California Bay Area songwriter mxmtoon started out as a vlogger, uploading videos on various topics, with many focusing on her playing cover songs or her own compositions on ukulele. As her number of followers grew into the hundreds of thousands, she began releasing her own tracks officially, defining her jazz-infected style with the humorous, self-reflective songs on her 2018 EP plum blossom. Her debut album, 2019's the masquerade, reached the Top 20 of the Billboard Heatseekers chart, paving the way for collaborations with artists ranging from Noah Kahan to G Flip. She was still incorporating ukulele into some of the fleshy pop and indie electronica of her second full-length, 2022's rising.