Diplo and Skrillex Talk EDM in the Mainstream, Earning Fans’ Trust, Drugs on "Charlie Rose"

Diplo and Skrillex were guests on PBS’ “Charlie Rose” last night, sitting down for an in-depth chat about their respective work as well as their collaboration as Jack Ü. Over the course of the thirty-minute interview, the two producers discussed EDM’s crossover into mainstream culture, their “progressive” goals for the project, and the scene’s longstanding ties to drug use. Watch the whole interview below.

Asked to list the reasons for electronica’s exponential increase in popularity as of late, Skrillex responded:

I think it was the timing, the fact that the internet and being able to share media happened at the same time where computers and music programs are so accessible to the people who are younger coming into music. Me coming through a band [From First To Last], I found it easier to express myself fully through computers. It’s a one stop shop. 

Diplo agreed, referring to the music industry’s traditional bureaucracy as a “distribution chain” that was “broken”. Later, he expresses an optimistic view on the group’s future , remarking that “Everything we’re doing is growing”.

“We never set out in the beginning to make radio records,” Skrillex points out, “but nationally, our sound has started to cross over” as a result of building trust with producers, collaborators, fans, and the press.

As far as MDMA goes, Skrillex insists that while EDM and drug use have a long history, the larger crowds the group are bringing in as a result of their crossover success have broadened the basement atmosphere to embody a vast array of people, many of them sober.

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