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.
Carly Rae Jepsen released her third album, Emotion, in 2015.
The closing track on the record is When I Needed You.
In this episode, Carly tells the story of how the song was made.
You'll hear the first demo for the song,
a version she co-wrote with her longtime collaborator, Tavish Crow.
And you'll hear how that led to the album version.
Plus, producer Ariel Rekshide breaks down some of the parts that he created for the recording.
My interview with Carly Rae Jepsen was recorded live at the Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco.
I spoke to Ariel Rekshide in his studio in Los Angeles.
My name is Rishi K. Shirwe.
You're listening to Song Exploder.
My name is Carly Rae Jepsen.
I have found in my life I collect kind of song pieces and fragments as I go.
And then later on, even years later, I'll kind of plug them into a new idea.
The real beginning of this song, as it starts,
was a journey that began with me and Tavish in New York City at my Soho apartment.
And it was just kind of a late night, too many whiskey sort of jam session.