Ian "SKRILLZ" Lanza is a 22 year old DJ/producer who sped into the
scene in 2008, and hasn't let up on the throttle yet! Hailing out of
New Jersey, SKRILLZ's itinerary mostly consists of colorful basement
shows in the Philadelphia underground, along with a 4 month
cross-country tour. He has shared the stage with the likes of
Ashburner & Goli, J. Rabbit, EMER, Unicron, Mista Hyde, Vermin, Slav,
Valerie Molano, Bryzergold and others. He released his first original
track "Goldeneye" August 2009, which gained clout via his YouTube &
Soundcloud accounts. He began uploading high quality TenMinMix videos,
which landed him a resident DJ spot on online radio station TorrenTech
radio. Almost 6 month after his first released tune, SKRILLZ assembled
a 5-track demo, which he pushed to local radio stations. Through this
hard work and determination, his demo was passed on to Philly Hardcore
and DnB heavyweight Frank "Unicron" Gavin, who throws many events in
the Philadelphia area. He gave SKRILLZ his first show in Philly, and
helped launch his career in the area. In the following months, SKRILLZ
finished up school and earned an Associates Degree in Electronic Music
from the County College of Morris in New Jersey. He used this time to
develop his style as he was drawn to the friendly vibes of bass and
dubstep. He began getting more shows in Philly, the most notable of
which was when he met and joined forces with Brostep aficionado and
local Philly resident EMER. They shared production and DJing tips, as
well as long-term goals and aspirations. Having similar viewpoints,
EMER and SKRILLZ began planning their push and eventual takeover of
the Philadelphia Underground Bass Scene. The team worked on getting
EMER's company "Subvandals" in full gear to expand the brand.
Subvandals is an international crew of underground dubstep/brostep and
filth producers that just want to be heard. With over 40 artists are
affiliated with Subvandals now, including Chrispy, Bong, d-Queue,
Badklaat, Crimes, Bryzergold, Taiki, Mista Chozen and pogman, EMER
and SKRILLZ sit at the top as organizers, putting out free releases.
They do it all for the love of the music, and don't make any money.
The Subvandals Crew focuses on the producer getting shows rather than
the djs... "...It’s like being in a famous cover band. If a DJ plays
his own music he's legit, if not he's just another cover band."
-SKRILLZ
They provide their artist with free promotion, artwork, as well as
provide artist management. This is to help the artists talk to the
right people and get them to work out a way to come to the states. At
which point, EMER and SKRILLZ can provide 2 months a touring, which
includes free press, paid gigs, endless connections, and the ability
to put the artist in a position to return. Subvandals has put out two
free releases with about 20 tracks per release, every track being from
a different Subvandals artist. This put the pair in a good position to
begin their tour, the "WTF IS BROSTEP TOUR" and establish themselves
as a force to be reckoned with.
Having being fed up with dive bars and shady promoters, EMER and
SKRILLZ took it upon themselves to handle all phases of the tour
planning, promoting and travel. With a few hundred dollars and a 94
Civic, they began their tour, starting with Philly as the first stop.
In the following 4 months, the pair played 40 shows, spanning the
globe from St. Louis, to Orlando, to Upstate New York, as well as
further west. When money ran up and the promoters couldn't pay up,
they always seemed to get it together in the clutch, throwing weekend
house parties in Philly just to make end meet. "I always considered
Philly to be my second home. The people are accepting and everyone
just wants to rage out to heavy bass, it’s awesome!" The pair hit a
few bumps in the road when they got to Florida. SKRILLZ's 1994 Honda
Civic DX Manual was on the way out and decided to sell it for some
cash. While at their stays at sub-par motels in Tampa, they managed to
sell the Civic, but there was still one problem.. They were stuck at a
motel in Tampa with a bunch of cash and no car or way to get home.
SKRILLZ spent the next two days at a used car lot with the hopes of
purchasing a new vehicle. He settled on a 1992 Chevy Astro Van with
purple tints and red interior, later to be named "The Husk Van", and
surprised EMER at the motel. The two then made their way to Panama
City Florida for spring break where some 2.1 million people were
vacationing. After sleeping in the van for a week and landing a dive
bar show, they were set to journey to California to play DreamScape
and meet up with UK headliner Dark Elixir, with whom they step up a
month of touring. Dark Elixir, however, got signed by a rival label,
and couldn't make the trip to the states. This screwed up a whole
month of touring for the pair, and decided to cut their losses and
head back to Philly. Down but not out EMER and SKRILLZ kept it moving.
With the support of the friends and family in Philly, EMER and SKRILLZ
went back to doing what they were best at, throwing house parties.
However, being gone for a month left the door open for other no name
DJs to try and copy what we did, and had success doing do for a little
bit, until EMER got fed up with all the people he was trying to help
dicking him over and throwing shows behind his back. He decided to
show at one of the parties of the rival crew, and make his presence
felt. After things started to cool off and everyone started to look at
this music scene constructively, was when everyone started to get
along again. That was the message from the beginning "..Subvandals
motto to me is about affecting change through common and collective
goals. Hating became such a trend because everyone wants to have
meaning to what was going on, like they didn't understand it, so might
as well hate on it.." While there is still some animosity between
certain parties, the goals of Subvandals doesn't change. "We are an
international crew of underground producers looking to change the game
by giving people what they want, free filthy tunes always". With all
the genre branding and new styles today, many began lumping the two in
with the term "brostep", which is a made up word. It is used to
describe loud, mid-range bass res's at 140bpm and often peculiar, but
innovative syncopation. "If I am going to be lumped in with a term to
describe my music, I will have my say as to the meaning". With
negativity surrounding the term "brostep" and what people think it
means, the team adopted a more specific sub-genre of Dubstep called
"Filth". "It's like brostep evil cousin the doesn't shower and is a
rude SOB!" With a tour circuit already established and connections
for days, the two look to begin their next tour sometime at the end of
2011. "For now we're just chilling out, working our days jobs, and
planning for the future. I am just going to keep making consistently
filth tunes for the masses". One thing SKRILLZ is very adamant about
is the fact that he put out all his tunes for free, that right FREE!
"...With all the competition of record labels and who wants to make
the most money, I feel its better for me as an artist to not get
caught up in all that. I know what I am making is good, and the people
should hear it and use it at their leisure. There's no answer to solve
the music piracy issue than to make everything free, and that’s what
we do." You can download the two free releases from Subvandals via
their blog (http://subvandals.blogspot.com) as well as get all of
SKRILLZ's 20+ original tunes for FREE via his soundcloud. His YouTube,
which has 500,000 views on 60+ videos is a great way to kill the time,
as well as check out his two music videos. SKRILLZ has since been
releasing dance floor knockers, jah inspired dubs, hip-hop remixes &
more! His hardwork and dedication to music is reflected in his deep
mixes and thoughtfully produced tunes. A man possessed is scary, but
SKRILLZ aims to change the game on his bass driven push to the top!