Nineteen-year-old Grace Shaw couldn’t believe it: Playing her first non-industry show in L.A. in early April, she spotted superstar producer and collaborator Mark Ronson staring at her from the crowd. Shaw, the real name of Australian singer-songwriter Mallrat, made a bold assertion on Twitter the previous week: Ronson and canister head-wearing EDM DJ Marshmello were, in fact, the same person.

Shaw recounted this story two days later, before her first show in San Francisco—another of many firsts for Mallrat over the last three years since making waves as a suburban Brisbane singer-rapper who found the special in the mundane, not unlike Lorde.

As for that theory? Mallrat was just bored one day.

“It literally came from thin air,” she said.“I didn’t even tag [Ronson] or mention him. I think he just came across it and thought it was funny. And then he ended up coming to my show. … I saw him in the crowd. And then he messaged and said, ‘Great show.’”

Shaw can’t confirm for sure, but after Ronson left her show, Marshmello could have, possibly, shown up. “They weren’t there at the same time, but they were both definitely there,” she most definitely lied.

When Mallrat releases her sophomore EP, In The Sky, on June 1, it will be the latest in a string of successes for the singer-songwriter, who only graduated from high school a year ago. She started out by splitting her vocal efforts between singing on some songs and rapping on others, a la Lady Sovereign. Since then, she has retained hip-hop’s production elements but veered toward more traditional pop singing, with just the right amount of sugar on the delivery.

Her songs carry heavy bass and drum backbones with airy synth melodies that float in and out, dancing with her cloud-soft voice. Her first big break came with the breezy “For Real,” which Google quickly snapped up to promote its Pixel phone. Shaw soon signed with Nettwerk Music Group in the U.S.

Several other buzzy tunes, like “Uninvited,” “Suicide Blonde” (which sounds nothing like The INXS song but does reference Michael Hutchence) and “Tokyo Drift” kept interest in her music high. Her lyrics remain observational on newer cuts like “Better” and “UFO.”

“Everyone’s alive, so everything’s all right/ But maybe when the summer ends, I’ll drift away from all my friends,” she sings on the former.

The rest of 2018 should remain busy for Mallrat. She’s planning to move to Los Angeles to be closer to the people with whom she wants to work. She’ll also keep writing, and hopes to hit the road in the U.S. once again. Her family supports her move, she said.

“I kind of moved out of home when I was 18 anyway, so they know I’m pretty independent,” she said. “And they’re just really excited about everything. My dad is the most supportive dad ever. He’s such a cutie pie.”

Your name, Mallrat, comes from the song by the Orwells. They’re neither a traditional pop band, nor do they do hip-hop. How did they inspire you?

Mallrat: What I like about that song is that it feels really angsty and it feels like a ’90s teen movie, and I guess it isa ’90s teen movie, as well. But I really liked the energy of the song, and I was looking for a name. … There’s quite a few [Orwells] songs that I really like. I saw them when they came to Melbourne a few months ago. They were really sick.

Your first songs as Mallrat relied more on spoken word delivery. Why do you think you’ve steered closer to pop since then?

I guess it’s just a reflection of what I’ve been maybe listening to, or how I’ve found the tone of my voice that I love. So the first songs probably are the most “rappy” from me, but I feel like it’s not how I hear my voice at its best. That was just me kind of experimenting with songwriting and figuring out how to do it. I definitely am influenced by hip-hop a lot, but it’s more in production and post-production stuff with vocals more than actually rapping.

Which artists have you been listening to the past few months that are influencing you right now?

Been really loving Billie Eilish, and I’ve been listening to a lot of John Mayer, and I’ve been listening to fair bit of electronic stuff; lots of emotional electronic music and singer-songwriter stuff.

What have your impressions been of the places you have seen in the U.S. so far?

I guess it’s just very different to Australia. … Almost everything is different. For example, in Australia, if you go to a café and you say, “Thank you,” they go, “You’re welcome.” But here if you go to a café and you’re like, “Thank you,” they go, “Mm-hmm.”

You recently graduated from high school; your music has been at an upward trajectory for a few years. How do you split time between writing, recording and being a young person? What is life like at the moment?

Music is my full-time thing now, and I’m living in Melbourne at the moment. Every day I just kind of get up and figure out which one of my friends I want to work on music with that day. So, it’s very relaxed and fun. … I really am doing exactly what I want, which is really cool. Usually that’s the week, and then during the weekend, I’m touring.

You’re a huge fan of Lorde and have said about her that she writes eloquently about being a teen in the suburbs. That’s something that people have also said about your own songs. Why do you think that is?

I guess it’s a lot of my experience. I really think that everyday things are very beautiful, and stuff that can be boring is really beautiful. A lot of artists maybe don’t find interest in that, but that’s what’s interesting to me. I like being able to write about it.

Follow Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.