Songfacts®:

• This ode to the Emerald City was originally included on One-man emo electro act Owl City's first release, Of June, which he uploaded onto MySpace. Young grew up in Minnesota, and when he wrote the song, he had never been to Seattle. The song finds him imagining what it would be like there.
  
  In 2012, after Young had a chance to visit Seattle, we asked him if it lived up to expectations. His reply: "It really wasn't anything like the place in my head, it was just different. It totally wasn't better or worse, it was just way different. The gum wall and the coffee were just a bonus."
• Young said to The Star Tribune: "Having never really traveled, the unknown was a pretty big inspiration to me."
• This was one of the first songs that Young ever wrote. He recalled to The Sunday Times February 14, 2010: "I tried to join bands at school, but we never got on. Then I discovered how much more I could do on my own with a computer. One night, when I couldn't sleep, an idea for an electronic track came to me. That was 'Hello Seattle', which is on the album and is still most representative of the type of music I want to make. It's innocent, accessible pop, but with a melancholy feel and abstract lyrics."