Longtime Sonny Moore Fans & Archivists - Early Life & Lost Years
Researching Sonny Moore's life for a documentary. What am I missing?
Hey everyone,
I'm currently researching and writing a long-form video/documentary about Sonny Moore's life, not just Skrillex's career.
A lot of documentaries and videos focus on the obvious stuff: Scary Monsters, the Grammys, OWSLA, Jack Ü, etc. But I'm much more interested in the person behind Skrillex and the events that shaped Sonny before he became the artist we know today.
I've spent the last few weeks digging through interviews, old forum posts, Reddit threads, archived MySpace information, FFTL-era content, Bells-era discussions, Blood Monkeys material, and fan trackers.
This is the timeline I've built so far, and I'd love feedback from longtime fans, archivists, or anyone who knows obscure Sonny lore.
Things I currently consider important:
• 1988 – Born in Highland Park, Los Angeles.
• Adoption at birth by Scott and Francis Moore.
• Early childhood in San Francisco.
• Time spent at boarding school in Barstow.
• Return to Northeast Los Angeles around age 12.
• Exposure to punk, hardcore, alternative scenes, raves, and the broader LA underground culture.
• Bullying and transition to homeschooling.
• Discovery at age 16 that he was adopted.
• Identity crisis resulting from learning that a woman he had known for years was actually his biological mother.
• Connection with Matt Good online.
• Move to Valdosta, Georgia.
• Joining From First to Last initially as a guitarist, then becoming lead vocalist.
• Touring years.
• Vocal cord issues and growing creative frustration.
• Leaving FFTL in 2007.
Then comes what I personally think is the most overlooked and fascinating period of Sonny's life:
THE LOST YEARS (2007–2009)
• Sonnysound MySpace.
• Early solo demos.
• The Bells project.
• Touring with Team Sleep.
• Friendship with Chino Moreno.
• Formation of Sonny and the Blood Monkeys.
• AP Tour preparation.
• Development of songs like Oceans, Signal, Mora, Moss, Gloom, Glow Worm, Concentrical, Copaface, etc.
• Lost songs such as Miss Barracuda, Bittering Me, Elephant Boy, Father Said (BM version), Baby Boy (BM version), and others.
• The relationship between Bells, Blood Monkeys, and Gypsyhook.
• Whether Blood Monkeys were simply a live band or a more collaborative creative project.
• The possibility that some ideas from this era survived into later Skrillex projects.
Then:
• Gypsyhook.
• My Name Is Skrillex.
• Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites.
• OWSLA.
• Global success.
• Death of Francis Moore in 2015.
• FFTL reunion.
• Burnout and personal struggles.
• Quest For Fire / Don't Get Too Close.
My biggest questions right now are:
What important life events am I missing?
Are there interviews that reveal more about Sonny as a person rather than Skrillex as a producer?
Is there any documented information about his biological parents beyond what is commonly known?
Is there a deeper history behind Bells and Sonny & The Blood Monkeys that most fans don't know?
Are there archived MySpace uploads, blog posts, photos, forum discussions, or lost media that I should be looking at?
What part of Sonny's personal life do you think is most misunderstood by fans?
I'm especially interested in the HUMAN story rather than the career achievements.
Any information, sources, memories, old screenshots, interviews, obscure forum posts, or corrections would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks!