'Whatcha listening to?' Seattle DJs and writers take on spring

Soundside asks Seattle DJs and writers to come up with a song that captures what spring means to them.

Daffodils are out, the ducks are strutting on park paths, the sun is setting just a bit later, and the more brazen among us are wearing shorts and kind of making it work.

Spring is here.

Spring is also complicated in the Pacific Northwest. Let’s face it, it’s not full-blown nice out, it’s still fairly wet, and you probably shouldn’t have ditched your coat.

Soundside asked some local DJs, musicians, and writers to recommend a song that captures an idea. This time, we’re asking for songs about spring and they have delivered.

As you may guess, the content in these songs can be as resonant as the season is — from driving in the rain, hearing a song you’ve heard thousands of times, to new love.

Here are their spring soundtrack recommendations:

Eva Walker, Host of "Audioasis" on KEXP

That was the song that would come on the radio in my grandpa's van. He would bring us to and from school in his tan van and when that song would come on, usually we were somewhere driving around Lake Washington on our way home. And I associate that song with the sunshine in Seattle, mainly to drive around Lake Washington when it's really sunny. So, I associated with that happy moment.

When my husband and I traveled to Doe Bay, it's usually around late spring, early summer, and there's beautiful hills, beautiful giant ocean in front of you. That song came on and there was something about that specific song when it came on, I was like, "Whoa, everything is more beautiful than it was three minutes ago."

Mike Davis, KUOW Arts and Culture Reporter

I picked "Rain" because it reminds me of springtime in Seattle. When I was growing up, KUBE 93 was the most popular radio station and KUBE 93 was famous for over-playing whatever the top song at the time was. And this particular song had to run about every 15 minutes. So, these days come with memories of riding in the car, and hearing my sister singing horribly to these lyrics, as I just lean my head on the door and I'm looking out the window and it's raining. You got the sound of water drops in the instrumentation of the songs while they're singing about rain, and it is raining and I'm watching the city roll by as I hear beautiful music come out of the radio and terrible music permeate the car ride.

Sharlese Metcalf, host of "Mechanical Breakdown" on KEXP

This is kind of like a post-punk, cold-wave style track and even the vocals aren't very full and it just sounds kind of distant. And it's the lyrics that bring it all back and also the pattern of the song and just the sounds of the song is, like his name, which is Desmond Doom, you would think it would be sad, but it's actually this positive way of talking about love: Hey love is quite nice sometimes. Sometimes it's not, when you're in love with somebody and they don't love you back or you're loving them and they aren't giving you what you need. But when they are, or maybe you're just like in love because you're just in love, it's like really nice feeling. And I think that that really reminds me of spring.