Self-Titled Mag: Divine Fits Interviews…Divine Fits

Spoon, “Mountain to Sound” (Soft Effects, 1997)
Dan: This is one of my favorite Spoon songs. I could never figure out what it’s about, but I like it. I feel like the lyrics are very evocative. I’ve listened to it on tour a lot, and somehow I’ve connected the lyrics to being a band on tour, and building this thing. Is that close to the meaning?
Britt: I guess so. At that point, I don’t know if I was focusing on making a song about anything, but it was a collection of lines that had happened on tour. The title, “Mountain to Sound,” was a road sign I’d seen somewhere in the Pacific Northwest. There’s also all of that stuff about waiting at the airport.
Dan: When I’m at an airport on tour, this song always comes back to me, yeah.
Britt: Well, that was my life then. Actually, there weren’t too many airports, but there was a lot of traveling in vans, and a lot of waiting around.
Dan: Did you record this on a four-track?
Britt: Yeah. And before I put words on it, I thought it was the best thing we’d ever done. In fact, I thought about leaving it as an instrumental because it sounded so good. We just lucked into this thing where it builds and builds, and then it just explodes.