Half introspective overthinker, half girlypop chaos, PIAO’s music doesn’t follow a fixed structure, and that’s how she likes it. From delicate piano progressions to glitchy experimental beats, the Chinese Canadian artist, a classically trained multi-instrumentalist and Berklee graduate, builds songs that reflect her state of mind: often overthinking, sometimes unsorted, but always intentional.
After her debut festival set at Head In The Clouds in Los Angeles, where she introduced audiences to her genre-shifting sound and vulnerable, diary-esque writing style, PIAO sat down with EnVi to talk about her songwriting, identity, and why hamsters deserve more.
Sound First, Structure Later
When PIAO writes music, she doesn’t start with a clear-cut structure or a planned genre. She starts with a feeling. “I’m just really indecisive as a person, and chaotic and delusional in my brain that I just can’t decide,” she said, laughing. “My indecisiveness brings me to the clashing of all these genres. And yeah, I guess it works.” Her music spans soft ballads to experimental production, never settling in one place for too long. That open-endedness is intentional and part of what allows her to be fully honest in her sound.
She credits much of that freedom to her formal background in music. A graduate of Berklee College of Music, PIAO is deeply analytical by nature, but that doesn’t mean her process is overly technical. “I tend to overthink and overanalyze all the little details and melodies,” she explained. “But my musical background has definitely given me a wider range or vocabulary…more toys to play with.”
Girlhood Unfiltered
That same honesty guided the making of “Just A Girl,” her newest single with longtime friend Stephanie Poetri. Though it’s their first official track together, it wasn’t created for attention or strategy. It happened the way most of their creative ideas do, casually, while hanging out. “Steph is my pookie. She’s my bestie,” PIAO told EnVi. “It’s not just us coming together like, ‘Oh, let’s make a song.’ It’s a byproduct of us hanging out. This song is an amalgamation of what it’s like when we’re just being besties.”
“Just A Girl” carries a breezy tone and catchy hook, but underneath, it’s about something deeper: the freedom that comes from being soft, playful, and unserious with someone who gets you. It’s a song for friendship, femininity, and reclaiming the kind of girlhood that isn’t performative. Describing the track as “for the girls,” PIAO gave more insight into how it her collaborations with Stephanie come to be. “We’ll be talking about dumb things, or serious things, or crying, and then suddenly we’re writing lyrics.”
Between Cultures, Between Lines
Born in Shanghai and raised in Toronto, PIAO grew up in the space between two cultures and it’s shaped the way she thinks, creates, and processes emotion. “I experience a lot of the same cultural clashes that children of immigrant parents also experience,” she shared. But instead of centering her identity through loud declarations or cultural symbolism, she reflects it in the quiet moments. “Asian kids, we get love in the form of fruit and not ‘I love you,’” she said. “Not verbal.”
That dynamic shows up in songs like “Love Is In The Fruit” and “Anticipatory Grief,” which unpack emotional distance without dramatization. Her storytelling leans toward subtlety, focusing on the unspoken and the unsaid. She doesn’t feel the need to make every song a statement piece. She continued, “…I think a lot of us can relate to that. So it does influence my music a lot.”
Hamsters and Other Heartfelt Visions
PIAO’s worldbuilding isn’t limited to sound; visually, she’s just as hands-on. Ask her what inspired the cinematic visuals for her imysm EP, and she’ll tell you: hamsters. In the video she turns a simple concept, a misunderstood hamster named Boo Boo, into a heartfelt metaphor. “I’ve owned hamsters, and I just feel like people don’t get them,” she said, laughing. “They’re soft and quiet and often overlooked. But they’re so emotional, too.” The video, soft and cinematic, strikes a balance between humor and heartbreak, two things PIAO regularly threads through her work.
She credits much of the visual storytelling to Chris [Rey Basalo], her longtime collaborator and director. “I always wanted to build a world around the EP,” she said. “I brought the music to Chris, and he opened up this world for me.” Together, they’ve created videos that feel like short films and are rich in detail and always personal.
In addition to writing for herself, PIAO has also lent her pen to other artists. She co-wrote “Like You” and the recently released “Keep A Secret” for rising Thai girl group 4EVE, who also performed at HITC. “I got to spend a week with them in Thailand two months ago, where I got to write a lot of their new music. So I’m really excited to see the music being performed. I love them. And I love girl groups. I love girls. I’m just a girl.”
What Comes Next
Taking the stage at Head In The Clouds felt like a full-circle moment for PIAO. “I’m so grateful that 88ring exists, and Head in the Clouds exists. I’m very proud of the Asian American community, and I’m really proud of all the artists performing. I think it’s amazing, and I’m super grateful.”
As a teenager, she used to scroll through 88 content online. “I remember just being kind of shocked that a community like this exists,” she said. “[So] being able to even attend this event, not just perform, is already so incredible.”
Now, with a festival debut under her belt and new music out, she’s looking forward to resting. “This is kind of like the grand finale for me in terms of live music,” she said. “I’m finally going to be able to be a homebody again.” That means books, coffee, long walks with her dog, and a lot of time to write. “I already have books lined up,” she said with a smile. “I’m gonna be home, hang out with my dog, and then have all this time to brew and write new music.”
When asked what helps her reset, she smiled: “A chocolate croissant and a walk to a café with my dog: unbeatable.”
Want more rising artists, check out our artist spotlight with Dubai native Dana Naidu here!
