HARD Summer was an incredible weekend with too many highlights to count! We were on site all weekend doing interviews, documenting the experience, and enjoying the show. Our correspondent for the weekend, Christian, was lucky enough to catch up with CHYL after her set! After one of our favorite moments of the weekend, here’s what she had to say:
Christian: So, you just finished your set. How are you feeling right now?
CHYL: I feel great! The adrenaline is still pumping through my body! I felt awesome. It was a great crowd turnout. I saw a lot of my fans, and I had so much fun on stage. I can’t believe we just did that!
Christian: That’s great! Your stage was the first one as people were coming through the entrance, so everyone showing up got to see you whether they wanted to or not!
CHYL: Oh yeah, at least hear a little bit of my music, even if they’re just passing through!
Christian: Did you have a favorite moment from the set?
CHYL: My favorite moment is probably when I mashed up this Mario song with “Whistle,” and then I played dubstep right afterward, and I don’t think people were expecting me to play any dubstep, but everyone was moshing to it. I usually play speedhouse which is more of a jumping upwards kind of dancing, but when I played dubstep, it was my first time seeing so many people moshing in my set, so that was pretty fun!
Christian: Yeah, I saw everybody when that Mario song came on. Everyone started coming to the stage, saying, “This is awesome!”
CHYL: Oh cool, I’m so glad you got to catch that moment!
Christian: So your Mini Motors EP is out now. Congrats on that! How does it feel to have a big body of work like that finished, released, and off your plate now?
CHYL: Oh my god, I’m so relieved, so relieved. I mean, I was changing one of the songs literally two weeks before the EP came out, so it was tough with so much stress and planning leading up to the EP release. I’m really glad it’s out. It’s a good representation of my style! There are four speedhouse tracks and one bass house track, and I think each one is very representative of my style. I’m very happy with how it’s performing and how people are loving it!
Christian: Do you have a favorite track from the EP?
CHYL: They’re all my babies. To be honest, it’s hard to choose! I love “Hooyah” personally. Maybe that’s my favorite track. But I do love “Eclipse” a lot, and also “Hachiroku,” it just seems like everyone is loving “Hooyah” too; it’s been going off live!
Christian: That’s definitely my favorite one too!
CHYL: Thank you, thank you! It’s definitely super catchy.
Christian: On the same topic, I’m hearing people all over still talking about your EP release party. I heard somebody buzzing about it at Exchange last night, saying how they thought it was the coolest thing ever! How did that all come about, and what was the planning like for that?
CHYL: Oh no way, that’s so cool! Yeah, it was a lot of planning, for sure. I had this idea of putting together a go-kart party and DJ set because Mini Motors is kind of like Hot Wheels, a toy car, fun-and-fast kind of theme. So a go-kart party just seemed like the perfect concept that ties everything together. I shared the idea with DIM MAK, but for a while, we couldn’t really do it because it costs so much money to rent out an entire go-kart track. But a few weeks later, DIM MAK worked their magic and found a sponsor called SIKI, so thank you to SIKI! They sponsored the whole party, and we went ahead and planned the whole day, rented out the go-kart track, and invited my fans and some industry people. It was such a great time! I think it might be one of the first go-kart DJ sets that anyone has ever done. I was DJing while people were driving around me. It was such a blast. I think it was just a perfect event, and it’s going to be in my core memory forever!
Christian: So, with that branding, what drove you to a cars-and-racing iconography? No pun intended.
CHYL: So, personally, I’m a huge Formula 1 fan. I want to learn more about the car culture. I don’t know too much about the mechanics of cars, but I’m slowly getting into it. I think cars are super cool, but I really like racing! I follow F1 religiously. I think it’s just such a cool sport. It’s like a frontier of science and art together, and such an adrenaline-pumping, energy-inducing kind of event. I got into it because of the Netflix show Drive to Survive, and I’ve been kind of following it ever since! My genre of music, speedhouse, ties really well into Formula 1. It’s the fast energy, it’s the speed, overtaking other cars; everything just works really well together in that universe. I hope one day I can get invited to DJ at a Grand Prix! I am going to the Vegas Grand Prix this year, so I’ll see what goes down!
Christian: Maybe you could do a pop-up set or something!
CHYL: Yeah, maybe! I’ll probably do something around that event, but I’m really looking forward to it.
Christian: And with your branding, I think it fits really well with Joyryde’s branding. Are you looking to get a collab with him? Is that on the horizon?
CHYL: Oh yeah, I would love to! We are friends; Johnny knows who I am at least! I’ve been in the studio with him before, not working on a song together or anything, but I’ve seen how he works in a studio, and it’s just the most amazing thing. The way he produces a song is very outside the box, which I really admire. He was showing how he was making his sub, and he just reversed the preset, and I thought, “What is even going on? This is so cool!” I think I could really learn a lot from him, even just watching him produce, not even a collab. But of course, a collab would be the dream one day, and Joyryde is definitely one of my heroes in dance music. Every time Joyryde performs in LA, I go!
Christian: I’m sure he would be so happy to hear that! So you’ve lived in China, Canada, New York, and LA; what’s something you love most about living here, and what’s something you miss about living abroad?
CHYL: Oh, good question! What I love about LA is the space and the trees, like the greenery. I really enjoy having a lot of space and being able to hike, being able to breathe fresh air, and the weather is pretty much always nice in LA so I really appreciate that. What I miss most about China is my family. They’re still in China. I want to visit them, and I try to at least once a year. I also miss the food a lot; I have a Chinese stomach because I grew up in China, so I really want to eat Chinese food like every day. Food is a big thing for me.
Christian: Can you give me a genre of music that you love but you’ll never play in one of your sets?
CHYL: Huh…maybe lo-fi? I’ll probably never play lo-fi, but everything else I would play, I think! Lo-fi is too slow for me. We have to go fast!
Christian: That’s fair! That’s great for the energy. So you’ve been rising through the ranks pretty fast. You had a fan-favorite set at EDC; everyone loved that, you just had a song added to Rocket League, and now you’ve played HARD Summer! How are you feeling about your career so far?
CHYL: I feel good right now. I’m very happy with how everything is going. I do think I’m going pretty damn quickly compared to a lot of other people, and I’m very fortunate for that! But I have been producing music for like five years now, so I do think it is about time to see those results that come from all the hard work! I’ve been going at it for a while now. A lot of people might think I came into the scene out of nowhere, but I’ve been making music for a long time! I really love how everything is coming together, especially with the branding. I’ve been receiving a lot of support from labels on the speedhouse genre, which I’m really thankful for. Of course, there are always ups and downs. Personally, there are still things that I need to improve on, and I’m still going through a lot of changes right now as a new artist. I’m working very hard at it behind the scenes, and I really appreciate all the industry support. I love all my friends too. Everyone is so supportive. Overall, it’s really great vibes, and I’m happy with where this project is going!
Christian: It’s great to hear that. I’m very happy for you! Is there anything you learned during your time in finance and on Wall Street that translates to DJing? Is there a skill you picked up?
CHYL: That’s a really good question. I think one is having thick skin. When it comes to saying hi to people and networking, having thick skin is kind of important! You can’t be too shy when you want to say hi to your favorite people. I also think having discipline is one as well. Being in finance taught me to work on a pretty strict schedule for myself, even if sometimes I don’t want to go to the computer and produce. Sometimes I just force myself to do that because it still is work, you know? For work, you sometimes have to do things you don’t want to do, so the discipline part was very helpful for me I think.
Christian: What’s next for you? Is there anything on the horizon?
CHYL: Let’s see. Oh, I’m going to start playing a lot of support shows for Dr. Fresch and Habstrakt all around the US, so I’m really looking forward to that! I’ll play my first show in Canada too next month! I’m very excited to start exploring different pockets in the US and Canada and keep expanding my sound and demographic there.
Christian: Well, congratulations on everything. You killed your set! Thanks so much for sitting down with me.
CHYL: Thanks, Christian!
