You probably don’t know Phoebe Ryan yet—but you will, soon. Her debut EP, Mine, combines the emotional drama of Lorde, the plaintiveness of Lights, and the of-the-moment digital production of Tove Lo (with whom she’s shared the stage). The end result is emotionally compelling and endlessly replayable.

Mine has landed Ryan high-profile tours and some big-name shoutouts, and with a debut full-length on the way it won’t be long before she’s a household name. So if you want to get in on the ground flood, here are 10 things you should know.

She Almost Chose Acting Over Music

“Shakespeare was what I wanted to do with my life,” Ryan says. “Just be a Shakespearian dramatic actress. I had a bunch of auditions lined up. I wanted to go to Juilliard and be the best actress of all time.” Her ambitions shifted when she toured New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music on a whim. “I had the feeling in my heart that that was where I needed to be.”

She Didn’t Always Make Pop Music...

“My first band was a Grateful Dead cover band,” Ryan says with a chuckle. “My friends were like ‘we’re starting a band, do you want to play keyboards?’ I showed up to practice with a keyboard and they were shredding, and I was like ‘I can’t play, I have to sing!’ I thought I’d be able to keep up by just going ‘doot-doot-doo,’ but they were really good.”

...But She’s Always Been a Pop Fan at Heart

“I grew up listening to so much pop music secretly. When I was around my friends, I would listen to blink-182 and Slayer and all these really heavy bands, but I would secretly go home and listen to the radio and listen to Britney Spears like ‘oh my god, this is the best shit ever!’ There’s something so romantic and interesting to me about pop music. One day, I just owned it. I don’t care, a great song is a great song! I don’t need to be cool.”

She Considers Herself A Songwriter First

“I went to school with an open mind, trying to learn the basics of engineering and production and business, trying to see where I fit into the mold of everything. And it turns out, people were calling me to write songs for them, for school projects and stuff. They weren’t calling me to come produce, they were calling me to write the songs.”

No, She’s Really A Songwriter

Before launching her singing career, Ryan was penning songs for acts like Brooklyn stomp-and-clappers Oh Honey and pop singer Bea Miller. “Performance was always in the back of my mind, but songwriting has always been my love,” Ryan says. “I love the greats, the Carole Kings and Dolly Partons. Bob Dylan. I love all of those amazing people. But also, Eminem is one of the most amazing wordsmiths of all time. I have tremendous respect for pop artists who write their own music.”

She’s Putting Her All into Her Solo Material

When Ryan writes for others, she likes to get creative: “I try and get into their mindset and play their character,” she says. But Ryan takes a different approach with her own music. “It’s all me, fortunately and unfortunately. You get to hear about all my bad sides as well as my good sides. I just try to be honest and share that with people.” It’s that openness that makes Mine such a compelling, evocative listen. “I’m trying to be as open of a person as I can be, because I think that draws people in, if you’re willing to share certain parts of yourself.”

She’s Picked Up Some Famous Fans Along The Way

Taylor Swift recently included Ryan’s “Mine” on a list of “New Songs That Will Make Your Life More Awesome (I Promise!)” that she posted to Twitter, resulting in a deluge of well-deserved attention. Ryan hasn’t met Swift in person yet but is clearly tickled by the prospect of becoming part of Taylor’s #squad. “That would be great! Someday, someday.”

She Has New Music Coming... Sometime.

Ryan’s debut LP is in the works. “I think [the album is] going to be ready for springtime,” she says. But she’s cagey about when a new single will be released. “We want to make sure we’re putting everything out at the most perfect time, for the most perfect reasons. I guess perfect is a weird word—there’s never a perfect time or a perfect reason. But, the best we can make it.”

In The Meantime, There’s One Way to Hear a New Track

Ryan is showcasing a new song on her current tour with Smallpools and Machineheart. “It’s this song called ‘Be Real’ and it’s about miscommunication. It’s about a relationship with somebody, where you want to know if it’s love or it’s not love, what’s going on, ‘are we just friends?,’ kind of that thing. I think it will speak to a lot of people. Communicating is hard nowadays.”

She Doesn’t Lack Confidence

Ryan can’t say too much about the new album yet, but that isn’t stopping her from proclaiming that “it’s going to be the greatest record of all time. I mean, if you don’t think you’re putting out the greatest record of all time, what are you doing? That’s just how I feel. I know it sounds so cocky or whatever. But I believe in it so much, you know? It hurts, how much I want to believe in it!”