Deep Sea Diver, 'NWO' Video Premiere: Jessica Dobson Gets Dystopian

Earlier this year, Deep Sea Diver -- the songwriting alias of the Shins' touring guitarist Jessica Dobson turned full-fledged band -- released their debut LP, History Speaks. While Dobson may have cultivated her guitar jamming with other bands (Beck and Yeah Yeah Yeahs included), it's her work with drummer -- and now-husband -- Peter Mansen and bassist John Raines that's most noteworthy. The album is a dynamic nine tracks of dirty bass and robust percussion bouncing off Dobson's pop and rock guitar work, and boundless voice.

"Most of History Speaks," Dobson tells Spinner, "is the retelling of some of the darkest moments in my life while refusing to cower behind the event." On the track "NWO" -- short for New World Order and about "two kids in love, who are at peace with the dystopian world around them" -- Dobson is actually pulling from her momentary obsession with conspiracy-theory documentaries.

"My imagination had carved out a place in the apocalyptic since I was a child," she admits, "so the idea of total chaos and and the complete inability to control your surroundings was fascinating to me."

Only one camera and a single LED light were used for the track's video shoot. "All of the basement scenes were shot at my house and we drove a few miles away to Golden Gardens [Park, near Seattle] to film the backroad forest scenes," remembers Dobson. The album's producer Matt Wignall also served as the video's daredevil director. "He climbed onto the hood with the camera and braved the windy roads. By the time we got to the last scene, it was really late and we had to climb pretty deep into the woods to remain undetected."

The simple black-and-white strobe emanates that eerie, flickering-lights doom, as Dobson sings like she is delivering her final prophecy: "As we walk in the valley of the shadow death, I feel the fear in your hollow spine is at rest."

"I was raised in the church and that was one of the earliest psalms that I memorized," says Dobson of the line from the Bible also excerpted in Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise." "It is the response to that line though -- 'I feel the fear in your hollow spine is at rest' -- that encompasses the intent of the album. If people want to think that I'm referencing "Gangsta's Paradise" as well, I welcome that. I was in 4th grade when that song came out and I remember legitimately thinking 'finally, someone gets me.'"