"Sleep to Dream" by Swimming with Dolphins, Tuesday, April 12, 2022 + Tooth & Nail Summer Sampler 2011


Adam Young was inescapable in 2008 with his dreamy #1 hit "Fireflies," released under the moniker Owl City. Although Owl City went on to produce more records since 2008, other than being a featured artist on Carly Rae Jepsen's "Good Time," Owl City or Adam Young weren't on many listener's radar after "Fireflies." But one year prior to Owl City's breakthrough record, Ocean Eyes, Adam Young teamed up with his friend Austin Tofte to form the side project Swimming with Dolphins, releasing their debut EP Ambient Blue and a B-side cover of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car."

I'M LIVING HERE WITHOUT YOU. In 2011 Swimming with Dolphins released their debut record, Water Colours, produced by several producers including Tofte and Aaron Sprinkle, and the album was released on Tooth & Nail Records. The band added backing vocalist Breanne Düren on this record, creating a musical conversation on tracks like today's song "Sleep to Dream." I first learned of this band from a three-part sampler Tooth & Nail, Solid State, and BEC Records put out in the summer of 2011. Today, I'll recreated the Tooth & Nail portion of the playlist because I'm becoming less and less of a fan of heavy music (Solid State) and overtly Christian music (BEC). So let's go back in our time machine, 11 years ago, when Emery was still on Tooth & Nail, when Underoath was about to break up. When Tooth & Nail was trying every gimmick to make the music industry work, signing pop acts and electronic head scratchers. Personally, this was the summer before the hell of my student disaster happened. We were all anxiously waiting for the Mayan end of the world, and in some ways, 2011 for me--college graduation and then moving abroad--was the end of an era. So let's go back to 2011 Tooth & Nail:



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