Producer and DJ CHYL dropped her new EP, Mini Motors in late July on the Dim Man label and it’s filled with a bouncy blend of bass house samples and energetic synths. The five-track EP includes special features from Fahjah, R7CKY and Melissa Brooks. The latter is featured on the track “Barbie” which follows the theme of female empowerment, which just so happened to coincide with the same messaging as this year’s blockbuster movie. CHYL stated, “we wanted to make a fun, empowering anthem for the girls. “Barbie” is a song about girls who are independent and make their own rules. The Barbie Doll is an iconic symbol of a girl who goes on adventures and wears many shoes, both literally and figuratively, and the spirit of that should be celebrated. We wanted to provide a happy-go-lucky vibe in the track, while at the same time enforcing a clear message of how a Barbie is not all about being glamorous, but also having high self-esteem and being independent.” The Los Angeles-based producer has been honing her skills for quite some time, originally starting out in bass house and migrated to the emerging sub-genre of speed house. After earning a finance degree from Columbia University, CHYL made the decision to leave investment banking and attend ICON Collective to pursue her passion for dance music production. Since then, she has gained a devoted following and community due to her energetic music. CHYL gained quite a following from her rapidly growing TikToks, which boasts over 18 million views, 120,000 followers, 5.3 million likes, and 416,000 profile visits. Her song “Boom Boom” has gone viral in China, generating over 400,000 user-generated videos on TikTok and 800,000 videos on Douyin.
CHYL spoke with B-Sides about performing at HARD Summer for the first time, how she got into speed house, her new EP and more.
