Skrillex

Skrillex whose real name is Sonny John Moore has admitted that there was nothing great about his stage name. The spark for the moniker came when he recollected that his friends used to tease him by calling him ‘Skril’, ‘Skrilly’, and ‘Skrillex’.

He considers ‘The Doors’, ‘Nine Inch Nails’, ‘Marilyn Manson’, ‘Squarepusher’ and ‘Aphex Twin’ as his early musical influences.

Skrillex was born Sonny John Moore on 15 January 1988, in Northeast Los Angeles. When Skrillex was 2 years old, his family relocated to San Francisco’s Forest Hill locality.

He started his education in an elementary school and later on shifted to a nearby boarding school situated in Mojave Desert in Las Vegas. When Skrillex was 12 years old, his family relocated back to Northeast Los Angeles.

His parents, who were members of the Scientology sect, admitted him in a private academy school that followed some of the ideologies of L Ron Hubbard—founder of the Scientology cult. In the school, he faced bullying and as a result he was homeschooled at the age of 14.

In 2004, at the age of 16, Skrillex learned that he was adopted and hence he dropped out of the school.

As a teenager, Skrillex would often attend punk concerts in the Mexican American localities in South and East Los Angeles and later on went to clubs situated in downtown LA that played electro house music.

In 2004, Skrillex flew out to Georgia after contacting Matt Good, frontman of rock band ‘From First to Last’ (FFTL). Skrillex had expressed his desire to play the guitar for their first studio album but was eventually selected as the lead singer after music producers McHale Butler, Eric Dale, and Derrick Thomas heard him out.

‘First to Last’s’ first LP (long playing) “Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count” recorded with Skrillex, was released by Epitaph Records in June of 2004. The release of the LP was followed by a series of successful music tours, notable amongst these being the ‘Dead by Dawn’ and ‘Vans Warped’ tours.

Epitaph Records released the band’s 2nd album, titled “Heroine” in March 2006. The album which was lapped up by music aficionados, spurred the band to embark on a countrywide tour yet again. However, Skrillex developed vocal problems which compelled the band to call off numerous upcoming tours.

Following a surgical procedure, Skrillex declared that he’d dropping out of the group to focus on a solo career as a soloist. He performed for the last time with ‘FFTL’ in the ‘House of Blues’ restaurant-cum-bar in Orlando, Florida, the group’s hometown.

After leaving the band, Skrillex created and hosted his profile on MySpace, and uploaded clips of three songs “Glow Worm”, “Equinox”, and “Signal”.

Skrillex unveiled demos of three songs, “Glow Worm”, “Equinox” and “Signal” on his MySpace page in 2007 which were his debut numbers as a solo artist.

He released an EP ‘Gypsyhook’ digitally in 2009. His other prominent albums include ‘My Name is Skrillex’, ‘More Monsters and Sprites’, ‘Bangarang’, ‘Leaving’ and ‘Recess’.