The craziest thing I’ve probably done during a show is the balcony dive – it was pretty scary. I was like, ‘This could result in an injury of mine,’ but somehow I survived. – Steve Aoki
The haters and the trolls have always used me as an excuse to make fun of something that is out of the ordinary, something that doesn’t necessarily make sense to them. For whatever reason, I have always been a target that people love to attack. – Steve Aoki
Extending our lives, extending our creativity, opening up the mysteries of the brain. All those things that are really exciting – that’s kind of the basis of ‘Neon Future,’ and that’s why I interviewed Ray Kurzweil and Aubrey de Grey. – Steve Aoki
I like looking at a future where we’re expanding our creativity and brightening our lives. I believe that eventually we’ll get to a point where we’ll be able to live indefinitely through our technology. – Steve Aoki
‘Neon Future’ is, in short, a positive outlook on human progress and technology, looking forward to a bright, colorful utopia. It’s embracing the future and looking toward the future in a more optimistic way. – 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
Being a musician since I was a teen, Guitar Center is the staple. You need anything to create, it’s there. You need a Guitar Center. You gotta give it homage. It’s a tool shed, and without the tool shed, it’s hard to create. – 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
Artists are creating their own genre sound, and other artists are building upon that sound and already creating a huge subculture created around one particular sound created by one artist. So, with all that happening, the genres are going to break down, and there’s going to be a multitude of sound coming out. – Steve Aoki
It’s of course important to mention that when DJing, I’m building my own story through the music. I’m figuring out what song to play next, what song to play after that, and how the two will blend together. How the emotion is going to develop from one song to another. So I first build that storyline. – Steve Aoki
I love to work with artists that were able to find a brand new name and create something really exciting and fresh. – 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
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
When I work with artists, I give them a general guideline of what my vision is. Then they’re going to speak their minds on how they view it, too. The song that defines ‘Neon Future’ the best is the title track. I wrote that with Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun. It’s through his words. We had an amazing songwriting session together, connecting. – 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
When I’m at a show, I’m there to have fun. Let’s just not care for a moment. So this cake in your face is to make you lose your mind. And it’s not about caring about whatever you are wearing and caring what other people are thinking about you. Out of the context, I’m trying to develop something else. – Steve Aoki
Dance music is my love, is my passion, is my life. I live for my fans and take my art very seriously. – Steve Aoki
Self-discovery is so important in identity processing: who you hang out with, what clothes you wear, what shows you see. As a kid, I found out about things through friends. I would go to hardcore shows with 50 people. – Steve Aoki
It’s a really diverse time in music, with all these different DJs and all these different categories, and we are all taking footnotes from everyone else. There are no real genre boundaries anymore; you can take a trance idea and put it into a trap record – it’s not that uncommon. – 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
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
