One of Chicago’s major daily newspapers, the Chicago Tribune, published a rather interesting article involving a recent phone interview they conducted with Skrillex. The article started off on a terribly biased foot, as it introduced Skrillex as the electronic artist who is, “blamed for everything; the rise of brostep (dubstep’s coarser cousin), the mainstreaming of EDM, the encroachment of unwashed outsiders (like Korn and the Doors, early Skrillex collaborators) into the genre’s sacred confines.” To “soften the blow”, the article followed up with a second skewed statement by asserting that Skrillex, despite being “unusually contentious”, “effectively settled the argument by becoming the most famous DJ who ever lived.”
As the article continues to unravel, readers can easily observe Skrillex’s demeanor shift, as he became a bit irritated and agitated at some of the uninformed and jabbing questions the interviewer had planned for him.
For starters, the interviewer commented:
Q: You’ve said: I don’t like my face being shown; I hate all the attention being on me. He (Diplo) seems like he likes it.
A: Interesting. I don’t know where (you got that out-of-context quote). It’s not really about the spotlight or attention, it’s about making music in the studio and having fun making music together.
Followed by questions like this…
Q: The fact that that was your first hit, is that because the world is ready for more EDM in the Top 40 or because Justin Bieber was involved?
A: Have you heard the song? I think it’s an undeniable song. Justin Bieber has one of the most beautiful voices ever.
And, even more unintelligently, asserted statements like this:
Q: You’ve always gotten grief for collaborations that you’ve done, but it seems like maybe EDM is …
A: I’ve never heard someone say something like (that). I’ve had a lot of positive stuff for collaborations.
In this instance, the Chicago Tribune interviewer generalized his single, questionable, collaboration with Justin Bieber as Jack Ü (which was admittedly a very bold, yet successful move) to apply to the much larger list of collaborations Skrillex has done in the past that have received mass praise.
All ignorance and lack of journalism finesse aside, Skrillex’s level headedness and stand-up nature allowed him to retain his cool, as he concluded the interview by stating:
“At the end of the day, if you’re trying something new in music, there’s going to be people that aren’t really happy with that. But I think, overall, it was actually a real positive thing for all of music, because look who you have now. Anyone can make music together. There’s no rules in music.”
Source: Chicago Tribune
