Skrillex
Sonny John Moore, known professionally as Skrillex, is an American DJ, record producer, singer, and musician. Raised in Northeast Los Angeles and Northern California, he began his career in 2004 as the lead vocalist of the post-hardcore band From First to Last. He recorded their first two studio albums with the band, Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Bodycount and Heroine, before leaving to pursue a solo career in 2007. He began his first tour as a solo artist in late 2007. After recruiting a new band lineup, Moore joined the Alternative Press Tour to support bands such as All Time Low and the Rocket Summer, and appeared on the cover of Alternative Presss annual "100 Bands You Need to Know" issue.
After releasing the extended play Gypsyhook, Moore was scheduled to record his debut studio album, Bells, with producer Noah Shain. Although its release was cancelled, he began performing under the name Skrillex and released the dubstep EP, My Name Is Skrillex as a free download on MySpace. It was followed by Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites and More Monsters and Sprites, both of which were met with moderate commercial successes. At the 54th Grammy Awards, he won Best Dance/Electronic Album, Best Dance Recording, and Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical, as well as a nomination for Best New Artist. In late 2011, he was nominated on the BBC's Sound of 2012, and was named MTV's Electronic Dance Music Artist of the Year. His debut studio album, Recess peaked at number four on the Billboard 200. His second and third albums, Quest for Fire and Don't Get Too Close, were released one day apart in 2023. His fourth album, Fuck U Skrillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol but Ur Not!! <3, was surprise released in 2025.
Moore has won nine Grammy Awards, the most of any electronic dance music act. He has collaborated with Diplo and Boys Noize to form the groups Jack Ü and Dog Blood, respectively. It was announced on his 29th birthday, that he reunited with From First to Last to release the named "Make War". In 2017, Skrillex produced and mixed 8, the eighth studio album by rock band Incubus.
Early life
At birth, Moore was adopted by family friends of his biological parents. They lived in the Highland Park neighborhood of Northeast Los Angeles, California, but relocated to the Forest Hill neighborhood of San Francisco at the age of 2, where he attended elementary school. At the ages of 9 and 10, Moore attended a boarding school in Barstow, but eventually moved back to Northern California. Both of his parents were Scientologists. By the time he was 12, the family returned to Northeast Los Angeles. There he enrolled in a private academy school specializing in arts that used some of L. Ron Hubbard's teachings. Later, he was home schooled at the age of 14 due to bullying. In 2004, he learned he was adopted, and dropped out of the program when he was 16. While a young teenager in Los Angeles, Moore would attend punk gigs in Mexican American neighborhoods in East and South Los Angeles, and later at electro club raves in the downtown's Silver Lake and Echo Park neighborhoods.Career
2004–2007: From First to Last
In 2004, Moore contacted Matt Good of From First to Last about playing guitar for the band on their debut album. After flying out to Georgia, Moore was heard singing by three studio producers, Derrick Thomas, Eric Dale, and McHale Butler, and was then made lead singer, with Good playing guitar. In June 2004, Epitaph Records released the band's first full-length record with their new bandmate, Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count. After performing on several successful tours, two being the Vans Warped Tour and Dead by Dawn tour, they began recording their second album, Heroine with producer Ross Robinson. The album was released in March 2006 on Epitaph. With high record sales once again, the band found themselves part of many successful tours, until Moore started suffering vocal problems, causing the band to resign from several tours. After going through a successful vocal surgical procedure, Moore informed the band he would be permanently resigning to work on a solo career. FFTL's last show performed with Moore was in their hometown of Orlando at The House of Blues while touring with Atreyu.Moore announced he had left From First to Last to pursue a solo career. He then launched a Myspace page displaying three demos. This led to Moore's first performance since his leaving From First to Last. On April 7, 2007, alongside harpist Carol Robbins, Moore played several original songs at a local art building. After months of releasing demos via Myspace, Moore played on the Team Sleep Tour with a full band. The tour also featured supporting acts Monster in the Machine and Strata. Moore made several demo CDs available on this tour, limited to about 30 per show. These CDs were tour exclusive and were packaged in "baby blue envelopes", each with a unique drawing by Moore or bandmate.
2008–2013: Solo career and extended plays
In February 2008, Alternative Press Magazine announced the second annual AP Tour, with All Time Low, The Rocket Summer, The Matches, and Forever the Sickest Kids, as well as Sonny Moore. The tour started in Houston, Texas on March 14 and went through North America, ending in Cleveland, Ohio on May 2, with the majority of the shows being sold out. All bands playing the tour would be featured on the cover of Alternative Press Magazines annual 100 Bands You Need to Know special, and would be interviewed on the Alternative Press Podcast. During this tour, Moore's line-up consisted of Sean Friday on drums, Christopher Null on guitar, and Aaron Rothe on keyboards. On April 7, 2009, he released Gypsyhook, a digital EP, which featured three songs and four remixes. Also included was "海水", a Japanese version of "Mora". Physical copies of the EP were available at his shows. After going on tour with Innerpartysystem and Paper Route and opening for Chiodos on their European tour, Moore performed at Bamboozle on May 2. He performed on Bamboozle Left's Saints and Sinners stage on April 4. He toured with Hollywood Undead in April 2009 performing under the band name "Sonny and the Blood Monkeys", with Chris Null, Sean Friday and Aaron Rothe. Moore stated in 2010 that the album Bells would not be released.In 2008, Moore began producing and performing under the alias "Skrillex" at clubs in the Los Angeles area. The name, according to Moore, has no meaning and was "a stupid old online AOL screen name". Previously, he had been known on the Internet as Twipz. On June 7, 2010, Moore released his official Skrillex debut EP, My Name Is Skrillex, as a free download. Moore provided programming and vocals for UK metalcore band Bring Me the Horizon on their third studio album, There Is a Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is a Heaven Let's Keep It a Secret. Later in the year, Sonny began a nationwide tour with Deadmau5 after being signed to Mau5trap recordings and released his second EP, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.
File:Porter Robinson, Zedd, and Skrillex at the 2012 SXSW cropped.jpg|thumb| Porter Robinson, Zedd, and Skrillex performing at SXSW in March 2012
Moore kicked off the "Project Blue Book Tour" in 2011 with support from Porter Robinson, Tommy Lee and DJ Aero as well as appearances from Sofia Toufa for a new song, "Bring Out the Devil". Skrillex unveiled several new songs on this tour including "First of the Year ", "Reptile", and "Cinema". "Reptile" was featured in the TV commercial for Mortal Kombat 9, and "First of the Year " is featured on More Monsters and Sprites, his follow-up EP and remix companion to Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites. In April 2011, Spin premiered "Get Up", an exclusive new track from Korn that was produced by Skrillex. Korn made the track available for free download via their Facebook page. On April 15, 2011, KoRn joined Skrillex on stage for his set at Coachella 2011. On April 18, 2011, Sony Computer Entertainment development studio Naughty Dog released a trailer for the multiplayer component of their PlayStation 3 game Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception, featuring "Kill EVERYBODY" from Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.
In June 2011, More Monsters and Sprites was released on Beatport, an EP consisting of three original tracks, including "First of the Year " and two versions of his original track "Ruffneck". The track "Ruffneck Bass" had been leaked on the internet months prior which used the same sample as in the new "Ruffneck" tracks on the EP. Skrillex released a music video for "Rock n' Roll " on his official YouTube page on June 20, 2011. On August 17, 2011, he announced his label, Owsla. The label's first releases came from Bristol-based dubstep producers KOAN Sound, then-electro-house producer Porter Robinson from North Carolina, singer-songwriter Alvin Risk, and San Francisco-based M Machine.
On August 19, 2011, Skrillex released a music video for "First of the Year " via Spin.com. In late August 2011, it was released that he would be appearing Knife Party's first release, collaborating on "Zoology", a Moombahton style track. A preview was released on YouTube. In late September 2011, he created the track "Syndicate" as promotion for the video game of the same name. Kaskade's 2011 album Fire & Ice features "Lick It", a collaboration between Kaskade and Skrillex. The video for Skrillex's song "First of the Year " appears on the first episode of the Beavis and Butt-Head revival.
On November 8, Skrillex stated that he intended to release an album, Voltage. He gave fans more info about Voltage in RockSound Magazine after a photoshoot for the cover and doing an extensive interview on his tour. For unknown reasons, the album was never released, but on December 21, 2011, Skrillex unveiled the Bangarang EP for a Beatport release on December 23. On August 12, 2012, his new side-project formed with Boys Noize called Dog Blood released an EP called Next Order/Middle Finger. On November 6, 2012, Skrillex released a limited edition triple vinyl box set. Skrillex composed the song "Bug Hunt" for the 2012 animated film Wreck-It Ralph, as well as making a brief cameo as a DJ in the film's first act. In December 2012, "Make It Bun Dem," a ReggaeEDM track featuring Damian Marley, was used in as a looped variant during the single-player mission 'Kick the Hornets Nest' in the video game Far Cry 3. He composed the score for Spring Breakers with Cliff Martinez.
In 2012, Skrillex formed Dog Blood with Boys Noize. Their debut single, consisting of the songs "Next Order" and "Middle Finger", was released on August 12, 2012, on Beatport and iTunes. The song "Next Order" managed to top Beatport's Techno chart.
In 2013, Skrillex formed a duo with Diplo called Jack Ü. Jack Ü's debut performance took place at the Mad Decent Block Party in San Diego on September 15, 2013, which is a nationwide tour that record label Mad Decent puts together to showcase artists signed to the label. Diplo announced the project by releasing the Mad Decent Block Party lineup with Jack Ü playing at multiple stops on the tour. After some guessing by many of who Jack Ü was, Diplo finally came out to reveal that "Jack Ü... means Skrillex and Diplo together".