Songfacts®:

• This song is about embracing the chaos and uncertainty of life; the unpredictable times that can also be the most rewarding. Being underwater can be refreshing and enlightening, as long as you know to come up for air.
• Like many creatives, Elizabeth Ziman (Elizabeth And The Catapult) has had bouts of insomnia and lucid dreams, which she alludes to in this song, specifically in the line, "I'm not afraid of sleeping like I used to be."
  
  "I have these very weird, vivid dreams," she said when she appeared on the Songfacts Podcast. "But really it was less about the fear of sleep and more about the fear of what my dreams would be. I am not afraid of sleeping like I used to be. When I started writing down dreams, it gave me more fodder for my songs because otherwise I wouldn't remember half of them, but it also gave me some peace and kind of quelled my fears a little bit through that process of writing them down every morning."
• Elizabeth And The Catapult is the name Ziman uses for her own releases; she also works on film music, often writing scores for documentaries. "Underwater" is part of her fourth album, Keepsake.
• The video, directed by Meredith Adelaide, is a look at Elizabeth Ziman's creative process. She'll write on guitar or piano in her apartment, but also wander outside and think up lyrics and melodies as she explores.