Good Swim – Shares Stunning New Single ‘Chasing Shadows’ + Announces Debut Album

Belfast folk artist Good Swim has released his aching new single ‘Chasing Shadows’.

The single comes with the announcement of his debut album, The Mountains Sure Don’t Give a Damn About The Sea – an uncensored snapshot of perseverance and courage – releasing Friday, October 30th.

Following his previous single ‘A Mark On You’, which earned support from RTÉ Radio 1, Today FM, BBC Radio Ulster, Hot Press, Sunday Life, Belfast Telegraph and more, Good Swim continues to draw listeners in with deeply intimate songs that explore love, loss, fear and the complexities of being human.

After a twelve-year hiatus from recording, the Belfast native returned to the studio last year with no grand plans – just a desire to create. What began as a single session with producer Michael Bell at Start Together Studios quickly expanded into a project that needed to grow, and Good Swim was born – rippling across Northern Ireland’s folk scene and quietly amassing over 60,000 streams.

At its surface, new single ‘Chasing Shadows’ breathes as a love song. Beneath that, however, lies a deep sense of frustration; at God, the world, and at those seemingly experiencing lesser devastation, who appear untouched by the struggles we carry.

Good Swim explains: 

“Chasing Shadows started with a fever dream during a hot summer. At the time, it felt like things were falling apart a bit.I was scrambling for faith or feeling, but had this numbness to everything… A bit like it was happening to someone else. At its core it’s about dealing with loss and trying to find a new way to be happy.”

As the song unfolds with warm acoustic fingerpicking and gorgeously resonant vocals, it explores the conflict between losing faith and still holding onto hope. Even when belief feels misplaced, whether in God, fate or something else entirely, Good Swim notes how we continue to search for comfort in whatever helps us make sense of the world.

‘Chasing Shadows’ stands as another candid window into the introspective, confessional ethos of singer-songwriter Good Swim (AKA Dave McConnell), who continues to mould his craft with visceral precision.

THE MOUNTAINS SURE DON’T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT THE SEA

TRACKLIST

01 A Good Swim

02 Sink Like a Stone

03 Friend of a Friend

04 Attica

05 For a While

06 A Mark on You

07 Chasing Shadows

08 Play Dead

09 A Reminder

10 The Giants of Seville

11 Blackbirds