BIO

“The ocean does not care about you at all,” declares Rachel Bobbitt. “That’s what makes something truly awesome—it could and will exist, with or without you.”

The ocean looms, uncaring yet vital, conceptually and actually on Bobbitt’s debut full-length LP, Swimming Towards the Sand. Raised in the windswept Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia, Bobbitt roots herself in the memories and milestones of home more than a decade after her voice first found an audience through the lens of internet virality. Growing up in a musical household, where her mom’s side hosted kitchen fiddle parties, Bobbitt was surrounded by music from the beginning. At just 16 years old, she’d amassed a large Vine following, performing covers and originals to an audience of 400,000 strong, leading to Shorty Award nominations and being crowned by Buzzfeed as one of “13 Amazing Singers You Should Follow On Vine.” She now looks back at that time with nuance, feeling both reinforced in her abilities by the response and, at the same time, overwhelmed by the onslaught of opinions—opinions on her career, appearance, voice, image—at an age when she was still figuring out what those things meant for herself.

A dozen years later, after studying Jazz and Vocal Pedagogy at the renowned Humber College, learning the rules of the road, and navigating the music industry from her home base in Toronto, Bobbitt arrives at Swimming Towards the Sand with an unwavering sense of purpose. It’s an album that revisits her roots with the clarity of perspective, the wisdom of experience, and the lessons of resilience that can only come with time. It looks back with an eye both clear and nostalgic and reflects her memories via sharply contemporary music.

The record was born in transit—written between call centre shifts, hotel rooms, and fleeting homecomings. Bobbitt recorded the album in Los Angeles with producer Chris Coady (Beach House, Future Islands, DIIV), whose studio near Glendale’s Verdugo Mountains offered a symbolic contrast to the coastal terrain of Nova Scotia. Alongside her musical and life partner, Justice Der, Bobbitt plays through a dozen tracks that are shaped by the East Coast—sinking into memory, floating through loss, and emerging from depths renewed.

A natural progression from Bobbitt’s collection of singles and EPs, including The Ceiling Could Collapse (2022) and The Half We Still Have (2023), Swimming Towards the Sand is her most cohesive and expansive work to date: a poignant exploration of grief, girlhood, memory, and return. It centres itself around memories and dreams, and how one can often feel interchangeable with the other. It is only through careful observation and steady rumination that we start to draw meaning and distinctions. The album is full is such reflections—and like the ocean, turns discarded bottles into frosted glass, these memories and dreams of loss, grief, and girlhood become something tangible and true.

Bobbitt wields her jazz-trained voice like a guitar or keyboard, layering harmonies in conversation with herself, sometimes subtly, and sometimes pulling focus.

The album begins and ends with dynamic tracks that start lullaby-gentle and explode into full-band reveries: “Don’t Cry” is an ode to best-friendship and Bobbitt’s coming-of-age in rural Nova Scotia, a reflection on girlhood and the confusion and discomfort that accompanies it; “Nothing” quietly stacks up memories before spiralling out into a formless vocal release, fading to the album’s end, an aural symbol of the afterlife.

Side A chronicles a series of losses Bobbitt has endured in recent years. The dreamy, wistful “Hush” is borne from a demo comprised solely of Bobbitt’s vocal layers, placed upon a bedrock of a drum machine and keys, capturing the ache of a love story that never quite was. A whimsical classical guitar guides the ethereal “Light,” described by Bobbitt as “the in-between and transitory feeling of memories.” Indie-rock appears on “Hands Hands Hands”—another track “borne out of loss and grief”—which marries electric guitar, a deceptively joyful synth, and bashing drums for a dramatic elegy, Bobbitt pleading “Tell me you’re okay / you’re okay.” The first half closes out with “Remember,” a mellow, mournful synth line accompanying Bobbitt’s ode to her mother and grandmother, and the moment she found herself comforting the person who once comforted her: “I had to carry you through it / fireworks of wet down your face.” “For me to parent upward in that moment and try to be the support she needed,” Bobbitt says. “When zooming out, I saw how that role falls down forever and ever- someday somebody will be that to me. It deepens the relationship, and that love.”

Side B begins with “Furthest Limb,” Bobbitt’s biggest vocal swing, pushing to her highest notes in between guitar hits, as she searches for reassurance amid a growing disconnect with a loved one.“I Want It All” is a mid-tempo exploration of Bobbitt’s mental health (“I stretch my arms to have it all / but these days they can’t reach”) and the dark and moody “Life By The Marsh” is another reflection of feeling low, Bobbitt so close to the mic it feels like she’s singing directly into your heart. “Ask Again” is awash in the feeling of self-doubt and OCD-induced looping thoughts, its shimmery guitars mirroring the mind’s relentless churn. The final pair—“Deer on the Freeway” and “Sweetest Heart”—embrace the thrill of new infatuation, landing somewhere between Laurel Canyon warmth and the closing credits of a ‘90s romcom.

Throughout Swimming Towards the Sand, Bobbitt returns again and again to the ocean—not just as a symbol, but as part of her internal landscape. “Having the water be so consistent and impartial to you, and terrifying and beautiful,” she says, adding, “it is such a strong presence for me.” The album is textured by the loss, yet it resists despair. It offers a return not just to home, but to self: a reclamation of the things that remain after the tide recedes. Bobbitt describes it as her most fully realized work, and it shows.

Credits

Produced, Recorded and Mixed by Chris Coady

Mastered by Mike Bozzi

Vinyl cut by Chris Bellman

All songs written by Rachel Bobbitt.

Published by Rachel Bobbitt (ASCAP).

Photography: Ebru Yildiz

1. Don’t Cry (4:15)
Drums – James McAlister
Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Piano/Perc/Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

2. Hush (3:47)
Vox/Vocal Arranging/Synth – Rachel Bobbitt

Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

3. Light (2:51)
Acoustic Guitar/Synth/Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

4. Hands Hands Hands (4:50)
Drums – James McAlister

Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Percussion/Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

5. Remember? (4:21)
Synth/Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

6. I Want It All (4:16)
Drums – James McAlister

Vox/Synth – Rachel Bobbitt

Percussion/Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

7. Furthest Limb (3:39)
Drums – James McAlister

Acoustic Guitar/Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Percussion/Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

8. Ask Again (2:33)
Guitar/Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

9. Deer On The Freeway (3:56)
Drums – James McAlister

Rhythm Guitar/Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

10. Life By The Marsh (3:41)
Drums – James McAlister

Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Percussion/Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

11. Sweetest Heart (3:17)
Drums – James McAlister

Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Percussion/BGV/Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

12. Nothing (4:10)
Drums – James McAlister

Vox – Rachel Bobbitt

Percussion/Synth/Guitar/Bass – Justice Der

Thank you to Chris for giving these songs so much care and attention- Thank you to James and Mike for lending your brilliance- Thank you to Ebru for travelling to Nova Scotia and capturing the photos that would define this project- Thank you to Gulce for your unending belief in me and the music- Many thanks to Fantasy & Concord for their continued support and trust- Thank you Matt for your guidance and devotion to the project- Thank you Tom for your passion and advocacy- Thank you Wilson for your continued dedication- Thank you to Eloy & Jaclyn for your enthusiasm and care, Thank you to Chris L for your artistic vision, Thank you to Justice for sharing your art, and your life with me, & thank you to my family for loving me always. Lastly, thank you to Nova Scotia- the traditional and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people- for raising me with the rise and fall of your tides.

A&R: Matt Marshall

rachelbobbittmusic.com

fantasyrecordings.com

℗ & © 2025 Fantasy Records. Manufactured and Distributed by Concord, 10 Lea Avenue, Suite 300, Nashville, TN 37210. All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws. Made in U.S.A. FAN02966

Lyrics

Don’t Cry

Tender tones

Towards lipstick hour

In between your knees fingers in hair

Quiet youth

Your sister’s skirt

Singing ribs eye creases love like flowers

And I want

Darling child

Don’t cry tonight

Don’t burn inside trying to make it light

Don’t cry

A field of clothes

Years of soft

Lace and trim a plea for gentle care

But eyes undress

And words expose

Hand me downs left hanging rough with fear

I was looking for direction

I was searching for perfection

Sorting through more mixed attention

My child

Anger floats into resentment

Little bodies unprotected

Shame and fear with no direction

My child

Darling child

Don’t cry tonight

Don’t burn inside trying to make it light

In my mind

And in my room

Laying heads on laps, fingers in hair

Soft and tired

In the afternoon

Singing ribs

Eye creases

Love like flowers

And I want

Darling child

Don’t cry tonight

Don’t burn inside trying to make it light

Don’t cry

Hush

I was out in the water

Digging shells for your altar

My eyes fixed on you

You were gone by the morning

With the space a song a kept learning

My love

Lost on you

Hush

Take your time but let me know

If you want to leave then you should go

Eye to Eye

I waited out till I was blushing

The sun a burn a hot heat flushing

No life

No slow signs

To be the one left out searching

Is to be forever caught yearning

All life fixed on you

Hush

Take your time but let me know

If you want to leave then you should go

Eye to Eye

Don’t lose it all

The quiet mornings

Don’t lose it all

Your selfish yearnings

Hush

Take your time but let me know

If you want to leave then you should go

Eye to Eye

Hush

Take your time but let me know

Light

Open the window

See what the light can bring

Watching the bumper car birds

Waiting for spring they sing

Oooh

It’s not a shape or sound

Not in the sky or ground

It passes like cold through glass

The feeling of feelings past

Oooh

The vents in your childhood home

Your voice when you’re all alone

A cake for no special date

The feeling of docile days

Days & Days

& Days & Days &

Days & Days

& Days & Days &

Days & Days

& Days & Days &

Days & Days &

Open the window

See what the light can bring

It scatters to corners in your room

Shining till all’s consumed

Hands Hands Hands

Open a line of communication

There’s a fire in the haven now

Moulding truths out of ugly nothings

You stare into me now

How was I to know that things were going so sour

How were you to know that I’d grow not to need you anyhow

Loss is never a starting point but the lack of all that was

Like a light you didn’t know was shining suddenly gets flicked off

Pressing pause from your beige recliner

Your hands hands hands hands

Tomatoes right from the garden my darling your hands hands hands hands

Honey honey I’ve been thinking

What a cruel could this would be

Tell me you’re okay

You’re okay

Tell me you’re okay

You’re okay

In the dark I was talking to you

As you moved round the room in shapes

Filling up paper bags with water- said it’s sweet, but it’s not the same

Then we’re outside crawling thru the garden

And your hands hands hands hands

In the dirt you’re saying let’s call it

Your hands hands hands hands

Honey honey I’ve been thinking

What a cruel world this could be

Tell me you’re okay

You’re okay

Tell me you’re okay

You’re okay

Tell me you’re okay

You’re okay

Tell me you’re ok

You’re ok

Remember?

Walking the circuit

Across green miles

Soft sound reassurance

I had to carry you through it

fireworks of wet down your face

Hands like a mother

You’re crying with the door closed

Hollowed inside I know it

Up past the ceiling that you swore I’d never break

Love is not a feeling but the choices that you make

I’ll try to love you gently how you did when I would wake

And when you’re laid down

I’ll busy myself round the house

Clean out your closet and make sound

Someone will carry me through it

Mile after mile

Hands like a mother

Up past the ceiling that you swore I’d never break

Love is not a feeling but the choices that you make

I’ll try to love you gently how you did when I would wake

Remember the lake that you dove into

You said it was cold, but you needed proof

You swam to the bottom

Pressure in your ears

Bringing back fistfulls of mud

Year after year

The day that you dove in for that last time

I don’t remember the words passed

Yours or mine

I don’t remember the eyes now, were they wide or shut

I don’t remember the last time you swam back up

I Want It All

In the water

Stomach down

Dull light dull knife no sound

Till you turn yourself around

Well I’d live there if I could

But the tides going out now and it does no good

To be midway understood

You know

That I want it all

Taste of something sweet

I’d stretch my arms to have it all

But these days they can’t reach

In the bedroom

Stomach down

Flashing lights behind your eyes you see it now

Till you turn yourself around

Well I’d live there if I could

But the nights turning in now and it does no good

To be housed by what you could

Take it all up from me

Take it all away now

Take it

Take it all

Take it all up from me

You know

That I want it all

Taste of something sweet

I’d stretch my arms to have it all

But these days they just can’t reach

You can always

Change your mind

I do it

All the time

To yourself

To the sky

There’s a million ways to lie

I get up

I can chant my way to up

I can lift up my face

Breathe the cleanest breath of change

Furthest Limb

I wasn’t trying to

I was just trying to ease your pain

What did I say to you

What did I say

Stood in the kitchen you

You’re filling your hands with scarlet paint

What did I say to you

What did I say

You’re crawling out on the furthest limb

I try but I can’t call you back In

You sway like a child at play

The wind one measured gust from taking you away

What did I say?

Love can just wave you through

Without even slowing at the gate

Without ever meaning to

You find yourself sick with someone’s name

Did I ever sicken you

Did I ever shoulder all your blame

Well I wasn’t meaning to

I still feel the same

You’re crawling out on the furthest limb

I try but I can’t call you back In

You sway like a child at play

The wind one measured gust from taking you away

What did I say?

What did I say to you

What did I say to you, What did I say?

Ask Again

Back when you’d let me hang in your mouth

Feel your words and push them around

You were love

A god

seismic shift of it all

I don’t know how the times moved since

It kills all the moments you’re bound to forget

Now we’re dull

New coats new living room view

I wish you’d have found me when I spoke so sincerely

When my lips moved with feeling

Ask again

I’ll think of a drink and I’ll think of it more

I’ll think of my thoughts till I can’t anymore

Time is kind

30 days of an unaffected life

You’ve always had love like a package at your door

You take one inside but the next day there’s more

You’re good

I wish you’d have found me when I spoke so sincerely

When my lips moved with feeling

Ask again

I wish I could tell you what I spit up in corners

Thoughts that wince and distort

Ask again

Deer On The Freeway

Wait

Before you go

I don’t think I said it all

Could you stay at mine

You take

More than you show

You give me a stem to tie

And I take my time

When I hold you up

It’s like I’m the only thing between you and the drop

Cause I need

You to need me too

But how long until I’m slipping something in your food

Takes me a minute

Remember why I’m in it

There’s a fire in the basement and kids that won’t stop singing

Yea I’m tactless and teenage

A deer caught on the freeway

For you

Want

Is a starving thing

It pulls in tv remotes, couch change and your love on a string

I want

Like a child on a swing

Like an urgent call with no one to hear it ring

Takes me a minute

Remember why I’m in it

There’s a fire in the basement and kids that won’t stop singing

Yea I’m tactless and teenage

A deer caught on the freeway

For you

Takes me an hour

To get out of the shower

There’s a flood in the kitchen the dogs left out and freezing

Yea I’m tactless and teenage

A deer caught on the freeway

For you

Life By The Marsh

The life by the marsh

Is a humming thing

I kneel, fill my arms

With what will bloom again come spring

I’m reminded of a time

When I too would sing

When my body hummed with sound

Like a bell when it rings

In the light you find

Something undefined

In the light you find (Try for something new)

In the light you find (Like you’re wanting to)

The wind by the ocean

Is a cutting thing

I undress

Walk toward the water

Let the salt air sting

As I move fibres stretch

A deep and sexless thing

And when I lay

strung up and weightless

I’m not anything

In the light you find

Something undefined

In the light you find (Try for something new)

In the light you find (Like you’re wanting to)

Something undefined (Petals fall for you)

In the light you find (Try for something new)

In the light you find (Like you’re wanting to)

Something full of life (Petals fall for you)

In the light you find (Try for something new)

In the light you find (Like you’re wanting to)

The life by the marsh

Is a humming thing

Sweetest Heart

Your sweetest heart

Build tiny starts for me

There are sirens that don’t sound when you’re away from me

Bent towards the ocean stretching limbs out wantonly

I pull you back

I pull you in again

There’s a ripeness in the spots where I return again

A fond familiar feeling just below the skin

All of my love

Sways where it stands

All of my loving

Pushing water

Swimming in towards the sand

Your sweetest heart

Build tiny starts for me

I love you now because there’s nothing left for me

No darkened corners nothing natural light can’t see

All of my love

Sways where it stands

All of my loving

Pushing water

Swimming in towards the sand

Nothing

On a dark and winding highway

Headlights like an arm in a black lake

Someone’s singing something from the front seat

Someone’s singing something so sweet

Ooooh

You mother dancing in the eighties

Sunning with your sister in late spring

Maybe it’s the act of waking

Maybe it’s a wave finally breaking

Ooooh

A neighbourhood at night, hot & empty

A field all full of light, walls of tvs

Maybe its the sky draped and blushing

Maybe not a thing, maybe

Swimming Towards The Sand