#peter mansen

[nofatclips]

You Go Running by Deep Sea Diver, live for Baeble Music

[930club]

ART BLANCHE: Secrets

Holed up in a house together for a week, Matthew Wignall and Deep Sea Diver weren’t just there to hang out, although they certainly did that. Instead, they were there to work -- cranking out the art for Deep Sea Diver’s second record, Secrets, by week’s end.

Deep Sea Diver - Secrets (via Deep Sea Diver)

“I’m pretty involved with the band, having made a record with them [before],” explained Matthew. “So when they called me for the newest record, I heard the music and I [knew] where they’re coming from. We then decided that they needed photos, too, so we decided that I would fly up to Seattle and hang out with them.”

This sort of assignment is about as ideal as it gets for Matthew. He not only got a chance to work with a group that he already had a strong relationship with, but being on site with the band for a few days also allowed him to collaborate with them in a way that a shorter visit or email exhange wouldn’t allow.

Deep Sea Diver shot by Matthew Wignall

“We were all in the same house together and we spent probably 5 days or something like that where we went out and did a few photoshoots, talked about art concepts, we filmed a little bit -- I think we filmed a music video,” Matthew said. “So we did a bunch of stuff over that period of time and so it was all kind of to just immerse into what they’re thinking and what they’re doing. So really you get a couple cool photos and that sort of starts the aesthetic.”

Building on that aesthetic was the next hurdle, and Matthew and the band had brainstormed a couple of directions that they wanted to go with it.

“[When we begin], I’ll ask an artist sometimes for a list, like: ‘What inspires you? What do you like? What is some artwork that you dig?” Matthew said. “It can be an album cover, it can be a book cover, it can be whatever. ‘What are you into right now?’ So that way at least I have a starting point for where to design from.”

Deep Sea Diver shot by Matthew Wignall

In this case, both Matthew and the band felt the need for something that felt cool for the cover, and what better of an inspiration for that than Nick Cave?

“Nick Cave, of course, came up as an influence at some point,” he explained. “I started looking at his covers and I kinda thought I loved some of the ones with a stark black and white photo of him. So I kinda went into it thinking about that a little bit.”

With Nick Cave as his guide, Matthew began mocking up the layout of the cover.

“I think [I was] playing around with some of the big horizontal boxes of color and all that kind of stuff. In some ways there’s definitely some 80s in there -- those older Nick Cave covers and stuff like that.” 

With an idea of what they want the cover to look like -- big boxes of color, juxtaposed with a stark black-and-white photo -- Matthew and the band had to make one last decision: whose photo should they use?

“I think me and Peter -- the drummer, he’s married to Jessica -- we had discussed how Jessica’s cool and it’s her songs. [Deep Sea Diver] is a band, but in a lot of ways it’s her,” Matthew said. “Everybody contributes, but she’s definitely the point of the tip of the spear -- creatively as well as being the front person.”

“I think me and Peter were talking about about ‘I dunno, maybe it’d be cool to put her on the cover. She looks cool and if we had a cool picture, maybe that’d be an interesting kind of thing.’ She is a really strong woman who has a lot of opinions and is pretty capable of producing herself and that sort of thing. I think in a way I started playing around with that right off the bat -- that was the way I wanted to go with it.”

-Dylan Singleton

[nofatclips]

The Watchmen by Deep Sea Diver, live on KEXP

[nofatclips]

Deep Sea Diver, live on KEXP

Lights Out

Impossible Weight

Wishing

Eyes Are Red

[nofatclips]

Lightning Bolts by Deep Sea Diver from the album Impossible Weight

[nofatclips]

Impossible Weight by Deep Sea Diver (featuring Sharon Van Etten) from the album Impossible Weight [Isolated Tracks on KEXP] - Directors: Jessica Dobson, Peter Mansen, Tyler Kalberg [Behind the scenes here]

[spilladabalia]

Deep Sea Diver - Billboard Heart

[alittlemorevodka]

When you are having trouble with inspiration and the weight of the world appears to be on your shoulders, the best course of action is to volunteer somewhere where people are worse off than you are. That was the philosophy that Deep Sea Diver band leader Jessica Dobson took after touring left her without much musical inspiration. What she did, was to volunteer at Aurora Commons in Seattle, where she gained a “new depth of empathy” and found her musical inspiration again. Out of that experience, the long-player Impossible Weight (October 2020) was born.

Impossible Weight (seen / heard here), the title track to the LP, is a testament to what it’s like trying to please too many people, until you just can’t do it any more:

“But that was then and this is now I tried so hard not to let you all down It’s an impossible weight so I’ll just let you down now“

Sings Dobson with guest vocalist Sharon Van Etten on the catchy refrain. The guitar strums here provide a frenetic, rhythmic backdrop, and a sense of urgency to the lyrics. A song that is both beautiful, intimate and confessional, Impossible Weight, rocks, but not too hard, and balances the instruments against the lyric beautifully. From the tentative beginning strums, the guitar builds into the vocal quickly along with the intensity. If your body isn’t moving by the end of the track, then there’s something wrong with you! 

Throughout Impossible Weight (the LP) different themes, both musically and lyrically, are explored. The lead off track, Shattering The Hourglass, is a lush electro-pop affair, that lyrically explores what it’s like to question whether you have what it takes to do something, and then realizing that you don’t have to be perfect to make a difference. Wishing takes on the frustration of a life that you just can’t turn around. Switchblade deals with a cyclical life of abuse. 

Yes, much of the subject matter here is dark while musically it goes in many directions from the slower to the more up beat. It’s a journey worth taking, however, and one that has messages that really demand to be heard. From a production standpoint, there are moments where the tracks are over produced. Many of these same tracks start out just right gain a little bit in production, and then just go overboard. That’s a minor complaint in this case, given the material Deep Sea Diver is sharing.

Deep Sea Diver is multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Dobson, with husband and drummer Peter Mansen, Garrett Gue (bass), and Elliot Jackson (guitar and synths). You can find more information on the band by heading up to their nicely formatted and complete web site. There’s a store link that links back to their bandcamp.com site, where you can find Impossible Weight in CD, vinyl and digital download. Read the Info link for Dobson’s journey to creating Impossible Weight. 

Pick up some great indie-rock now by picking up Impossible Weight!

Note: With Covid-19 still around, probably to be with us for some time, artists like Deep Sea Diver and many others need your purchases to keep their heads above water. If your situation allows it, consider purchasing more in these tough times. –Vodka