Mitski - Your Best American Girl

Introduction

0:00You'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 Hirwe.

0:10Thanks to Quince for their support of Song Exploder. It's August, and it is hot here in LA. And in my attempt to not look like melted cheese in the heat, I've turned to Quince for their beautiful linen clothes. And I got their 100% European linen utility shirt, which is a button-down that's lightweight and breathable and looks very classy. It kind of has an old-world style to it, which I love, because my people, Indian people, we know about beating the heat. We also know about savings, and everything at Quince is priced 50% to 80% less than similar brands.

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Mitski's Song

1:15In 2016, Mitski did an episode of Song Exploder about her song, Your Best American Girl. She had just released her second album, Puberty 2. Later, Pitchfork named Your Best American Girl one of the top 10 best songs of the past decade, and Billboard named it as one of the songs that defined the decade. This year is the 10th anniversary of the album. There's a new deluxe version that's already out digitally, and a limited edition vinyl is coming in October. So I thought this would be a good time to revisit Mitski's episode, where she and her collaborator, Patrick Hyland, break down how Your Best American Girl was made.

1:48You're a mother, no proof of how my mother raised me But I do, I think I do And you're an old American boy I guess I couldn't help Trying to be Your best American girl My name's Mitski.

2:27My full name is Mitski Miyawaki. I never grew up with musical instruments or with equipment to record. The way I learned to write was just writing things down on paper and hearing it in my head and kind of hoping for the best. And I don't work in a band, so I'm alone in my own head. So the lyrics and the vocal melody are king in my songs. They always come first.

2:57If I could, I'd be your little spoon And kiss your fingers forevermore But big spoon, you have so much to do And I have nothing ahead of me The chorus came first. I was on a bed and I wrote down the words

3:29Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me But I do, I think I do And you're an all American boy I guess I couldn't help trying to be your best American girl Your mother wouldn't approve of how my mother raised me But I do, I think I do And you're an all American boy

3:59I guess I couldn't help trying to be your best American girl

Mitski's Background

4:07I was in love with somebody But I just felt like our backgrounds or the places we come from or how we were raised were just so completely different And it felt like something that couldn't be overcome by love I grew up very nomadically I grew up moving around a whole lot and not just in the U.S. but abroad And my mother is Japanese and my father's American

4:38And so I never grew up with a sense of community My sense of family is very different I think I grew up more with a sense of everything will be lost at some point Like you have to prepare yourself to let go at all times Because I just kept moving so much And I kept, you know, you can only say goodbye so many times Before you start to like automatically prepare yourself for that So my upbringing was just very, very different from the average Americans

5:10You're the sun You've never seen the night But you hear its song from the morning birds Well, I'm not the moon I'm not even a star But awake at night I'll be singing to the birds I wanted to be accepted by an environment Or a family situation

5:41Where, you know, people lived in the same place All their lives And knew the same people And know where they're from And know their place in the world That was very foreign to me And I didn't feel like I could learn how to be part of that The next thing is the bass line So it's not even the chords It's just kind of the roots And then I kind of build off of that I picked up guitar in college, you know

6:18So I just was too lazy to actually learn all the finger formations And so what I do is actually just tune the guitar to a D major chord So that if you strum the guitar Just a D major chord immediately rings out So I could just pick up the guitar And play simple chord progressions without thinking about it I make things really loud in my headphones And I think I was crouching over my guitar

6:50So basically you can hear the click If you listen really closely Patrick is really good at layering Hi, I'm Patrick Hyland

7:21And I produced and recorded and played instruments on the song Those synths that come in Right before it hits That was the most spontaneous thing in the song Like the song was pretty much mixed And almost totally done And then I just thought the transition

7:53From the verse to the chorus was too abrupt And so I thought to myself How can I turn this awkward moment into its own event And make it a special thing So with what the chords do there This could sort of bloom into a big lush thing Right before the whole song explodes She's sung that vocal And then I'm manipulating the timbre

8:25It's a formant shifter I don't even think of it as a voice I think of it as an instrument Don't wait for me I can't come If you had to boil the song down to one moment I would say it's when the first chorus hits The intensity of that For most of my quote-unquote career

9:15Of playing music and performing it I've been doing it solo With either a piano or a guitar So with literally just your voice And one instrument Your biggest asset is volume change So from the beginning I would use drastic changes in volume Changes in tone To keep the audience's interest And keep the music going So those things kind of become your band members This is a Hallmark card

10:02But really you always want what you can't have And that all American thing Like from the day I was born And I could not enter that How hard I tried I could never enter that dream That all American white culture Is something that you That is inherited instead of attained And so yes it's a sad song But I wanted to make sure That it reflected All of the contrasting feelings Like you can be heartbroken about a relationship

10:33But also from it Realize that you are you And you're okay With who you are Or you're okay about Where you came from Coming up

Song and Giveaway

10:48You'll hear how all of this came together In the final song We're also doing a giveaway Of some Mitski merch And after the song plays I'll tell you how you can win A Mitski shirt or vinyl Song Exploder is sponsored by DistroKid If you're an independent artist DistroKid is a great way To get your music distributed You get unlimited uploads And you get to keep 100% Of your royalties and earnings There are more than a million artists Including me Who have used DistroKid To get their music Into all the major streaming services Spotify Apple Music

11:18TikTok Everywhere The DistroKid app Is now available on iOS and Android Go to the app or Play Store To download it now And for 10% off your first year's Membership Go to DistroKid.com Slash VIP Slash Song Exploder This episode is sponsored by The ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Program I have two dogs Which means that I have Twice as much chance To run into some kind of Unexpected pet health emergency Those unexpected moments Are exactly why

11:48ASPCA Pet Health Insurance exists Because let's be honest Vet bills can add up fast ASPCA Pet Health Insurance Has been around for almost 30 years And has covered over a million pets To explore coverage Visit ASPCA Pet Insurance Dot com Slash Song Exploder That's ASPCA Pet Insurance Dot com Slash Song Exploder One more time That's ASPCA Pet Insurance Dot com Slash Song Exploder This is a paid advertisement Insurance is underwritten by either

12:18Independence American Insurance Company Or United States Fire Insurance Company And produced by PTZ Insurance Agency Limited The ASPCA is not an insurer And is not engaged in the business of insurance Thanks so much to Wayfair for supporting Song Exploder Wayfair has everything you need for your house Or your apartment Or wherever you live I've been a Wayfair customer for a really long time Because they have such a wide variety of things That you can get from there And sometimes I find myself looking for something very, very specific for my house

12:48Most recently I was looking for pretty bookends That I could use on the shelves where I keep my vinyl records Because they're always kind of leaning to one side And I always want them to look more orderly So I went on Wayfair And I found these really pretty and minimalist marble bookends That were perfect My friend came over yesterday And without me mentioning any of that He pointed them out and said how much he liked them So join Wayfair Rewards today And get 5% back on every purchase And start saving on your next home upgrade

13:20Head to Wayfair.com to shop all things home That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R dot com Wayfair, every style, every home And now, here's your Best American Girl by Mitski in its entirety

13:42If I could, I'd be your little spoon And kiss your fingers forevermore But big spoon, you have so much to do And I have nothing ahead of me

14:17You're the sun, you've never seen the night But you hear its song from the morning birds Well, I'm not the moon I'm not even a star, but awake At night I'll be singing to the birds

14:48Don't wait for me I'm not even a star, but I'm not even a star You're my mother, no proof of how my mother raised me But I do, I think I do And you're an American boy I guess I couldn't help

15:19Trying to be Your Best American Girl You're the one You're all I ever wanted I think I'll regret this You're my mother, no proof of how my mother raised me

16:08But I do, I finally do And you're an American boy I guess I couldn't help Trying to be The Best American Girl You're an American boy I'm not even a proof of how my mother raised me But I do, I think I do

16:38You're an American boy You're an American boy You're an American boy I don't know And you're an American boy For a chance to win a deluxe LP version of Mitski's newest album,

17:13Nothing's Gonna Happen to Me, share a link to this episode on social media and tag at SongExploder, at MitskiLeaks, and at TheMitskiVerse. Plus, three people have the chance to win a Mitski t-shirt. Again, just post the link and tag us in your post. And visit SongExploder.net slash Mitski to learn more about Mitski and to watch the music video for your best American girl. By the way, you might also like the Song Exploder episode with Son Lux about This Is A Life, the Oscar-nominated song from the film

17:43Everything, Everywhere, All At Once, which features Mitski and David Byrne on vocals. It's episode 245, which came out in December 2022.

17:53Song Exploder is produced by me, Craig Ely, Kathleen Smith, Mary Dolan, and Tiger Biscop. The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made the show's theme music and logo. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at radiotopia.fm. I'm Rishi Keish Hirwe. Thanks for listening. One of the best podcasts out there is Normal Gossip,

18:36and they're back for a new season, season 10. It's another show from Radiotopia and also from Defector Media. In every episode, they talk to a guest about a piece of gossip from the real world, a story that was sent in by a listener, and then they anonymize it and retell the story to a guest who reacts and gets to say what they would do if they were in the position. It's really, really fun. I've actually been a guest on the show before. And actually, for the new season, they have a new theme song, which I made. And also, this season, they're doing video.

19:08So if you like to watch and listen, you can find the episodes on YouTube. New episodes of Normal Gossip come out every Wednesday, all summer long.