Skrrt Skrrt

"Skrrt Skrrt" is an instrumental song by Mike Shinoda created live on Twitch on July 21, 2020. It was later released on the blockchain-based music platform Audius.

Background

After the release of the three volumes of Dropped Frames, Mike confirmed many times that he didn't have the intention of releasing a fourth volume. Back on October 2020 he said: "You know, I have to imagine there will be a way to release them and I don't know what that's going to be. My thing was like, the ones that I really really liked, that I made, I put them on the 'Dropped Frames' ones. And I've made some since then that I got like 'I really like that one'. But there's also a lot that I think are fine, they're ok, but I wouldn't want them sitting and taking up space on my Spotify page... almost like just clutter. And I want you guys to have them or have access to. I just haven't figured out the right way to do it."

On March 2021 he introduced the idea of releasing more songs created on Twitch through a new platform, called Audius: "Let me ask a question. There is a platform starting, it's a blockchain music platform called Audius. Their proposal, where they wanna get to, is basically like a super artist-fan centric music platform that it's a little bit like SoundCloud, but it's different. They're heading towards like a 90/10% artists split, meaning like... I don't remember what the number was but you guys are seeing these things going around where it's like, Spotify pays... like if you have a million streams on Spotify you get like two dollars. You get whatever that is right? Tidal pays more, and SoundCloud does a different thing, and so on, you know all of this. So their thing is, they want to facilitate the most direct connection between the artist and the fans, and if you sell a thing you keep almost all of the money and they have the capability of tracking... If you do a remix, I think they can track who partecipated and in what ways, because of the blockchain element, so like, 'I make a keyboard, you make drums, they play guitar, we all share the royalties of that'. Right know that's not all setup, but that's where they're heading towards. So they have some interesting capabilities that other platforms aren't doing or maybe can't do. If this was a thing where I started putting these Dropped Frames things, not the ones with vocals, but the instrumentals, is that something that you guys would do? Or do you just really want them the other way? 'Cause the other way is fine, it's just the audience is small. The audience for the Dropped Frames stuff is a small audience. And small audience stuff doesn't do very well just in terms of being effective in money per stream, or whatever, it's not effective. So my thought was, maybe we can put these things up on Audius and see how that goes. Would you guys be down? I know it's like starting another account but... No, it's free, you're not paying anything at this point. It's like Spotify has a free service and a pay thing, that's where they're headed, you can always listen to them for free. I think it will be ad-based, it's not ad-based right now, right now they're just building the community. I haven't done a deal with them, I made an account and that's it. I talked to them and I liked what they had to say. They're not gonna replace Spotify or whatever, they described it almost as if it was a music streaming version of a fan club, which I thought it was like, 'Oh! Addictive!'. Like, regular fans would go on Spotify and Apple and blah, blah, blah, but if you treat it like a streaming service for a fan club, then all of the sudden that made sense to me, I was like, 'Oh ok, you're more tight, it's more interactive and it's a different kind of experience.'"

"Skrrt Skrrt" was created on Twitch on July 21, 2020. The jam was a mash-up of "I Want To Break Free" by Queen, Salsa/Latin + Disney vibes, and Frozen/Moana + Migos ad-libs. It was made on Garage Band. During the stream, Mike rapped parts of "Welcome" and "Bleed It Out" over the jam as he was creating it. He did try to incorporate some Queen sounds in the beat but he eventually decided to try it again for another jam. It was later picked from the Bowl Of Destiny along with Hamilton Musical and Contemporary Broadway Music for the September 23, 2020 jam.

Release

On September 7, 2021, Mike said he wanted to release a new track on Audius. He gave the fans three choices for what to vote for. He said, "We have "Skrrt Skrrt," we have "License to Waltz," we have "Acoustic Quarantine Tequila." Let's listen to some of these. We have this one, this one's "Skrrt Skrrt." Make a new poll? What should I release on Audius? "One Hundredth Stream" was a request, it's kind of a cool track, I love this one. So that one's called "One Hundredth Stream." This one we just listened to, I call it "One Hundredth Stream." What was the other name for the "Quarantine Tequila" one? What was the other name for it? "Atomic Tortilla"? I've gotta find the "Quarantine Tequila" song. I didn't call it "Atomic Tortilla," I didn't call it that in my... thing. "4/13/20," is that what it was? Oh so it was "JPop/Owl City/Madonna!" Oh so I've gotta rename this - "Quarantine Tequila." I want to put one more in there. The "Zeppelin" one was really good. Let's just get the vote done - "Skrrt Skrrt", "One Hundredth Stream", and "Quarantine Tequila." The final results in order were "Skrrt Skrrt" (with 42% of votes), "One Hundredth Stream" and "Quarantine Tequila." The song will be posted on Audius today."

Artwork

The artwork for the song is a variation of Mike's NFT titled "SonkThHegeogs". He wrote about the original piece, "A masterpiece created live on Twitch (9.7.21), memorialized on the blockchain at the request of the viewers in the chat." The piece is based on the popular videogame character Sonic The Hedgehog. On Instagram, he wrote, "The best part about being able to share a “digital collectible” on IG is, I can show you the work I’m most proud of".

Versions

Note: Only the date of the very first release of each version is listed.

Title	Album	Length	Recorded	Released	Notes
Skrrt Skrrt	Skrrt Skrrt	2:16	July 21, 2020	September 7, 2021	Created live on Twitch on July 21, 2020. Released on Audius on September 7, 2021.

Gallery

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  Cover

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  SonkThHegeogs