Hailing from Eugene, Oregon, khai, a non-binary, half-Vietnamese American, turned to the internet to blossom and truly be themself while growing up. Sites like Gaia Online, Neopets, and Runescape gave them the space to be anyone they wanted. Music always had a similar, escapist quality for khai, too: YouTube wormholes, digital audio software like Audacity, and learning the ukelele helped create another comforting sphere where they could dream. With these roots, the now 23-year-old artist started releasing music from their bedroom in 2017 with breakout singles ‘I Hold You Close To Me‘ and ‘Lost In You‘, followed by their collaborative EP with Atwood in 2018 Nice Colors. In 2019, khai released their EP Now and Then, which features the hit track ‘Sunkissed‘, which has garnered nearly 200 million streams on Spotify and has been used in over 140,000 videos on TikTok.