The 30-year-old singer, songwriter and producer has accumulated a cult following over the past decade among indie music fans, and enjoys frequent comparisons to musicians such as the late Elliott Smith, who wrote the Academy Award-nominated song “Miss Misery” made famous by Good Will Hunting back in 1997.

Staying true to the hectic, on-the-road lifestyle of the touring artist, Giannascoli is only in town for mere hours before he has to head off to Thailand, where he’s performing at another festival a day later. After that, he’ll be on yet another flight, this time to Perth, where he’ll kick off his sold-out Australian tour.

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Giannascoli launched his career in the early 2010s as a DIY bedroom artist, uploading his work on platforms like MySpace and Bandcamp. In 2014, tastemakers at The Fader magazine called him “the internet’s secret best songwriter”.

He signed with indie label Domino, and released his fourth album on the label, God Save the Animals, last year to largely critical acclaim, even making the holy grail of Pitchfork’s Best New Music hot list.

The “Mary” singer has collaborated with multiple musical talents including Frank Ocean and Japanese Breakfast, and appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last year, where he performed “Runner” from God Save the Animals.

His magpie-like, internet-era musical ethos is hard to classify – The New York Times once described Giannascoli’s music as “warped, scratchy transmissions from a sonic collective unconscious”. When asked to describe his own music, however, Giannascoli resorts to plainer terms: “fun rock music” and “guitar-driven stuff”.

The singer is an immensely prolific musician, having released nine albums and two EPs in the span of 12 years. His lyricism is known for its ambiguous and often quirky quality, sometimes written from the perspective of a fictional character. The song “Sandy”, for instance, is written from the perspective of a 14-year-old girl lamenting the trials of adolescence; for a while, the artist went by (Sandy) Alex G before dropping the moniker from his name in 2020.

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Giannascoli prefers not to explain the meaning behind his songs, fuelling intense discussion on online platforms such as Reddit. When asked if his songs, often moody and introspective, are a reflection of his life and mental state, Giannascoli gives his usual cryptic answer: “I think they are a reflection, but they’re not a confessional thing.”

His vagueness appears more related to his mode of self-expression and his music rather than intentional covertness. “I’m not confident expressing myself just talking like this. And I’m talking about music, which is, I think, a really abstract form of expression,” he says. “I’m using words more like an instrument. Sometimes they relate [to myself], but sometimes they’re just [used] for their percussive quality.”

Crucially, unlike many contemporary musicians who have been pressured by labels to use TikTok more often or actively cultivate a persona, Giannascoli has chosen to stay off social media. “I just don’t feel that I have anything to offer in any realm other than the music,” he adds.

At an age when online engagement plays a huge role in audience growth, Giannascoli has attracted a surprisingly large fan base of over 7 million monthly Spotify listeners, a sign of the huge numbers of followers the relatively left-field artist has garnered over the years.

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The singer says he also dabbles in writing fiction every now and then but has no plans to put it out unless he’s sure it’s good – an assessment that is entirely dependent upon his “gut feeling”.

“That’s my compass for everything, and so that’s why it’s kind of tough to talk about my decisions with music,” he explains.

Having been in the industry for over a decade now, Giannascoli still sometimes struggles with finding creative inspiration. “I think when I was younger, every idea that entered my head felt really valuable and worth recording and worth putting out into the world. And now I think those ideas are fewer and farther between,” he says.

Unsurprisingly, fans can look forward to more output by the musician soon. “I have no timeline for it, but I’m always working on new music,” he says. In the meantime, there is a back catalogue of nine albums dating back to 2010 to slowly go through and enjoy before his set in Hong Kong. So get scrolling.