Skrillex: Happy Holidays! Pirate My Music, I’ll Still Love You

As negativity surrounding online piracy grows to epic proportions in the United States, Sonny John Moore is playing the intelligent game. Moore, better known to his fans as Skrillex, has a total of six 2011 Grammy nominations under his belt but he’s still not towing the corporate line on file-sharing. As he drops his brand new album, Skrillex tells fans that don’t have the money to go ahead and pirate it instead.

 

Today, on a Christmas morning with giving, kindness and sharing on our minds, we thank Sonny John Moore for his contribution to the holiday spirit.

These days Moore is better known as Skrillex, and since taking his current form in 2008 he’s been going from strength to strength. Last year he released his debut EP, My Name is Skrillex, as a free download and he hasn’t looked back.

He’s currently nominated for no less than six Grammys including Best New Artist, Best Dance Recording and Best Dance/Electronica Album. Everyone seems to love Skrill’ and today his fans will love him even more.

After delivering his much anticipated new album Bangarang this week, Skrillex reached out to fans both rich and poor, and trashed the mainstream recording industry mantra that “file-sharing is evil”.

“Happy holidays just like I promised,” said Skrillex on his Facebook page. “Just like I always say, go pirate it if you don’t have the money, I just want you to have it.”

“You can buy it here, either way i’ll love you,” he concludes.

Quite how long Skrillex will be able to deliver this crowd-pleasing attitude is unclear. He’s signed to Big Beat Records, an Atlantic Records subsidiary which in turn is owned by Warner Music. Hopefully, though, Skrillex will be left alone to do his thing, and here’s why he should be.

Modern electronic music, and by that I mean material from the last 25 years, has drawn its lifeblood from piracy. Sampling, cut-and-paste, mixtape and more recently file-sharing cultures have ensured that artists like Skrillex can hit the mainstream, gain a huge fanbase, get Grammy nominated and yet still give stuff away for free. And make money.

But perhaps more importantly in these turbulent times, this kind of approach gains the respect of fans, regardless of how deep their pockets are today. And tomorrow, one way or another, they will spend. If they actually enjoy doing that, the rest is easy.

Skrillex

Skrillex

www.bloodcompany.net/skrillexep/
myspace.com/skrillex

"I've been deep into electronic music my entire life. The first records I ever owned were ‘Fat of Land' by the Prodigy and ‘Come To Daddy' by Aphex Twin," raves Sonny Moore, better known as emerging electronic visionary SKRILLEX. "Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails were also early influences. I've been dabbling in making electronic tracks on programs like Fruity Loops since I was 14 years old."

For fans of Moore's past incarnation as the lead singer of hardcore band From First To Last, the bass bin crushing dance floor beats of SKRILLEX might come off as something of a shock. But SKRILLEX is part of a new generation of artists that refuse to be restricted by preconceived notions or outside expectations. "Genre has never been important to me," he insists. "I've never thought about music that way."

Describing his current sound as "a mix of dubstep, electro and glitch all thrown together," new SKRILLEX release "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES" reflects all of the above and beyond. The uplifting post-trance synth melodies of "ALL I ASK OF YOU" (featuring the soaring vocals of Penny) stands in stark contrast to the face-melting electro bass blasts of the massive electro-dubstep hybrid "ROCK N' ROLL (WILL TAKE YOU TO THE MOUNTAIN)."

"I've listened to so much music for so long, it's more about instinct than influence," Moore explains about his sonic inspirations. "Coming up, I was into a lot of artists on the Warp record label like Autechre, Squarepusher, and Aphex Twin, so SKRILLEX tracks are inclined to have more changes than most dance tracks normally have. I can draw influences from almost anything. I just like to mess around and create cool new sounds and noises. I just go where the music takes me."

After just one hugely successful independent release, "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES" is the first SKRILLEX release on Big Beat Records, in conjunction with fellow electronic revolutionary Deadmau5's freshly minted Mau5trap record label.

"For years, the artists needed the record labels. I don't feel that way at all," Moore stresses. "SKRILLEX has been 100% independent until now. I think it's so important to be self-sufficient as artist. Working with Atlantic / Big Beat, and cooperating with Mau5trap, allows us all to work as a team and expand on what's already been built."

Following its release on Beatport, the 9-song EP dominated the charts on the site, with the title track claiming the site's #1 slot (the first time a dubstep track has ever done so), 8 songs breaking into the top 10, and multiple tracks claiming the #1 slots on several of the site's subgenre charts, including Dubstep, Electro House, Progressive House.

Aside from the immediate success of "SCARY MONSTERS AND NICE SPRITES," SKRILLEX has also made a name for himself as a highly sought-after remixer. He's already produced officially commissioned remixes for such A-list artists as the Black Eyed Peas ("Rock That Body"), Lady Gaga ("Bad Romance" and "Alejandro"), and La Roux ("In For The Kill").

SKRILLEX stands not only at the vanguard of electronic dance music, but the perpetually evolving new music industry as a whole.

"For me, it's important to believe in and love the music you're making. I gave away my first EP on my manager's website, just so people could hear the music," he enthuses. "It was downloaded by the thousands in just a couple of months, and it hasn't let up since. That's all the inspiration I need to keep making music.

"SKRILLEX can be anything I want it to be," he continues hopefully. "There are so many different avenues for music now. Video games, movie scores - the possibilities are endless, and I'm excited to be a part of it."