Leave it to Deep Sea Diver to make a Mariah Carey '90s pop hit KEXP-friendly. While the glitter-adorned R&B diva isn't an artist we usually champion here, she is an artist Deep Sea Diver frontwoman Jessica Dobson grew up with.
"I’ve loved Mariah Carey since I was a little kid. Her song 'Hero' was the very first piano ballad I ever learned to play and performed it very proudly at recitals. Then 'Fantasy' came on the scene and I was sold, totally mesmerized by Mariah. I remember running home from school every day just to make sure I got to see the music video on VH1. I had literally never heard a voice like Mariah’s. There’s so many pop stars that I turned a cold shoulder to, but I just couldn’t ignore Mariah. Nobody can touch that voice!"Check out their rendition below, with Dobson's impressive attempts at the Songbird Supreme's five-octave vocal range (damn, girl!) and some Tom Tom Club woven throughout (which, I just learned, is also a component of the 1995 original single. Good taste, Mariah!).
Why Mariah Carey's "Fantasy"? Dobson explains in the video below:
"I chose to cover Mariah Carey’s 'Fantasy' because I think it’s so interesting when bands cover songs that you definitely wouldn’t expect. Kind of like Johnny Cash’s 'Hurt', when he covered Nine Inch Nails, the Cardigans covering Black Sabbath, Nick Cave covering Leonard Cohen. For us, we’re predominately a rock band with some pop influences. It was really fun to get under the skin of that song and to try to rise to the occasion of hitting some of those notes. I definitely had to lower the song in general. She sings too high for me. It was really fun to be so involved in a song that I think is so wonderful."
Deep Sea Diver is one of the twelve fantastic local bands who will be playing KEXP's Bumbershoot Stage on Labor Day weekend. Check out the full line-up here, and the rest of their September tour dates below:
09/04 – Seattle, WA – Bumbershoot Festival09/06 – Eugene, OR – HiFi Music Hall09/07 – Bend, OR – Volcanic Theater09/08 – Redding, CA – The Dip09/09 – San Francisco, CA – The Fillmore*09/11 – Los Angeles, CA – Bootleg Theater09/12 – San Diego, CA – Soda Bar09/13 – Phoenix, AZ – Valley Bar09/15 – Denver, CO – Hi Dive09/16 – Provo, UT – Velour09/17 – Boise, ID – Neurolux
* = w/ Wilco
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