, Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller break down their song, I Can Only Stare.
I interviewed the two of them in front of a live audience at the Kauffman Music Center in New York as part of the Ecstatic Music Festival.
Watching you from the chair, dragging a brush through your hair.
It's just right over there.
You know I'm grieving, giving up here.
Cause my heart hoped to die, you and I, you and I. I'm Derek Miller.
I'm from Sleigh Bells, and I do all the music and lyrics.
Hi, I'm Alexis Krauss, other half of Sleigh Bells, singer, melodies, harmonies.
songwriter with Derek.
The early demo of this song sounded a lot more like shoegazy.
I was at home in my apartment in Brooklyn, just kind of layering guitar parts.
That immediately reminded me of like a Johnny Mara type of chord progression.
That longing, that ache, you know,
that a lot of Smith's records have a lot of the records from that period that I really like.
So I was really just kind of trying to rip him off.
We each write in very private spheres.