Photo credit: Bridgette Winten
Melbourne-based singer-songwriter Maple Glider, the project of Tori Zietsch) has shared the video for new single ‘Swimming’ ahead of the release of her debut album ‘To Enjoy is the Only Thing’ via Partisan Records on 25 June (pre-order here). While the album offers observations on loss, longing and faith, ‘Swimming’ is a song about falling in and out of love: ‘This was meant to be a love song, but by the time I finished it, it kind of predetermined a break-up. I’d been experiencing some of the most beautiful places I’d ever been in, and falling out of love was very confusing. I was trying to force myself to be happy and in love, but I was far from home, and really lonely. It made sense to record the song after the break-up. I kind of felt like I was able to handle the sincerity of it then.’
Quietly stirring, it opens with Tori remembering how she packed up her bags while the significant other pleaded with her not to leave: ‘I said I would marry you if I could get a passport, too’. Recalling Villagers or Sharon Van Etten’s early albums with a bit of Fiona Apple’s wit and turn of phrase (‘Searching for fish while you search for me’) thrown in for good measure, there are also elements of one of Aaron Dessner’s various bands in the evocative and emotional sond as Tori takes you on a trip down memory lane – including a trip to the partner’s mother’s house with good wine and another ultimately failed plea for her to stay with them: ‘I almost fell apart when you looked straight at my heart and said ‘baby, swim”.
