Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What is discussed at the start of this section?
welcome welcome welcome to armchair expert i'm dax shepherd and i'm joined by monica lily padman hello today we have one of the biggest djs to ever live yeah steve aoki he is a grammy nominated dj and record producer his albums are neon future wonderland colony with a k like crispy creams that's right quantum beats cool and uh
He's celebrating, as he should, the 30th anniversary of his record label, Dim Mock.
Yes.
And guys, if you're like me and you think, well, I'm not terribly interested in DJing, it doesn't matter. Steve is such a fascinating guy.
What an incredible story he has. Yes. Work ethic. The whole thing is just a fun ride.
Legendary father. Yeah. Oh, it's such a good episode. I really loved him. I think you're going to too. Please enjoy Steve Aoki.
He's an uptight spirit.
From Henderson? From Henderson, yeah. My father-in-law lives in Henderson.
Oh, yeah? Mm-hmm. It's surprising how many people I know say they have someone in Henderson. You know, they call it Hender-tucky.
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Chapter 2: How did Steve Aoki's upbringing influence his career?
So if you're a DJ, I mean, I have 50 shows a year there.
Wow. Yeah, I mean, you could live anywhere. How many days do you think you're home a year? Well, I do 200 shows a year.
Oh, my God.
Yeah, 200, 250. And then you go on vacations and shit, right?
Vacations is kind of tour.
You'll just extend on either end of a show?
Yeah, maybe a day.
Sounds like you don't really vacation.
Honestly, the vacation for me is being home. Yeah, that makes sense. Because there's nothing better. I don't care to be on a deserted island or something.
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Chapter 3: What role did DIY culture play in Steve's music journey?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Next to his cafe. And it's like this resilient flower, this red flower that just grows through anything. Yeah, yeah. It's like, okay, let's call this, it wasn't a restaurant, a cafe, Benihana.
Yeah. And it wasn't like hibachi grill top cafe.
No, no, no. It was just like a small humble cafe. And my grandfather really helped him. He brought the chefs over. He brought the hibachi grills over.
And it starts with four grills, right?
Yeah. In a restaurant. And the idea to like cook in front of people. Yeah, yeah. That's actually, interestingly enough, that's not a Japanese concept.
They don't do that there.
They don't do that. So that's very much an American-born concept. Oh.
Where did he get that idea, do you think?
I don't know where he got the idea.
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Chapter 4: How did Steve Aoki transition into DJing and electronic music?
And how present was he? I mean, he sounds very busy. He had a lot of shit going on. He was definitely present, though. He was. So when they go public, he's got some cash. He's like, let's go live it up in Newport.
The crazy part of the story is, and this is very public, is that he had a major boat accident, came out of a coma. And that's when he woke up to my mom on one side and to his girlfriend. Okay. I don't know if I was born yet. So I think mom and my older brother and sister and his girlfriend and my brother. Oh, my half brother, her son.
News to your mom or she already was. Oh, shit. Dude, this is out of a movie. You wake up in a coma and all your secrets are revealed. He's just like, I want to go back into my coma now, please. Yeah, I would have been like. You know, this is pre-social media. Everyone's life was a fucking mess, but no one knew.
Eventually my mom did divorce and then she moved from Miami where I was born.
Great boat racing down there. You got to be in Miami.
Yeah. And also Benihana headquarters moved to Florida. Oh, okay.
So you moved.
I was one. So my mom moved to Newport and then I grew up in Newport. Wasn't born there, but really I'm a Newport born, not born, but raised there. Yeah.
So did he stay in Florida? Like how often were you seeing him?
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Chapter 5: What was Steve Aoki's experience with money as a DJ?
Turning him down sometimes because he's getting that consistently. And I'm getting like maybe a thousand dollars, but I'm,
happy with yeah you're playing music i was at one point making fifty dollars and a bar tab you know a few years before that now i'm making like 500 to 1500 and then sometimes on like the private so you get like five thousand dollars this is crazy and you're probably thinking the whole time this has got to be the ceiling yes right like oh my god five thousand dollars yes yes yeah i remember like in 2007
I got booked in the Philippines. And they had billboards up of me everywhere. They gave me like five grand. At that time, I'm getting like $500, $800 at my own party. And sometimes a little bit more, $1,500, $2,000. I'm getting $5,000 in the Philippines. And this movie... Wanted to book me to be a DJ.
Chapter 6: Why did Steve Aoki turn down a role in Tropic Thunder?
It was like a scene where I was like a slave DJ in this guy's office. Okay. It was Tropic Thunder. No! So I didn't know because they don't say the movie title. They don't say who's going to be in the movie. I have the script. It says DJ Aoki on every, you know, because it was like actual physical scripts. They're all watermarked. Yeah. It was Todd Phillips.
He was the one, I think it was, still directed it. Yeah, yeah. So they're like, okay, hey, we want you to be the slave DJ for the scene with Tom Cruise where he plays Get Low. Yeah, yeah.
Chapter 7: How did punk rock influence Steve Aoki's career?
He plays the iPod. Thank God he didn't have a book in our DJ. I was like, when I saw that he didn't book in our DJ and he used the iPod. I was like, yes, they didn't book it. But anyways, I had this Philippines offer and I couldn't say no to the Philippines offer. So I passed on the movie. Oh. To this day, I'm like, I wish. It's like, you know, those I wish moments.
Like, I wish I made it in that movie because that would have been so epic to be part of like one of the funniest movies at that time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Chapter 8: What insights does Steve Aoki share about being a new dad?
But you had to say yes to that.
Yeah, because it's a free thing. It's like you get $1,000. It's not like about the money. It's about just being in it. You couldn't pass up my brain.
You couldn't pass up this year's career.
Yeah. So fast forward to 2012, five years after that, you're the highest grossing. Now you're making millions of dollars, DJ. Yeah. It gets pretty crazy, right? Imagine some of these festivals you're going to are astronomical.
Yeah. The other thing that's interesting is that I did become the most traveled musician in a calendar year on the planet. So I was touring the most. I didn't realize that I was, but what got me there was was being in the punk bands.
Right.
You're just so used to... When you're in a punk band, first of all, like every single tour I was on, I toured the U.S. 14 times by the time I was 21. We never stayed in a hotel.
Right, right, right. You're at the other band's house.
Yeah, you just stay in like friends' houses or you sleep in the van or you just figure it out, but you never stay in a hotel. So when I started staying in hotels, I was like, I get a hotel?
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