The Story and Meaning Behind Deep Sea Diver’s New Single “Billboard Heart”

In 2020, Seattle-based indie rockers Deep Sea Diver emerged with their first national hit, “Impossible Weight.” After a four-year wait since the release of Impossible Weight and its title track, fans of the Jessica Dobson-fronted band will have a new album to explore (due out in early 2025), and their first taste of it is the lead single “Billboard Heart.” The song, which was released Thursday (September 19), features the atmospheric guitars, swirling synths, pulsating rhythms, and plaintive vocals that have been the hallmarks of Deep Sea Diver’s sound through their first three albums. “Billboard Heart” also has lyrics that are somehow both mystical and grounded.

On the day of the song’s release, Dobson spoke with American Songwriter on a video call to talk about the origins of and meaning behind “Billboard Heart.” She explains where she got the idea for the song’s title and overarching theme and how the song came together. Dobson also discusses the official video for “Billboard Heart,” and how its canine star got to be a part of it.

What is a “Billboard Heart”?

By Dobson’s own account, “Billboard Heart” is a song about “embracing every particle of yourself, even the ones that are hard to look at.” However, it may not be obvious how the abstract opening lines fit that theme.

My baby’s got a billboard heart
It says please don’t revive
I would paint all over it
But I’m afraid of heights

Dobson explains those lines came to her just after she had watched the 1984 Wim Wenders film Paris, Texas and was about to go to bed. She was thinking about one of her favorite lines from the movie—“I’m not afraid of heights, I’m just afraid of falling”—and how they are spoken by a character who is standing on a billboard. Dobson says that scene resonates with her: “That fear of falling—just the fear in general—is a big theme in my life, of overcoming things.” To Dobson, “Billboard Heart” symbolizes the stories we tell ourselves about how we are going to fall, “whether they’re true or not.”

But who is “my baby,” and why does its “billboard heart” say “please don’t revive”? Dobson reveals the song reflects her own struggles, and also the struggles of others she knows, so she decided not to write that line in the first person. When she came up with the lyrics, Dobson says she was enduring a difficult stretch in her life where she felt like she couldn’t “revive this thing, whether it’s my songwriting, my own heart, my own relationships.”

Surrendering the Writing Process

Given that an important theme of “Billboard Heart” is the value of surrendering to the present, it’s fitting Dobson did not force completion of the song after she had written the first verse. For a long time, Dobson says she could not find the right musical accompaniment for the lyrics she had written, so she put the song aside. Just before recording the new Deep Sea Diver album, the band was rehearsing in preparation for a pair of “secret shows” in Seattle in the summer of 2023. Dobson and drummer Peter Mansen (who is also Dobson’s partner) were working alone in the rehearsal space, and Mansen left after the two had gotten frustrated over something they were unable to work out. Dobson got inspired to work on “Billboard Heart,” and she spent the next two hours “in a trance-like state” composing the rest of the song. She says, “It’s [one of] those rare moments where a song has you, and it’s the other way around where you’re not trying to wrangle something.”

All that was left was the song’s outro. That took shape as an extended, unrehearsed instrumental jam that was recorded in one take, aside from some guitar overdubs. Dobson sees it as the perfect conclusion to “Billboard Heart.” “That’s part of what the song is about, being present,” she says. “And we were very present with being free and collaborating and improvising. And I love that it’s forever on the outro of that song.” One of the overdubbed parts on the outro was performed by Greg Leisz, who has played on countless records by artists such as Joni Mitchell, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, The Bangles, Beck, and St. Vincent. Dobson says Leisz is her favorite pedal steel player, and it was “an easy reach-out,” since she and Leisz have several mutual friends and colleagues, including Dobson’s co-producer Andy D. Park.

David Lynch-Inspired Lyrics and Visuals

Dobson says “Billboard Heart” is about also reconciling darkness and light, adding, “There’s a little bit of [David] Lynch in this song. … I think of Blue Velvet or Mulholland Drive, of this spirit world where there’s a dreaminess to a lot of what Lynch does that has these kind of darker undertones.” She sees that loosening one’s emotional grip is key to reconciling these apparent opposites. Dobson explains, “It’s not ignoring the darkness, but it’s also saying … I don’t actually have ultimate control, and I would rather surrender to what is to come.”

Lynch’s influence extends to the official video for “Billboard Heart,” and the inclusion of Dobson and Mansen’s beagle Henry in the clip. Henry has previously made appearances in the band’s videos for “Impossible Weight” and “Shattering the Hourglass,” as well as the video for their pandemic-era NPR Tiny Desk Concert. In the middle of the “Billboard Heart” video, Mansen—hidden behind a beagle mask—hands Dobson a bouquet of flowers while walking Henry on a desolate road. Dobson thinks the visual of Henry being walked by a man in a beagle mask was a Lynchian touch, adding it was “just strange enough to make people feel uncomfortable, but not too uncomfortable.”

An Exploration of Emotional Depths

“Billboard Heart” is yet another song that demonstrates that, as a band name, Deep Sea Diver is truth in advertising. The song’s spacious soundscape transports its listeners to another world, while the lyrics ask us to explore the depths of our own inner emotions. While “Impossible Weight” introduced many listeners outside of the Pacific Northwest to the beauty of Deep Sea Diver’s music, “Billboard Heart” shows Dobson and her band are far from done with accompanying us on our own inner adventures.

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