Why Kaleidoscope Orchestra’s Steve Pycroft studied Skrillex to make the orchestra’s first original albumFor Steve Pycroft, everything started with Skrillex.
Such inspiration is not uncommon among electronic artists, but Pycroft isn’t your typical electronic artist. He is the producer, arranger, and music director for Kaleidoscope Orchestra, an ensemble that performs electronic music combined with full orchestral instrumentation, and the first piece he performed with his hybrid classical-electronic outfit was a 10-minute suite of Skrillex’s music.

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Listening to the opening overture of string harmonies and countermelodies, one may not be able to hear the correlation with Skrillex’s raging dubstep beats. But after a couple of minutes, the unmistakable melody of Gary Go’s Cinema vocal sweeps in, which is one of Skrillex’s most celebrated remixes. The now-iconic growls are swapped for rumbling double bass while flute and violin hit their highest register to respond with the screeches.
“Having Skrillex as a bar to aim for is pretty silly. How are you gonna get to that level? But I think, why not aim for that?” Pycroft admits. The suite is nearing 1 million views on YouTube, with a stamp of approval from Skrillex, who shared it back in 2012. “It made me realise that there was demand for this. People like seeing an orchestra do things differently. It’s a good way to introduce people to orchestras.”
In the past 14 years, the demand for orchestras in the electronic space has grown exponentially. Electronic artists such as Flight Facilities, Black Coffee, Boris Brejcha, and Bonobo have all performed with orchestras in different parts of the world. Pete Tong has been producing his Ibiza classics orchestral tour since 2017. There are also orchestras similar to Kaleidoscope, such as Tomorrowland’s Symphony of Unity and Ministry of Sound Classical, that perform dance hits.
As this attention has increased, Pycroft has taken Kaleidoscope to major forums such as Creamfields while arranging orchestral covers of Daft Punk, The Prodigy, Fred Again.., and Avicii, even expanding to Linkin Park and Eminem.
Image: Press
Now, Pycroft has taken Kaleidescope to a place none of the similar orchestras have gone: he’s released a full album of original electronic-orchestral music. The record is entitled Moments Between, and it spans various synthetic beats with the kind of universally appreciated supportive flair that only an orchestra can provide.
A Beauty balances unified melodies from horns and strings over a jovially swung drum & bass beat. Pycroft also invited a handful of vocalists to contribute: Two fellow Brits, QYOR and J. Chambers, sing and rap, respectively, on I Dare You, an energetic house track, fueled by fiery descending orchestral arpeggios.
Pycroft operates so well in these seemingly disparate worlds because his feet have been planted in both for decades. He studied classical music at the University of Manchester, but like most students in that city, he was also doing plenty of raving.
“I would speak to my classical music friends about these dubstep nights, and I’d speak to dubstep DJs about classical music, and the worlds seemed so far apart,” Pycroft explains. “I thought, ‘How could they come together?’”
The most accessible way to unite them at first was by arranging the music of hugely popular artists. That way, the familiarity was built-in for new audiences. But Pycroft always had the skills to create original music with the full ensemble. With Moments Between, he isn’t hiding the talent any longer.
Image: Gemma Parker
“For 15 years, I’ve had the opportunity to do this, but I felt like I didn’t have permission. It wasn’t right,” Pycroft says. But when the pandemic set in and he was hit with the realisation that the world could shut down at a moment’s notice, he decided to take the leap. Rick Rubin’s book The Creative Act also served as a motivator. As Rubin says, when you feel it, it’s a good idea to act on it; if he didn’t do it. Someone else would have.
“As I started to write these pieces, I realised how much there was inside that I’d not been letting out,” Pycroft explains. “It’s like, I can breathe. I’m really proud of it. If it resonates with people, fantastic. If not, that’s okay. And I’d never felt that. I think with other arrangements, if people hate it, it’s not my music. This is me in music form, and it just feels fucking great.”
The music is a composite reflection of Pycroft because he brought together his three roles to make the album: producer, arranger, and music director. The order of operations was similar to when he arranged other electronic tracks, but since these were his own productions, he started in the DAW.
To make the electronic tracks, some of his go-to software included Native Instruments’ Massive, Loom II by Air, and the Korg M1 plugin. Once the tracks were complete, he would think about how best to arrange the orchestral parts from the base track before layering the audio with sounds from Spitfire Audio, Logic Pro, and, once again, Native Instruments.
His shortcut is to consider that every instrument in a track is replaceable, so long as its substitute is in the same frequency register. For example, he’ll swap a high-pitch synth with a flute, but the unique character of live instrumentation versus electronic synthesis also opened new ways of thinking about the pieces.

“The second drop [in A Beauty] was originally the same as the first. As I was rotating and orchestrating, I decided to play around with a different bassline and think about how the basses and cellos would interact with that,” Pycroft says. “It changed the whole harmonic structure, so all the chords changed, and it brought this uplifting feeling to the piece that wasn’t there before. That felt like a mathematical, theoretical process, rather than playing with a keyboard and feeling it.”
After finalising the audio, he notates the orchestral parts in Avid Sibelius for all the individual players to record. As one can imagine, hiring dozens of musicians can be quite expensive in addition to renting out the studio space, and Pycroft self-funded the recording. So everything was done in two days. One day, there were 29 musicians. The other day, there were 14.
After music directing for so many years, Pycroft knows how to prepare for an album recording session. Moreover, after 15 years leading Kaleidoscope, he has strong personal relationships with the players, which streamlines the process even further.
“Knowing what they’re capable of helps so much. I can lean on that. I know this person’s gonna be playing flute, so I know that I can write that thing, and she’ll nail it,” Pycroft says. “We don’t need to talk about it. There’s a wink or a nod, and it’s like, ‘Yeah, fair enough.’”
Image: Gemma Parker
The last phase of the project was mixing, which Pycroft once again did all on his own. The process took 10 months as he worked with all the instruments at his disposal. He ended up spending much of the time removing elements.
“The mixing process was all about creating space. How do I make that woodwind part come through more clearly? How do I make that brass not overpower this? How can I blend things together?” Pycroft says. Once again, he looked to Skrillex for inspiration.
“I watch Skrillex do it, and it’s next level. Getting a kick and removing each transient. How do I make each sound and each instrument super intentional?” Pycroft asks. “There’s nothing there that’s just a wash. There’s nothing there that’s just a layer. Everything needs to speak. That informed decisions. How do I make sure that synth doesn’t clash with that? It’s either side-chaining, or it’s EQing, or it’s getting rid of that element.”
While Pycroft jests at the idea of getting as good as Skrillex, one thing that does excite him is that now Skrillex, or any of the other artists he’s arranged for Kaleidoscope Orchestra, can remix his original work.
“That would be such a full-circle moment, and for me, what it’s all about. It’s what I live for.”
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