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Steve Aoki

Steve Aoki Biography

Musician

Steve Aoki, born on November 30, 1977, is a renowned electronic dance music musician, DJ, and record producer from Los Angeles, California. Known for his unique musical style and stage presence, he is one of the leading figures in the electronic dance music scene.

Steve Aoki, born on November 30, 1977, is a renowned electronic dance music musician, DJ, and record producer from Los Angeles, California. Known for his unique musical style and stage presence, he is one of the leading figures in the electronic dance music scene.

Related Quotes

“The kind of music you listened to could shape the way you dressed, the way you looked out at the world, the way you saw yourself in what came back to you on the bounce. It was a way to plug in to your own subculture.”

Book:Blue: The Color of Noise

Source: Blue: The Color of Noise

“Funny the way music finds you when you're a kid. It sneaks up on you. It's in the air, in the mood of the room, all around. And then, when it happens in just the right way, it can get under your skin and hang with you for just about forever.”

Music Music History Blue The Color Of Noise Edm Music Steve Aoki

Book:Blue: The Color of Noise

Source: Blue: The Color of Noise

“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.”

Years Firsts Long Play America Stage Tradition Legacy Make Sense Epic Festivals Iconic Dance Music Woodstock

Author: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.”

Littles Song Interest Attention Pieces Details Resilience Working It Diligence Djs Attention To Detail

Author:Steve Aoki

“Dance music is my love, is my passion, is my life. I live for my fans and take my art very seriously.”

Art Passion Love Is Fans Music Is My Passion Dance Music

Author:Steve Aoki

“Im 36, but I still feel like a punk kid with $200 in my savings account.”

Feels Stills Kids Accounts Saving Punk Savings Savings Accounts

Author: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.”

Swear Percentages Private Life

Author:Steve Aoki

“Dance music is an emotional journey. It's how well you can make people feel something that they haven't felt.”

People Feels Wells Felt Journey Havens Emotional Music Is Dance Music

Author: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 opportunity to work records.”

Want Giving Action Artist Opportunity Easy Records Access Singers Producers Songwriters Easy To Get Collaborators

Author:Steve Aoki

“I love collaborating outside of my space.”

Love Space Collaborating My Space

Author: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.”

Needs Helping Bigs Artist Company Majors Labels Rely Grammy Big Companies

Author: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.”

Thinking Firsts Kind Made Ideas Different Helping Song Letting Go First Time Radio Vocal Ultras

Author: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.”

People Years School Sleep College Band Musician High School Paid Punk Vans Basements Hardcore Sleeping In Formative Years

Author: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.”

Firsts Helping Jobs Company College Kitchen Bike Messengers Fast Food

Author: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.”

People Want Important Reason Social Media Music Is Connections Stronger Embrace Social Media Pillars

Author: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.”

Feels I Can Matter Helping Courses Example No Matter What Ridiculous Silly Video Meant To Be Website Hurtful Microscopes

Author: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.”

Has Beens Dark Rooms College Mom Band My Mom Selling Teenager Shirts Survived Closets T Shirt Silk Screening Homemade Doing Me Dark Room

Author: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.”

World Play Shows Levels Seeing Sight Harder Djs Travel The World

Author: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.”

Matter Week No Matter What Photographer Video Lots Of Money Youtube

Author: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.”

People Thinking Knows Wells Has Beens Ideas Reason Play Shows Easy Criticism Target Cake Bizarre Dance Music Rafting

Author: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.”

Years Firsts Littles Bigs Lost Felt Easy Cities Figures Fit Niche Big Cities

Author:Steve Aoki

“Grateful to The Kerry Gaynor Method for saving my manager's life. He quit smoking thanks to their genius Method.”

Genius Method Grateful Quitting Thanks Saving Managers Smoking Quit Smoking

Author: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.”

Thinking Giving Persons Care Forget Fronts Internet Musician Experience Producers Performing Cake I Care Troll Hater Lasting Impressions Internet Trolls

Author:Steve Aoki

About the Author

Born: November 30, 1977
Known for: Musician
Quotes: 23

Related Topics

Dance Music Firsts Helping People College Easy Feels Music Is Play Thinking

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

Blue: The Color of NoiseRelated source material

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