SINGAPORE — Linying is a fascinating individual. Listen to her music and you will find an ethereal, minimalistic, almost exquisite sound, hyper-conscious of the way her own emotions relate to the world.

Meet her in person, and you will find an unassuming young woman, as unabashedly enthusiastic about music and art history as she is about Hokkien mee and her The Bachelorette addiction.

And it is perhaps the latter that has kept her feet firmly on the ground — specifically, the ground here in Singapore.

“They asked me before if I was open to moving to the US, but I’d miss all the food here,” said the 22-year-old, who recently signed with Universal Music Singapore and the Canada-based Nettwerk Music Group, which is known for introducing North America to Coldplay, Sarah McLachlan and Avril Lavigne. “Being away for three weeks — and it was only three weeks — I came back and gorged on everything! Hokkien mee is my favourite dish ever.”

“When I was a kid, even after I completed my A-Levels and before I applied to NUS, I was hell-bent on living in the US. But now, thinking about it, I don’t think I ever could. It’s also a matter of things changing a lot in the last five to 10 years, and the kind of place touring has in the economics of music. If so much could happen to me while I’m based in Singapore, I think as much can happen in the future,” she mused.

“I don’t think it’s necessary to move overseas. I just have to accept that travelling will be a big part of it, and I don’t mind it.”

Indeed, wherever she is based, Linying’s life will henceforth likely involve a lot of travel. The singer-songwriter, who launched her debut EP Paris 12 late last month, has played in Vienna, Berlin, Dresden and Seoul in the last few months, and will spend the next month travelling to London and Melbourne. Linying will also play at the Neon Lights Festival in Singapore on Nov 27.

Her hard work seems to be paying off, so much so that she has not had time to actually stop and think about what she has achieved so far — getting her single Sticky Leaves on Spotify’s US viral chart, playing at Japan’s prestigious Summer Sonic Festival and hearing her song played at Coachella.

“Up until a year ago, I was always the kind of person who wanted to stop and revel in every moment,” she said. “From the moment I realised I was going to die, and every moment is very precious and unique, I needed to always be like, this is a moment you should soak in, remember what’s happening right now and your consciousness of the moment.”

The History major, who has just graduated from the National University of Singapore, continued: “But in the last couple of months, I have lost that a little bit. It’s strange because this is such an amazing time of my life, and a lot of things are happening to me, but I have been so focused on moving on to the next thing and constantly thinking about the next thing. I think I had this moment where I was in Berlin and I was backstage and the show was going on. I looked at everything happening and I just thought this is something I get to experience that many people don’t, and this is a really unique experience, and maybe I should just let myself have this moment to consciously claim this moment as mine and enjoy it and know it’s something cool.”

For now, Linying is focused on soaking it all in, working hard on making her “little girl dreams” of playing at the BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge, the Glastonbury Festival and Coachella come true.

And perhaps one day, we will even see her participating in a Chinese reality singing competition — as her friend Nathan Hartono did, to great success.

“I joke with my manager about that a lot. My mum and dad are crazy fans of Sing! China, they watch it religiously, so it was very exciting for them to see Nathan. My own music is really, really precious to me, having been given so many opportunities to put all this music out is so valuable to me, and I wouldn’t throw it away,” she said.

“But I bet Nathan is having an amazing life right now, so that would be fun too. It’s something to tell your grandchildren.” HON JING YI