Photo courtesy of Big Hassle Media

Despite a summery-sounding, reverb-drenched guitar and sunshine-inflected hook that finds the singer chiming the words, “I wish you well,” Jessie Baylin’s debut single, “Holiday,” is really a bummer of a song (the opening line is, “I came all the way from Nashville / just to have you break my heart”). The juxtaposition of the song’s sad lyrics with its upbeat sound is something that Baylin is proud of. “We wanted it to feel like sort of a bummer, but really hopeful in the chorus,” she tells Hive. “Whenever I’m bummed out, there’s nothing that makes me happier than escaping to somewhere warm and pretty, so we wanted a song that sounded like that.”

The other part of the “we” that Baylin refers to is Richard Swift, who collaborated with her on the song — via telephone, which was a first for Baylin. “It was weird, but it was really easy at the same time. We were just ready to write the song – it happened really quickly. Within 45 minutes we had the song down. He cut half the track in Oregon, and sent it to Nashville and I cut the vocals there.”

The two have continued the conversation and recently recorded Pleasure Center, a free EP you can grab here. Baylin’s new album, Little Spark, is out January 17 on Blonde Rat.