Why Skrillex is Electronic Artist of the Year
For those of us who have been around long enough to watch electronic music, and dubstep/bass genre’s specifically gain popularity over the past 10-15 years there were three major players in 2011/12, when this music was beginning to catch on with a wider mass of American youth. Deadmau5, Bassnectar and Skrillex. At the time, Joel (Deadmau5) was something like 30 years old, Lorin, (Bassnectar) 33ish, and Sonny Moore (Skrillex), was the young kid on the block making huge emo punk dubstep bangers, at the young age of 22/23. We all know what happened with Bassnectar and I have no desire to go into that, that’s not what this essay is about. Deadmau5 is still kicking strong and out there playing 10-12 years later but, neither of those artists have had the year that Skrillex has had here in 2023. This essay will be about why I believe ‘Quest For Fire’ should receive a Grammy nomination for Electronic Album of the Year, and in other words why Sonny is the Electronic Artist of the year.
First of all, the respect and recognition Sonny holds within the community is unmatched. From the time he was just a teenager in the hardcore band ‘From First to Last’, to moving into EDM and dubstep, making a wave, then seemingly taking a hiatus from electronic music, not playing shows nor releasing but quietly producing a Primus album, to his double release albums this year, not once has there ever been any bullshit against his name or him abusing his rockstar status. Furthermore, the amount of times I have heard different cuts from ‘Quest For Fire’ being played out all summer long from tons of different artists like Tokimonsta, Jon Casey, Saka, and a bunch more, illustrates the point I am trying to make. Skrillex has a massive respect from other artists as well as his fans and this is not only because of the quality of his music, the record or his musicianship but from the character and integrity with which he lives. As an avid lover and listener of electronic music, and a fellow producer myself, it is always clear to spot when an artist has stopped trying to evolve their art, and constantly grow and get better, but has more or less just moved into their rockstar life. As a true listener it can always be heard in the music. This has never happened with Sonny. His music has just continually gotten better and that is no where more illustrated than on ‘Quest For Fire’ .
‘Quest For Fire’ has really elevated what we call electronic music/ dubstep. It clearly has influences from London/ the UK’s dub/grime scene, but it still has that Pop Punk flare which is so iconic of Sonny’s musical history growing up in a punk/hardcore band. The song ‘Too Bizarre’ is a great demonstration of this where he seamlessly pulls together three (or more) genres. The vocals and writing have that emo and punk sound to them, the sound design is electronic and the drums are like breaks/dnb. I remember the first time listening to it I was like: “wow he’s really fusing three, unsuspected, styles right now.” Who would think to put emo punk, dub and breaks all together? Yet, when I first got the idea this morning to really sit down and write this, it was because I realized, that’s always what Skrillex has been doing. Since the beginning that’s why I personally loved the music back then, and still love all those old hits as well as all the new stuff. While some people have a problem with his older cuts and think it’s trash or weird frequencies or get conspiracies in their heads, he’s really just juxtaposing styles with his big, saw and square wave drops, then back into those melodic, heart felt vocals on something like ‘In For the Kill’ or ‘Cinema’. He has always been doing it and ‘Quest For Fire’ is still that same way, just 10 years later with more experience and expertise under his belt.
My favorite tracks from the album are ‘A Street I Know’, ‘Good Space’, ‘Xena’, and ‘Still Here (With the One’s that I Came With)’. I love all the more popular cuts too like ‘Supersonic’, ‘Rumble’, ‘Ratata’, and ‘Tears’, but, the songs that really go deepest in my soul for me are the one’s I mentioned, which I will explain. While I was attending the five hour Red Rocks set this past spring with some of my best friends from New Jersey who all live in Colorado now, I turned to my buddy Jordan, and said to him when ‘A Street I Know’ came on: “this is exactly what I want to do with music/ my music.” He perked up a bit and really started paying attention to the track and replied: “yeah, this does sound like you.” Back in 2012 we might have called a track like ‘A Street I Know’, “Future Bass” or something along those lines. Today it’s just good music, downtempo, something I have coined as “Textured Bass”. It just has those beautiful textures and timbres and feels really good. Those snare textures sit just right, rounded, in the frequency pocket. The bass is just a pure sine wave sub, no real driving mid bass lead, and the real melody of the tune is in the vocal chops. I also think the reason this tune hits me so deeply is because last summer, 2022, at Burning Man I was deeply moved by an anonymous Poem who’s second stanza goes:
Spin through the streets of a strange city,
The Lost Places,
Run on the Edge of Harm—
Where one wrong move could break your soul,
And reveal what it’s been hiding all along…
For some reason which I’m not even fully aware of, ‘A Street I Know’ reminds me of this street, and the tune feels that way to me. That street I know. The edge of harm, a lost place, where life is so delicately balanced, one wrong move and everything could fall apart.
Then there’s ‘Good Space’ another song that is almost leaning in the pop realm and is driven by quick, choppy vocals, but which stays true to form with its thick, synth bass lead on the drop. The song is what it sounds like, Good Space a feel good tune that always puts a smile on my face. It has a larger than life drop, and a snare which cuts through the frequency mix with perfect precision. While I attended the five hour Red Rocks set that Sonny played this past spring, he played ‘Good Space’ then ran it back, went into a five or six minute interlude dropping other tunes, and right as I had almost forgotten that he rewound ‘Good Space’ he let it run again. I’m not sure if this tune is as impactful for others as it is for me, I hope it is— but, for whatever reason, it felt like Sonny was almost doing that for me. Like he loves that tune as much as I do, and decided to play it twice, for himself, for me, and for anyone else who loves it as much as we do.
Then there’s ‘Xena’ another minimal style tune but which has a crazy djembe run of drums on the drop. When I first heard the tune, I thought “wow, the timbre of this djembe is so perfectly placed within the mix—, it’s something so minimal, just the one djembe run and the sub bass but which can have such a powerful impact.” As a musician myself, timbre has become the most riddling element of music. The notes remain the same, rhythms are mostly the same, but how we pick and choose timbre, sound design, and styles makes all the difference. The exact same rhythm on a classic drum kit would not hit the same way. More so than the djembe the song is also driven by Nav Barghouti’s authentic Palestinian vocals. The vocals are a classic war cry: spooky, and packed with emotion. This song hits for me I believe because of the authentic emotion of a group of people being reflected in the tune. Skrillex illuminates what can be done with just vocals, drums and a subwoofer. The music video is just as packed with emotion, showcasing pain which can be transmuted through dance and art.
Finally, ‘Still Here (With the One’s that I Came With)’ is another feel good, minimal house song, which I believe hit’s me personally, so deep because it is another testament to my experience in this underground electronic music space. I have seen all kinds of artists, groups of people, and groups of friends come and go over the years. There have been many occasions where I was brutally awakened with the fact that this isn’t so much about consciousness expansion (as it was for me when I first got into it), or even music itself but, as the great Lester Bangs once said to the young Cameron Crowe: “an industry of ‘cool’”. The industry of cool has left me jaded, disappointed and often times unsure of whether or not this is a true pursuit. However Skrillex defies all of this with what I said earlier: staying committed to music, art and his craft. It’s not about money, looks, or popularity, what you do to live this life and go to all these shows, or anything like that. It’s about music, it’s about art, emotion an authentic expression, that is why for me at least, it feels so good to be around his shows and his scene right now. ‘Still Here (With the One’s that I Came With)’ is what it was like for me to be at the five hour Red Rocks set, with my best friends from high school. We were all there in 2012, and we’re all still here now. We have moved all over the State’s and traveled the world, we came up together, and we are still here together. Still here with the one’s that I came with. It will always be that way. Stick with the one’s who will honor your name when you are not in the room. That is a more valuable trait than anything money, popularity or status can ever buy.
In conclusion I have one final thing to say about the five hour Red Rocks set, and how this again illuminates why Sonny should be nominated for Electronic Artist of the Year. At this present moment he is the only American DJ that I know who would do something like this. It was larger than life. Unthinkable. While this is not uncommon in other parts of the globe, American DJ’s have their strict hour/ hour and a half, maybe two hour headline set of their own headline tour if you are lucky. But five hours?! This is unprecedented and unmatched for the American DJ space. It shows not only the magnitude of Sonny’s musical selections or his skill and endurance, but also his dedication to craft and his love of music itself and his fans. At one point he came on the mic and said his agent and him had no idea how they would plan the show, then Sonny said he thought he would just play the whole five hours himself. His agent gave him push back, but Sonny was sure, this was the way it should go. I’ll tell you I’ve been to several hundred electronic music shows, and none of them come even close to that one. It is an order of magnitude above anything I’ve ever seen. Certain points in the night it felt like “wow, we’re only 90 minutes in, I better pace myself,” then with an hour left it felt like Skrillex could have kept spinning for five more hours. If this alone doesn’t win him electronic artist of the year I don’t know what could, or what should. It meant a lot to all of us who have been here the whole time, with the one’s that we came with.
Until next time.
Sincerely,
Ian Vincenzo Crispi