The Clearwater Swimmers self-titled debut is, at its core, a collection of field notes exploring gratitude, and how to shape it into a salve, armor, and engine. With songwriting often invoking themes of the natural world, community, and the spaces between, this album deals in the components a person is made up of: millions of small, fleeting moments, experiences, people, feelings - some painful, and some soothing. As much as the lyrics are autobiographical, they are just as much a letter to the threads that comprise the group, what ties them together, and what extends beyond.

Born from a stack of cassettes with one-take acoustic demos, the songs of Maine-born Sumner Bright (guitar and vocals) found their way to full-band fruition by way of friendly encouragement from friends and bandmates, Sander Casale (guitar), Timothy Graff (drums & percussion) and Connor Kennedy (bass and vocals). After relocating to Queens, Bright began to write simple, raw one-mic demos that served as exercises to ground himself in that which comprises him, and began to publish them discreetly online. After initially being approached by Casale to give these songs a full-band treatment, they decided to form a group for a short tour across the northeast, and quickly found themselves in a strong and rewarding creative dynamic.

They took this dynamic and wasted no time - immediately booking studio time in May of 2024 to record their full-length debut album at Big Nice Studio in Providence, RI with Bradford Krieger. They arrived at the studio and once again leaned on the effortless flow of the group, live-tracking and finishing the album in just 3 days. With the members of the band scattered across all the northeast, they come together in waves for shows, tours, or grill-outs and trips to the beach.