| Swimming With Dolphins | |
| Origin: | Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States |
| Years Active: | 2008–present |
| Label: | Tooth & Nail |
| Current Members: | Austin Tofte |
| Past Members: | Adam Young |
Swimming With Dolphins is an American electronica band from Minneapolis, Minnesota. The band formed in 2008 by Austin Tofte and Owl City frontman Adam Young.[1] The name of the band was derived, according to Tofte, from "some old Jacques Cousteau documentaries from the 80s".[2] The group is fronted by Tofte, while Young performed synths and programming for the act and additionally served as the producer of the group.[3]
For the act, Tofte and Young created trademark outfits. Tofte took on the appearance of a submariner wearing a classic scuba suit and Young donned a pilot's mask (which would later become Sky Sailing's trademark look).[1]
The band made its debut with the release of their 2008 EP, Ambient Blue.[4] The EP was produced by Young and sold over 9,000 digital copies.[5] The song "Silhouettes", off the release, featured Breanne Düren.[6] In addition to the main release, the band also put out a cover version of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" as B-sides single to the EP.[7]
Young departed the band in late 2008 as Owl City's popularity began to increase.[8] Alone, Tofte signed Swimming With Dolphins on to Tooth & Nail Records in June 2010.[9] Recording for the album began in the summer of 2010 where it was produced by Aaron Sprinkle in Seattle.[10] [5] The album finished production in Atlanta with help from producers Zack Odom and Kenneth Mount.[11] [5] The debut album titled, Water Colours was set to be released in March 2011 but was pushed two months back.[12] It was officially released on May 17, 2011.[13] On August 5, 2011, Swimming With Dolphins uploaded the official music video for the first single off the record, "Sleep To Dream", via YouTube.[14]
After Young's departure, Tofte was joined by Sarah Beintker and Torrie James as part of his live band.[15] Beinker contributed her vocals to the songs "Holiday" and "Sleep To Dream" off Water Colours. The release also featured the artists Sunsun and Mod Sun.[16] Swimming With Dolphins joined Abandon Kansas on a Spring Tour that began in March 2011.[17] In support of his album, Water Colours, he joined Family Force 5 for the Tourantula tour during April and May 2011.[18]
After the release of his debut album, Tofte had parted ways with Tooth & Nail and started to release music independently.[19] In August 2013, Tofte launched an Indiegogo campaign to fund the project's upcoming album, Catharsis.[19] The funding needed $12,000 in mixing and mastering the album, as well as creating an album cover art, among many more.[19] In September 2013, Tofte announced that the campaign had been successful and would begin working on the album.[20] [21] That same month, Tofte did an interview with Chris Herlihy's weekly syndicated radio show and talked about the release.[22] In a separate interview with Blue Freedom, Tofte stated that, "Catharsis is a cleansing and redemptive effort." He also believed he had "missed the mark" with his previous album release.[23] Also in September, Swimming With Dolphins released a preview of the new album in the form of a single instrumental track, entitled "Tromsø", via SoundCloud.[24] Swimming With Dolphins also posted a video for "Tromsø" via Vimeo around the same time.[25]
According to Tofte in 2014, the album was very near completion.[26] On August 21, Tofte stated that the track listing for the album would be revealed shortly.[27] On August 29, Tofte released the raw rough draft of the track listing for the album as well as the cover art for a single entitled "Summer Skin", which is to be on the album.[28] [29] On September 23, "Summer Skin" was released to Swimming With Dolphins' SoundCloud.[30] On December 18, Tofte announced that a big update on Catharsis was to be released soon.[31] On May 1, 2015, Tofte revealed the album art for Catharsis as well as its release date of August 4, 2015.[32] Tofte instead released the single "Iron Lungs" instead,[33] saying he needed to "take a step back to recalibrate and determine a new release date" due to the premature announcement.[34]
On January 11, 2016, to celebrate "Iron Lungs" hitting 5,000 streams on SoundCloud, Tofte released a reworked version of "Summer Skin" for the final version of Catharsis.[35] On May 6, he released a new single, "Let You Love."[36] On April 1, 2018, after an over year-long hiatus from making music, Tofte released a sample of "Roller Dancer", which will be released on Catharsis.[37] [38] As of January 2023, the album still has no release date.
Besides Swimming With Dolphins, Tofte was also a member of Owl City's live touring band in 2008.[10]
Swimming with Dolphins' music has been described as ambient,[9] electropop,[10] indie-pop[39] and synth-pop.[16] Their debut EP, Ambient Blue is a lot more experimental as the group works with synthesizers and features upbeat dance songs.[4] Their debut studio album, Water Colours, was influenced by 80s' synth-pop music.[13]
Cross Rhythms named Water Colours as one of the 20 best albums of 2011.[40]
Current members
Former members
Former touring musicians
| Album details | Peak chart positions | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Christ [41] | US Heat. [42] | |||
| Water Colours |
| 40 | 31 | |
| Album details | Peak chart positions | Sales | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| US Christ | US Heat. | |||||||||
| Ambient Blue |
| — | — |
| ||||||
| "—" denotes releases that did not chart or was not released in that territory. | ||||||||||
| Title | Year | Album |
|---|---|---|
| "Fast Car" (cover) | 2008 | |
| "Sleep To Dream" | 2011 | Water Colours |
| "Tromsø" | 2013 | Catharsis |
| "Iron Lungs" | 2015 | |
| "Summer Skin" | 2016 | |
| "Let You Love" | ||