Despite having just a couple of EP releases under his belt US producer Skrillex has already caused a stir amongst dance fans across the globe with his brash bass, dubstep and electro sounds and his previous work in hardcore live acts. On his way to Australia this April for the commencement of the Creamfields festival tour, ITM caught up with Skrillex in the midst of a series of shows in the UK and we asked the man known to his parents as Sonny Moore how he was being received in dubstep’s original homeland.

Hey mate, you’re in the UK now, yeah?

“Yeah, it’s part of a tour of Europe right now.”

What’ve the shows been like so far? There’s such a strong connection with dubstep for the guys over there and I wonder how they’ve been warming up to what you do.

“I think the bass music scene here is a bit more segregated than I’m used to, y’know? In America right now, all electronic music is really popping off right now so you can kind of mix all the genres together in a single DJ set. But since it really started in the UK there are a lot of different niches. That’s just something I’ve noticed, but my shows have been really great so far. Lots of people have been coming out and it’s really cool to see them all. The commercial strength of bass music in the UK is really amazing to me, too. Like Nero is on main-rotation on Radio 1. That’s a semi-underground and indie track in the States. That’s really crazy to me. It’s huge.”

Both trends that you mention are really noticeable to us here in Australia where it kind of rolls onto. And with dance music becoming so popular there seems to be a commercial line that some people will cross and others won’t go near. You’ve done remixes for people like Lady Gaga and Black Eyed Peas so how do you approach that?

“I think credibility doesn’t really matter if you’re making good songs. That’s what it’s about. I mean, not to blow smoke up my own ass, I’m really confident as a producer so it’s really fun to take a Black Eyed Peas song, applying it to a different arena and bringing something new out of it so that people can dance to it and rave to it. That’s cool. Noisia just did a remix for Katy Perry; it’s a fucking sick remix and they are the most credible drum n bass pioneers out there. If what you’re doing with a remix doesn’t add anything to it and it’s just coasting on the original song then it’s not worth it.”