Skyler Austen Gordy, known by his stage name Sky Blu — formerly one-half of the hip-hop electronic dance music duo LMFAO and grandson of Motown Records founder Berry Gordy — was the featured artist at last week’s “Salon Series” event put on by Malibu’s Cultural Arts Commission.
“I’ll show you where I’ve been and where I’m going, and I’m very happy to share it with you guys,” Gordy said. “Life is my school — I didn’t graduate [from] high school. I’m 29, had a crazy career with LMFAO, and that’s where we grow from. My whole life, I’ve had such a connection to music that people can feel what I felt when I was making it — feel the raw energy and emotion that I have.”
When Gordy was only 19, he joined his uncle, Stefan Kendal Gordy (stage name Redfoo), in 2006 to form LMFAO.
“It was my dream,” he said. The band lasted for six years, until 2012. Their biggest hit, “Party Rock Anthem,” was No. 1 in 12 countries, including the U.S., and the third-best-selling digital single of 2011, with 9.7 million sales.
Both members of the duo grew up in the Pacific Palisades.
“The truth is, I ain’t no gangsta,” Gordy laughed. “I love the beach, skateboarding and partying.”
“We started our group on MySpace,” he said. Gordy was funny, animated and charming, with lots of stories to tell.
As far as the music, he said, “I never made the same kind of song back-to-back. We did what we felt and never worried about having a particular ‘sound.’” Uncle Foo mixed and mastered the records, Gordy explained, while he did the writing.
“I started making my music from poetry and expressing myself more and more … I was half electro, half hip-hop,” Gordy said. “I’ve had music come to me in so many different ways. The song “I am Not a Whore,” came from a pick-up line, “Fortune 500” came from a beat and “Sorcery” came out of experiences. Musical trends also flow through me. “
Unfortunately, life on the road eventually took its toll. “I’d been a big athlete my whole life, but I was partying every day,” Gordy said. “I had two No. 1 hit records and toured the world. The type of people that were around were corrupting and it wasn’t always a happy time for me. I saw what happens to someone who becomes successful and has all this temptation around them.”
It was also physically grueling. He said LMFAO did 300 shows a year and “gave it 100 percent every time.” Gordy’s back went out on the twenty-second day of a 25-day arena tour; he said the group “didn’t perform much after that, except for the Super Bowl.”
“My huge success didn’t satisfy me the way I thought it would,” Gordy said.
He decided “I gotta do something for me,” in terms of music, and went solo. He made a 20-song mixtape, which he says “these days is basically a free album” with well-known DJ Clinton Sparks as the host, titled “Rebel Music.”
“The stuff I was saying was really heartfelt — I expressed myself so deeply,” Gordy said.
He likes being his own boss.
“The heart and soul of the record labels isn’t really there. I’m now in control of my own destiny. I don’t have to have a corporation’s interest in my art,” Gordy said. He’s gotten so into his work that he’s gone into a self-described “hermit shell,” although he also talked about having a German wife and trying to learn German.
One of his latest projects was a 13-song mixtape released just a few months ago in collaboration with a friend from the Dominican Republic, Sensato, in half Spanish and half English. “We had great chemistry,” he said of the “Guacamole” project.
Sky Blu also played his recent YouTube music videos for the Salon Series audience, giving a real sense of his creative process.
Gordy is currently working on his first solo commercial project, which will include about 30 songs and be released on his own label very soon. “It will show the world how I relate to my art,” he said. “I’m not just a shufflin’, wigglin’ fool — I’ll show people I got everything in the back pocket. “
Salon Series events are limited to 25 people. Residents interested in attending should register on the city’s website at malibucity.org/index.aspx?nid=677.
