Kevin Bronson on April 15th, 2016

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The title of the lead-off song on Steady Holiday’s debut album makes for an apt description of where singer-songwriter Dre Babinski is right now: “Open Water.”

A longtime side player in numerous bands, Babinski is now steering her own ship, all 5-foot-2 of her. Her debut album of dreamy indie-pop, “Under the Influence,” will be released in June — but the next two weekends will be her coming-out party. Last month, Steady Holiday was invited to play Coachella, where her quintet will perform early-afternoon sets the next two Sundays.

“I’m not nervous, but I am anxious,” she says, explaining the difference: “Nervousness usually comes with negative energy and doubt.”

It’s not that Babinski hasn’t played festivals or big gigs before. Her apprenticeships have included her contributing violin (her first instrument), keys and backup vocals to Dusty Rhodes & the River Band, the Elected, Jarrod Gorbel’s solo project, the duo Miracle Days and most recently the indie-pop outfit Hunter Hunted.

“I have had a lot of experiences, but not with the emotional investment” of playing one’s own songs,” she says. “That makes me feel pretty primed to navigate these waters.”

||| Stream: “Open Water”

Her first big step was departing Hunter Hunted two autumns ago to pursue her own music.

“There’s a part of me that has always believed in myself, but it has been clouded by so much doubt and depression,” she says. “Once I started taking my health seriously, things fell into place. It was about living a conscious way and paying attention to myself, and how I feel about things, and paying attention to the relationships I have. It was about living with awareness.”

She started refining on her guitar skills — “the first three years I tried it I only knew about four chords,” she says — and working with a vocal coach.

“Playing a violin to me is just about that, playing,” she says. “I’m pretty rough around the edges in the way I operate; I’m not meticulous, and that’s an instrument where precision is everything. And … when you’re playing notes that have already been written, there’s not a high ceiling in the room for interpretation.”

That said, her first instrument did inform some of the writing on “Under the Influence.” “I guess my melodic sensibility is a lot like a violin, with notes that go all over the map,” she says. “I started singing in a similar style.”

||| Stream: “Your Version of Me”

Her voice is a delicate thing, handled with care on her album’s shimmering production, with work of Guy Seyffert, giving “Under the Influence” an intensely personal feel. “Working with him was incredible,” Babinski says. “He has such a command over his space, and his studio suits his own aesthetic perfectly. He knows how to achieve sounds very quickly; I would have ideas and we were able to capture them in the moment.”

Steady Holiday’s live band features three members of Air Life — Brijesh Pandya, Derek Howa and Dre’s brother Brad Babinski — and Alina Cutrono (aka Alina Bea, ex-Body Parts).

“We’re excited but not overwhelmed,” the frontwoman says. “I’ve done this before, especially in the noontime slot. It’s not that intimidating.”

||| Watch: Joey Amario’s video for “Open Water”