If you don’t know Jessica Dobson from her first two albums of dreamy rock fronting Deep Sea Diver, you may have still heard her work playing guitar for the likes of Beck, Spoon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Conor Oberst, and other indie figureheads. DSD fits right in with these household names, though, delivering a guitar-focused pop music with a glossy sheen.
Today the band is announcing their third LP together, Impossible Weight, with the driving lead single “Lights Out,” which Dobson notes was “born out of a season where it felt like I couldn’t see farther than a foot in front of me for quite some time.” She continues, “There was a pestilent cloud of darkness around me, but I was fighting to keep my spirit intact and not fall into a deeper depression. Ultimately, it’s a song about the desire of wanting to be in a more life-giving place but knowing that you might need to be carried by the ones you love to get there. Vulnerability is always more powerful than trying to keep it together on your own.”
Of the video, which she edited herself along with drummer (and husband) Peter Mansen, she notes that quarantine proved a fruitful period for learning animation. “When we started making the lyric video for ‘Lights Out,’ I got the idea to add guitar tabs and animate them just like the lyrics. I had never seen that done before… It makes them feel more alive. I also wanted to pay homage to my childhood and how much fun I had learning how to play songs through reading tabs. I hope other people can have fun with this video too.”
Impossible Weight drops October 16 on High Beam Records, and will be distributed by ATO Records.
