First of the Year (Equinox)

2011 single by Skrillex

"First of the Year (Equinox)"

Single by Skrillex
from the EP  More Monsters and Sprites
Released| June 7, 2011
Recorded| 2011
Genre| Dubstep[1]
Length| 4:22
Label| Big Beat
Songwriter(s)| Skrillex
Producer(s)| Skrillex
Skrillex singles chronology
| "Get Up!"
(2011)  | "First of the Year (Equinox)"
(2011)  | "Ruffneck (Full Flex)"
(2011)

|
|

"First of the Year (Equinox)" is a song by American electronic music producer Skrillex. It was released on June 7, 2011, as the lead single from his third EP, More Monsters and Sprites. The song has since become a moderate commercial success, peaking within the charts of the United States, Australia, Canada, Norway and Sweden.[2][3][4] A music video directed by Tony Truand, produced by HK Corp, premiered on August 10, 2011, and was nominated at the 54th Grammy Awards for Best Short Form Music Video. The music video was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Best Electronic Dance Music Video and it won the award for Best Visual Effects in a Video at 2012 MTV Video Music Awards.

## Music video

[edit]

The official music video for the song was made available for download on iTunes on August 10, 2011.[5] The video was produced by French company HK Corp and directed by Tony Truand. It was released on Skrillex's official YouTube channel on August 17, 2011, and has accumulated more than 420 million views.[6]

The video focuses on a paedophile who takes notice of and follows a young, innocent-seeming girl as she skips down the street and descends into an underground area. Following downstairs, he pulls out a cloth with chloroform. Just as he is about to attack, she screams "Call 911 now!" and begins telekinetically manipulating his body, raising him into the air, contorting him into various positions, slamming him against walls and shooting black smoke into and through his body. It is revealed that a dark figure, reminiscent of the slender figure in the Come to Daddy music video, is directly behind her making identical gestures to the child. The child's eyes turn the same color black as the figure. The suggestion is that the child is in fact some kind of avatar/golem being used by the creature to lure and punish child predators. Ultimately the child makes a final twisting motion with her hands, indicating she has killed the man. She is then shown using her finger to add a pitch black mark to a tally on the wall, adding another victim of her justice to the count (at least 75).

### Critical reception

[edit]

Spin complimented the video, saying "It's one thing to empathize with at-risk kids, or to speak up for them generally, but Skrillex takes it a step further -- and then further still -- in this stunning new video for the track 'First of the Year (Equinox).'" And went on to say "But in this clip, the song's melodic preamble also serves as an ominous backdrop for a creepy, would-be predator who's lurking outside a playground where young children are frolicking. The day is overcast, but something much darker is in the air, as a little girl leaves and the man stalks after her. When she unexpectedly skips off to a dark, abandoned warehouse, he continues to follow, eventually entering a room where she's standing alone, holding a telephone receiver. The keyboards suddenly fade into a glitchier groove, and then, at the 1:25 mark, well, you gotta see for yourself."[7]

The music video was nominated for Best Short Form Music Video at the 54th Grammy Awards. The video was nominated for the MTV Video Music Award for Best Electronic Dance Music Video and it won the award for Best Visual Effects in a Video at 2012 MTV Video Music Awards, awarded to VFX supervisors the Deka Brothers. The video is featured in "Werewolves of Highland", the first episode of season 8 of Beavis and Butt-head. The song is also used by Argentinian TV channel TV Pública to promote the matches of the 2012 Torneo Inicial.

## Samples

[edit]

"First of the Year" samples Equinox, an old demo track recorded by Skrillex (credited under his given name.)[8] The vocal sample was pitch adjusted, reversed, sped-up, vocoded and rearranged, making it nearly indistinguishable. The song also samples a viral video from 2005, which features a woman screaming "Call 911 now", and was used without permission from the original author.[9]

## Charts

[edit]

### Weekly charts

[edit]

| Chart (2011–2012)  | Peak
position

|

Australia (ARIA)[10] | 84
Belgium (Ultratip Bubbling Under Flanders)[11] | 7
Canada (Canadian Hot 100)[12] | 88
France (SNEP)[13] | 187
Norway (VG-lista)[14] | 14
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[15] | 19
US Billboard Hot 100[16] | 85

### Year-end charts

[edit]

| Chart (2011)  | Position

|

Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[17] | 83
Chart (2012)  | Position
Sweden (Sverigetopplistan)[18] | 74

## Certifications

[edit]

Region  | Certification | Certified units/sales

|
|

Canada (Music Canada)[19] | 2× Platinum  | 160,000‡
Mexico (AMPROFON)[20] | Gold  | 30,000*
New Zealand (RMNZ)[21] | Platinum  | 30,000‡
Sweden (GLF)[18] | 2× Platinum  | 80,000‡
United States (RIAA)[22] | Platinum  | 1,000,000‡
Streaming
Denmark (IFPI Danmark)[23] | Platinum  | 1,800,000†

* Sales figures based on certification alone.
‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
† Streaming-only figures based on certification alone.

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Jeffries, David. "More Monsters & Sprites - Skrillex". AllMusic. Retrieved March 28, 2015.
2. ^ Steffen Hung. "Discography Skrillex". australian-charts.com. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
3. ^ "Skrillex - Music Charts". αCharts.
4. ^ Steffen Hung. "Discography Skrillex". norwegiancharts.com. Retrieved August 2, 2022.
5. ^ "First of the Year (Equinox)". iTunes. August 10, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
6. ^ "First Of The Year (Equinox) - Skrillex [OFFICIAL]". YouTube. August 17, 2011. Retrieved September 20, 2011.
7. ^ "Skrillex Premieres Mind-Blowing New Video". Spin. August 19, 2011. Retrieved September 21, 2011.
8. ^ "WhoSampled". WhoSampled. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
9. ^ "Crazy Lady yells at skaters Call 911 now original". YouTube. March 4, 2013. Retrieved March 21, 2017.
10. ^ "The ARIA Report: Issue 1114 (Week Commencing 4 July 2011)" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. p. 2\. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 29, 2011. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
11. ^ "Skrillex – First Of The Year (Equinox)" (in Dutch). Ultratip. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
12. ^ "Skrillex Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
13. ^ "Skrillex – First Of The Year (Equinox)" (in French). Le classement de singles. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
14. ^ "Skrillex – First Of The Year (Equinox)". VG-lista. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
15. ^ "Skrillex – First Of The Year (Equinox)". Singles Top 100. Retrieved August 14, 2014.
16. ^ "Skrillex Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
17. ^ "Årslista Singlar – År 2011" (in Swedish). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved October 10, 2019.
18. ^ a b "Årslista Singlar – År 2012" (in Swedish). Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved October 13, 2019.
19. ^ "Canadian single certifications – Skrillex – First of the Year (Equinox)". Music Canada. Retrieved March 20, 2025.
20. ^ "Certificaciones" (in Spanish). Asociación Mexicana de Productores de Fonogramas y Videogramas. Retrieved June 19, 2021. Type Skrillex in the box under the ARTISTA column heading and First of the Year in the box under the TÍTULO column heading.
21. ^ "New Zealand single certifications – Skrillex – First of the Year (Equinox)". Radioscope. Retrieved August 10, 2025. Type First of the Year (Equinox)  in the "Search:" field.
22. ^ "American single certifications – Skrillex – First of the Year (Equinox)". Recording Industry Association of America. January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 26, 2015.
23. ^ "Danish single certifications – Skrillex – First of the Year (Equinox)". IFPI Danmark. Retrieved December 23, 2022.

* v
* t
* e

MTV Video Music Award for Best Visual Effects

* "Rockit" (1984)
* "Don't Come Around Here No More" (1985)
* "Take On Me" (1986)
* "Sledgehammer" (1987)
* "Hourglass" (1988)
* "Leave Me Alone" (1989)
* "Sowing the Seeds of Love" (1990)
* "Falling to Pieces" (1991)
* "Even Better Than the Real Thing" (1992)
* "Steam" (1993)
* "Kiss That Frog" (1994)
* "Love Is Strong" (1995)
* "Tonight, Tonight" (1996)
* "Virtual Insanity" (1997)
* "Frozen" (1998)
* "Special" (1999)
* "All Is Full of Love" (2000)
* "Rock DJ" (2001)
* "Fell in Love with a Girl" (2002)
* "Go with the Flow" (2003)
* "Hey Ya!" (2004)
* "Feel Good Inc." (2005)
* "We Run This" (2006)
* "Good Life" (2008)
* "Paparazzi" (2009)
* "Uprising" (2010)
* "E.T." (2011)
* "First of the Year (Equinox)" (2012)
* "Safe and Sound" (2013)
* "The Writing's on the Wall" (2014)
* "Where Are Ü Now" (2015)
* "Up&Up" (2016)
* "HUMBLE." (2017)
* "All the Stars" (2018)
* "ME!" (2019)
* "Physical" (2020)
* "Montero (Call Me by Your Name)" (2021)
* "Industry Baby" (2022)
* "Anti-Hero" (2023)
* "Houdini" (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Skrillex

Discography

Studio albums|

* Recess
* Quest for Fire
* Don't Get Too Close
* Fuck U Skrillex You Think Ur Andy Warhol but Ur Not!!

Extended plays|

* My Name Is Skrillex
* Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites
* More Monsters and Sprites
* Bangarang
* Leaving

Singles|

* "Weekends!!!"
* "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites"
* "First of the Year (Equinox)"
* "Ruffneck (Full Flex)"
* "Breakn' a Sweat"
* "Bangarang"
* "Make It Bun Dem"
* "Try It Out"
* "Ragga Bomb"
* "Recess"
* "Take Ü There"
* "Dirty Vibe"
* "Where Are Ü Now"
* "Purple Lamborghini"
* "Would You Ever"
* "Saint Laurent"
* "Favor"
* "Agen Wida"
* "Humble" (Skrillex remix)
* "Face My Fears"
* "Midnight Hour"
* "Butterflies"
* "In da Getto"
* "En Mi Cuarto"
* "Don't Go"
* "Rumble"

Featured singles|

* "Get Up!"
* "Narcissistic Cannibal"
* "Chaos Lives in Everything"
* "Wild for the Night"
* "El Chapo"
* "So Am I"
* "Ego Death"

Other songs|

* "Rock 'n' Roll (Will Take You to the Mountain)"
* "Kyoto"
* "Ease My Mind"

Tours|

* Mothership Tour

Related articles|

* From First to Last
* Jack Ü
* Dog Blood
* Owsla
* Skrillex and Diplo Present Jack Ü
* There Is a Hell...
* The Path of Totality
* Spring Breakers (soundtrack)

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