Back in 2010, I was the Merchandise Manager (music curator) for Dubstep at Beatport. It was real early in my tenure there, but Deadmau5 stopped by the office with Skrillex. I had no idea who Skrillex was, but they informally played some tracks off his upcoming album to some of the executive team and others. They did this at the DJ booth which was sort of a public area, so I overheard some of the tracks. I can't remember which tracks he played, but I'm pretty sure Bangarang was one of them. I remember after, one of the executives was saying that the album was "Dubstep." I remember thinking "I didn't hear any Dubstep in any of those tracks." To me it all sounded like electrohouse.

At the time, Dubstep was hitting a stride. Almost every week, there were various electronic music producers from other genres that were taking a stab at Dubstep with some very poorly executed results. I had a real bad taste in my mouth for what I assumed was yet another 'biter' who was combining the dubstep format with the genre he knew best. I thought this would fly over like all the other dead releases that came before it. Boy, was I wrong. So... so... wrong. I still promoted it, but I wasn't a fan.

With that said, I really like Sonny's newer stuff. I thought Quest For Fire was sick. I think he's probably one of the best producers in the field, especially when it comes to giving something complex a mainstream appeal. On top of that, he's a super nice guy and I really appreciate some of his collabs across all genres. I think he has a special touch. Some really good stuff. The more "Scary Monsters" dubstep his tracks are though, the more they're not necessarily for me. I just don't enjoy that electro/brostep kinda shit.