Sweden

When asked about the title of the album, frontman John Darnielle said: “People keep asking me that. In Germany, when they ask me that, it’s because they think I’m a fascist. It’s true. It’s because they think, this guy likes Sweden, he must be one of those skinhead types. But I’m not, but I grew up watching Bergman movies, Wild Strawberries, Cries and Whispers, and I saw Fanny and Alexander the week it came out in the US, and I love that stuff and I love the plays of August Strindberg, a lot, I love them. And also, I’m from California, now, can you picture US geography? So you know, California, it’s the west end. You pass California, you drop off the face of the earth. I’ve always loved places like that. I’m rethinking all of this because of where I live now, which is Iowa, but my first love has always been places that are so extreme that you either can’t go any further or you can never leave, right. And so, Sweden, I found out last year, in fact, parts of Norway are further north than Sweden, but to those of us in the West, when you think of Sweden, you think of, that’s the top of the world. It’s not going any higher. You cannot – if you’re running away from something, you can’t run much further than to go to Sweden.” – 1996-11-02 – Gothenburg Radio – Gothenburg, Sweden