Last week, on June 6th, Asian Tones sat down with Mikayla Geier ahead of her own sold-out UK debut show at Camden Assembly, fresh off supporting MARINA (FKA Marina & The Diamonds) on her UK tour. Starting as a commercial artist merely 2 years ago and with less than 15 live shows as a music artist under her belt, Mikayla's rapid rise puts her on course to be one of pop's future superstars. Away from the confetti and lights, Mikayla is still very much your girl next door - super sweet, humble and someone who's confident in herself and artistry. We chatted about touring, creating music and community.

Like many as soon as I heard 'piano in the sky' I was hooked by its wit and bouncy melody, and I had to find out who the artist was. Since then, I've been pretty obsessed with Mikayla's music. Watching the many videos that crossed my timeline from the MARINA shows and the rave reviews, I knew the audience was in for a treat. As expected, Mikayla bought the drama, the fun, the excitement to the packed out room. The audience more than eager to be involved, singing and dancing away together. Mikayla's ability to create a reciprocal synergy with her own smaller room, but also the 10k audience of Alexandra Palace is a testament to star power she wields. 

Interview & photos by A. Hazarika


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Hey Mikayla, thank you for sitting with me, excited to chat. I’m going to dive straight in.

You’ve just been on tour with British icon MARINA and in a few hours, you are going to play your own sold-out UK debut headline, what’s running through your head?
Oh my gosh! I’m so excited. The MARINA audience was so incredible. But also it’s a different vibe performing to people who bought tickets to see you, I think it’s going to be really fun.

I’ve been reading online comments from the MARINA shows; people are raving that you’re ‘the best opener’ they’ve ever seen. What I think is also incredible is that these shows are still within your first 10 or so performances. Given the scale of these shows did you feel any pressure?
Stop, I'm blushing! I think my first MARINA show was my 6th show ever. The pressure was all leading up to it. I was also dealing with some health issues, releasing a single, doing the visuals for that, also did a Spotify single; all while building the show choreographically, musically and the transitions. I spent so much time rehearsing. I felt a lot of pressure of getting it [the show] together, but by the night of the first show I was like, "I’m so ready! This is my time to have fun."

The ‘having fun’ definitely shone through in all the videos I’ve seen. 
Thank you!

During your week with MARINA, is there anything she taught you – whether directly or through observation, that you’d like to incorporate how you operate as an artist or even just from a live show perspective?
She wrote me a beautiful card and said “Enjoy the highs but also take the lows as an affirmation of how much you love the music and doing the thing!”

I thought that was so beautiful, so profound and such a wise piece of advice. Because for anyone, it doesn’t matter who you are as an artist, you are always going to be riding that wave. I just thought it was really good advice.

That’s really sweet. Did you have a standout song that you loved performing?
The cover was really fun, I did ‘Can’t Get You Out of My Head’ [by Kylie], which is my Spotify single that just came out. It was great because we got to spend a lot of time completely reproducing it. It was so cool to see everyone singing along!

And ‘HOTLINE’, my other new single because the choreography is all new for me.

And in general, has performing any of these songs live changed your relationship with them?
What a great question. I would say…yes. It’s helped me reimagine if I were to reproduce any in a different version. Like if I was making a jazz version of ‘Dirty Shirley’, I feel very inspired to do something like that in terms of its live arrangement. 

Also, it’s made me really fall in love with certain songs. It’s made me realise that my instincts of what I’m writing and really feeling like something is hitting, is right. Because songs that don’t stream as well as other ones, they rip live! I had that feeling when I was making it!


Your music can be described as this absolutely wonderful blend of humour, candour, classical discipline and full of theatrics. I’ve read that you treat each song as its own world, what does your creative process look like – does the song come first, or is everything thought about in tandem?
It always starts with the song for me. I like to feel really free in the studio and not have too many expectations. And then from there, once I write the song, maybe I’ll come up with an idea that would make so much sense for this type of short film, or this type of visual or I’d want to perform it live like this. All the ideas kind of spawn from the song itself.

Do have any particular tools or processes that you’d say are vital to your creativity?
Honestly, for me being relaxed and at the same time excited is the most important. I think if you’re with people that you are comfortable with it makes the process more enjoyable. It allows you to really go there.

When I wrote my song ‘Diva’, I hated it, I was like “I’d never say that”. But because I was with someone, I was comfortable with and we were kind of writing it as a joke, I was fine to have fun. Now I love it and I love embodying it!

As a commercial artist you started in 2024, which makes you still very new. Would you say that this has changed the direction of your writing, or is your style something you’d say you found before you took that leap?
I think my writing will always evolve with me. I wouldn’t say anything in particular catalysed it. I think for me, I’ve always felt as writer, I’m like an onion – Really peeling back the layers of who I am. 

The longer I’m in it I feel like the more honest my work becomes to all parts of my personality. I’m very serious at times, but I’m also so unserious! [laughing]. I’m trying to find that balance for myself. 

Definitely. You touch on some deeper topics, but you use humour a lot as well, so it makes them feel quite light. The instrumentation also lifts the track.

I recently re-watched your ‘lore’ video, which is fantastic itself. Alongside your background in ballet, it shows how creativity and performing have always been an inherent part of you. In terms of music, I know you started songwritting as another outlet, but can you pinpoint the moment of “Oh this is what I could be doing”?
I had this epiphany where I realised that as a ballet dancer, you’re the canvas and somebody else in the paintbrush – whether it’s the choreographer, the person telling you: “I want you to do it in this style”.

But as music artist, I get to be the paintbrush and really decide what kind of picture I want to make. When I fully produced my first song, I was like “Oh, this is it!”.

I love that analogy! So, versus starting your music journey to now, is there any particular lesson you take forward in what you do?
I would say trust your instincts. I think it’s really easy, especially the further along you get in the industry, to hear a lot of noise. Trust your instincts, know who you are and follow that wholeheartedly.

Chucking it back to pre-music, from your ballet background, is there anything from that time you still utilize?
I think it’s an extension of disciple…I’ve really learnt that no matter how tired, how hard everything feels, how much I’m doing, how little sleep I’ve had – Ballet just taught me how to override that and just keep going. Stay positive and learn how to get through those tough times.

You also had a stint studying business, anything from there that has become useful?
[laughs] I’m super involved, I’ve always been really curious about business in general. Whether it’s a contract or learning how splits work, coming from a business background I had the interest to learn “how does the music business work”. Because, as an artist you need to protect yourself and you need to understand what’s going on. Even though it’s not always the most fun, it’s invaluable. Especially in this day and age…things are getting better for artists, part of that is empowering yourself to be like “I can understand, I don’t need to listen to what other people are saying before making my own decision.”

Great to hear. Seems like you have everything on lock. 


Moving on to your latest single, ‘HOTLINE’, tell us a little about it.
Well, ‘HOTLINE’, was this crazy moment in my life where I for so long and nothing was really clicking and I feel like that day something just happened and my brain went *makes ringing sound*. I was so inspired by the instrumental CJ made, everything felt like it was coming together for me. 

It was inspired by this idea of: “Won’t you ring my hotline”, which was fun, like “call me!” [hand gestures phone to ear]. But I kind of reimagined it as “won’t you ring my hotline” to another girl who you have a crush on, who is maybe in a not-so-great marriage with a man. So it’s like “Damsel in distress, I’ll save you!”, it’s that kind of vibe as well.

It was so fun to write. It’s a super unserious in the way that I wrote it. Underneath if you’re really actually understanding what it’s about, it’s like “oh”, but topically it’s very [does a little dance]. You could listen to it and not really get what it’s about!

That single comes off your latest EP, ‘HOT POT!’, which the name itself was inspired by your Chinese heritage. Can you give us some insight into how your heritage weaves into your art?
I mean it does in every way. The way I way brought up with so much of my Chinese culture as well as my German culture, because my Oma emigrated from Germany, I think it’s just been so instrumental to who I am. You can see that in my costume, I wanted to honour a more traditional Chinese silhouette and have the colour red as well.

With the art I really wanted to hire an Asian artist to make it, especially because the project is called ‘HOT POT!’. To me that really just represented unity. I always felt like in my childhood, what brought people together was food. My Asian family would have huge banquet dinners, you know how it goes…it’s crazy! 

My inspiration for making ‘HOT POT!’ was – I want to make songs that bring people together in a live context. I was always thinking about that from the get, what would be fun to play live? I really wanted to bring that togetherness.


On the note of food, if your music was food – what are we eating?
Probably ice cream. I eat so much ice cream. I feel like it's sweet and it changes form, it could be frozen, it could be melted – you never know what you’re going to get. And there can be many flavours!

Within the Asian community, is there anyone in particular that you would love to work with or shout out?
I have to think about this…Honestly, if I’m going to shout anyone out it’s my Mom. Because being raised by such a beautiful, strong individual, I think that’s just made this whole process so much easier and having that family.

There’s so many, I can’t pick one Asian artist, I admire so many.

Particularly your side of the world [Canada & USA] you girlies are taking it by storm right now!
It’s really awesome to see. I was just part of the Spotify accelerator program, it was so lovely to meet and connect with so many other AAPI artists. Because when you have that community, it makes everything feel so much easier and better. It’s a hard job!

It’s so cool. On to the last few questions to wrap up.

You have unlimited budget…
Oh gosh, I really like where this is going [puts hair behind ear with cheeky smile]

What would be your vision for your ideal show?
Oh gurl, don’t even get me started! Probably like coming from a spaceship. There would be dancers. There would be lights. There would be drama. My ideal show, I don’t know…everyone gets free merch!

I’m all about “how do I make the most memorable, exciting, value adding experience” for fans. It would be crazy, it would be huge! Confetti, disco ball, everything!

Where would this show be taking place?
Honestly, I would love to perform in a huge opera type theatre. Just because of coming from my ballet background, I would love to reclaim that experience for myself.

Looking ahead, I hear you have an album in the works. Are there any sneak peaks about we can expect that you can share?
Just expect maturity and growth. I don’t think I’m going to be taking any crazy departures from what I’ve found sonically. I think I understand what my sound is now, I’m just trying to level up and continue to mature and grow.

What are we manifesting for the rest of this year?
Ooooh…I would love to get a great US opening slot for a bigger artist on tour. I think that would be really awesome. I just had so much fun on the MARINA run that I want to do this again.

People, hit Mikayla up!
Yeah, hit me up! [laughs]

Thank you so so much for your time. Looking forward to the show later! And hope you enjoy the rest of your time in London.





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You can listen to Mikalya Geier's latest EP, 'HOT POT!', where ever you get your music.

Mikayla Geier is a Chinese-German singer-songwriter from Vancouver whose Baroque Pop sound fuses classical training with modern pop grandeur. A former elite ballerina who walked away to find her own voice, she’s since amassed over 11.5 million streams on standout single “piano in the sky” and built a cinematic visual world through self-directed short films. Her EP 'HOT POT!' delivers pure dance-floor energy and pop confidence.