Innovative electronic music producer CHYL is operating at full speed

Washington Post

12-03-2025

CHYL, the pioneering producer behind a new electronic genre, is also a motorcycle enthusiast. As an early adopter of speed house — melodic bass with the metronome dialed all the way up — she's embraced Formula One-inspired outfits and branding that hint at the pace at which she works, dances and speaks: miles and miles per minute.
It's hard to imagine her with an office job.
But for two years, she served as a rank-and-file employee at a Wall Street investment firm, her cubicle in a skyscraper blinking with lights from three monitors and two cellphones, traders shouting overhead.
'Very quickly, I realized that [job] was brutal,' says CHYL (a.k.a. Rachel Shi) from her apartment in Los Angeles. The gig was supposed to be the summit of her 22-year journey: immigrating from China to Canada as a teen, moving to New York City for college, graduating from Columbia University with a degree in finance. But: 'I hated my life.'
So she sought an outlet for her pent-up dissatisfaction. As a university student, Shi spent weekends flaunting her fake ID at the city's underground clubs and raves. As a postgraduate, she found solace in the form of creation. She watched YouTube videos to learn how to produce her own electronic music. It came naturally.
'For someone who doesn't listen to EDM, it's a bit hard to decipher because it literally sounds like machines and robot noises,' she says. 'But in the chaos of it, it makes sense. Its rhythm and patterns and melodies all come back, combined together. It's so synthesized.'
After her 24-month bonus, a point when young employees commonly switch companies or recommit to climbing the corporate ladder, Shi quit her job at Morgan Stanley. For the next six months, she worked as close to full time as she could, DJing in bars and lounges — until she decided she needed to improve her craft.
Shi joined ICON Collective — an electronic music school in Burbank, California, that boasts scene-famous alumni like Jauz, Slander and Nghtmre — for a year-long program that prompted a move to Los Angeles and the development of her singular style. Her scholarship there coincided with the informal founding of speed house by artists like Haus of Panda. Shi felt acutely drawn to it — a groovy, bass- and design-heavy subgenre that pounds at caffeinated paces past 150 beats per minute? Give her a minute to grab her bike.
'It's such a new and niche genre,' she says. 'It's really hard to pinpoint, like, 'This is speed house, this is not speed house.' In my mind, it's like, 'Does it sound like bass house on steroids?''
Her artist name, CHYL, is both the second half of her English name (Rachel) and a declaration of exactly what she's not (chill). And while other speed house producers rely on rap samples and repeated phrases to build tension between drops, Shi prefers 'ethereal' female vocals, which she wrote and recorded for her 2024 EP 'Sport Mode.'
'Singing is the part of me that's feminine and soft,' she says. 'But I also like the drops that are hard-hitting and exciting. It's a cool contrast.'
This EP, her most recent collection, signaled a new era of her artistry — it was the soundtrack to new collaborations, festival performances and her first headlining shows. Released under Grammy-nominated DJ Steve Aoki's label Dim Mak, 'Sport Mode' signifies a spin onto riskier terrain.
'When you turn on the sport mode function of your motorcycle or car, your engine becomes smoother and better, and you use it to hit a higher level of performance,' she says. 'I really liked that idea. I was, at the same time, starting to do my own headline shows, which means I'm no longer relying on anyone else to sell tickets.'
On her current international tour — titled for and buoyed by a character/persona called 'Pretty Race Girl,' a car culture-esque spin-off of DJ S3RL's 2007 hit 'Pretty Rave Girl' — she's playing more concert venues than clubs, and a dedicated, growing fan base is all too happy to jump, scream and fist-pump along. So when she reaches the pinnacle of her set, the crowd joins in for a proclamation: 'I know what I want and what I need,' she declares, suddenly melodically, on 'Full Speed.' 'Can't tell me not to take the driver's seat.'
March 14 at 7:30 p.m. at the Atlantis, 2047 Ninth St. NW. theatlantis.com. $20.