"I Thought I Ruined the Song": Skrillex Opens Up About the Production of "Rumble" - EDM.com

Skrillex, Fred again.. and Flowdan have been ready to “Rumble” for years.

After releasing their long-awaited collab, the trio opened up about its origins in a BBC Radio 1 interview. And if we take away anything from their discussion, it’s that every song has its own story.

According to Fred, he created the original “Rumble” demo with Flowdan—sans Skrillex—roughly five years ago. He says the first time he ever met Skrillex, he played the track for the dubstep icon, who “always remembered it” and eventually asked for its stems.

But the stunning and inventive song we’re hearing today didn’t sit right with Skrillex, who says he believed he’d “ruined” the record with his contributions.

“I did something and I didn’t like it. I thought I ruined the song,” Skrillex said. “I was scared to play it.”

“Rumble” went on to switch hands often. In addition to Flowdan, the track was sent to Platinum-certified singer-songwriter Elley Duhé, who is credited as a writer, among others.

However, it was the absence of Four Tet which puzzled fans in the immediate aftermath of the release of “Rumble.” The renowned electronic music producer and DJ had been publicly linked to the track since as early as summer 2021, when Fred catapulted it into the mainstream consciousness by playing it in his viral Boiler Room debut.

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But it seems there’s no hard feelings, if you couldn’t already tell from the trio’s slaphappy jam sessions on social media.

“And there’s some controversy because we actually kicked Kieran off the project,” Skrillex says playfully, prompting a collective laugh from the group. “Four Tet is… an honorary producer on everything we do.”

From there, “Rumble” went through its last revisions, a process that Flowdan says ultimately left him awestruck. The famed grime MC had forgotten about the song after working on it years ago and said the final version was “a big surprise.”

“Other than hearing it online and on certain platforms and stuff like that, when I actually linked up with Fred again.. and Skrillex and he showed me the details that we’ve actually added to the song… there’s only one reaction I know that a real music lover’s going to have,” Flowdan said. “And that’s tears.”

“I Thought I Ruined the Song”: Skrillex Opens Up About the Production of “Rumble” – EDM.com

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