“Hamburger Highway” mixes analog synth sounds, bedroom rock textures and dreamy 70s vocal harmonies to create a quirky dreampop ode to the drive-thru experience.
This is probably the weirdest song I’ve released so far. The whole “Hamburger Highway” bit is about this stretch of road in my hometown that’s almost exclusively populated by fast food franchises and shitty beige plazas. When I was growing up my parents would jokingly call it “Hamburger Highway” and they still call it that to this day. There’s tons of these types of roads in Ontario (and beyond) and they’re all pretty depressing places to be, so obviously I wanted to write a song about it.
To me, this track is about being in a place where the future looks pretty bleak and uncertain and where nostalgia’s been hijacked by a feeling of infinite, inescapable loss and regret. I drive a lot and I eat fast food a lot more than I should, and in this song I’m kind reflecting on all that and how fucked up everything is and how I’m a part of it. I’m just eatin’ burgers and drinking Coke in my car going 130 on the highway blasting classic rock and living in some dream world.
My first field trip was in grade one and we went to a McDonald’s. I remember for part of it we toured the basement, and went and saw the storage facilities and the walk-in fridges with frozen burgers and bags of coke syrup. Everything seemed huge and we were all so excited. I also remember the manager who was giving the tour made this perfect vanilla ice cream cone and said “This is how you make an ice cream cone at McDonalds!” and then immediately after he made it he threw it directly in the trash and all the grade ones just died inside. It’s such a vivid memory. This song is dedicated to that dude. —JWC