“Howl At The Moon” Creates A Stir on Twitter Between Dimitri Vangelis, Steve Angello, and Others

by JP Hadley · Published February 16, 2014 · Updated February 16, 2014

For a while now, many people have complained about dance music sounding too similar. Sounds are sampled more often than they should, and sometimes it’s hard to determine one track from the next: it appears to be the case in a dispute on Twitter between artists signed to Nicky Romero‘s Protocol Recordings and Steve Angello‘s Size Records. Just a few days after the teaser was posted by Protocol Recordings, the song “Howl At The Moon” has come under scrutiny by Swedish artist Dimitri Vangelis for the similarity that the track bears to “Payback,” a long-teased but still unreleased collaboration with Wyman and Steve Angello.

The virtual war of words got underway when Vangelis posted this:

Inspiration vs stealing, where do we draw the line guys? I guess if you can't wait for Payback there are other options out there now…

— Dimitri Vangelis (@DimitriVangelis) February 14, 2014

And he continued to pour gasoline on the fire with:

Hey @stadiumx @TAYLR_RENEE ! What was your musical inspiration at the time when you made that howl at the moon track? Really curious…

— Dimitri Vangelis (@DimitriVangelis) February 14, 2014

Vocalist Taylr Renee responded having never heard “Payback”:

@REALMAORLEVI @DimitriVangelis @stadiumx I don't know that song. I wouldn't know

— TAYLR RENEE (@TAYLR_RENEE) February 14, 2014

But artist StadiumX responded to the Swede apologizing, and explaining the time gap between the completion of “Howl at the Moon” and “Payback”:

@DimitriVangelis guys, seriously if you thinking of "Payback"!? it's an amazing track, but we've finished this one 2 months before even we

— Stadiumx (@stadiumx) February 14, 2014

Nicky Romero, who survived theft accusations on his track “Iron,” got involved saying:

@DimitriVangelis @TURNUP_THEBASS @ericfender @stadiumx Haha you cant claim a whole genre dude, AND if someone deserves that it's @Alesso

— Nicky Romero (@nickyromero) February 14, 2014

American trap producer BARE said his piece as well: