Calm Down, Internet: Skrillex Is Not ZHU

They say that one shouldn't let the facts get in the way of a good story, and it's an adage the internet seems to have taken to heart when it comes to the identity of enigmatic wunderkind electronic musician ZHU.

The latest tinfoil-hat theory is suggesting that the man behind the moniker is none other than Sonny Moore, aka Skrillex, after footage surfaced online (purportedly taken at Brisbane's recent Stereosonic festival) of ZHU's set-closer, his global hit Faded, bleeding into the very distinct, self-referential My Name Is Skrillex, with the bespectacled home of the shit haircut coming out on-stage at the track's conclusion to say that he hopes the audience has enjoyed "the ZHU projects".

And the internet exploded — a cursory glance at search-engine or social-media results for the two names side-by-side reveal a spirited debate about the legitimacy of Skrillex's claim, with adamant parties falling on both ends of the argument — but it really shouldn't ought to have.

After all, as noted EDM sites Do Androids Dance? and Your EDM have already all but proven, ZHU is almost certainly 25-year-old producer Steven Zhu, a name that has long been conjecturally tied to the mysterious newcomer since late last year. Do Androids Dance? used the database of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to confirm that ZHU's tracks had been registered under "Steven Zhu" — not "Sonny Moore", as they would have been had Skrillex really been behind the name. For Your EDM's part, the site cites a triple j interview with Lewi McKirdy that it believes settles the debate. 

Meanwhile, The Music's own search of web-address analysis site DomainSigma reveals that zhumusic.com, ZHU's official website, was registered by Steven Zhu, while an earnest post from an apparent collaborator dated April 10, 2013 — a few months before ZHU wiped all his social media accounts and started again — points to the "zhumusic" handle (his previous Facebook address, which is now merely "zhu"), and links to the now-deleted SoundCloud page of "stevenzhumusic". 

That's the thing about the internet — it has a terrifyingly long and detailed memory, if only we had the attention span to use it. Still not convinced? Try inputting 'stevenzhumusic.com' into your browser and let us know where it redirects you. So, while we leave the most miniscule sliver of room for the idea that we (and, moreover, DAD and Your EDM) could be wrong about this, it's way less likely than ZHU actually being Skrillex in disguise.