Becoming A DJ — Skrillex
Skrillex was born Sonny Moore, but even a name like Sonny isn’t cool enough for this world renown DJ. He was raised in the Bay Area to two Scientologist parents and found out in his teens that he was adopted. In high school, he faced intense bullying and had to switch to home schooling. It is already assured that he is cooler and more successful than whoever was doing the bullying.
Early inspiration, musically, came in the form of bands like Aphex Twin. “I discovered Aphex Twin (and) became obsessed with glitch, acid house, IDM, Autechre, Squarepusher,”
He got started playing music when he downloaded FL Studio when he was 13. “I was 14 when I started Fruity Loops. I have this old tower in storage, the computer crashed but the discs are still there. One day, I wanna try to [retrieve the files] ’cause I have so many songs from Fruity Loops, man. Just really weird deep techno/mellow acid — like no real genre, just making things.”
At the age of 16, Sonny joined From First to Last — a post-hardcore band — where he performed as lead vocalist and guitarist. They ended up opening for Fall Out Boy!
In an odd twist, Skrillex’s lucky break came when he lost his voice while touring with From First to Last. This gave him time to retreat and focus on his solo career.
After deciding that he wanted to make electronic music, Skrillex went out on his own and released his first EP, “My Name is Skrillex.”
From there, Skrillex became a dubstep icon in short time (though of course he doesn’t consider himself just a dub step guy). The heavy beats and unique sound were showcased on “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites,” his most watched solo project on YouTube, with over 260 million views.
When asked what he couldn’t do without, he decided it was two pieces of software from iZotope — Ozone and Trash. Go ahead and fulfill all your distortion dreams…
You know you’re famous when you get to decide to a project with Justin Bieber, just because you want to. It went pretty well and even Bieber became critically acclaimed.
Oh, and he’s got famous hair.
