Skrillex Reveals LA EDM Studios at IMS Engage

Sonny Moore, aka Skrillex, has decided he is building an 11,000 square foot space in LA’s Chinatown to be a studio facility for the “computer musician.”

Recently, the Ibiza International Music Summit presented their first IMS Engage Summit in Hollywood, CA at the W Hotel, in which they paired 12 producers, managers, label-heads, and executives including Skrillex, Pete Tong, Diplo, Def Jam founder Russell Simmons, Beatport COO Matthew Adell, Ultra Records founder Patrick Moxey, and more, to be panelists throughout the day. What coalesced was a series of engaging discussions between a gamut of prominent multi-disciplinarian innovators in electronic music and beyond about the reaches of the genre and how its evolved to where its going. The event drew in global attendees from electronic music and associated industries looking to gain the insight from some of music’s most seasoned and successful figureheads. And that they did.

The highlight discussion of the day was that between Sonny Moore and Summit Series co-founder Jeff Rosenthal, in which Sonny discussed his career before “Skrillex,” how he was $30,000 in debt 3 years ago, and the things he’s had to do and philosophies he’s adopted to succeed. Rosenthal having gone through similar financial difficulties in organizing the first few Summit Series events, was a perfect fit for Sonny in this panel. Whether you’re a fan of Skrillex or not, the panel was nevertheless an really insightful discussion about the past, present, and future of EDM.

 

In explaining the reason for building the new studio, Moore stated that he wanted to build a place where an artist won’t be criticized for being themselves. “Music and fine art are totally two different things,” he said, “music is like a visceral feeling where you have fun and you enjoy yourself- it’s not meant (at least the type of music I do), to be picked apart and criticized.” Moore went even further, attributing his success to having like-minded, and more importantly, positive people working with him who had that same gut feeling, “because then you can feed off that and complete stuff. If you don’t have that same energy with the people you’re working with, you’ll never get anything done because you’re like ‘man, I should change this’ or ‘it’s not working.’” 

Looking past the fads and what dubstep and EDM is and isn’t, people sometimes forget there are normal people behind the music doing what they dig. It’s refreshing to hear first-hand what the person on the other side of the looking glass (or DJ booth) thinks, especially someone under the microscope of controversy. It’s a fact: Skrillex is not for everyone, but for anyone wishing they could “make it” in the EDM industry, Sonny Moore is probably a dude worth listening to.

Look out for more IMS events on their website:

http://www.internationalmusicsummit.com/

The edIT Show #8: Ableton Push Vs Maschine

Most of you know edIT from The Glitch Mob, but did you know that he’s also a pretty eloquent dude with his own show on Youtube now? 8 episodes in, he reviews and compares the Ableton Push with Native Instruments’ highly popular Maschine.

DJ Shiftee and the Traktor iPad App

As a loyal Serato user for nearly a decade now and owner of a TTM-57 which I love dearly, it isn’t easy to admit when a competing system is simply more powerful. That has simply been the case in the past years as Native Instruments has been killing it with innovation after innovation in their products. (check out this video of Shiftee tearing it up on their Maschine) Their Traktor DJ for the iPad allows you to hook up an iPad in lieu of a mixer and mix, cue, slice, and freeze your tracks all in an ultimate mobile package. This video of DJ Shiftee playing with their Traktor DJ app for the iPad just rubs salt in the would and makes it simply irresistible. Traktor, I’m coming for you.

-Signed,
Serato User

Breakfast Club Shows Us The Real Harlem Shake

Recently, a YouTube video went around about what Harlem residents thought about the surge of Harlem Shake viral videos going around lately. Predictably, the video was filled Harlem folks ranting and being disgusted at how these people are not even doing the Harlem Shake, and that the videos are in general insulting to Harlem. What I didn’t expect was, when asked to show us how the real Harlem Shake is meant to be done, only one of the interviewees seemed to have a remote idea of how to Harlem Shake properly. The Breakfast Club from NYC’s Power 105.1 FM, gives us a bit more of an educational video.

Download the track:

Baauer – Real Harlem Shake (Kid The Wiz & Tweek Tune Remix)

 

Harlem Shake Goes Wrong

Filmmaker Mike Diva tries his hand at the Harlem Shake phenomenon that’s turned producer Baauer into this year’s Psy.

With everyone and their mamas clamoring to get their own versions filmed, at least one of them was inevitably bound to go wrong.

Filth Friday: IKEA Do-It-Yourself Cheap DJ Furniture

Whats up Bwompers? Sorry no Filth Friday music feature today. I apologize I have missed a couple of Filth Fridays. A ton is going on in my life with family, event production, and now, I’m moving into a new house. While looking for new furniture for my DJ setup, I stumbled across an awesome tutorial on how to put together a DJ set up that looks great from IKEA parts.

The original article, posted here by DJ Tech tools, became so popular that on Monday, IKEA posted their own promo video.

I hope that many of you will became as inspired I did and build yourself a proper set up for you gear.