If you dreamt last night that Owl City composed the soundtrack for Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou then you’ve probably already heard a few of the tracks off the second release from Swimming With Dolphins, Water Colours.

Formed in chilly Minnesota, Swimming With Dolphins is the only band in Wikipedia that gets confused with a therapy technique which is ironic considering that Minnesota’s cold weather generally builds a platform for a melancholy performance but Water Colours is a surprisingly bright and warm EP.

Swimming With Dolphins originally consisted of current lead man Austin Tofte and Owl City’s Adam Young, since their first release Adam focused on his solo project Owl City which is touring Australia this year and Austin focused his efforts away from Owl City and onto Swimming With Dolphins.

Water Colours is a smiling and friendly album that is the result of the two years of hard work from Austin. “I feel like the story of this record is ‘challenge,’ right down to the lyrics and content, up to the actual release. We’re pushing every button we can,” says Tofte “It’s been an awesome ride, but I’m so ready to have it out and be able to look back and say, ‘Man, that was a heck of an effort.’”

See You Soon’s Sarah Beintker brings her beautiful voice to Holiday and Sleep to Dream, New York’s Sunsun also mixes up the chromosomes on the airy Happiness and Minnesota solo project Modsun joins Austin on the vocals track for the joyful final track on the EP Good Times.

Austin spent two years around Minnesota searching his soul and finding himself and Water Colours is the result of this reflection, Austin reflects “It was just a long process, and quite honestly, probably longer than it should have been. You start second-guessing things you have too much time to work on,”.

After years of touring with Owl City plus two years of writing  Austin is ready to leave his Father’s farm “I’m ready to be on the road. I’ve spent a lot of time writing and in the studio, and I’ve got a band now, and we’re all excited about it. It’s awesome, I feel like we’re going to have fun on this record, for a while, and it’s been a long time coming. It feels like a new chapter.”

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Originally published in Enhance Magazine.