Indie rock band Deep Sea Diver is the passion project of Californian singer/songwriter Jessica Dobson. After years performing with high-profile indie acts, she got a group together with her husband and issued their debut album, History Speaks, in 2012. Their breakthrough effort, Secrets, landed two years later. A third LP, Impossible Weight, carried them into the 2020s.

Based in Seattle, Dobson is backed by husband and drummer Peter Mansen, bassist Garrett Gue, and guitarist/keyboardist Elliot Jackson. In addition to stints with Beck, Spoon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and the Shins, Dobson was briefly signed with Atlantic Records in 2004 as a solo artist. After recording a pair of albums for the label, she went independent and switched focus to Deep Sea Diver, releasing debut EP New Caves in 2009. The group's first full-length, History Speaks, appeared in 2012. After a second EP (Always Waiting) in 2014, they released their breakthrough LP Secrets on their own label, High Beam Records. Secrets was recorded with Luke Vander Pol and Darrell Thorp (Radiohead, Beck), and included the track "Creatures of Comfort" featuring Shins frontman James Mercer on backing vocals.

In the years that followed, Dobson and the band took their time crafting a follow-up. During that period, the adopted Dobson met her birth mother, an experience that contributed to the songwriting process for the outfit's third full-length, Impossible Weight. Released in late 2020 on ATO Records, the melodic guitars-and-synths set featured the singles "Lights Out" and "Wishing," as well as the title-track collaboration with Sharon Van Etten. ~ Neil Z. Yeung, Rovi