Swimming Home

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General information

Written by: A. Lee and W. B. Hunt

Swimming Home is the twelfth and final track on the standard edition of Evanescence's third studio album, Evanescence. The title of this song was first revealed in an interview with MSN in August 2011. It is one of three songs that got reworked from the 2010 Lillywhite sessions (along with Made of Stone and Secret Door).

The song is the only track on the standard edition to include the harp. Described as "the biggest departure" by Amy, this track exposes a side of Evanescence that has never been seen before. Swimming Home comes from a creative phase in which everything was more ethereal and driven by programming. "Swimming" addresses "crossing over into the next life. It's the bittersweet acceptance."

Amy has always had a strong bond with the seas and oceans. This is because, as stated in an interview, she grew up near these waters, so she feels protected and realizes how small are the issues of life when compared with the immensity of these seas.

In a track-by-track interview with NME.com, Amy Lee explained the song saying:

Swimming Home is definitely the truest picture of that sort of electronic-very different phase that I was going through for a little bit. I love the song, I think that it expresses a little bit of a new emotion for me, for Evanescence. Because it's sad, it's goodbye, it's sort of from the other side of the song before. It's like from the person's perspective that's moving on to the next life. But it's peaceful, it's an acceptance of that giant crazy thing that fascinates me, that I wonder about and think about. And it's like, life and death and what comes after, you know and what does it all mean. So it's that acceptance and peaceful feeling like the calm after the storm.

Amy said this about the song in an interview with Kerrang!:

It's goodbye. It's partly about the acceptance of death. I love that song because it's not angry and it's not perfectly happy. It's sad but it's accepting the things in life that are hard - like someone leaving this world and feeling the peace of crossing over.

The song was submitted for the soundtrack of the 2008 Japanese animated fantasy movie Ponyo, but wasn't accepted.

Swimming Home was played live for the first time at the concert in Littlejohn Coliseum, Clemson, SC on January 13, 2012.

During an interview with Songfacts in 2016, Amy gave a lengthily description of the song:

One song that is very different for an Evanescence song that I love very much is called "Swimming Home." It's programming and keyboards with an atmosphere of sounds from another world, basically, and it's not in a minor key. It's very simple, and there's something so beautiful and freeing about listening to it and playing it because it's free from all the rules. I find myself saying rules, and I try my best to break them. I think that song was one of the successes where I broke the rules and I made something really great that I just loved all the more for being different. It's broad. You can apply it to so many specific situations, but I was literally just living in a dream world and singing about how on the deepest inside... I'm not going to be able to say this right. I know I sound like I'm on the cusp of saying something really beautiful, but it's going to come out really dumb. I'll just say how much I loved the production and I'll stop myself there. You're going to have to just trust me. It's definitely got some Björk to it.

The song was adapted into a story by Amy's sister, Carrie, on issue #3 of Echoes from the Void. In the light of this issue, Amy was interviewed by CBR on July 25, 2022 where she discussed how this song was born:

I really love working with my sister. Carrie [Lee South] is such a good storyteller, and "Swimming Home" was born while she was living with me and writing in Brooklyn 10-plus years ago. It was a time full of creativity and inspiration. I was writing and experimenting and collaborating a lot, and Carrie's room was next door to the studio, so we were all just living in the music and loving that song in particular. We were dreaming of mermaids and underwater worlds. [...] She went back to the origins of the song and brought me this enchanting story for "Swimming Home" that I am beyond excited about.

Versions

Studio versions:

Swimming Home

• Recording date: April 2011 - July 2011
• Status: Released
• Released on: Evanescence (track #12)
• Length: 3:43

Swimming Home [Lillywhite sessions]

• Recording date: February 22 - April 2010
• Status: Unreleased, Unfinished
• Released on: Broken Record (scrapped)
• Length: Unknown

Live versions:

Swimming Home [Live]

• Performing period: January 13, 2012 - November 9, 2012
• Example: House of Blues, Atlantic City, NJ (August 3, 2012)

Swimming Home [Synthesis Live]

• Performing period: October 14, 2017 - April 9, 2018
• Status: Released
• Recording date: November 3, 2017
• Released on: Synthesis Live (track #19)
• Length: 3:47

Swimming Home [Vocal/Keyboard/Synth]

• Performing date: March 22, 2020
• Example: Amy Lee on Instagram live

Lyrics

Way down
I’ve been way down
Underneath this skin
Waiting to hear my name again

I’m sorry
Nothing can hold me
I adore you still
But I hear them calling
And nothing can hold me

Way down
(Do you really want me?)
All the way down
(Do you really want me?)
I will hear your voice
(Do you really want me?)
But I’ll no longer understand
(But it's really not me)

I’m sorry
Nothing can hold me
I adore you still
But I hear them calling

I was looking to the sky
When I knew I’d be swimming home
And I cannot betray my kind
They are here - it’s my time

I’m sorry
Nothing can hold me
(Do you really want me?)
I adore you still
But I hear them calling, (calling)
And nothing can hold me