It’s Youth View Awards (YVAs) season, and the ‘Guam Island Girl’ Pia Mia has just checked into New Kingston landmark, the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, ahead of her hotly anticipated appearance at the annual awards vehicle’s international guest and nominee party, scheduled for later that night at CRU Bar & Kitchen at Courtyard 71. The pop princess, the latest international guest artiste for the YVAs, is dressed in her ‘athleisure’ finery — she namechecks Adidas — and though expectant of our exclusive sit-down, the YouTubesensation- cum-global-phenomenon is quite unware that she’s actually been introduced to her newest BFF. SO invites you to join, as silent partner, our li’l gabfest that should give you all the necessary insights on why we’re going Mamma Mia for Pia Mia! What communication ritual do you and Kylie have whenever either of you travel? I feel like with all my friends, it’s always get on WiFi ASAP. Of course, photos and selfies are a cool way to let your friends get a sense of what’s going on and like, see your environment and stuff. What about Snapchat? Yeah, you gotta Snapchat! That just makes things really easy too. As it’s just faster and you can do your filters and everything. When did you become conscious that you liked collecting bandanas, which have become your signature style accessory? I feel like I was a few months in, in the bandana obsession, probably like two years ago, when I realised it was an obsession. I don’t know what it was, but I would wear one around my wrist, around my neck; I’d wear one on my head. I guess it just made me feel comfortable in any style that I was wearing, because I like to wear very different styles of outfits, and the bandanas made every outfit feel like it was still me. Do you know how large your collection is? I probably have 100 or more. They are just so easy to collect; you can get them anywhere, and they have so many diferent colours. I think I might have every single colour of bandana. Is there a predominant colourway in your collection? I think I wear red the most as red is my favourite colour; so I wear that a lot. And then, probably black because they’re just the basics; they go with everything. What’s the perfect date night with you and Nic Nac? Since I’m obsessed with being on the beach, my perfect date night, in life, would probably just be, like, going there at midnight with hot chocolate, candles, and music, and just look up at the stars. I’m a romantic. Do you, right at this moment, have a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, on your person? (Gasp) Do you wanna know? Let me show you. I can’t go anywhere without Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. I have three bags in my backpack. I’m gonna show you. I ate a bag in the car. Sooo… Do you want one? I have multiple. Always (laughs). Let’s talk a little bit about YouTube. What made you want to put your personal brand out there like that? And what has that platform been like in transitioning to what you are today? Well, I started singing when I was eight years old back in Guam. I started singing in school plays, and from there I continued singing for Japanese weddings, and just around the island. My sister Candace was actually the one that would film my performances and put them on YouTube. At first she was just doing it to let my family in the States see what I was doing. So she started it, and when I realised that people liked my videos then I kind of took over the channel to directly communicate with my subscribers, and just made it more personal as I felt very appreciative that people were supporting me. For the treatments of your music videos, what is the aesthetic and vibe that fans are to get from them? I always like fans to have every piece of me in my music videos, so, for example, in the Do It Again video we had chamorro dancers come out and we featured them in the video. We also use a little bit of choreography, and I’m very hands-on with the fashion. I just want everything to be very true to who I am. Same thing with Touch, with the fashion, with the Hot Cheetos that are in the video, and the dancing. Everything is very me and very authentic. The reason I do music is to express myself. I don’t really feel like I’m very good at talking, so visuals and music I feel like I do better at that. At this point in your career, what’s your dream collaboration? I would love to do something with Drake. I would love to do something with Nicki Minaj. I don’t know, a Celine Dion coup would be insane, obviously! BeyoncÃ&Copy;. Jay-Z. Recently you got a rosegold bottom grill. What is that like? That’s actually in my bag too. I’m pretty good. I can eat with it in. You’re not supposed to, but I do. I literally forget that it’s even there. It’s like a retainer. What is your number one tip for those contemplating some grill coverage? I think, do it! There are no risks in getting it. They do a mould of your teeth, so it fits exactly. It’s not like messing up your teeth or anything. I would just say if you do get one, make sure you clean it. It’s, like, in your mouth all day. What’s great maintenance advice for girls with bleached-blonde hair? Don’t over-treat your hair. I feel like when you’re blonde, girls get worried because it gets damaged, obviously, since you’re bleaching your hair, but I think if you overdo it with products that are supposed to help it, you’re in the long run hurting yourself. Be chill with it. Don’t be too on top of your hair. Just let it kind of do its thing. So we heard a rumour that you have a driver’s licence but you don’t drive. Tell us what that’s about. Well, I actually started driving this year. I’ve had my driver’s licence for a long time but the reason I didn’t start driving was because the day before I went in to take my driver’s test my mom was driving on the freeway in Los Angeles and a taxi driver hit the back of her car. She went spinning, and slammed into the wall; they had to shut down the freeway and the car was totalled. It was a really bad accident and it just really scared me. I was like,”I’m gonna take a break from this for a while,” (laughs).

How do you prep for your formidable New Girl binge-watch marathons? I go through a whole full bag of Hot Cheetos and I like to bake cakes too. I make the cake, get everything ready and take everything to my room… then I start watching the episodes, and just go back and forth: Cheetos, cake, Cheetos, cake. (laughs) What’s your favourite type of cake? I like eating chocolate cake. I make them just out of the box; the Betty Crocker ones or whatever, with vanilla frosting. Just very simple. Are you still in love with the name Syrena? Yes! My sister and I are still fighting over this name all the time (laughs). Literally, I need to get her on video saying, like, “This is Pia’s name for her baby” because I know she’s gonna try to steal it from me, and I just really need this name. So I don’t know, we’ll have to see. I’m told you’re an avid candlemaker. Do you see yourself having a line eventually? I would love to! I started making candles just kind of randomly. I always had candles burning around the house, and they were so expensive to go get, so I figured why not just make them myself. I have like a ton of different candles, and I create a bunch of different scents. What’s your favourite scent? Well, I call it ‘Baby’. It’s rose with sandalwood, and French vanilla; and I make it babypink. It kind of smells like baby powder, honestly; that’s what a lot of people say. The scent just comforts me and makes me feel good. My friends also inspire my scents too, so I could probably make any scent. Do you gift your friends candles? Yes, for like, their birthdays and special occasions. For those interested in street-fighting, what’s the one type they should learn? I would suggest going to Kravmaga, as it’s really selfdefence street-fighting and that’s what I’ve been trained in. Anybody can do it, you don’t have to have any special technique before you go in. The style could be used any day on the street if you needed to; you don’t have to be in any particular kind of outfit, you know what I mean? How does this skill set empower you? As women it’s cool to know that we can protect ourselves if we had to, or we could help others learn how to protect themselves. I don’t know, it’s just kind of cool to kn0w you could kick someone’s butt. Leave us with a glam tip. Make sure you set your foundation and your concealer because if you don’t, then you’ll get really oily-looking. And also, you gotta manually curl your lashes, even if you’re going to wear the fake ones. If you don’t, then some will be straight and the rest will be curled, and it just looks weird.