Music
Skrillex on Grammy Wins: ‘I Didn’t Expect to Be Here Again’
Dubstep star celebrates another armful of awards
After winning three Grammy awards last year, the dubstep king Skrillex shot off to another trio of victories at this year’s ceremony, including a win for Best Dance/Electronica Album for Bangarang. He paused to talk to reporters backstage.
What can we expect from you? Your fans never know what to expect.
That‘s kind of a thing, you know? I don‘t do much press. I don‘t like to talk about my music too much before I do it. You can take something in and if there‘s a different perspective, it‘s going to sway your opinion. With Bangarang, I didn‘t make any announcement, no campaign. I just put it on my Facebook and some other places. That‘s how I‘ve done everything with my previous records. I‘ve always kept it organic. If it‘s working, I don‘t want to take away from that. I want to expand on what organic means. The framework around the music industry is so different now. The electronic music scene came up from the underground and the medium of making music, like hip-hop and dancehall or New Wave, it‘s all made electronically but the difference is the culture where we come from is now getting the limelight. It‘s all electronic music but it‘s based in the same platforms as electronic music.
That‘s kind of a thing, you know? I don‘t do much press. I don‘t like to talk about my music too much before I do it. You can take something in and if there‘s a different perspective, it‘s going to sway your opinion. With Bangarang, I didn‘t make any announcement, no campaign. I just put it on my Facebook and some other places. That‘s how I‘ve done everything with my previous records. I‘ve always kept it organic. If it‘s working, I don‘t want to take away from that. I want to expand on what organic means. The framework around the music industry is so different now. The electronic music scene came up from the underground and the medium of making music, like hip-hop and dancehall or New Wave, it‘s all made electronically but the difference is the culture where we come from is now getting the limelight. It‘s all electronic music but it‘s based in the same platforms as electronic music.
Are you getting used to winning Grammys?
You know what? I thought I‘d get used to it, but I swear, I tripped over every word up there in my second speech. It was like jumping into a pool of ice water and I couldn‘t even breathe or think. It was crazy; I think it was crazier than last year. I didn‘t expect to be here again.
You‘re way above ground now. From a creative view, are you more determined now?
When I make music, I always draw from the same inspiration. That‘s what has always worked for me. Those are the ones that are successful as well. It‘s all about maintaining that creative space. It‘s all about keeping the right people around you. It can take one A&R rep to say the wrong thing about a song that can really uninspire you [to think] you‘re not doing the right thing. I keep my team very tight to where everything we make is what I believe in and what they believe in. I‘ve always stuck to that.
Calvin Harris and Rihanna won tonight. Are we going to see more of those pop-electronic collabs?
Hip-hop and electronic music are so similar, in the fact that they‘re both very visceral, have so much bass; a lot of times, it‘s the same tempos. The culture and some of the sound design is different but a lot of times, it‘s the same stuff. I have this song with A¢AP Rocky that just came out and we‘re going out to Rio to shoot this crazy music video out there. There‘s definitely a lot of collaborations [between the genres].
Tell us more about the video you‘re going to shoot with A$AP Rocky?
You‘ll have to see when it comes out. Rio is a beautiful place to shoot a video. You never know what‘ll happen out there. I just read the treatment once and I said all right, I don‘t need to know more. I‘m just going to go out there and see what happens. With my videos, I take every detail [into account] with the treatments but. . . Chris Robertson is doing the video. He‘s a legendary hip-hop video guy so it‘s just like, let him do his thing. It‘s gonna be dope.