A Laptop, Glasses, and a MIDI Controller? Why Skrillex’s Hall of Fame Exhibit Matters

In electronic music circles, there is a story that ends with the words: “He was never the same”. The story is about Skrillex’s stolen laptop. For over a decade, this piece of hardware has been a subject of fascination for fans, representing a moment when a collection of music vanished.  

The story involves two laptops. One was stolen in 2011 and held unreleased music. A different laptop from his early career is now in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. This is the story of these two machines.  

The 2011 Theft

In early 2011, Sonny Moore, known as Skrillex, was rising to stardom. His EP Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites was released in late 2010 and changed the music world. He was the face of a new sound that critics called “brostep,” which he produced from a warehouse in LA on damaged speakers.  ¹

In March 2011, while on tour in Milan, Italy, an incident occurred. Someone broke into his hotel room and stole two laptops and two external hard drives. Before cloud storage was common, this was a major loss. It was his entire body of work.  

Skrillex confirmed the news on social media: “I had 2 laptops and both of my hard drives stolen… On those laptops and drives were all the project files of Skrillex. All gone now. Also I had a new album that is now gone too”. His work, at his peak, was gone.  ²

What Was on the Laptop?

For years, fans believed the lost album was titled Voltage. This is a myth. The track “Voltage” was not played live until two months after the theft. The primary loss was the full-length version of what became the  More Monsters and Sprites EP. The theft forced him to release a shorter version with a few original tracks and remixes.  

Here’s a partial list of the files lost on the drives:

• Project Files: The Ableton files for “First of the Year (Equinox),” his “Cinema” remix, and “Still Gettin’ It” were gone. He released them because he had saved audio versions beforehand.  ³
• Collaborations: A track with Kill the Noise called “Bring Out The Devil” was lost. The version that came out was a remake by Kill the Noise.  
• Sound Library: A significant loss was his library of synth presets, drum samples, and effect chains—the components of his sound. Recreating them from memory would be difficult.  

The Gear: A 2011 MacBook Pro

The computer at the center of this was modest by today’s standards. Skrillex worked on a 13-inch Apple MacBook Pro, likely an early 2011 model. This laptop had a dual-core i5 or i7 processor with around 4GB of RAM. His digital audio workstation (DAW) was Ableton Live 8, the current version at the time.  

He worked entirely “in the box,” using the laptop’s trackpad to draw in melodies and automation. His “talking” bass growls came not from the synth Massive, as many believed, but from a plugin called  Native Instruments FM8. He processed these sounds with distortion plugins like  Ohm Force Ohmicide and iZotope Trash.  

The Museum Exhibit: More Than Just a Laptop

While the stolen laptop is a legend, a different set of Skrillex’s gear became real-life artifacts. In the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, you can find a display dedicated to his 2011 setup. The exhibit features not just a 2011 Apple MacBook Pro, but also his signature eyeglasses and an M-Audio “Trigger Finger” MIDI controller from the same year.  

This setup tells the story of his live performances. The Trigger Finger was a key part of his early DJ sets, used to trigger clips and effects in Ableton Live. The placard next to the controller notes that he “travels light on the road, sometimes with only equipment like the items here and a thumb drive.” This minimal setup—a laptop, a small controller, and his glasses—is what he used to command massive festival crowds.  ⁴

This exhibit represents his journey. Before Skrillex, Sonny Moore was the frontman of the band From First To Last. These items symbolize his transition from the Warped Tour stage to the electronic scene. Their inclusion in the Rock Hall is a statement. It validates digital tools like a laptop and a MIDI controller as legitimate musical instruments and recognizes the producer as a modern rockstar, placing electronic music in history.  

The Legacy of the Laptops

The 2011 Milan theft was a moment for the culture. It forced Skrillex into a reset, leading to the sound of his Bangarang EP later that year. For fans, it created a “what if” scenario that adds to the mystique of his early work. The incident also served as a lesson for musicians about backing up their work.  

Both the stolen machine and the one in the museum tell the same story: today, you don’t need an expensive studio to change the world. Sometimes, a laptop is all you need. ⁵

1. https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/47117/1/skrillex-2019-interview-dubstep-grammys-justin-bieber ↩︎
2. https://themusic.com.au/news/skrillex-gets-robbed-loses-new-album-material/S1lXX15BQEM/28-04-11 ↩︎
3. https://www.reddit.com/r/skrillex/comments/1fuwjw7/did_skrillex_ever_release_the_songs_that_were/ ↩︎
4. https://www.reddit.com/r/dubstep/comments/f4wtb/hey_skrillex_haters_can_we_talk_about_something/ ↩︎
5. https://www.musicradar.com/news/tech/interview-skrillex-on-ableton-live-plug-ins-production-and-more-510973 ↩︎