Deep Sea Diver

Indie rock outfit Deep Sea Diver functions as the primary creative vehicle for Californian singer/songwriter Jessica Dobson. After accumulating touring experience alongside prominent indie ensembles, she formed a unit with her husband and delivered the band’s first album, History Speaks, in 2012. Their pivotal second effort, Secrets, surfaced two years later, while the third LP, Impossible Weight, marked their entry into the 2020s.

Now based in Seattle, Dobson is supported by husband and drummer Peter Mansen, bassist Garrett Gue, and guitarist/keyboardist Elliot Jackson. In addition to earlier appearances with Beck, Spoon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the Shins, Dobson briefly held a solo contract with Atlantic Records beginning in 2004. After completing two albums for the label, she opted for independence and concentrated on Deep Sea Diver, which issued its debut EP, New Caves, in 2009. The group’s initial full-length, History Speaks, followed in 2012. A second EP, Always Waiting, arrived in 2014, preceding the self-released breakthrough album Secrets on High Beam Records. That record was tracked with Luke Vander Pol and Darrell Thorp, whose credits include Radiohead and Beck, and contained the track “Creatures of Comfort” that featured backing vocals from Shins frontman James Mercer.

In the ensuing period, Dobson and the band worked methodically on new material. During those years, the adopted Dobson reunited with her birth mother, an encounter that shaped the songwriting for the group’s third album, Impossible Weight. Issued in late 2020 on ATO Records, the guitars-and-synths collection spotlighted the singles “Lights Out” and “Wishing” along with the title-track collaboration featuring Sharon Van Etten.