Stranger

Album: Recess (2014)
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Songfacts®:

  • This song is a collaboration with KillaGraham, who is a Dubstep producer based in LA and features Sam Dew, whose voice you might recognize from Wale's 2013 hit "LoveHate Thing."
  • The song was included on the Divergent soundtrack, which was released shortly before Recess.
  • Skrillex told NME: "I love ghetto house and Dirtybird records, and this is me trying to mix my sound with their sorts of sound."
  • Skrillex released an official remixed version of the tune as a Christmas gift for fans over the 2015 holiday. The death of his mother earlier in the year proved to be inspirational for the more introspective reworked version. "'Stranger' kind of fell on the backburner for a while, and obviously this song was older so I just felt like I should rework it," Skrillex explained to The Creators Project. "This was actually only like a month ago. (I thought) why don't I just flip the song into something else so it doesn't feel irrelevant?"
  • Skrillex tapped into his youth for the video's inspiration. "It's very inspired by movies like Hook and Peter Pan," he explained. "I thought it was really appropriate for the song."

    "The meaning of this video was being in this world where you're a stranger. Everyone's a stranger, and names don't matter, and being a stranger disintegrates walls and you get to have a true human interaction," Skrillex continued. "It's the hardest thing to keep when you get older, that child inside of you that's so free and has no filter. That's what makes it so real."

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