When it comes to dance music, few figures have made the same impact as polarising producer and label head Steve Aoki.
While many will know him as the party-starting, cake-throwing maniac behind hyperactive house/electro hits like ‘Turbulence’, Aoki has dedicated his career to pushing the boundaries of dance – collaborating with everyone from Kid Cudi & Waka Flocka Flame to Blink 182 & Linkin Park. Moreover, his Dim Mak label has been setting trends within the electronic space for 20 years – holding a diverse range of releases from commercial powerhouses like The Chainsmokers to indie-dance heavyweights like Bloc Party.
Currently in Australia for a whirlwind tour, we caught up with Aoki before his performance at MTV Beats & Eats festival in Wollongong. After eating lots of hot dogs, lurking backstage and bumping into Savage – the iconic New Zealander behind that ‘Not Many (Remix)’ verse – we sat down with the long-haired hooligan to talk about his latest surprising remix, country music and a punk rock approach to production:
Is this your first time in Wollongong? How are you finding it so far?
It’s my first time. I’ve been lucky, because everywhere I go it’s coastal and I love the ocean. It doesn’t matter where I am, if I’m by the ocean, I’m happy. The festival is right by the beach and you can’t go wrong with that.
You raised a few eyebrows with the news that you’ll be releasing a My Chemical Romance remix. How did that link up and what were your motivations behind the song?
I’ve been friends with Gerard for a minute. We were working on a song together, a new collab – and then I was like, “You know what? I would love to remix ‘Welcome To The Black Parade’.” We got the approval from the label, the team and they sent me the stems.
It took me six months to really harness this track and make it a proper remix – a lot longer than it usually does. It’s a great responsibility, there’s only one remix and it’s the 10 year anniversary, so there was a lot of pressure to make this a really good one. We worked on a million different drop ideas, the right drums, the right sound, not getting married to certain ideas and fine tuning it.
I’m really proud of this song. You’ll hear it tonight, this will be the biggest audience in Australia I’ll play it to. Hopefully there are some emo fans out there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jre6_FBBc0
You made an Instagram post last week talking about the punk rock influence that Justice brought to the dance scene. What are some of the other ways that punk rock has influenced producers?
It’s more on the ideology and the ethos moreso than the sound itself. Justice actually applied both – they really overly distorted their sound, it was more about harnessing noise and turning that into a sound. At the time, I remember hearing other producers and commercial DJs saying “It’s too noisy for me.” I was like, “this is me.” This is what I love about them.
“I don’t care what the rest of the community says about what I’m doing, I’m just gonna do it” – that was the attitude. Punk is rebellion towards the norm and the status quo – that’s essentially what it’s about. That’s the attitude that Justice brought to the table, and they did it so loud and so global that it became a whole movement.
In your recent TIME Magazine interview you talked about giving country music a try. Do you have any plans to delve into that genre in the future?
I actually have a song on my next album with Lady Antebellum, they’re definitely one of the bigger pop voices in the country world. They already had an interest to work with me – I’m not going to force anything, it has to make sense… I definitely go out and search for artists thatyou wouldn’t expect to work with. I love doing that and creatively it’s a great process to carve a new lane.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3OzHBEcymw
You recently spoke about the decline of Australian dance festivals. Where do you think the Australian electronic scene is at now, because while we’ve experienced that decline in festivals, we are also seeing producers like Flume gain global attention?
That’s what needs to happen – focus on what’s around you and the talent that you have. Flume is already international, but there are other artists that are growing and getting more attention, and it’s about those artists. We have Flume that’s the goal – to be able to transcend outside of Australia and connect with people in a global way.
There have been a lot of great Australian artists for many years. When I first came out here, Cut Copy and the Modular artists – they were all international, they’re my favourite artists. That whole sound, the indie Australian sound – I shared an affinity with for a long time.
You recently celebrated 20 years of Dim Mak Records. What have you got planned for the label in the next 20 years?
When we first started back in 1996 in my college apartment, I didn’t know what my two year plan was. I was just like, “Let’s put out another record. We’ll see.” I feel like my whole life has been the opposite of entrepreneurial five-year plans. I just don’t have those. I feel like if you have a plan, it’s always going to change by the time you get there.
I never want to be fixed on something, to be so entrenched on something, where you have to get here. I don’t really care about “here” – I’m just going to go wherever it leads me. It’s going to lead me in so many different directions, which is how we sustain as a business. We didn’t stay putting out indie records or emo bands – we just flowed where we were going.
We started a fashion line, we started this, we did that – because it made sense with the right people, the right partners, the right demographic to support the ecosystem of a business. That wouldn’t have happened earlier on, that happened now because the timing was right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6FgjjCcR4ek
What’s on the cards for Steve Aoki for the rest of 2016?
I have a big single coming out on December 10. A big, big single. This is the very first time I haven’t been playing it out, nobody has heard it. The first time I’ll play it will be live on television. I’m playing all my new collabs out tonight – with Wale, Lil Yachty, Lil Uzi Vert, Quavo from Migos – but this song is in a vault. It’s very sacred.
