Steve Aoki is a world-renowned DJ, producer, and music executive. He is the founder of Dim Mak Records and has released numerous albums and singles on the label. Aoki has collaborated with some of the biggest names in music, including will.i.am, Afrojack, and Linkin Park. He is also a prolific remixer, having done official remixes for artists like Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and Childish Gambino.
Aoki is known for his energetic live shows, which often feature him stage diving and cake-throwing. He has headlined some of the biggest music festivals in the world, including Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival, and EDC Las Vegas.
In 2012, Aoki was voted the #1 DJ in the world by DJ Mag. He has since been nominated for two Grammy Awards and won the award for Best Electronic/Dance Album for his album Neon Future I.
Table of Contents:
1. Biography
2. Career
3. Music
4. Dim Mak Records
5. Remixes
6. Live Shows
7. Festivals
8. Awards
9. Discography
10. Steve Aoki Quotes
1. Biography
Steve Aoki was born in Miami, Florida, on November 30, 1977. His father is Rocky Aoki, the founder of the Benihana restaurant chain. His mother is Chizuru Kobayashi, a former Japanese Olympic swimmer. Aoki has two older sisters, Devon and Kana.
Aoki was raised in Newport Beach, California. He graduated from Newport Harbor High School in 1995 and then attended the University of California, Santa Barbara. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity while at UCSB.
Aoki graduated from UCSB with a degree in psychology in 2000. He then moved to Las Vegas, where he worked as a DJ at the nightclubs Rain and Space.
2. Career
Aoki’s career began to take off in the early 2000s when he started to release mixed albums and singles on various labels. He founded his own label, Dim Mak Records, in 1996. The label’s first release was Aoki’s mix album Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles.
Aoki’s first original single, “I’m in the House,” was released in 2007. The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard Dance/Club Play chart.
In 2008, Aoki collaborated with will.i.am on the song “I Got It from My Mama.” The song was a hit, peaking at #3 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Aoki’s debut studio album, Wonderland, was released in 2012. The album reached #1 on the Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and #5 on the Billboard 200.
Aoki has released two follow-up albums, Neon Future I (2014) and Neon Future II (2015). Both albums topped the Dance/Electronic Albums chart, and peaked at #4 and #3 on the Billboard 200, respectively.
3. Music
Aoki’s music can be described as electronic dance music (EDM). He often incorporates elements of house, techno, and trance into his songs. Aoki is also known for his use of the “wobble bass” sound.
Aoki has collaborated with a number of high-profile artists, including will.i.am, Afrojack, Linkin Park, and Blink-182. He has also done official remixes for Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and Childish Gambino.
4. Dim Mak Records
Dim Mak Records is a record label founded by Steve Aoki in 1996. The label’s first release was Aoki’s mix album Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles.
Dim Mak has since released music by a number of artists, including The Bloody Beetroots, The Chainsmokers, and Deorro. The label is also home to Aoki’s own imprint, Dim Mak Collection.
5. Remixes
Aoki is a prolific remixer, having done official remixes for artists like Michael Jackson, Lady Gaga, and Childish Gambino. He has also remixed tracks by a number of electronic artists, including Skrillex, Calvin Harris, and David Guetta.
6. Live Shows
Aoki is known for his energetic live shows, which often feature him stage diving and cake-throwing. He has headlined some of the biggest music festivals in the world, including Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival, and EDC Las Vegas.
7. Festivals
Aoki has headlined some of the biggest music festivals in the world, including Tomorrowland, Ultra Music Festival, and EDC Las Vegas.
8. Awards
In 2012, Aoki was voted the #1 DJ in the world by DJ Mag. He has since been nominated for two Grammy Awards and won the award for Best Electronic/Dance Album for his album Neon Future I.
9. Discography
Studio albums:
– Wonderland (2012)
– Neon Future I (2014)
– Neon Future II (2015)
Compilation albums:
– Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles (2007)
– Dim Mak Greatest Hits (2009)
– Neon Future III (2018)
Mixtapes:
– MixMag Presents: Steve Aoki (2003)
– Steve Aoki’s New Year’s Eve Mixtape (2007)
– Steve Aoki’s Back to the Future Mix (2007)
– Steve Aoki’s Valentine’s Day Mix (2008)
– Steve Aoki’s Summer Mix (2008)
Steve Aoki Quotes
“Dance music is my love, my passion, is my life. I live for my fans and take my art very seriously.” – Steve Aoki
“For a DJ at my level, you can really go through life and travel the world without seeing a single thing. It’s harder to go out and see the sights than it is to play a show.” – Steve Aoki
“No matter what I do, I can’t help but feel that I’m under a microscope. Some of it is completely silly, and some of it is meant to be hurtful. For example, a website accumulated all of my music videos to point out perceived Illuminati images. I loved that one. Of course, it was all ridiculous but funny.” – Steve Aoki
“Artists have so much more control of their futures – they don’t need to rely so much on major labels or big companies to help them. You have artists like Skrillex that can dominate so much that he gets 5 Grammy nominees, and he’s clearly an underground artist.” – Steve Aoki
“I always tell up-and-coming DJs you have to really love what you do and find that interest to drive you. It requires so much attention to detail, and it takes up a lot of your time. You hear a song, and there are so many little pieces that make that song work. It requires a lot of patience, diligence and resilience.” – Steve Aoki
“I’m 36, but I still feel like a punk kid with $200 in my savings account.” – Steve Aoki
“Dance music is an emotional journey. It’s how well you can make people feel something that they haven’t felt.” – Steve Aoki
“Grateful to The Kerry Gaynor Method for saving my manager’s life. He quit smoking thanks to their genius Method.” – Steve Aoki
“My first job was working at Benihana as kitchen help. In college, I was a telemarketer for a company at the same time I was a bike messenger for this greasy fast-food place.” – Steve Aoki
“My life, I swear, is, like, 75% public. I have a very small percentage of my life that is private. But I do keep that private life private.” – Steve Aoki
“High school and college were my punk, formative years. I was playing hardcore, learning to be a musician. In bands, you tour, but you’re paid nothing; you’re playing to 50 people in a basement, sleeping in a van, and you love it.” – Steve Aoki
“When I perform, I don’t think about the haters, the Internet trolls, or anyone else. I care about giving the person in front of me something they won’t forget. And that’s why I bring the cake and raft out.” – Steve Aoki
“‘Boneless,’ even though we were thinking about servicing it to radio, it made more sense putting a vocal on there. This was actually the first time that I really looked at doing a song for radio and kind of let go of some control and listened to a lot of different radio pluggers and had Ultra come in and help out with ideas.” – Steve Aoki
“I have been doing merch’ since I was 15 and in bands when I was a teenager – silk-screening shirts, making the emulsion in my mom’s closet I converted into a dark room, through college. That’s essentially how us bands survived was selling homemade t-shirts.” – Steve Aoki
“For me, I guess the general reason for using social media is that the connection I have with people who are interested in my music is extremely important to me. That connection is like the pillar in everything I do. I want to embrace that connection and make it stronger.” – Steve Aoki
“For a producer, you want to be in L.A. You want to be close to the action, and in L.A. there are always singers, artists, songwriters, collaborators, and other producers. It’s easy to get access to all that, which gives you more opportunities to work records.” – Steve Aoki
“I love collaborating outside of my space.” – Steve Aoki
“On my YouTube channel, I put up 3-4 videos a week, and I spend a lot of money to maintain that content. When I travel, I travel with a videographer and a photographer no matter what.” – Steve Aoki
“To come out here and play on Woodstock grounds, first year ever headlining on the main stage there’s nothing more iconic. [Mysteryland] is one of those festivals that holds down the legacy of dance music it’s been around for so many years. It’s been part of what we do for so long. It kinda makes sense to bring the tradition over here to America. The festival grounds of Woodstock, that’s pretty epic.” – Steve Aoki
“My first year in L.A. I felt lost in that big city. It’s easy to be tumbled around and not figure out where you fit in even when you find your little niche.” – Steve Aoki
“The thought of bringing a cake into a dance music show is a bizarre one. The idea of rafting on top of people is just as bizarre as well. And I think whenever something bizarre comes into play, it immediately becomes an easy target. And for those reasons, I know that I have been the target of criticism.” – Steve Aoki
Source: Wikipedia Instagram SteveAoki Twitter Youtube Spotify SoundCloud IMDb LastFM Tidal