Trace Mountains Fills in the Gaps Between Every Track on Into the Burning Blue

Rainwater ripples across the surface of the spacey first notes of “In a Dream,” the opener of Trace Mountains’ new album, Into the Burning Blue, produced by Craig Hendrix of Japanese Breakfast. The atmospheric synth lines and drum machine loops pool around minimal, largely monosyllabic lyrics about going about business as usual as the world burns and existence within it becomes more and more surreal. Dave Benton’s minute observations turn the ordinary existential and cast an outwardly reflective shadow from moments of solitude: “The naked sun like a stone sinks low and you wonder / Where it goes will there be thunder? / Where it shines will the people suffer? / Do you have faith in it then? / The way you always pretend? / Can a country be good? / Can a person learn?”

“From the start of the record-making process, Craig and I envisioned “In a Dream” as the opening track on Into the Burning Blue,” Benton says of the album and the single. “On an album that is largely auto-biographical and very personal in nature, it felt vital to begin in a place with a bit of worldview. Especially now, in an election year in the US, I think it’s meaningful to acknowledge the state-inflicted suffering and denial of life that happens here and all over the world. There are so many kinds of Dreams, some are nightmares, some are fantasies, some are very real hopes for one’s future. With “In A Dream” I wanted to explore the universal idea of Dreams—the ones that come at night and the day, what they mean, and who gets to have them.”

“In a Dream” floats between the conscious and the subconscious, the personal and the universal, expanding to hold multiple realities as they unfold simultaneously. Flames can destroy, but they can also cleanse—“like a loving fire / a burning desire.” A dream can obscure or clarify, be an escapist distraction or a vision of a better future. On Into the Burning Blue, these contradictions come to life. We’ve asked Benton to walk us through every track on the record, and he was kind enough to oblige. Tune in, scroll through and enjoy.

“In A Dream”

Dreams! What do they mean? Where do they come from? I really have no idea, but it was fun to try to create this whole shifting, morphing dream world to fly through on a bike ride. I wanted the whole song to feel like this racing, heavy, exhilarating, panting movement.

“Hard To Accept”

I first performed this song to an extremely disinterested crowd in Troy, NY. Everyone was talking like crazy and I felt mad awkward singing the line “sometimes you just don’t listen”… I don’t think anyone really noticed anyway. Oh well!

“Friend”

My friend Anika Pyle texted me yesterday after listening to the album and said “‘Friend’ speaks deeply to our deep desire to be boyfriends.” I thought that was both hilarious and accurate.