Biography Steve Hiroyuki Aoki Born in Miami and raised in Newport Beach California, November 30, 1977) is an American disc jockey and record producer of Japanese descent, founder of Dim Mak Records. Aoki attended the University of California at Santa Barbara and majored in two fields, one in Feminism Studies and the other in Sociology. In college, she produced DIY records and played underground gigs. At just 20 years old, in 1996, Aoki created the record label Dim Mak Records, a name derived from one of the moves of his childhood hero, Bruce Lee. He has also been in numerous bands, including This Machine Kills, with whom he released two albums on the Ebullition label, Esperanza and The Fire Next Time. The label has recently marketed the music of other electro house artists such as MSTRKRFT, The Bloody Beetroots, Klaxons, Scanner, Whitey, Mystery Jets and Mustard Pimp. It has also collaborated with Blake Miller on the Weird Science project. Starting in 2008, Aoki began producing on his own and started with a remix of Duran Duran for their second single in the UK. He has remixed many tracks by musical artists, such as Drake,Lenny Kravitz,Bloc Party, Snoop Dogg, Robin Thicke, SPA, Timbaland and Kid Cudi. His debut album, Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles, was released in January 2008. He also had a mix aired on BBC Radio 1, August 2, 2008.In 2009, he remixed the song When the Wind Blows by The All-American Rejects, from the album When the World Comes Down. A remix for Drake’s song Forever was released on November 10, 2009, which also featured Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Eminem. The song reached the top of the Hype Machine chart in December 2009. In November 2009, he created his own magazine titled “Aoki” through a celebrity magazine publishing company called MYMAG. Steve Aoki is also in a hardcore punk band called Rifoki with Sir Bob Cornelius Rifo.In March 2010 Aoki released the single I’m in the House, made with the collaboration of Zuper Blahq, alter ego of The Black Eyed Peas singer will.i.am. The song reached position 29 on the Official Singles Chart in its first week of release. On March 4, 2013 Steve Aoki revealed that he is working on a second studio album, which he titled Neon Future. Compared to Wonderland, the musical concept of the album was described by the DJ as “bright and positive.The tracks are very colorful. They’re more emotional. The music, for me, has evolved and changed. That’s a big part of why I want to call [the album] “Neon Future.” That’s why I want my party in Vegas. I wanted to really put a flag on the ground that said, “This is the sound you’re going to experience at a party like this. When you walk [into it], the idea is that you’re walking into a neon future.On August 10 of the same year, Aoki performed at the Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo, an event in which he presented an unreleased track made with the US music group Linkin Park and titled A Light That Never Comes. The live performance featured only Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda, although the studio-recorded version also involved the remaining members of the group. The song was later released as the only single taken from Linkin Park’s remix album Recharged, which was released on October 30, 2013.On April 22, 2014, Aoki announced the division of the Neon Future project into two separate parts: the first part would be released on August 12 of the same year, while the second part would be released in early 2015. The same artist also explained the difference between the two parts of the album, featuring radio-friendly elements in the first part and darker ones in the second.Regarding the second part, the DJ also revealed that it would feature a second collaboration with Linkin Park.Neon Future I was later postponed to September 30 of the same year and contains ten tracks made with the participation of various artists, such as Luke Steele of Empire of the Sun, Fall Out Boy and rapper MGK. On January 7, 2015, Aoki released for free download the unreleased track Cake Face,while on February 12 of the same year, the release of Neon Future II was announced (set for May 12) and the first single taken from it, I Love It When You Cry (Moxoki), was released.The release of Neon Future Odyssey, a double-CD reissue of the two parts of Neon Future with the addition of six previously unreleased tracks released on October 2, was noted on September 10, 2015.Anticipating the release were the tracks The Power of Now, recorded with Headhunterz, and Phenomena, recorded with Borgore, made available for listening through SoundCloud from September 10 and 23, respectively.On March 25, 2016, Aoki released a new single titled Can’t Go Home, made with German DJ Felix Jaehn and featuring singer Adam Lambert. Instead, on December 11 of the same year, the single Just Hold On, recorded in collaboration with Louis Tomlinson, was released.
Discography
2012 – Wonderland
2014 – Neon Future I
2015 – Neon Future II
2017 – Kolony
2018 – Neon Future III
2020 – Neon Future IV
