Before we get into anything else, there’s news. Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter and music producer Yichao Liu, who performs under the name YI, is releasing a new single called “Change,” a collaboration with American recording artist Ameera Perkins, who has toured as a backing vocalist for Lady Gaga and Carrie Underwood. YI produced the track and sings alongside her. The song also brought together Grammy-winning engineer Francis Buckley, Grammy-winning record producer Mark Prentice, elite drummer Dhruv Mittal, and award-winning mixing engineer Matty Harris.
We sat down with YI recently to talk about the song, and along the way, the conversation turned into something bigger: where he thinks pop music is headed, and why he believes “Change” is his answer to that question.
Born in Qinhuangdao, China, YI started on classical guitar at age seven. Within a year, he was performing locally, and by 2011 he’d won the KAWAI music contest in his hometown. He kept at it through his teens, eventually taking second prize in the Fingerstyle Group category at the 2019 Qingdao International Guitar Festival.
His path then took him to Thailand, where he studied jazz and classical guitar in college and joined the Thailand Philharmonic Orchestra as a choir member, performing under conductor Alfonso Scarano. He played jazz clubs around Bangkok, toured as guitarist for the bands Tea-quila and Haggai’s Boy, and in 2023 performed at the Thailand International Jazz Conference, one of Asia’s biggest jazz festivals.
That same year, he moved to Los Angeles to finish his degree at Musicians Institute, where he learned to arrange horns and strings and picked up serious production skills. His first real break as a producer came with “You Are Not the One,” recorded by American singer Leanna Baxter, which reached the semi-finals of the 2026 International Songwriting Competition.
More recently, YI stepped out from behind the boards to release music under his own name. His single “Set Me Free” hit number one on the Canadian iTunes pop chart and also charted in the UK. His follow-up, “In This Moment,” peaked at Canada’s iTunes pop chart number 3 as well. Besides his own release, his recent work also included “Heat Of The Moment” and “Feel Something” by American recording artist Ridge Dawson. Somewhere along the way, in between all of this, he started working on “Change”.
The Problem with Pop Right Now
YI has a theory about pop music, and he didn’t hold back when we asked about it. He pointed to how each decade seems to get tagged with its own sound: Y2K for the 2000s, new wave revival for the 2010s, and now, in the 2020s, what he calls the nostalgia era, where 80s synth sounds have made their way back into everything from Sabrina Carpenter to Bruno Mars to Djo.
“It’s not necessarily bad,” he told us, “but if we’re supposed to be moving forward, going backwards this hard doesn’t really take the sound anywhere new. A lot of what’s out right now could just be an 80s song. So why not just listen to the actual 80s song?”
He brought up the backlash artists like Dua Lipa and Ava Max have faced over interpolation and sampling controversies, not to criticize them personally, but as a symptom. “It shows that people are struggling to find something that hasn’t already happened,” he said.
His answer isn’t to reject the past. It’s to take it apart and rebuild something from the pieces. “You’re not copying one genre and hoping it sounds fresh. You’re breaking everything that’s ever happened in music into small blocks and picking the good ones. That’s where it gets interesting.”
Building ‘Change’
That idea is exactly what “Change” is built on. According to YI, the instrumentation leans into country textures, organs, piano, live drums, and a full string section, but then brings in saxophone with reverb and classic DX7 keys, the kind of tone you’d recognize from 80s radio. On the vocal side, he sings lead with a straightforward pop delivery, while Ameera’s vocals are double-stacked in a style that echoes early 2000s girl groups like Destiny’s Child.
“It’s not a tribute to any one era,” he explained. “It’s an experiment. That’s why it’s called ‘Change.’ Genres came from other genres. Jazz came out of classical music. R&B came out of jazz. Nobody called those copies, they were new things that people accepted. That’s what I’m trying to do here.”
He was just as deliberate about the lyrics. YI said he wanted to move away from what he sees as a trend of pop lyrics prioritizing catchy rhymes over actual meaning. “Change” is written for people trying to build a better life for themselves, encouraging them to hold onto hope and to find strength in numbers. “an individual power might seem weak,” he said. “but when we combine all the individual power together, we will be able to break through our dilemma and achieve our dreams, so never give up on what you believe, every hard-working person deserves a better life, and it will happen as long as you keep it up”.
What Ameera Says
Ameera Perkins, who worked with YI on production before this collaboration, said she’s glad to see him stepping into the spotlight as an artist in his own right.
“YI’s professionalism is at another level,” she told us. “He’s helped me with a lot of projects, and I was glad he was finally willing to get on stage himself. That’s part of why I invited him to sing with me. He did an amazing job, as always, with his songwriting and production.”
Grammy-winning producer Mark Prentice, who played bass on the track, echoed that sentiment about working with YI. “Yichao is a very deep musician,” he said. “It’s a genuine pleasure to work on his music.”
What’s Next
YI isn’t slowing down. Alongside longtime collaborator Francis Buckley, he’s already working on a new release that brings in Grammy-nominated songwriter and producer Leah Haywood and RIAA Gold-certified producer John Ho.
For now, though, “Change” is the focus, both as a song and as a statement. Whether or not it becomes the sound that defines the next decade of pop, YI seems less concerned with being first and more interested in being part of the conversation.
“I don’t need to be the one who starts the next trend,” he said. “I just want to help figure out where it’s going.”
