Why everyone should be in a band (ft. Finneas and Ashe)

Why everyone should be in a band (ft. Finneas and Ashe)

Author: Switched on Pop September 9, 2025 Duration: 52:55
Everyone should be in a band at some point—and Finneas and Ashe prove why. The Grammy-winning producer and rising singer-songwriter discuss how their friendship evolved into The Favors, a new band debuting their album The Dream on September 19th, 2025. We explore what it means to create as a band, how stepping back from confessional songwriting freed them creatively, and why sometimes the best way forward is embracing older ways of making music. SONGS DISCUSSED The Favors - "The Little Mess You Made" Ashe - "Moral of the Story" Ashe & Finneas - "Till Forever Falls Apart" Billie Eilish - "What Was I Made For?" The Favors - "Home Sweet Home" The Favors - "The Dream" The Favors - "Lake George" Billie Eilish - "bad guy" Simon and Garfunkel - "Old Friends" Simon and Garfunkel - "The Only Living Boy in New York" Simon and Garfunkel - "So Long, Frank Lloyd Wright" Simon and Garfunkel - "America" Rick Springfield - "Jessie's Girl" The Favors - "...

Ever wondered how a pop song gets its hooks into you? Switched on Pop digs into that question, peeling back the glossy layers of mainstream music to explore the craft and theory that make hits work. Hosted by musicologist Nate Sloan and songwriter Charlie Harding, this podcast is a conversation that feels like eavesdropping on two friends who are deeply passionate about the music everyone is hearing. They break down the mechanics of a track, from a surprising chord progression in a Taylor Swift bridge to the rhythmic patterns driving a Dua Lipa anthem, all while keeping the discussion accessible and engaging. Each episode focuses on a specific song, artist, or trend, treating pop not just as entertainment but as a rich subject worthy of serious, playful analysis. You’ll hear audio examples that illustrate their points, making the musical concepts tangible even if you’ve never read a note. It’s for anyone who has ever found themselves humming a tune and then stopped to ask why it’s so compelling. By connecting music theory to cultural impact, Switched on Pop offers a fresh lens on the soundtrack of our daily lives, revealing the intelligence and intention behind the music on the charts. Tune in and you might just find your listening habits forever changed.
Author: Language: en-gb Episodes: 100

Switched on Pop
Podcast Episodes
Learning to love: Tate McRae [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:00
Tate McRae's billions of streams and perfectly crafted hits can feel almost algorithmic, like an AI trained on 20 years of pop music. In anticipation of McRae’s third album So Close to What, out this Friday, we dissect M…
Does It Trance? The Weeknd & FKA Twigs [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:33
In last month's episode predicting the coming year in pop, one of the team's predictions was that trance music – the ethereal, dreamy subgenre of electronic music popular around the turn of the century – would make a com…
25 Predictions for 2025: Grammys, J-pop, kazoos and more [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:50
2024 was an unpredictable year, and 2025 seems to be cut from the same cloth. So for this episode of Switched On Pop, Nate, Charlie, and Reanna look into the crystal ball of pop music to create a (playable) bingo card of…
Bad Bunny's love letter to Puerto Rico [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 47:16
The first great release of 2025 is already here: Bad Bunny's newest album, DeBÍ TiRAR MáS FOToS. Over the course of its 17 tracks, the Puerto Rican reggaetonero crafts an intertextual, anti-colonial tome of a record, inc…
Our theme music sucks. Let’s change it. [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 38:46
What happens when your podcast’s theme song—cobbled together from GarageBand loops—gets called “game show music” and likened to a cereal commercial? You rewrite it. In this episode, we take you behind the scenes of Switc…
Have Disney musicals lost their edge? [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:44
Critics are not feeling the love tonight when it comes to Disney's latest sequels, Mufasa and Moana 2. They've called the animated films "lifeless and bland." But save some sympathy for the composers behind these blatant…
Going Off Book [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:30:59
On this very special episode, we join forces with the hilarious podcast OFF BOOK. When our powers combine, Zach and Jess of Off Book, plus their killer backing band of Scott, Dana and Brett create an improvised musical,…
Auto-Tune always and forever [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:01:34
Popular music changes all the time, but there’s been one consistent element in practically everything released in the last two decades: Auto-Tune is everywhere. What started as a simple audio processing tool in the 1990s…
The many lives of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:25
The first time you hear "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," it probably registers as just another cheery holiday standard. But hiding within this seemingly simple song is a remarkable story of American transformation - musi…