Is Skrillex the most hated man in dubstep?
As Skrillex, Sonny Moore has infiltrated the US charts and remixed Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars. Joe Muggs meets the man the underground loves to loathe
Sonny Moore is one happy dude. Sitting on the roof of his UK record label's office with a mid-afternoon Jack Daniel's and Diet Coke in one hand, and a scuffed BlackBerry in the other, he's full of the joys of life. Moore is glad to be catching up with friends in London, excited about the festival he's playing the next day, and stoked about unveiling a new video he hopes "is going to blow some minds". This isn't in a manic way, either – he's relaxed and lucid. He just seems happy.
Which is encouraging, but perhaps a little incongruous given that, as
Skrillex, Moore has become
dubstep's most hated producer in certain quarters of the internet.
One thread on the messageboard for Coachella festival, entitled "I never realised how horrible Skrillex was until now" managed to accumulate 1,485 posts. Evidently, many fans of an underground UK genre have not taken kindly to a Los Angeleno Korn fan who dresses like an emo kid, and who used to be the singer for the screamo band
From First to Last, taking
dubstep to daytime radio and the pop charts.
Nevertheless, Moore is riding a spectacular wave of success. And for all those who hate him, there are many more who adore his music. Barely three years since he reinvented himself as Skrillex, he is the figurehead for the current unprecedented explosion of electronic
dance music – including a high-sugar, hyperactive version of dubstep – into the middle American mainstream...