How Maisy Owen’s Dark on a Sunny Day Uses Folk Fundamentals to Create a Completely Distinctive Album

By Kyla Lemieux

 

Ever since Nashville native Maisy Owen was 9 years old, she has shown a love for making music. Though the singer-songwriter has taken inspiration from many artists, the word “unique” is the perfect way to describe the sound of her debut album, Dark on a Sunny Day. Released on May 1st, 2026, the album flawlessly encapsulates the feeling of folk music, reminiscent of a simpler time while still staying very relevant. Through her personal-yet-relatable lyrics, Owen’s songs blend the tried-and-true art of storytelling with distinctive metaphors.

Her debut single and the first track on her album, “My Youth Is All For You” mixes her signature soft and emotional vocals with the finger-picking guitar that becomes a comforting theme throughout the album. When creating the album, Owen made sure to incorporate just the right amount of the darkness that is evident in the title. In her own words, the singer describes aspects of the album to be “ominous,” a part of her creative identity that is also expressed in the video that accompanies “My Youth Is All For You.” This dark mood goes hand-in-hand with her lyrics, including metaphorical masterpieces such as “I’m dancing to nothing but my heartbeat in my ears, we’re empty as each other, fulfilling all my fears,” from “On My Way Down.”

Despite growing up around music, Owen has only recently begun her recording journey, with the recording of Dark on a Sunny Day being her first time in a studio. She’s also quite new to the live concert scene, but has quickly become accustomed to performing in front of a live audience. Recently, I got the opportunity to interview Owen about her new album, as well as her experiences in the music industry so far.

 

Kyla: “How would you describe your debut album? Was there an overall mood that you wanted to achieve with it? And if so, how did you incorporate that mood into the music?”

Maisy: “I don’t think I set about writing it with a specific mood in mind or even a specific collection of songs. I had no idea what was gonna be on it, even halfway through recording it. I didn’t know what the last four songs were gonna be. In the end, I kind of wanted it to encapsulate the specific time period when most of the songs were written. I feel like it definitely is on the darker side, but I wouldn’t say that’s because I intended it to be. I think that’s what I’m more drawn to writing about. I feel like the tone of it, looking back on it, is really pure. It feels very honest.”

 

Kyla: “Your album is called Dark on a Sunny Day. What inspired that title?”

 Maisy: “That’s the title track, and that song came from a poem. A lot of my songs come from poems that I’ve written. I was kind of writing about how something can instantly just make you go dark. That’s where Dark on a Sunny Day comes from. Robin Eaton, who produced the album, was really gunning for “My Youth Is All For You” to be the title track.I liked that as well, but I felt like Dark on a Sunny Day summed up myself a bit better.”

 

Kyla: “How long have you been interested in being a musician? Was there a specific event or moment in your life that acted as an initial inspiration for pursuing this kind of career?” 

Maisy: “I’ve been playing music since I was around 9. I started playing the viola when I was 9, and I always loved composing music and writing short stories and poetry, but I didn’t really start blending the two until later. I started playing guitar when I was 13, and I tried to write a few songs, but I found them all to be a bit cringy and cheesy, and I didn’t understand how people did it. I didn’t write something that I kept till I was maybe about 15 or 16. And then I started realizing that I could blend the two. You can’t take one of my poems and transcribe it exactly onto the guitar into a song, but you can pull quite a few pieces from the poems, and they take on their own life once the music starts happening behind them.

I decided I wanted to start pursuing it when I was maybe 16 or 17. I had a recurring dream about playing this festival in the desert, wearing pajama pants. I really still want to do that. If I get a festival opportunity in the desert, I will be in my pajamas. I think that dream was just one of those things that I kept in the back of my head for a while. I was thinking, “I know I really want this, but I’m scared to tell people, I’m scared to take the first steps toward it.” But I met my boyfriend, Jordan Day, and he had heard one of my songs. He said that we should play a show together, and when I told him that I’d never actually played a show before, he was like, “Well, that’s crazy.” And then he set up a bill for us. I was very scared. I don’t actually really remember anything from being on stage because I just blinked and the set was over. But it was so exhilarating afterwards because I got really good feedback. It was great just knowing that I could do it, and that all of those people actually came out, ’cause they cared. After that, I thought, “Okay, so I have to do this at least once a week for forever.””

 

Kyla: “How long did it take you to write your album? Did you create it over one set period of time, or did you write and record whenever ideas came to you?”

Maisy: “It was tough getting into the studio because at the time we were recording, I still had four bar jobs. There were a few songs that I knew that we had to record, like “My Youth Is All For You” and “Letters”, ’cause those are some of my favorites. I actually recorded those in GarageBand on my dad’s computer, around six months prior, when I was wanting to make an album, but I didn’t really have the means to. And so once I got in an actual studio, I knew we had to do those songs. A lot of the other songs were ones that I was writing at that time, and stuff that I played at the first show was a lot of the material that we pulled from.”

 

Kyla: “Are there any artists that you’re specifically inspired by? And if so, were any aspects of your music directly influenced by those artists?”

Maisy: “There’s so many people that inspire me. I would say, when we recorded “God Fear,” I wanted to have more instrumentation on that track, I wanted it to be kind of, sparse and ominous. I was listening to Jason Molina’s Songs: Ohia Project, and I was listening to “The Big Game Is Every Night.” The sparseness and the darkness of that song, I played it for my producer, and I said, “Can we find a way to evoke a similar feeling to this?” And I mean, obviously I listen to a lot of finger picking guitar, like Nick Drake and Burt Jansch. I’ll listen to them, and it’ll make me want to get better at playing guitar.”

 

Kyla: “When you were working on your album, were there any challenges that came up that you hadn’t expected?”

Maisy: “I guess I didn’t think it would take as long as it did. I mean, we probably worked on it for a year. It’s hard to find time to get into the studio, and I’m kind of a perfectionist. I would retake a song 20 times, because I want to get one full take to build on. It also took me a while to warm up to being in a studio, because I’d never been in a studio before. It’s weird hearing yourself breathe on the headphones. Once I got used to it, I loved it, but it definitely took a while.”

 

Kyla: “Do you have any funny anecdotes you can tell about the writing and recording process?”

Maisy: “Well, “It All Ends the Same” is the last track on the record, and that one was never planned. I was at Vinyl Tap with one of my friends, and someone from the studio came up to us and invited us to a party. Once the party kind of started to clear out, I was talking to James Russell, who was the producer on that project. He asked me to plan something, so I played him “It All Ends the Same,” and the guitar was in D standard, which is a step lower than I normally would be singing it. He was like, “oh, I love that, let’s record it.” And I said, “we should tune the guitar up first.” And he said, “no, we gotta do it exactly like that.” So they mic’d me up super super fast, and we did it. It was the first take that we kept. I wasn’t planning on putting it on the album. I released it, like, an iPhone demo of it a while ago, and I actually really liked the demo. So now there’s gonna be 2 versions of it out there, but this new version is really cool.”

 

Kyla: “Do you have a favorite lyric on the album? If so, what makes it your favorite?”

Maisy: “I have a couple. I like the lyrics of “letters” quite a lot: “If I had a dollar, I would buy us some more time. If I had a soul to spare, I would surely give you mine. I crave a company so sweet, it makes my teeth ache. I crave a kind of love so dark, it makes my bones shake.” Something about those lines coupled with the guitar part that I’m playing under them actually does make my teeth ache. I get a really good feeling when I sing and play that part.”

 

Kyla: “After your album comes out, you’re going on a short tour. Do you plan to embark on any sort of world tour someday? And if so, are there any specific venues or cities that you’ve dreamt of playing?”

Maisy: “I would love to do a world tour. I keep coming back to just wanting to play a big stage in the desert. I’m very closely attached to my dreams and my dream world. That’s what I always come back to. But I think it’s more abstract. I feel like when you attach too much meaning to specific goals, they lose their importance once they actually happen. Like you’re checking something off a list. I more so have scenes I like to imagine, I guess. Like a dark stage with a singular spotlight in a room where you can hear a pin drop.”

 

Kyla: “When you aren’t working on music, what are you doing in your free time? Do you have any other hobbies that you love?”

Maisy: “I really like painting. I really like hiking and walking and being outside. I love writing, but I guess that kind of goes hand in hand with music at this point. I like sewing. I make dresses and t-shirts and stuff like that. Mostly just anything that uses that part of my brand, anything artistic.”

If you love soft, moving folk music, or you’re looking to expand your music taste, Maisy Owen is the artist for you. Her vocals, lyrics, and music are the perfect recipe for a great album, and listening to one of her songs is sure to evoke emotion. Dark on a Sunny Day is now available on vinyl and CD, as well as on all streaming platforms. You can also catch her on tour, playing cities in Oregon, Washington, California, New York, Tennessy, and even the U.K. Though Owen’s music mostly features folk influences, Dark on a Sunny Day is anything but a typical, genre-confined album, and I can assure you that there’s something for everyone contained in the songs, whether it be the thoughtful lyrics, angelic vocals, or finger-picking guitar. Listening to this album will take you on a journey of perfectly captured feelings, and I absolutely believe that it is worth the time of any listener.