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 Powerhouse producer and DJ STEVE AOKI talks ALASDAIR DUNCAN through his highly-anticipated debut album, his forthcoming Australian tour, and his ongoing plans for world domination.
Steve Aoki, a native of California’s upscale Newport Beach, is a man who doesn’t like to keep still for long. As a youngster, he played in a series of hardcore bands, before switching his focus to the dance floor, churning out numerous banging remixes and collaborations and, eventually, switching the focus to his own solo productions. His record label Dim Mak introduced Bloc Party to America, and The Bloody Beetroots to the world. That’s to say nothing of his career as a DJ, the various clothing and sneaker lines he has a hand in, or the Korean BBQ restaurant he co-owns with various cast members from That ‘70s Show.
It would be fair to say that Aoki, constantly-productive, is something of a Type A personality. “That’s definitely one of my traits – you could call it a weakness!” he says. “I love being in the centre of chaos with a lot of things happening, because it’s stimulating – it creates more energy.” The latest project keeping Aoki busy is his debut solo album – nearly done and hopefully due out later this year, the record features guest appearances from Kele Okereke, Rivers Cuomo, Lil’ Jon, Kid Cudi, Romanthony and more. The finished product, though, may surprise some fans.
“I’m known for making big, aggressive music, and the remixes I’ve been putting out and the tracks I’ve been collaborating on are club records, really big club records, and that’s what people are going to be expecting,” Aoki says, “but this album’s not going to be like that. I really wanted to focus on building my song craft this time around. It’s going to be well-rounded and full – I didn’t want to just create a bunch of songs that would sound massive in clubs, I wanted to create quality album tracks, and it’s going to be really interesting to hear what people think about that. It’s not all abrasive, harsh dance music.”
When he tours Australia this month with his DJ act, Aoki won’t be dropping too many of these album tracks, but he promises me he has a host of banging new remixes tailored specifically for the dance floor, and some tracks from his new hardcore band, Rifoki. “Rifoki is a band I formed with Bob Riffo from The Bloody Beetroots, during the time when we produced Warp together last year,” he explains. “In the middle of my set, I drop a couple of punk songs. For the kids who just want to hear dance music, they might not like hearing thrashing, screaming hardcore, but I sing those songs in my set.”
From DJing electro tunes to shredding his lungs as a hardcore singer, then, there’s not a great deal that Steve Aoki doesn’t get involved in. As someone who has already done so much in a relatively short career, there’s no telling where he will end up next – when I ask if he has any burning passions or goals he still wants to achieve, Aoki tells me he is too fixated on his album to think of anything else just now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one day he emerges, Richard Branson-like, at the top of his very own global empire. Watch this space for more.
STEVE AOKI plays Winter Sound System at Doomben on Sunday Jun 13, alongside Tiga, Joachim Garraud, Crookers and many more. For more information, check out www.steveaoki.dimmak.com/blog
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