This post was updated at June 1 at 7:40 p.m.

PIAO is inviting festivalgoers to join her in putting their heads in the clouds.

The Shanghai-born, Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter is taking the stage at the Head in the Clouds Music & Arts Festival for the first time in her career today. Less than two weeks prior to her Head in the Clouds debut, PIAO jointly released “just a girl” with Indonesian musician Stephanie Poetri – her first collaboration single.

Ahead of her festival performance, PIAO spoke with the Daily Bruin’s Jeannie Kim about her approach in music-making and how her hamsters have inspired her artistry.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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Daily Bruin: This is your first time performing at Head in the Clouds. What are you hoping to showcase with your sets and share with the audience as you make your Head in the Clouds debut?

PIAO: I’m really excited. I’m going to have a 30-minute set, so I’m going to be performing my most recent EP that I just released and I get to tell the story or context behind each song. I’m really excited to share that and also get to tease a little bit of new music. I’m just really happy to be able to be onstage with my band, who are my best friends, and then also being able to perform with my “pookie” Stephanie Poetri. So that’s what I’m excited for.

DB: You recently released a music video for your EP “imysm,” which includes advanced cinematography and computer graphics. What were you trying to portray with the music video, and what inspired you to include some of the elements in the video?

P: So the music video has a big hamster mech in it – hamster spaceship. If you know me, I have an obsession with anything rodent, hamster-related. I take a lot of inspiration from my hamsters I’ve had over the years, but pretty much, this whole “imysm” EP revolves around the two years of grief I was dealing with. And I think coming together with my director, Chris (ChrisRey Basalo), he just understands my vision so much that we were able to encapsulate this feeling that I have been brewing and dealing with for the past two to three years and wrap it into this visual world and portray something that’s superhuman, that we all go through in the context of a girl entering a spaceship that is her hamster and going through space.

DB: What are your biggest sources of inspiration when you’re writing your music? Are there any specific musicians who have influenced your take on songwriting?

P: Porter (Porter Robinson) is a big inspo. I’m really into video game sounds. I think I’m also just chronically online. I think just a lot of the internet inspires me, and a big thing that really helps me with my lyric writing is reading. I’m super into fiction and being delusional and dissociating. So any time, any chance that I get, I will dissociate and leave reality to brew ideas and then take them back to this world and write a song about it.

DB: Your music delves into various musical genres – with “flip phone” featuring a more dynamic, energetic beat, while “anticipatory grief” is more melodic and lyrical. What is your approach to music and is there a specific music style that you want to explore or try working with in the future?

P: I think I will always have a big sense of melody-driven, lyrical, very traditional pop sense in my writing. But I think I’m constantly trying to marry the two. I think singer-songwriter could also meet with maximalist production and even trap and hip-hop. I’m always trying to do the most and take two polar opposite genres and smash them together.

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DB: Your most recent track “just a girl” was your first release of a collaboration. What was it like to work with other artists and how was it different from working on solo projects?

P: Honestly, it’s so much easier. It’s so much more fun because Steph (Stephanie Poetri) is my girl. She’s my “pookie.” And when it comes to “just a girl,” it’s not that we decided to get together and make a song together. It was just a byproduct of us being really great friends and it’s the summary of whenever we hang out. Working with her is a dream, and it’s just another excuse, honestly, for us to hang out. I feel like Stephanie is just the dream collaborator and it’s not going to be the last time we make a song together, I’m sure.