NASHVILLE, TN – On December 6, a former contestant on The Voice and Nashville sensation, Jesslee released her new single, “Christmas With My Ghosts,” which is an enormous tug at all of our hearts this holiday season. If you’re new to Jesslee’s “rich, crystalline” vocals, you may recognize her from Season 14 of NBC’s The Voice (Team Blake), where the singer, songwriter, and national recording artist has continued creating waves, bending the traditional genre of pop and country.
This release follows the genre-bending artist’s summer release of “Do It Like,” which garnered over 69,000 streams on Spotify and inspired a social media driven campaign for fans to record a video of them doing something unique to them, and share it with the song playing in the background.
But this holiday season, we all share the same seasonal depression of not being able to really enjoy the holidays, thanks to COVID-19 still threatening our way of life. Unbeknownst to many outside of her family, Jesslee’s spark of ingenuity comes from her own past experiences with abuse from her father. This song reflects the somber feeling of confronting one’s demons, balancing out the delicacy and sentimentalism that comes with such a heartfelt message, according to a review by Digital Journal.
We reached back out to the Nashville sensation to get the behind-the-scenes scoop on how Jesslee’s past helped spark the power behind the new holiday single, Christmas With My Ghosts.
True Hollywood Talk: What do you want listeners to take away from this song?
Jesslee: When we wrote this song, it was so important for us to make sure our listeners understood they weren’t alone, dealing with their darkness and seasonal depression, even if it may look or feel that way during the holidays.
THT: What was the most challenging part about putting this song together, both on the technical side and emotionally?
JL: The most challenging part about writing this song was making sure listeners recognize that we were writing about an unpopular and sad topic during the holidays!
But, we knew the importance of making sure people know they aren’t alone with their struggles, during these tough times.
THT: Why do you feel this song is a perfect fit for the tumultuous year that 2020 has been?
JL: This year has been so hard on so many people and a lot of people go through their struggles feeling alone in the darkness.
I feel like this song discusses seasonal depression in a curious way while allowing people to be reminded, they aren’t the only ones struggling during “what should be happy times” of the year.
THT: Can you share 5 sentences about your past—about the abuse you have overcome?
JL: Christmas With My Ghosts was inspired by past abuse that I had been through from my father, and how behind closed doors, no one knew how hard the holiday season was for me.
My father was the perfect example of someone who had everything “together” in public, but behind closed doors was struggling and never expressed it. Instead, he took it out on his family. This made the holidays extremely hard for me growing up, but I always hid my true feelings to everyone outside my family. Until now.
THT: This new single is of an upcoming EP due for release next year. Spill the beans!
JL: This song was inspired writing and was not the initial plan we had going into the writing room. Everyone was so happy with the end result and our message, so I released this acoustic, love version for this year.
I felt the depression from COVID-19, along with the pressures of yearly seasonal depression, “Christmas With My Ghosts” needed to be released as soon as possible. Next year this single will be fully produced and released on a full Christmas EP with three originals and two covers on the album.
You can stream “Christmas With My Ghosts” now on Spotify.
You can follow Jesslee on Spotify, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. For press inquiries, please contact Jesslee’s manager, Steve Virginia at Black Label Nash by emailing steve@blacklabelnash.com.
