On Saturday, September 20th the Community Center for the Performing Arts proudly welcomes Deep Sea Diver to the WOW Hall.

In the middle of July 2023 in a Los Angeles studio, Deep Sea Diver mastermind Jessica Dobson took a guitar solo but somehow felt nothing. Just days earlier, her Seattle band played a series of semi-secret shows for devotees at a hometown bar, de facto rehearsals for cutting a new record. The sets had gone well, but, almost immediately, the sessions didn’t. The songs’ essence seemed muddled, Dobson’s conviction lost somewhere in the 1,000 miles between Southern California and the home studio she shares with partner, drummer, and frequent cowriter Peter Mansen. On that first night in Los Angeles, she broke down, wondering what she was doing there, what her band could do to fix it. For the first time ever, Deep Sea Diver retreated, heading home without an album. Did they need to scrap it all, to begin again with new material? Not at all.

“Emergency” links hardcore’s famous vim to electroclash’s instant allure, Dobson’s italicized voice racing like a gust of wind. Her brief guitar solo at the end is an all-timer, a few hiccupping notes suddenly moving like a sports car in terrifyingly tight corners. Tender and vulnerable, “Tiny Threads” is a sweeping anthem for anyone trying to hold anything together—life, love, themselves. “If it haunts me, let it haunt me,” Dobson sings softly over a stillness framed only by bass and noise. She lets her guitar careen into feedback, then steadily sculpts it into something tuneful. It’s a lifetime of anxiety and sublimation, crystallized into 10 seconds. Billboard Heart feels that way at large. For a minute there, Dobson let that mix of art and commerce we call the music industry cloud her judgment and interfere with her impulses, a common enough story for anyone whose decades of work suddenly yield success.

She found her way out of that wormhole by embracing newness, whether that meant practicing songwriting as if it were collegiate homework, believing in her skills recording at home, or playing bass herself because the band had blown so much money during those aborted Los Angeles sessions. (N.B. The big but elastic bass lines are a consistent highlight here, so: good choice.) Mostly, she let go of the fear that comes when we think about our jobs, no matter what they are, and remembered that making music is less work than a way of reckoning and playing with the world, of healing and finding other ways forward. Billboard Heart emerged when Dobson trusted her instincts, a personal breakthrough that prompted an artistic one. It is, in turn, the best Deep Sea Diver album yet, a defiant and brilliant exclamation mark at the end of a long period of wandering.

WWW.DEEPSEADIVER.COM

MORPHO

Morpho is the Chicago-based project of guitarist and songwriter Kristyn Chapman, whose debut EP Morpho Season arrived in late 2024 via Hit the North Records. The record quickly drew acclaim for its emotional depth and expressive guitar work, with The Alternative calling it “a warm and lively show for indie rock’s next best thing.”

Since the EP’s release, Morpho has grown into a dynamic live band featuring drummer Tony Mest and bassist Dove Hollis. The set is constantly evolving — raw, expansive, and full of tension in all the right places. Kristyn also tours as a multi-instrumentalist with Deep Sea Diver, and that on-the-road energy has made its way into Morpho’s sound: louder, freer, and made to be felt in the room.

Morpho is in flight this fall, with shows planned along the West Coast and Pacific Northwest.

www.yourfriendmorpho.com