5 Things We Learned From the New Skrillex Documentary
Black hair flailing, feet bouncing in his Adidas Sambas, tens of thousands of people in the crowd losing their shit while he commands the stage at his headlining set at Coachella 2014—it’s just another day in the life of Skrillex.
In a 37-minute documentary called Let’s Make a Spaceship, Red Bull TV went behind the scenes in the life of Sonny Moore as he and his team geared up for his 2014 Mothership Tour. The documentary, which premiered at Austin City Limits this past Saturday, follows the inception of the stage production inside an L.A. warehouse, all the way to the grand reveal inside Coachella’s dance-focused Sahara Tent this past April.
A must-see for any fan, Let’s Make a Spaceship is packed with stuff that people who love Skrillex will definitely want to know. Here are five things we learned:
Skrillex never finished high school.
Moore dropped out of high school at age 16—“not because I didn’t like learning,” but because he was frustrated being surrounded by people who weren’t being creative. “I left school at 16, just because it was that big of a deal to me at that point in my life,” Moore says. “I had to make music and nothing else.” Lucky for him, he joined the emo band From First to Last in this same time period and has been making music ever since.
Skrillex spits some fire flame rap game.
We already knew that Skrillex can produce, mix, sing, and play guitar, but did you know he can also freestyle? In the doc, he takes a moment to break out some ill bars on a candid rap in front of the camera. Get ready—his flow is like Eminem for Kidz Bop, and his rhymes are wicked corny:
Turn it up, turn it down, make it really loud
Take it downtown if you wanna go around
Drink this soup, ooo it smells like poop
Gross gross, I’m not gonna do that stoop
Skrillex is a classic rock enthusiast.
Moore tells the story of a young Skrillex sneaking backstage at a Pennywise concert and prompting their guitarist, Fletcher Dragge, for a chance to perform the Ramones’ classic “Blitzkreig Bop” with them. Swagged out with blue hair, a Rancid tee with the sleeves cut off, and Dickies shorts—a look Moore calls “so SoCal”—he convinced Dragge to let him play with them at Warped Tour’s L.A. stop. After an impromptu audition on their tour bus, Dragge agreed. Moore made his first main-stage appearance shortly thereafter. $20 to anyone who can dig up that video.
Later, Skrillz shreds on the guitar (again) during a totally respectable living room rendition of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues.” Fans will recall that his admiration for the band came full-circle when he teamed up with the remaining members of the group on 2012’s “Breakin’ a Sweat.” It should also be noted that Doors’ frontman Jim Morrison was the one who presciently called out the future of music back in 1969, saying, “I can envision one person with a lot of machines—tapes, electronic set-ups—singing and speaking, and using a lot of machines.”
Skrillex’s Mothership was built in three weeks.
The brainchild of Skrillex and co., the Mothership blueprint featured light rigs, mix decks, and enough room for Moore to jump around and hype the masses. Thanks to designers TAIT Towers, a design that took team Skrillex a year to sketch came together IRL in three hectic weeks. “Can I say that we’re in a state of hysteria?” says Production Designer Miguel Risueno during the building process. “We’re just laughing, because right now there is so much shit to do, that we don’t know where to start.”
Skrillex’s schedule is completely bananas.
“Friday night, Sonny plays Bonnaroo,” says tour manager Lee Anderson, recapping the crew’s upcoming itinerary. “Saturday, the crew leaves and goes to New Orleans. We stay and do the SuperJam. On Sunday, we go down to New Orleans, we play the Champions Square show outside. Then we shoot out and do Red Rocks on that Saturday/Sunday, and I feel like we’ll fly him into Vegas on the way there.” We’re tired just thinking about it.
Skrillex plays a special interplanetary Halloween show at San Francisco’s Craneway Pavilion on Friday, October 31.
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