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Your guide to nightclubs and bars in Hong Kong
Tina Lee talks to Steve Aoki ahead of Diesel’s worldwide 30th-birthday bash on October 11. Aoki heads a banging line-up in Beijing.
How’s it going Steve? How’s Hollywood?
Today’s my day off so I’m just chillin’ and staying at home. It’s my first day off in, I think four months. Today I’m finishing this remix for Lenny Kravitz for his next single so I guess it’s not really my day off [Laughs]. But as far as DJing, I’m just not in the club tonight.
How do you feel about playing this gig in Beijing?
I’ve never been in Beijing, so for me going to new cities is always exciting. I love coming to China. I’ve been to Shanghai/Hong Kong a few times. I love coming to Asia in general. I had a really successful tour the last time I was here – I did Seoul, Bangkok, Philippines. And I’ve played Shanghai for Diesel before.
Tell me about this lineup.
It’s a special one because it’s the Dim Mak version for the Diesel party. I’ve brought the Bloody Beetroots – they’re the newest signed artist on my label. So I have them, myself – I’m producing a lot of music under my label – [and] Uffie’s one of my best friends and we’ve played a bunch of shows together. We actually have matching tattoos.
Oh really?
Yeah [Laughs]. I have an initial on my arm and she has my initial on her arm, and when we stand together it connects.
Cute. Did you guys grow up together?
No. It’s like one of those people that you just instantaneously connect with. I was friends with her right when she started her career, and the first time she was in America I was there supporting her and ever since then we’ve become closer and closer friends and I have her best interest always. So whenever we do anything that’s Dim Mak related, even though she’s an Ed Banger artist, she’s such a part of the family that I wanted her to play. And Them Jeans – he’s a new artist under our management and we’ve partnered together to throw the best parties in LA on Tuesdays. We’ve been doing this party, Dim Mak Tuesdays, for four years and we’ve had all the electro heads – internationally and everywhere – and great bands: like Bloc Party’s played there and Santogold. From indie rock to hip-hop. So I’ve brought Them Jeans out with me as well – good DJ.
Cool. So what should we expect from all you guys in Beijing?
The Bloody Beetroots are also my closest friends now. We’ve really bonded since working together. We’re all really tight so I love everyone that I’m playing with and the energy is really going to come out. It’s different when you do a tour with people that you like but you don’t know [as opposed to] when you play a show with people you completely love and really care about.
To me the music that Bloody Beetroots produces is the music of the future. They’re really writing cutting-edge dance music that is creating a new direction for electronic music. They’re amazing DJs, Uffie’s an amazing singer, and Them Jeans is an amazing DJ. Everyone is amazing. I’m excited to DJ myself so It’s going to be a special night.
So on your album Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles, what’s your favourite track?
I’d say the Refused track, which is the opening track. It’s good because with that record, [an] electronic dance record, my roots are in punk and hardcore so having Refused on there – it’s a lot of my own character and who I am. I come from that background. There’s a lot of volatile energy in the dance music that I like. The explosive energy that comes out of the dance music that I’m a part of is similar to the scene of the hardcore community that I was brought up with.
I’m actually in the middle of releasing two singles that are coming out this year. The first one is called The House of Cards – we’re going to drop that, I think, the end of October. And I’ve just finished a Good Charlotte remix, Duran Duran, Timbaland, and right now I’m doing a Lenny Kravitz remix. A lot is going on a USB stick that we’re going to hand out to people in Beijing. We’re also making a Dim Mak/Diesel hoodie that our head designer drew up for the party.
Is it pretty hard to balance everything that’s going on with your record label, fashion and travelling?
[Laughs] You know we work out of one main office here at Dim Mak. We have offices in New York and there’s a lot of fusion – the company is like a hybrid. We have interns running around, 20-something-year-old kids or straight from college doing everything Dim Mak – setting up T-shirts, records, and we have a design team that sometimes designs for the label side. It sort of reminds me of what I would imagine Factory Records twenty years ago.
You grew up in Orange County and went to University of California, Santa Barbara. How did the music scene in those areas shape you?
I have a tattoo on my back of the band called The Gorilla Biscuits. When I was in high school they were a straight-edge hardcore band. I’d say a lot of the bands that influenced me are a lot of the bands that had a lot of political content to them. Born Against was one of my favourite bands, Tragedy, a lot of the bands on this label called Ebullition Records. I was in a band called This Machine Kills and we were a really politically-active hardcore band – toured Japan twice –and had a record on Ebullition.
So have you brushed up on you Mandarin at all or are you just gonna wing it?
Oh man, I don’t know any at all. I know “Xie Xie” and… [long pause] that’s about it. [Laughs] I don’t know anything. I’m so bad.
Sure you’ll have a ton of people help you out. So what makes the Diesel xXx party different from the last Diesel event you did?
Last time I DJ’d in Shanghai for them it was the Diesel/Adidas party and there was a fashion show and my sister came out and did the show and Cobrasnake was there – it was like a different thing. This one’s going to be more of a party event whereas the other one was more like a fashion show/party. After the show, Mark and I are doing a Dim Mak/Cobrasnake yard sale, so we are going to sell our T-shirts to people there. The crowds in Asia are crazy – really intense crowds and they really give up a lot of energy. It’s going to be an all around event [rather] than just a party. It’s going to be really fun.