Chengdu Electronica Musician Shii Melds Pop Sensibilities With Futuristic Sheen

Sichuan-born, Wuhan-based singer-songwriter Shii AKA Shiyi Xiang, may be young at heart, having just graduated from Wuhan University last year, but musically she's years wiser than most on her debut Floating Signifiers – a nifty piece of electro-pop that establishes the artist as someone both to be reckoned with in both pop and indie circles.

Taking cues from such trailblazing artists like Robyn and Flume, the artist has conjured up a slick synth-pop world laced with IDM, glitch, darkwave, and dream pop elements, twisting ear-pleasing melodies in on themselves with surgical precision and a smooth sensuality. Better yet, there's a warmth and sensitivity beneath the dynamic and intricately layered production, radiating from the singer’s voice and lyrics, letting the listener into – as the Bandcamp write-up for her album states – a "collection of dreams, fantasies, and fears," sharing, "a slice of a young woman's world."

A hell of a calling card for the budding singer, Shii will kick off her nationwide tour this Saturday, Aug 24 at DDC. We shot the artist some questions about and her upbringing, humanity’s eroding sensibilities, and how her love affair with electronica began. 

You have a keen sense of melody that sounds like it must have been instilled at an early age – what’s your background in music? 
I’ve been interested in music since I was in kindergarten. My mom took me to KTV and found I really enjoyed singing but couldn't sing in tune which was a disaster for her, so I began to learn piano and melody from that period onwards. When I got to junior high I began to play acoustic guitar and became fascinated with British and American indie and progressive rock music, which was a turning point for my sense of melody.

What brought you to Wuhan? How did you evolve musically while there? How does the music scene compare to Chengdu?
I came to Wuhan for university. It was a completely new environment and life when I got here and I wrote most of my music in the first two years of my college life. I didn’t communicate with other musicians at that time so my main resource to evolve was the internet; listening and watching live videos on YouTube.

Chengdu has always been fantastic since as long as I can remember, full of new musicians with fresh concepts, while in Wuhan it’s hard to find a similar circle of people or that type of atmosphere. I think now I’m currently the only female solo electric music producer performing in Wuhan's underground scene but in Chengdu there are many female producers.

We see more and more established bands and artists throwing their hand into electronica – was electronic music something you always felt connected to or was it something you had to weave and develop into your style? 
In fact, I didn’t listen to electronic club music when I started composing except for some ambient or rock bands who used electronic music to enhance their sound. Now I know a lot more about electronic music and have found that my music has some similar elements, such as rhythms and synths, but I feel the most important aspect, which helps me compose, is the emotion that electronica can create as well as the diverse range of effects and layers whether it’s ambient or dance music.

Are you a full-time musician now? If so, what are some of the difficulties you face? What percentage of your time goes toward the business side of music versus the creative side?
Yes, since it’s difficult to make money from music in the underground scene, the biggest pressure for me comes from the fact that there's no "progression" to be made even with ample amounts of free time. I don’t have too much of a sense of the business side at this stage because I still consider the release and tour as part of the completion of the work I started during my college years. But in the future, if I’m still doing music full-time, I’ll have to take into consideration the amount of money and time I have – the creative side is always where the musician stems from.

There are a lot of elements flowing through your music – snippets of IDM, glitch, and even a bit of darkwave – how did you gather all these influences? Do you have any favorites artists working in these fields?
In fact, I wasn’t clear of the genres and elements finding their way into my music when I’m composing – my first instinct is still rhythm and melodies. But for glitch, I like Holly Herndon; for IDM, I suppose I was influenced by Rhian Sheehan, Boards of Canada, Thom Yorke, Aphex Twin, and Chinese acts like Broken Thoughts and iimmune.

One of the things I love about your debut is you manage to avoid the 'cold' feeling a lot of electronic music can fall into. Was that intentional? 
That’s probably because I’m not a true electronic musician [laughs]. I was heading in an emotional direction which I didn’t like anymore, both from the perspective of being a female and with regards to the musical texture. When I found my album was in the HK iTunes ranking, I was so surprised because I think internationally there’s already music out there like mine, so maybe it’s the 'warm' emotional core that touches people across different regions and cultures.

I’m fascinated by the lyrics and the idea that ‘the sentimental piece of our heart’ can never conquer. Could you give us an idea of the story behind "Bubble" and the themes surrounding it? 
In fact, the vocal melody and lyrics of "Bubble" preceded the music put to it. I had a clear idea about the theme of this song in the beginning, now apparent in both the song and the music video, surrounding the idea of restoring our sensibility. The MV's storyline revolves around the idea that only the most developed robots survive after the demise of human civilization. A malfunctioning AI begins to imitate and fantasize about being a human being and in the end, is found out by its kind and killed.

On a deeper level, the storyline is more or less a reflection of the "technological irony" that if we do not consider the consequences of artificial intelligence will replace human beings, humans will eventually become extinct.

For the tour, you’ve teamed up with dancer Nee to create a ‘stimulated stage play’ – could you elaborate on what that will entail and how the relationship between you two formed?
We want to combine dance, music, and performance throughout the show. So my music is separated into three parts, each one distinct in relation to Nee from the next. For example, in part two, we will be enemies – with Nee in a more of a monitoring role, where I'm being controlled. I'm really looking forward to it!

Catch Shii perform this Saturday, Aug 24 at DDC alongside Nocturnes. Tickets are RMB 80 advance or RMB 100 on the door.

READ: Frequent Collaborative: A New Safe Haven for Underground Music in Beijing

Photos courtesy of Shii