A MART脥NEZ, HOST:
Jessica Dobson has been playing music since she was 5 years old. She's a songwriter and guitarist who's performed with major acts like The Shins and Beck. Now, at the age of 40, after several albums with her band Deep Sea Diver, she says one of her favorite experiences in the studio was making their latest, "Billboard Heart."
JESSICA DOBSON: My description of "Billboard Heart" is it feels like open road.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BILLBOARD HEART")
DEEP SEA DIVER: (Singing) My baby's got a billboard heart that says please don't revive.
MART脥NEZ: Dobson says she and her bandmates just kind of let the road take them.
DOBSON: And so when we were recording in the studio, we didn't have a plan other than, here's the chords. Let's just, like, see what happens. We ended up all just jamming for probably, like, seven minutes. I mean, we cut it down on the actual record. But everyone was so locked in - no overthinking, almost like an out-of-body experience, where just - it was just such an amazing moment of just, like, deep trust in the people that you're playing with.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BILLBOARD HEART")
DEEP SEA DIVER: (Singing) Blue sky, reach down, swallow me. Swallow me.
MART脥NEZ: However, to give herself the space to be creative, Dobson says she had to put aside feelings of self-doubt.
DOBSON: Which wolf are you going to feed, like, the critic or the one that's the dreamer? If you're telling yourself the narratives that kind of drag you down, then that becomes the more powerful narrative for a while, and so I just had to deal with that.
MART脥NEZ: I never thought of it that way, a wolf to feed. Oh, my God, a predator to feed.
DOBSON: Yeah, and it can be a good thing.
MART脥NEZ: Yeah.
DOBSON: I guess maybe you could assign the good one, maybe a better name than both being just wolves.
MART脥NEZ: I think for me, it'd be a squirrel to feed. That's the way I feel sometimes.
DOBSON: Yeah, that's pretty nice and cute. I'll feed the squirrel today.
(SOUNDBITE OF DEEP SEA DIVER SONG, "TINY THREADS")
MART脥NEZ: So I wanted to play this song, "Tiny Threads." Let's hear a little bit of "Tiny Threads."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TINY THREADS")
DEEP SEA DIVER: (Singing) I've been held together by tiny threads.
MART脥NEZ: The theme of being tethered comes up a couple of times on the record. What are you trying to go for there?
DOBSON: Yeah, you're right. That is the theme. I think it has to do with the fragility of a moment of life of the path we're walking through and how many different ways it can go. And wanting to make meaning out of even the things that feel extremely uncomfortable.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TINY THREADS")
DEEP SEA DIVER: (Singing) And I think I love you the most when you're unraveling.
DOBSON: You know, hanging on by a thread doesn't have the greatest connotation. Or it seems like, OK, well, she's barely hanging on there. But, like, I think that there's such beauty to recognizing there is still a tiny thread that is holding me to - whether it's the people that I love or music, how am I making meaning in this moment? And the tiny thread is a thing of beauty, I think, ultimately, though.
MART脥NEZ: Yeah. I saw a quote from you a while back where you said that you don't write Christian songs. But you definitely have written lyrics where they seem to be inspired by a Christian faith. How do we hear your faith in "Billboard Heart"?
DOBSON: You know, I grew up in the church, and my faith and my views have definitely morphed into a different realm since then. You know, I still believe in God and the expanse of Mother Nature and being in tune with the things that I cannot see. And so I think there's, like, a mystic nature on this record that doesn't exist in prior ones.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT DO I KNOW?")
DEEP SEA DIVER: (Singing) It makes no sense at all. All roads are winding into my soul, into my soul, into my...
DOBSON: For me, faith is like trust, and so...
MART脥NEZ: Right.
DOBSON: ...Part of the faith that I carry is, like, I have control over the decisions I make, but I do not have control over what happens. I think that there's such freedom in just letting go.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHAT DO I KNOW?")
DEEP SEA DIVER: (Singing) What do I know? What do I know?
MART脥NEZ: So it sounds like this album is allowing you to free yourself up for something.
DOBSON: I think now I needed to reclaim, like, that childlike spirit that is so unprecious, so unbothered by anything in the future. It's just completely present. And if you don't have that when you're making a record, it's extremely difficult to find, I think, a soulful place. And I feel it on this record, and it feels really wonderful.
MART脥NEZ: That's Jessica Dobson, the Mastermind behind Deep Sea Diver. Her new album is called "Billboard Heart." Jessica, thanks.
DOBSON: Thank you so much, A, for having me. It was a wonderful conversation.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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