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.
The band Blonde Redhead formed in 1993. 21 years later,
in 2014, the trio released their ninth album.
And in this episode, they deconstruct Penultimo,
a song from that record that caused some dissent between the band members.
At the heart of the controversy was the Pitch Factor Effect pedal by Eventide,
a harmonizer that does a lot, or maybe too much.
Here's Blonde Redhead on Song Exploder.
I couldn't admit to the entire concept of this song.
So I was kind of resisting it until the last moment.
This is Cassio Macchino, the member of Blonde Redhead.
The other members are Amadeo and Simone Pace, twin brothers from Italy.
I am Amadeo.
I play mostly guitar in the band.
I kind of started with the arpeggio part.
The thing about the Yiden Tai Paddle with which I wrote the song is that just by me playing one note it does the arpeggios.
It's a harmonizer.
He's just playing...