When Alice Longyu Gao first started putting out her hyperactive, abrasive club-pop songs in 2019, the hyperpop genre was still in its infancy. Nothing more than a broad umbrella term used to loosely group similar-sounding, computerized pop songs, she and her collaborators — 100 gecs’ Dylan Brady, producer Oli Sykes, and more — eventually canonized it into a legitimate musical movement with its own quirks and rapidly growing audience. Fast forward five years, and she is now releasing a new mini album that decidedly doesn’t sound anything like hyperpop. Read our interview with the Los Angeles-via-China singer about her mini album, Assembling Symbols Into My Own Poetry, out Oct. 23, fighting the algorithm, and more. 📸 Euree Hong #AliceLongyuGao