Robert Deeble

Robert Deeble’s seventh album, The Space Between Us, is a lush and emotionally resonant work that reveals a quiet, literary depth. Produced by Ric Hordinski at The Monastery Studio in Cincinnati, Ohio, The Space Between Us will be released to streaming platforms on February 6, 2026, through Deeble’s Mind Bomb Publishing imprint.

“The Space Between Us reflects on the relationships that become frayed in a partisan era and speaks to a deeper longing for connection,” Deeble explains. “The album is the result of a four-year partnership with producer Ric Hordinski in Cincinnati, OH. Together we utilized several different studios, with players around the country who contributed.” Most of its songs were written, arranged, recorded and produced between 2020 and 2024. Featured musicians on the album include bassist Viktor Krauss (Allison Krauss/Robert Plant), drummer Lacey Brown (Damien Jurado) and a host of other collaborators including Hordinski, who contributes string arrangements and guitar. 

The album’s title and theme emerged during the pandemic and throughout our deeply polarizing period of American politics. While the songs cover their own individual topics, Robert says that, “Collectively, they felt to me to be a lament for the dysfunction of our time, with also a hope that we may turn from an idolatry of power to discover a deeper strength in vulnerability.”

Several songs on the album draw upon literary themes.  A key track is “The Forest from The Tree,” which opens with humanistic tenderness. “I was inspired by the book The Hidden Life of Trees, by Peter Wholleben. I used the image of a forest as a metaphor for the relational strength of a community, contrasting it with the image of a tree as the facade of power within an individual. The hopefulness of the song highlights the strength of being vulnerable within a community, versus the isolation that comes from individualism.” “Pleasure to Burn” was inspired by Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451and speaks to the authoritarianism emerging in the U.S. and abroad. “Orphan Song” was shaped by the graphic novel The Carter Family: Don’t Forget This Song and recounts the struggling marital relationship of country music pioneers A.P. and Sara Carter.

The Space Between Us is being released in three phrases. First, supporters of a crowdfunding effort received a private stream of the album in March, followed by a physical copy or download in the Summer. “I wanted to initially introduce the album to the folks that have supported me all along,” Robert reflected. Next it emerged as an exclusive Bandcamp pre-release in August making vinyl, CD and downloads available to the public. “I wanted to give Bandcamp an exclusive because of the way they have honored independent artists like me,” Robert said. Bandcamp responded in kind with a coveted editorial review, placing the album on its essential release list. Finally, the album will release on all streaming platforms in February. For this phase, Robert created several exclusive Dolby Atmos tracks—immersive mixes that can only be experienced on streaming. This, says Robert, “was to give those who already had the pre-release a little something extra to look forward to.”

Born in 1966 in Long Beach, California, Robert cut his teeth as a songwriter in the gritty underground of the LBC, which introduced him to longtime collaborators like drummer Stephen Hodges (Mike Watt/Tom Waits) and folk heroine Victoria Williams, who helped launch his early records. His 1998 release, EarthSide Down, earned notice for its orchestral textures and spirit-infused lyrics—reminiscent of Leonard Cohen and Nick Drake. By his third album, Paste had described him as “truly an arresting talent, able to gain entry to places rarely imagined by most songwriters.” Following his This Bar Has No One Left EP in 2005, Deeble completed a Master’s degree in psychology—a journey that has deeply informed his songwriting and emotional perspective. His 2012 album Heart Like Feathers marked his musical return, with themes of depression and struggle but with “a redemptive hope that brought glimmers of light (Performer Magazine).” Robert emerged again in 2018, with one of his more personal works, Beloved. Born from his experience of fostering and then adopting a child with his wife, the album captures the agony and tenderness of temporarily caring for a child, the heartbreak of letting her go, and, finally, becoming her parent. Robert’s recordings over the years have featured such industry veterans as Rachel Blumberg (The Decemberists), Jen Wood (The Postal Service), Tomo Nakayama and others. He has shared bills with artists such as Low, IDA, Jason Molina, Sam Phillips, M. Ward, Over the Rhine, Mike Watt, Damien Jurado, David Bazan and Victoria Williams.

The Space Between Us shows Deeble to be a craftsman of understated, emotionally resonant songwriting. Or as Bandcamp put it, “Every new record from Seattle musician Robert Deeble is like stumbling across some secret grotto.”