From the moment Linying saw her piano teacher's fingers glide across the ivory, she was hooked. And as she grew into her own sound and opened up in her lyrics, people started to take notice. Not only has she raked in millions of streams on Spotify, but she also took top spot on Hype Machine. And to top it all off, she became the first Singaporean artist to sign with Nettwerk Music Group. We had the chance to chat with Linying about her EP, Paris 12, and becoming Nettwerk Music Group's first Singaporean artist.

Hometown/homebase: Singapore

What are some of your first musical memories?

Watching my piano teacher stretch from a middle C to a high E with just one hand, fascinated and wishing for the day [that] I'd be able to do that, too.

Think back to the first song you wrote. What was it about?

It was awful. It was about the world being a terrible place, something like "It never changes, This life remains the same," and I was only about 9 or 10. It's mortifying to think about.

You've had an epic 2016. What was your biggest highlight?

There really were so many epic moments, so many firsts. But what always comes to mind when I try to replay the year back in my head is a little moment I had backstage while on tour in Berlin, just before going out onstage to thousands of people, thinking to myself that it was about time I started treasuring every second. I'd been uncharacteristically absorbed with powering through one thing after another that I hadn't taken the time to be present the way I always used to be with things and experiences much less over-the-top crazy as the ones I was having right then and there.

How does it feel being the first Singaporean artist to sign with Nettwerk?

I'm a fan of so many of the artists on their roster - it's wonderful, and maybe even affirmation that English music from Asia can, for lack of a better word, work.

You've been making music for a while. What are some of the things you've learned about the industry and being an artist up until this point?

I've learned a lot, some things consciously and others probably not. But a valuable one was that honesty and authenticity are essential to longevity.

Your music sounds so emotional. How do you go about your songwriting process?

It sounds lofty and silly, but songwriting for me can be a bit like a trance, only a very emotional one. It's often a way for me to understand myself, or an experience, to put something as vague and multi-faceted as a feeling in more digestible terms, I guess. Sometimes it takes a memory to trigger it, and sometimes it's just about concentrating to get the feeling out. But eventually, if I'm focused enough, the melodies and words kind of move and help one another along to bring out declarations and questions that I often don't realise I've had all along. And maybe how the songs turn out aren't even accurate representations about how I view a certain subject matter when I think about it rationally, so it's not so much of what really is, but what it feels like, I guess.

You've worked with DJs like Felix Jaehn, which sounds a bit different from your own music. What draws you to these collaborations?

When I write on my own, it's often cathartic and therefore very draining, because I always use an emotion as the vantage point. What I like about the collaborative work I've done is that it's a lot more technical; the songwriting is almost like doing math. It's a lot of fun, both writing and performing the songs live.

What's the most memorable song that you worked on for Paris 12 ?

"Grime" probably. I was, supposedly, by all counts, happy and in love with somebody. But moments after getting out of the car, I went up to my room and started writing the song, and it was just such a sad song that I cried while writing it. At the end of it, I couldn't even understand why. And I even showed it to them - the person I'd wrote it about, even if I'd refused to admit that I did - aloofly, sharing amusement and joy that I'd written something new, pretending even to myself that I didn't really feel the way the song described at all. I think that song taught me that there were things my feelings knew that my mind didn't, and writing songs could make me realise what they were.

What's next for you in 2017?

Hopefully an evolution.

Any New Year's resolutions?

No soda!!!

For more profiles on up-and-coming artists, visit our Artist of the Day page.