Deep Sea Diver: 2025

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

Jessica Dobson, who records as Deep Sea Diver, released 2020's Impossible Weight right in the heart of the pandemic. (In lockdown like everyone at that time, she did a fantastic 2021 "Marquee Live at Home" session from her home studio in Seattle.) Happily, it's now a post-pandemic 2025 — and Dobson and her entire band made a long-overdue visit to the Bronx on the occasion of her latest album, Billboard Heart.

Like the last album, the title track really captivated me. I latched onto the lush and layered instrumentation and yearning vocals of that song, and it sounds great on the radio. The new album really is a deep dive, filled with hard-rock edges and supremely satisfying grooves.

As a guitarist, Dobson's playing is cathartic, releasing anxiety and aggression, but mixing well with the shimmering synths that float over songs.

Lyrically speaking, Dobson has never shied away from tough subject matter, and that is still the case now. Her vocals have become even more assured and urgent. Billboard Heart is a big leap forward for this artist and band already at the top of their game. And speaking of that band, Dobson was accompanied in Studio A by drummer Peter Mansen, guitarist and synth player Elliot Jackson, bassist Michael Dondero, and guitarist and backing vocalist Kristyn Chapman.

Deep Sea Diver played three songs, all great examples of Dobson's revamped sound on Billboard Heart: "What Do I Know," "Emergency," and "Shovel."

In our conversation, she spoke about how the making of Billboard Heart — and her passage to this new stage —  wasn't an easy road. Luckily, she had a great support system in place to keep her grounded and moving forward in a direction that felt right for her, as well as Mansen, her partner and bandmate, and producer Andy D. Park.

Dobson and I also talked about some of the wonderful experiences she's had being in this band, like opening for the mighty Pearl Jam and making music video with her friends.

[Recorded 5/2/25: Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Erin Merriman and Matthew Ellersick. Produced by Meghan Suma. Videographers: Alena Godas, Nikki Phillips, Nikki Phillips, Sophia Yoerks and Gina Slavin.]