Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites - Skrillex
By: ian hoffman
Sunday School
Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
Sunday School takes another look at a classic album worth revisiting years after its release. EMMIE staff handpick releases that shaped a genre, defined a generation or deserve a little more recognition. Keep up with Sunday School for your weekly dose of dusted-off classics + throwbacks that merit a second spin.
Before becoming the poster child for American dubstep, Skrillex, the moniker of Sonny Moore, was already an expert in reinvention. Moore’s path was shaped by a series of devastating setbacks and a refusal to stick to one sonic identity. To understand how a free MySpace release made him into a global phenomenon, you must go back to the birth of Skrillex.
At the age of fourteen, Moore travelled across the country to Georgia to try out for a new post-hardcore band: From First to Last. This decision followed a bitter fight with his parents after he learned he was adopted.
In 2004, the band’s debut album, Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Bodycount, featured Moore on lead vocals and brought rapid success as the group began touring nationwide, including a slot on the Vans Warped Tour. However, tragedy struck when his vocal cords began to fail, bringing his stint as a post-hardcore frontman to an abrupt end. Shortly after, he announced his intent to pursue a solo career.
Moore opted to forego the screaming vocals and heavy riffs, instead embracing his passion for electronic music. Leveraging his recognition, he began opening for bands like All Time Low, Chiodos and Hollywood Undead with his solo work. On April 7, 2007, he released his debut solo project Gypsyhook. The EP fused electropop with an emo sensibility, but it remained largely underground; despite nearly three years of touring, Moore had yet to reclaim his former prominence.
However, in 2010, Moore shifted once again and adopted a new name with his EP My Name is Skrillex. Released for free on his MySpace page, the eponymous release reshaped his career. Skrillex’s new sound was a glitchy, metallic take on dubstep—a genre that had not yet grown popular in America. Later that year, he followed up with another EP titled Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.
The title track would become immensely popular and birth an entirely new form of dubstep under the pejorative name of brostep. Merging punchy kicks with aggressive, growling bass synths, the EP acted as a way for Moore to combine the drops and anger of his post-hardcore past with his talent for clean and precise production.
Perhaps nothing is more emblematic of the birth of Skrillex than the ending sample of “Rock ‘n’ Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain),” a rant recorded at a Glitch Mob live performance: "You have technicians here making noise/no one is a musician/they're not artists because nobody can play the guitar.”
The reputation of Skrillex and the brostep movement became polarized as media outlets and listeners saw his style as a bastardization of the original UK dubstep sound. However, the inclusion of UK rap group Foreign Beggars and UK dubstep Bare Noize on the track Scatta seemed to toy with the idea of Skrillex’s EP being totally distinct from its stylistic origins.
Despite the chaotic drops and harsh growls he had arrived at, “All I Ask of You (feat. Pennybirdrabbit)” and “With You, Friends (Long Drive)” proved that beautiful melodies and emotion were still just as integral to his sound as roaring bass wubs.
Moore proved that electronic music was capable of the same heights and intensity of his hardcore past. He made no attempt to shy away from the aesthetics of his past with songs like “Kill EVERYBODY” to the iconic red slashes replacing ‘ill’ in the Skrillex logo.
More than fifteen years later, the sound of Skrillex’s Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites remains a touchstone for modern electronic music, whether it be following in the footsteps of brostep or the growing popularity of more experimental production in pop. Although Skrillex has since moved on from brostep, the iconic melody of “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” (along with the “Oh my GOD!” sample at the drop) will remain ingrained in the minds of everyone that dabbled in the internet of the 2010s.