Maple Glider Announces Debut Album, Shares Video for New Single “Swimming”

Melbourne’s Tori Zietsch (pronounced like “peach”) has announced her debut album as Maple Glider, To Enjoy is the Only Thing, out June 25 on Partisan Records. The latest single from the record, an “almost-lovesong” titled “Swimming,” is out now alongside its music video.

“‘Swimming’ gives me such visceral feelings of what I was experiencing at that particular time. I have so many memories that are connected to this one song,” Zietsch tells Paste. “It feels like it contains almost an entire two years of my life. Listening back to the album makes me feel the same way—I’m so excited to be able to experience what the songs feel like once I get to share them with other people.”

“Swimming” sounds like Lana Del Rey going folk—Zietsch’s chilly vocals float over wistful finger-picking and a placid backbeat, while plentiful reverb imbues it all with a spectral glow. Lyrically, Zietsch takes a long look back at a fading romance; meanwhile, she spends the “Swimming” video (directed by Bridgette Winten, who also helmed Maple Glider’s “As Tradition” and “Good Thing” videos) frolicking alongside a skeleton, as if carrying what’s left of her love around with her.

“This was meant to be a love song, but by the time I finished it, it kind of predetermined a break-up,” Zietsch recalls of “Swimming” in a statement. “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.”

Tom Iansek (Big Scary, #1 Dads, The Paper Kites, Hockey Dad) produced and recorded To Enjoy is the Only Thing, which Zietsch describes as follows:

This is what the album looks like to me: walking past tinsel covered trees in mid-September, swimming along the Calanques in the south of France, car-bonnet frost, darkness at 4 p.m., lightness until 10 p.m., a muted feeling, the perpetual grey fog that swallows the Silver Coast, the colour red, this ugly green dress, red wine, red blood, red lips, red is the colour of the cardinal’s robe, Switzerland, my mother’s diaries, a coroner’s report, the sun on my face, the end of love …

Watch the “Swimming” video below and find the details of To Enjoy is the Only Thing further down. You can preorder the record right here.

To Enjoy is the Only Thing Tracklist:
01. As Tradition
02. Swimming
03. View From This Side
04. Friend
05. Be Mean, It’s Kinder Than Crying
06. Good Thing
07. Baby Tiger
08. Performer
09. Mama It’s Christmas

To Enjoy is the Only Thing Album Art: