Charlie Hickey has announced that he will release his debut EP titled Count The Stairs on February 26. Along with the EP announcement, Hickey has released a music video for his single “Ten Feet Tall,” which features Phoebe Bridgers on backup vocals and had been directed by Zoe Donahoe and Adam Sputh.

“‘Ten Feet Tall’ is sort of a different animal than any other song I’ve written,” Hickey said in a press statement. “I was going to school at the time and was feeling quite alienated in this little world where everybody was instantly partying with the brand new best friends and fun came so naturally. I found solace in Marshall’s studio on the weekends. This was our first proper attempt at writing together and we were writing something really horrible. We were both kind of delirious and Marshall started singing the verse melody for the song as a joke, making fun of what we had been trying to write. But when I heard it, I said to him, ‘Wait, that’s the song we’ve been trying to write.’ After that, we wrote the rest of that night and recorded it the next day. We re-recorded it a few times before going back to what we did that day. I’ve never written or recorded a song like that since, and we weren’t sure it was even gonna come out but when I hear it back, it really serves as a time capsule of a very confusing/depressing but also very fruitful and fun time in my life!”

The music video features Hickey hanging out with a group of friends, skateboarding and riding along on scooters while sitting on curbs and in the grass, simply chatting and enjoying each other’s company. “Ten Feet Tall” highlights the picturesque teen experience.

The song incorporates quiet guitars and simple tones, Hickey singing about childhood happiness and freedom, with no needs to worry about rents or more difficult aspects of adult life. Instead, the lyrics highlight classic teen experiences, wanting to hang out with friends and dreaming of “real life.” Phoebe Bridger’s vocals peek through the track, the instrumentals building up during the chorus before falling back into the sweet and nostalgic tone of the song.

Hickey and Bridgers had become friends when he was around the age of 13, and she was still in high school. The two became collaborators, and Bridgers eventually introduced Hickey to producer Marshall Gore, who wound up producing, mixing and engineering Hickey’s Count The Stairs.

Count The Stairs tracklist:

1. “No Good At Lying”
2. “Count The Stairs”
3. “Two Haunted Houses”
4. “Seeing Things”
5. “Ten Feet Tall”
6. “Notre Dame”