Peter Gabriel reveals that he spent time in his “home studio” with Skrillex: “He was trying to encourage me to write a song about staying up all night in a night club and that sort of thing”

Peter Gabriel is continuing with his plan to release a new song from his forthcoming album, i/o, on each full moon. And the latest one, This Is Home, grew at least in part out of a studio session with none other than Skrillex.

“I’d had a call from Skrillex, who’s a very talented musician, and I thought it would be interesting to see what he had in mind, so he came to my home studio and we sat down and talked and tried to evolve bits and pieces and it was mainly for this song,” says Gabriel on his website. 

However, Skrillex doesn't actually feature on the record, and this may have been because the two artists were coming at the session from slightly different perspectives.

“He was trying to encourage me to write a song about staying up all night in a night club and that sort of thing, but that’s not really my life so I made it more about family and home and I like it,” admits Gabriel. “Though we took the song in this other direction it was an interesting experience nonetheless, and I think it is good for me to be taken outside my normal comfort zone sometimes.”

The initial inspiration for This Is Home came from a more obvious source: the great Motown rhythm sections.

“We’re trying to recreate that in a modern way, complete with the tambourine and handclaps,” Gabriel explains. “The groove I like a lot, Tony Levin does a great bass part there.”

The release of This Is Home comes with Gabriel in the midst of a US tour that concludes in Houston on 21 October. A release date for i/o is still to be confirmed.