Meet the artist who sued Skrillex and Justin Bieber for “stealing” a sample of her song Ring the Bell.
This week, Justin Bieber and Skrillex are being sued by indie artist White Hinterland, who claims the duo used her vocal loop from her 2014 song Ring the Bell without permission. Eight seconds of the Ring the Bell riff is allegedly used six times in Bieber’s song Sorry. Co-writers are also included in the suit.
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White Hinterland, whose real name is Casey Dienel claims she warned Bieber’s camp to stop using the similar part last December, but was ignored.
Producer Skrillex responded to the claim by uploading an Instagram video of himself recreating how the infamous vocal riff was made. Skrillex claimed that the riff wasn’t sampled but was originally from an a capella recording from the writing session of Sorry. The recording was sung by co-writer Julia Michaels.
Nonetheless, White Hinterland continued with the lawsuit against the writers and producer, making a classic cautionary tale from the music industry: indie pop singer songwriter has her work stolen by an international superstar and has to resort to legal action when her attempts at peacefully resolving the issue go ignored.
Before she changed her name and musical style, White Hinterland was Casey Dienel, an indie pop piano-playing singer-songwriter whose album Wind-Up Canary (2006) was applauded for blending cabaret, jazz, folk, and pop. Her album contains whimsical story-songs which places her in the camp of eccentric women with piano pop songs that include Regina Spektor, Kate Nash, and Joanna Newsom.
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In January 2008, after a few months of hinting at “change”. Dienel announced in her blog "for the present and foreseeable future, there won’t be any more Casey Dienel." Two months later, Dienel released Phylactery Factory (2008) under the name White Hinterland. A follow-up to Wind-Up Canaray, the album continues the quirky story-telling lyricism that Dienel was famous for.
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Hinterland’s sound later changed in the next albums. She began to incorporate drum machines and electronic loops in her songs to positive feedback. Her song Icarus, which is one of my favorites, from the album Kairos (2010) was used by Revlon in ther TV commercial starring Jessica Biel. The song was also used in the drama TV series Pretty Little Liars as well on the fashion show Project Runway.
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In 2014, she released the album Baby in which the infamous song Ring the Bell is found. There is little doubt that the vocal riffs from Ring the Bell and Justin Bieber’s Sorry sound alike. But it looks like Bieber will probably settle the lawsuit. Diplo, a collaborator of Skrillex and Justin Bieber, said Skrillex and Bieber will have to pay White Hinterland. “I’m sure they’ll work out a deal with her. They don’t want to go to court with it”, Diplo said. He also added that he thinks Hinterland is “pretty dope”, which is a really postive thing.
Check out this dope remix of Icarus by Chris Staropili.
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