MC: You were a promoter and label head before you were a remixer, DJ and album artist. How do you account for that almost reverse evolution?
Aoki: I couldn’t go from promoter to album artist right away; that took a course of 10 years. I played a GoPro show last night for their annual takeover of Great America and I talked with Nick Woodman, the CEO. It was awesome. I love being able to talk with people in different fields of work who are so passionate about what they’re doing, and Nick is absolutely passionate about GoPro. He asked me how long I’ve been DJing and I was like, I’d say 12 years from start to finish, and he was like, yeah same with us, but people don’t realize how long that is. He said, “I’m an 11-year overnight success and you’re a 12-year overnight success.” But all that time isn’t out there in the public eye; all that time is about building. I don’t want to bury all these little points, because they’re significant in the whole story of the success I’ve been able to create.
MC: You must’ve faced plenty of obstacles, from those DIY days up to today. How did you tackle them?
Aoki: When I think about it, the first thing that I hear a lot is, “I just don’t have the money to do something,” but that should never be an obstacle. I have a tattoo on my arm, “By Any Means Necessary,” and that’s the slogan that Dim Mak runs by. [Regarding our] van, we didn’t have $17,000, but we bought it and then we figured out how to pay it off. I’m a deadline oriented person, and if I don’t have a deadline sometimes things just drag, so you‘ve got to force yourself to create your own deadlines when you’re doing your own projects, and you sometimes have to mortgage your fucking house to make it happen. You have to put yourself in the red zone, where your heart is beating and you have to figure it out or else you're going to get fucked. It’s been a long growth with Dim Mak, 18 years being an indie is near impossible, but we’ve dodged so many bullets and we’ve survived so many crashes, but the big thing and any CEO of any company can say this, your power and your business is in the people you hire, I felt like it took time but I have a fucking incredible team like an astoundingly incredible team right now in Dim Mak.
MC: Your career evolved along with the social media explosion. How have you embraced it?
Aoki: I’m definitely of the mindset of clinging on to new progress and I’m always trying to find out the next thing, whether it’s the next DJ, the next producer, the next band, the next technology, the next fashion line, the next whatever it might be. My album is called Neon Future I because it’s based on this idea of looking towards the future in a utopian way and celebrating the convergence and collaboration between technology and humanity. So going back to an era of time when there was no social media, we were a completely different generation of downloading music and downloading life, and being able to absorb and act quickly is part of the reason why we didn’t fail as a business. We were the first label to give away music when the Napster thing was going on. It was a big no-no to give away music and no one was doing it, but we made a public statement about how we’re going to give away our biggest single. And when things flipped from physical to digital we were giving away free music. That was unheard of. People were like “What the fuck are you doing? You’re going to cannibalize your business by doing this.” And I was like “We have to stay ahead of the curve, and this might be the wrong decision, but you’ve got to take those risks.” That’s part of embracing future concepts. Some of those ideas obviously might not work, but if you don’t test the boundaries then you’re going to stay in the middle of the road, and that’s the last thing I want to be.
MC: Why is Dim Mak partnering with Ultra Music?
Aoki: Dim Mak is my baby. It’s its own machine, but we actually are more like an underground label, we don’t service to radio, really. We do our diligence, and we were very fortunate to have big wins for the Chainsmokers’ “#Selfie,” which did 10 million around the world, and was the first Platinum record on Dim Mak in less than a year. So I’m really proud of that success. But that was more of a cultural [phenomenon] record than a dance record. I think the only reason why I would sign to a bigger label like Ultra is that they already have the inroads to push us on to radio, and that costs money and a whole team and relationships. And I don’t want to put Dim Mak in that world. We’re actually a fruitful business without having to enter into a financial world where we have to really put in some serious money.
MC: What do you have to say about the collaborations on Neon Future I?
Aoki: “Back to Earth” with Fall Out Boy was great. The “Empire of the Sun” feature [the title track] was one of my favorite songs that I’ve ever produced, period. And it’s a definitive song on the album; it really ties in the sonic musical element to what Neon Future I should sound like. The other songs on the album are really true meetings of the minds between myself and the other artists. I think “Afroki,” with Afrojack, is going to be a fan favorite, just like our “No Beef” is such a global record. I love the idea that this song reverberated to all these people around the world. And it never really gained any traction on the radio, so it was purely from people discovering it online.
