Songfacts®:

• This is the title track from Hawaiian singer-songwriter Jack Johnson's fifth studio album. The record is full of Johnson's ruminations on life, love and spirituality. Johnson told MTV News this song explores "the archetype of the wild man... deep down in the mind, waiting to be discovered."
• The song was written, according to Johnson, "in, like, 10 or 15 minutes."
• Johnson wrote To The Sea sitting on his couch with a guitar after his three children had gone to bed. He explained to MTV News it was inspired by his family. "The album is called To The Sea. I guess it's a reference to a father leading his son to the sea, with the water representing the subconscious. So it's about trying to go beneath the surface and understand yourself," said. "I have three kids, so the album is about that. It's both me as a son of my own father and me looking down at my kids. I'm 34, right at this transition of still feeling like a child sometimes, but other times feeling like a father, and finding the father in myself. It's all about those things."