Emma Duckett
•February 17, 2025•3 min read
The 2024 film Bass Impact takes viewers back to the early days when genres like drum and bass, dubstep, and garage sprung to life in dimly lit warehouses, pirate radio stations, and producers' bedrooms. Illegal raves fuelled the culture, offering a space where innovation and rebellion collided.
One of the standout producers that shaped the scene as we know it? Skrillex.
In the documentary, we glimpse the post-hardcore frontman turned bass music pioneer through rare footage and candid interviews – now, we’re digging a little deeper into his beginnings.
At 16 years old, Skrillex – real name Sonny John Moore - emerged as the frontman of the post-hardcore band From First to Last in the mid-2000s. The singer’s raw and dark experimental vocals on albums ‘Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count’ and ‘Heroine’ became the group's defining sound. However, vocal strain and a desire to explore new creative projects led him to leave From Front to Last in 2007.
While living out of his car and with friends in LA, Moore’s 180, from screaming noise to experimenting with software synths, kicked off his sonic evolution, finding inspiration in artists such as Aphex Twin, Daft Punk, and The Prodigy. In an interview with Music Radar, he reveals how he was self-taught:
"If you saw how I work, I think it's quite unconventional because it's all self-taught - I didn't learn conventional production methods.” “I like the fact that I do things in very minimal ways and that I can carefully craft records on laptops - and blown speakers!"
Under his new moniker, Skrillex crashed into the electronic scene with the 2010 EP ‘My Name Is Skrillex’. But ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’ catapulted him to global stardom. The thunderous bass drops and razor-sharp synths on tracks ‘Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites’ and ‘Kill EVERYBODY’ earned him a Grammy Award for Best Dance/Electronic Album – and marked dubstep as a mainstream phenomenon in the US.
Later, the producer would become one of the most decorated electronic music artists in Grammy history, winning eight awards. Fresh from the success, Skrillex founded OWSLA in 2011, a record label that became the birthplace of next-gen electronic producers, including artists JOYRYDE, What So Not, and Valentino Khan.
Fast forward a decade of refining the genre, and Moore surprised fans with back-to-back album releases - ‘Quest for Fire’ and ‘Don’t Get Too Close’ - which revealed minimal yet powerful bass elements with a blend of pop and melodies.
Throughout Bass Impact, Skrillex, Hatcha, Skream, and more share their personal stories and the challenges and triumphs they faced while creating music that would one day shake the world.
Good news for those looking to watch outside of the UK/US! Bass Impact is available to stream in Latin America (LATAM) and the rest of the world here!
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