MUSIC INTERVIEW: STEVE AOKI

By Any Means Necessary: Bruce Lee+Malcolm X+Music = Dim Mak’s Revolutionary 'Wonderland'

By: Team Buzzine

January 20, 2012

Ever since his college days at UC Santa Barbara, Steve Aoki has been something of a modern-day renaissance man. Party Promoter, Producer, DJ, Label Owner, Activist, Designer, and Manager are all titles that all could be reasonably added to his Dim Mak business card, if he so desired, but when Buzzine’s Stefan Goldby headed into the Hollywood Hills to visit with Steve at his Wonderland Studios, the stated topic was something new: Aoki’s brand new debut artist album of all-original tracks.

Pulling together contributions from musicians as wide-ranging as Travis Barker, Lil Jon, Rivers Cuomo (Weezer), Kid Cudi, The Exploited, and Lovefoxxx (CSS), Wonderland serves as both notice of the arrival of a major new component of an already successful career, and a peek into the world of its creator. Just hours after the album was released digitally, and fresh off a plane from Vegas, Steve Aoki shared the details of his journey so far, beginning with music and spinning out into his thoughts on the music industry in 2012; the past, present, and future of Dim Mak’s world; and the philosophy and inspiration that his independent entertainment empire is founded upon.

Stefan Goldby: This album, Wonderland, marks the end of quite a journey for Steve Aoki, the musician. What were it’s roots?

Steve Aoki: I’ve evolved as a producer and an artist through two worlds. I’ve really kind of transferred from being in a live room studio recording guitars, drums, vocals, bass… starting, actually, with a four-track tape recorder. That was how you record a demo. You do it yourself with a four-track tape recorder. And I remember doing that. The first time I was doing that, I did everything – I did the drums, I did the guitar, the bass, and vocals. I wish I still had that tape, just so I have this history of… that was the real start. And this was when I was like 17-18 years old. I mean, it was horrible, but it doesn’t matter. I learned everything myself in the same process how I learned how to produce music – in the box, right here, completely digital. I learned that myself unconventionally. There was no training, no schooling. I didn’t go to a musician’s institute or anything like that.

My first electronic record is actually available on iTunes. And I did that record in 2002. I did the whole thing on Reason. The beat itself. And then I did the vocals later. I’m not gonna tell you how to hear it because it’s really bad. But that’s my first real electronic record I did on my own. But that was more like just goofing off during my hardcore punk days when I was always in the studio recording live in the early 2000’s, late ‘90s.

But my first in-the-box electronic remix – the first song was a remix. It was the Bloc Party Helicopter Remix I did with a friend of mine – Blake Miller – and we started a group called Weird Science. He had more ProTools experience, so we started with ProTools and he showed me the ropes with that. We did, like, 14 remixes together. With just two fingers, just writing all the different rhythms and melodies, and stuff like that. So we did that from 2005 on, and then I started dabbling in original music with Blake in ’07, and then I started writing my own stuff – the first of which happens to be Deadmeat or Come with Me, which is actually on the album. So that’s really the origin of Wonderland, is that song.

That was four years ago. And I didn’t really know what the hell I was doing, but the basis of the song was written four years ago. I just never really expanded on it until…I got a vocalist – I got Romanthony on it, actually. He was the first vocalist on there, and I took him off and I later put on Polina. But that was the roots of the whole album.

I didn’t really know that this was going to be an album until the end of 2009. So in 2010, I was like, “I’m gonna release an album,” because by 2009, I already had maybe three or four songs in my belt. I already did “I’m In The House”. I was like, “Okay, that’s a start.” And I come from the album generation. I’m a rock guy. Rock people put out albums; they don’t put out singles. There’s no such thing as singles for bands. You have to put out albums properly. Now I’m in the electronic world, but I’m like, “I’ve still got to release an album. I just have to for my own posterity. I just need to release an album.”

Later, as I was evolving as an artist…there were a lot of artists around me that were bigger and popular and doing great, and getting recognition, playing great shows and having a following: They never even released albums. So I was in the middle, but I was still gung-ho about it, and I really wanted to do it, but it really took time. It’s just a long process. First of all, getting all the licenses and all that bureaucratic red tape to get these artists and labels to sign off on these things. My album has so many different artists from so many different labels, all of them had to sign off. We had to do separate deals for each artist. And that alone takes a long time. Because you could work and have a great, killer song with a vocalist, and then it just doesn’t work because the label is like, “We don’t want it. We don’t want to do that because it affects our single schedule.” So that happened before.

Stefan Goldby: You’re in a fairly unique position in that you’re the artist, you’re the producer, you’re the label-head… There is no one that can tell you to stop: Potentially, you could go forever. How do you make the decision that the album is done and ready to be released?

SA: That’s why it took so long. There was no deadline for me. I didn’t have any pressures besides my own. The only pressures I had was when I told interviews, like MTV in 2010, “My album is coming out in six months.” So the beginning of 2011, my album was supposed to come out – actually, at the end of 2010. I’m talking all about these tracks I did with Kid Cudi and will.i.am and all these other people…

“Where’s this album, Steve?” So sometimes it’s funny because I would do the interview with them a year later – some of these same journalists – and they’re like, “You said you had an album coming out a year ago. Where is it?” I’m like, “It’s just…I’m working on it…it’s complicated.” But in reality, it was just a long process.

Another thing too is I could easily have put this out on my own label, Dim Mak, and a huge part of it is Dim Mak releasing it, but I wanted to have a partner, which is Ultra, because I know I have songs on this album that deserve a different kind of attention than Dim Mak’s marketing and promotion that we do. I needed some of these songs to be worked at radio, and… my label doesn’t touch radio; we don’t care about it. We live and survive exclusively away from that. Of course we service our stuff to radio, but that’s not our aim. Our aim is making sure our music gets to the core people that want to hear it, and making sure that our grasp is immersed in that world. Not like, “Let’s try to break this song next to Pit Bull’s dance song,” whereas Ultra can do that, actually. And they’re successful at that.

So I was thinking, “Well, this might work.” But the thing is, I’m not trying to ‘break’ songs with this album. I’m not trying to cross over. What I’m trying to do is make a powerful album that I believe in. Because every song…they’re all different. It’s like a spectrum of sounds, and I’m really excited to be able to put all that spectrum and showcase all the different elements that inspire me and influence me throughout this long journey of electronic music that I’ve been a part of.

And now with the dub-step and the drum & bass sounds that are totally affecting the way I DJ and the way I think, and the producers – all those people – because really I’m sucked into them and because I’m really excited about what they’re doing. And even the progressive house sounds that I don’t necessarily produce when I’m doing these club records, like Turbulence, No Beef – all these club records – I’m not trying to go prog. I’m trying to just… I want to blitz people and make people just go crazy. Just full-frontal attack. But when I did this album, I wanted to write great songs. It’s not about just breaking that ceiling of crazy anxiety and then [makes explosion sound].

When you write a club song, you want to just make people scream off their f***ing heads. And this album is more about, “How can I write the sickest song?” And, “How can I write a song that fits the vocalist?” And you can go all different approaches and styles, and I’m just so happy I can finally show that to the world, because I’ve been locking it in. So I’m just like, “Oh man, I can’t f***in’ wait to show you, but I’ve got to do it the right way.”

And I wanted this to come out in September, October, November, December… Thank God it’s out! And you know what? It’s #2 right now on iTunes Dance. I think it’s #13 or #14 overall. I can’t f***ing believe how fast it went up. First of all, I didn’t think I was even getting near a Top 10 overall. I’m still crossing my fingers because for any EDM artist just to get Top 10 overall on albums, it’s just huge. So I don’t know if it will get there, but I’m praying. I’m hoping. I’m like, “Wow.” I didn’t even know I was going to get that far, but now it’s just like, I’ve gone that far, f***!: I just want to go for the gold now!

I wasn’t even sure if I was going to get in Top 10 Dance. I remember last night when I got to Vegas, I was doing some promotion with Sol Republic. It was like 10:00 or 11:00 Pacific Time, and my new media guy from Dim Mak texted me and he was like, “I just want you to know it’s available now on iTunes.” I’m like, “What the f***?! It’s available?!” It’s not 12:00 yet, but it’s available on the east coast. So I was like, “It’s f***ing available in America.” So I didn’t even think about that. It was available at 9:00. So I just hurried on my Twitter. I was like, “Oh s***. It’s f***ing available! It’s available! Retweet, please! Buy it, please! It’s available! Oh s***! It’s f***ing out to the world!”

And then I was like, “F***, f***. This is crazy. I didn’t plan. It’s 12:00. That’s when I was supposed to plan – for 12:00. It’s like 11:00.” So by the time it hit 12:00, I get a text from my manager saying, “You’re already on Top 10 Dance charts.” I’m like, “It’s just hit midnight Pacific Time, and we already hit Top 10 Dance charts? What the f***, dude? This is crazy!”

I didn’t even expect that much, because it’s not like we were doing crazy promotions. We were just doing what we do – viral, underground promo. But f***, that’s awesome. Twitter works! Facebook, all that stuff, works! My fans are responding and buying it. A lot of them are pirating it, but people are buying this album. And then right before I go on, I go on at 1:00. So at 12:45, they’re like, “It just went from #10 to #6.” So I was like, “What the f***? It jumped up four slots!” And then I jumped on and I was like, “Oh man, I’m so excited. My album is officially out.” This is a little weird speech. It’s like I was winning a Grammy or something. But, “This is such a big deal in my life,” blah blah blah, this and that. “I just hit #6 on Top 10 Dance Charts, oh God, this is awesome. Let’s play some music.”

So I play some music. Then I get another text and they’re like, “Yo, man. You went from #6 to #4.” I think it was like probably 1:30, and I turned off the music. I was like, [shouting] “Oh yeah, I just jumped two slots! I’m #4 now on Top Ten Dance Charts!” And people are just like [clapping]. They have to because I’m … and I was like, “Oh my God, this is so cool!” And then I just played some more music. And then by the end of it, I get off and they’re like, “Yeah, man. You’re now #3.” And then I just didn’t want to go to sleep.

So it’s already 3:00 in the morning, and I was like, “I can’t f***ing sleep, man.” I keep checking the Internet looking at the charts, like, “Holy S***, man.” Like, I was #4; I looked up and it was David Guetta, and then it was Skrillex. Like, Skrillex, Skrillex, David Guetta and then me. I was like, “F***!” And then I was like, “Am I seeing things right? David Guetta and then Skrillex. I can’t… There’s no way I would beat Guetta.” So I wrote an email to Ultra at 3:00 in the morning. I was like, “We did it. I peaked. I can’t believe it. I know I’ll never beat Guetta or Skrillex, but I made it. That is so cool. Even if I’m there for 30 seconds, I’m gonna screenshot capture this in my brain and know that I got this high.” And they’re like, “Yeah yeah, this is great news.”

And then I’m up so I go down and gamble and I actually win some money. Then I get another text like, “No man, now you’re #2. You went up from #4 to #3 to #2,” and I was like, “Oh my God. I’m #2. F***!” So that’s where I think it’s at now. #1 is Bangarang, and Skrillex’s Bangarang is actually #7 overall. And to get #1 on Dance, I’d have to literally get #6 overall, so I don’t think that will happen. But now we’re #14 overall. F***, we shot up. I remember when it was at #60. Now it’s #14. So if it just peaks in at Top 10 now, f***! I guess that’s the next goal, right?

SG: What are you going to be like next week? At least this week you get minute-by-minute updates. Next week, you’ve got to sit and wait for a soundscan number to come in all week! How much does this talk about how much the musical world has changed since you started Dim Mak? Is that change more exciting to you as an artist or as the owner of an indie label?

SA: Change is always scary as a business, because you build wheels so that way, everything can run smoothly and you don’t have to reinvent new systems, especially when things work. But with the music industry, you have to constantly rebuild wheels and create new levers and machines. The apparatus is constantly changing and shifting and moving, and it’s tiring. It’s tiring to keep going. So my staff – they’re working 24/7 back to back. And it’s definitely the kind of job that there’s not a huge financial reward, so you have to love the music to want to be part of it.

With Dim Mak, it’s always been my sacrifice. I don’t actually take any money from them. I just can’t. It’s like my sacred sheep. I just can’t touch it. So I’m sacrificing whatever I can to make sure it’s fed and plump and whatever... And it just gets tougher and tougher. But it’s an interesting time, being an independent label, because there are so many different changes and so many pros and cons.

Back in the mid-2000s, when we were selling and shipping and moving a lot of physical product…at one point, we probably shipped 80,000 Bloc Party EPs and singles independently. And when it was time to do the album with Vice, Atlantic ended up selling 350,000 physical albums, which is insane for an indie band. And to be part of that process was incredible. But at the end of the day, it wasn’t a huge financial payout. It wasn’t like, “Yo, we’re rich now!” More like, “Now we can pay off our debts. We have f***in’ piles of debt, and I can actually hire one more person!”

My first employee was in 2003 or 4, paying minimum wage and they were my label manager. And actually, my assistant at the time. Helping me f***in’ bag shit. So now we’ve got 16 employees, if you can believe that. Sixteen employees in a time when the music industry is completely frigid. It’s just a different business altogether. We’re a company…we’re like a music company. We do everything that’s involving music and events, and we find different streams of income to build the company up.

And now we’ve gotten involved in clubs: I’m opening up a new club. It’s going to be a mega club in Hollywood. It’s going to be open in three to four months. It’s right behind Amoeba. It’s going to be one of the biggest dance clubs in Hollywood. And I’m starting more clubs – getting involved in the ownership and development of clubs, as well as festivals – Pacific Festival and things like that. And Identity Festival – we had a stage last year; we’re doing a stage this year, across the whole US, and touring. Obviously the Deadmeat Tour, which is coming up supporting my album. And we have stages all across the world now.

So just that section requires a lot of time and a commitment to staff, I have that compartmentalized. And the fashion side built up. The merch blew up for us; we were doing really well with the merch, we still are killing on the merch. And now I’m starting a fashion line with a separate company, so I have a fashion line going on – a menswear line. And obviously there’s the music side, which is the meat and bones of the company, and we are surviving almost entirely off of digital. We do some physical, but it’s more marketing, at the end of the day. We just want our CDs and records, if they’re available, to be in Best Buys and Targets and Wal-Marts, if we can get in there. At least it’s there. At least it’s just like when the kids are walking by, they see it.

SG: It sometimes feels like a CD is now what a box set was ten years ago – for super hardcore fans, and it’s just migrated from ‘this is how you consume music’ to ‘this is the special, fancy way that you consume music you really love…’

SA: Records became, to me, in Amoeba, music. Because I used to go to Amoebas and just buy records all the time, but every time I would go there, I would find all the Dim Mak stuff in the crates, and I would just pull it out and put it on the top, because it’s just advertising. There’s like tens and tens of thousands of records in there. Are they really gonna go and buy the Miracle Chosuke record, or the Young People LP, or From Monuments to Masses? They might not go out and get that one, but they will pass by it. So I would do that all the time.

I definitely learned the grassroots way of doing things like that. When I was doing political prisoner activism in college, I would just go to all the university centers and libraries, and I would just change the URL settings to freemumia, so when you walk up… I would go out of my way to do that. And it’s the same process: I would go out of my way to do all kinds of things for my label. Like, “I’m just going to go out and do this.” It might only affect one person, but that’s the start. Without that ideology, I would have never even started my label, because it was dollars and cents back then. It was literally like: we made 600 vinyl. We have to sell them at $3.50, and it cost us $2.00 to make. We’re making $1.50 a piece. We can shave off the cost by stealing all the copies at Kinkos, or stuff like that, because we don’t have the f***ing money anyway…

SG: From that starting point, Dim Mak had landmark releases, whether it’s The Kills, whether it’s Bloc Party, things that kept raising the bar and as it stands today, it’s one of the stalwart electronic labels out there, but not just for electronic music… Given that the label started one way and has evolved… what’s the through-line? What’s the unifying characteristic of a Dim Mak artist? Because it isn’t a specific genre…

SA: We had a couple of different slogans… My two heroes are Bruce Lee and Malcolm X. Bruce Lee because he’s the most identifiable Asian in popular culture that everyone loved, and he broke down all kinds of barriers and all kinds of ethnicities. He just was like the coolest f***ing dude on the planet. And then Malcolm X is because he stood for something, and what he said: “By any means necessary.” Whatever he was saying, he was going to get there by any means necessary.

I like that idea of sophisticating rage. You have your anger and your rage, and if you educate that rage, and you sophisticate it, and you make it intellectual, you can actually make it useful. Instead of just like, “Yaaaaaa!” and just breaking s***, you can have a purpose. So that’s why I love Malcolm in that tone. He was just like, “We’ve got to do some s*** about what’s going down: Let’s move. We’re not gonna be peaceful about things.”

I just like that kind of energy, when someone just says, “I’m not sitting down anymore,” and saying it in a powerful way. I used to listen to his speeches all the time – I have tapes and tapes of Malcolm X speeches. I’d listen to them, just f***ing riled up. Reading the autobiography of Malcolm X and crying, like oh my God – reading it like three or four times. So with Dim Mak, it’s by any means necessary. That was the idea. And sometimes I’d sit in front of my staff and I’m like, “Look, that’s what we are. We’re by any means necessary. We’re gonna really stand behind our music in that same philosophy, and we’re gonna push it with that same fervor.”

To define the music, like you were saying, when we hit 15 years, which was 2011, it’s 15 years of raw music. I always think of us as signing cutting edge artists of any genre. Redefining sounds, breaking down the status quo of music. Bloody Beetroots took something and made it their own, and then all of a sudden became like a subculture. Same with Bloc Party – they opened the door for English artists all the way out here. The Kills took that rock & roll, dirty, lo-fi sound and made it their own. The Gossip just redefined all kinds of things.

So I look at those bands – they don’t have to be political. It’s all about doing something so well and so unique, and not trying to be a part of the flock in this… And also not necessarily saying, “I’m my own subculture.” It’s like, “I’m going to do my own shit and do it this way,” and then I find out about it and I’m like, “I believe in you. I want to back you. You do what you do; I’m just behind you, supporting you all the way.”

And that’s how me and Bob [Cornelius Rifo] worked for The Bloody Beetroots. I was just like, “I’m behind your vision. I just want to expand it and exaggerate it. So whatever you do, we’re gonna do it as big as we can.” So when they were DJs and we were on tour together, one of the first things I said to them on the tour was, “You need to be a live band.” I’m not gonna say I’m taking credit for it, because at the end of the day, anyone can say that to someone. Someone could say that to me; it doesn’t mean that they did it to me. I had to make that decision and spend my money and time to make that happen – my production… But I did have that conversation with them. I’ll say that much. I did have the conversation for them to go live. That was my advice, and they did it their way.

Bob is a visionary. So I look for visionaries, and if I believe in the general idea of someone like that, I don’t necessarily care about the songs. I know they’re coming… because I just care about the vision. I want to be a part of that. And that’s how I was with The Kills. I only heard a few songs for them to completely change my life. I just needed to feel it. I need to feel something. Am I willing to change my entire life for this band? And sometimes it’s bigger than the songs. Because when it gets like that, music does that to people. It can totally alter your f*ckin’ life -- your whole lifestyle.

It happened to me when I was 13, when I heard my first mixtapes of Fugazi, Youth of Today, Gorilla Biscuits, Shelter…all these f***ing hardcore bands. It completely changed my lifestyle, and every time I hear new bands and I get that feeling, all I want to do is just find a way to put them out and blow them up at their discretion. It’s hard to say in a nutshell what it is!

SG: How do you go about taking that vision that you have for other artists, and the things you can do for them through Dim Mak, and then turn it back to yourself for a moment here? What are your artistic goals? Because here you are, at that moment: This time, YOU are the artist.

SA: It’s strange, because even when I was an artist, I was never a great musician. I never even thought I was a great producer, even when I got into electronic music. I’ve always looked at myself as a good A&R, and everything was about Dim Mak and supporting these artists. So this transition into becoming my own artist is still happening. When I think about things like “What is your vision for this album? What are your goals?” I don’t have… they’re not so clear to me.

When I speak about The Bloody Beetroots, I have much more clear understandings of what I expect and want to become, because it’s just so much easier to want the best out of someone else, I think. If I look at myself as an artist, I feel like a f***in’ ego maniac. “I want me to be like… !” It’s hard for me to really… I’m not saying that just to have this humble appearance; if you think about it, it’s just hard to do that.

Of course you want the best for yourself, but I’ve just been so geared to not think of myself like that. I’ve just been on the grind. Just, “I need to get these songs done, I need to get all these pieces together,” and then luckily having my management thinking, the bigger picture helped me put that together. I know that if I was to really step back and zen out and think about that, I could try to get that clearer. Get the fog out of the way and figure out my end goal. Also, I think every step of the way, I’m just so f***in’ happy, about where this is now.

I was never supposed to be an artist. I was never supposed to be doing my own studio album. I was never supposed to be a DJ. I was just playing Dim Mak parties at Beauty Bar in front of 80 people and bringing bands in like Bloc Party, trying to blow up my brand. And that’s still my focus. F***ing Dim Mak is my life and s***. But it’s just a curve ball. I wasn’t like, “Okay, I’m gonna become a DJ, and I’m gonna rise like that.” I just kept on going with it really, and I’m still going. And then when I see all these things really happening, when I see shows, sometimes I’ll laugh to myself.

I’m like, “What the f*** is going on, dude? I just played in front of this many people.” People actually like my music. What the f***? That’s so cool. I’ve got f***ing millions of views on YouTube for every song. What the f*** is going on? I can’t believe I work with this guy. Even though he’s my homie, still, he’s legend. Armand van Helden! He’s my homie, but f***…! I just did a song with Rivers Cuomo from Weezer. S*** like that. And you take a step back from that…of course I have to. But when you’re in the zone, in the grind, you don’t think about it anymore. And then when you have some alone time, it just hits you. Like Holy S***, dude. It’s just crazy!

Some of these people, you also look at them in the same space. Like, “I remember Kid Cudi when me and A-Trak did a Dim Mak Fools Gold Tour in ’09 or something, and Kid Cudi’s first tour was with us. His first shows ever. He was so new to the whole world, and it reminded me of myself in that way. Seeing him explode. LMFAO – I’ve known those guys forever. Foo – I just got off the plane with Foo. And Sky… it’s like, “God, they’ve just gone bigger than life.” I just told Foo, I was like, “You’re now part of iconology, if there’s such a term. You’re no longer like, ‘Oh wow, you just got #1.’ You’re now past that artist stage – now you’re part of the icon stage.”

When people do the decades of music for a period of time, 100% LMFAO is going to be part of that for this decade. There’s no doubt about it. They’re there. And they started at my parties. They’re just like these two kids running around trying to make beats and trying to do something unique and different, not thinking they’re gonna change the s*** around like they’re doing.

SG: Out of all of that time, if you go back for a second to the start, back to 1995 or 1996, what, out of everything that has happened, would most have blown that young version of Steve Aoki’s mind?

SA: ’95… I’d just graduated from high school, I was going to UCSB, I was just insecure, I was straightedge, I was a punk/hardcore kid. I always alienated myself. I didn’t have any big goals for myself back then. I was a kid – 16, 17, 18 years old. I didn’t know what the f*** I was doing. I was just like, “Maybe I’ll be in a band the rest of my life. Maybe if nothing comes out of this, I guess I’ll just work for my Dad. He owns restaurants…. The problem is, I’m vegetarian, so I don’t even eat at Benihana’s. I don’t really care about that s*** either,” so I was just like, “What the f***? I’ll play it by ear.”

I’d just started playing shows, so being in a band was my dream – a band people cared about, where kids were singing to lyrics I wrote. That’s all I cared about. All I cared about was to write lyrics, and the 200 kids would come to my show and sing along, and crowd-surf on top of my head and stage-dive over my head, and try to grab the mic, singing my lyrics. That was my dream. That hasn’t happened yet, I think.

I guess my lyrics are really simple. Like “Warp” – people singing, “One, two…” Everyone sings that. Pretty simple. But I’m trying to bring that back because I wrote “Misfits” with Travis Barker. Very unity, hardcore spirited. It’s like, [singing] “We are the misfits / we’ll take you motherf***ers down,” and I’m chanting, “We are the misfits! We are the misfits! We are the misfits!” When I wrote that song, I wanted kids to sing that in the crowd: “We are the misfits!” I just imagined; I wrote that for these kids, and I still have that in my head.

I want kids to sing my lyrics, because I’m writing lyrics that unify people. Unify the alienated youth. That’s me! I’m a f***in’ misfit. And a lot of you out there are misfits. This is about us underdogs. We are the f***ing misfits. And, “The Kids Will Have Their Say”, which is on my album. I’m repeating: “The kids will have their say!” because I want the kids to feel like they have a f***ing voice, and I want them to sing along and I want them to sing with me. And the lyrics go,

“Reinvention is the name of the game / you can’t be neutral on a moving train,” which is the title of a Howard Zinn book. “You can’t be neutral on a moving train / Generations keep evolving with change / Systems come and go / it’s time to rearrange / Collecting history as a rate of exchange / The secrets of your life you need to reclaim / Speak truth to power to become the interface / Armed and waiting, the kids will have their say.”

I love these lyrics. I love lyrics. I love lyrics that, you read them, and then you’re like, “F***, that’s powerful.” I want to write those kinds of lyrics. Powerful, moving lyrics. I don’t know if kids will sing all that s***, but maybe they’ll sing, “The Kids Will Have Their Say.” Going back to what you were saying, that’s all I cared about. It hasn’t really happened like that, though … Riot! Riot! Riot! Riot! Occupy Wall Street!

I’m obsessed… My favorite magazine is Ad Busters. I was actually trying to visit as many different Occupy cities as I could on tour. I’d always take pictures of them, standing with them. But I was at 9/11 – I was in New York when that s*** went down, and I got stuck there, because no planes were going out, so everyone was going nuts in New York. The city was just going f***ing crazy.

So I was like, “F***. Who’s going to get f***ed out of all this shit?” It’s always like the people, the Middle Eastern taxi cab drivers, and there were a lot of f***in’ hate crimes happening now. Of course it’s just f***ed all those people died, but what’s the backlash? Innocent people are going to get really f***ed with. So I just documented it. I sought that out. I was interviewing people and trying to see what was going on. I was trying to be neutral about it too, but I was just hailing cabs all through the day and night, and I borrowed a friend’s video camera and just started interviewing cab drivers and s***. They’d tell me stories and all this crazy s***, like people beating them up and stuff.

And then I was like, “I don’t know what I’m going to do with this footage, but I’m stuck here, so I want to do something productive.” And when you’re in that university spirit, trying to engage… that was part of all of these weird extracurricular groups and things like that, it’s always about finding, engaging, and activating what you can around you with the education that you’re learning.

So I took all that, I had six or eight tapes of footage, went back to my school, and I was like, “What am I gonna do?” So I was talking to some people in one of my groups, and this guy was like, “Yo, man. I want to do something on this. I want to do something on what’s going on. Let’s work together.” So we worked together; we got a couple of grants. We got a couple cameras paid off, and then we got a trip to Afghanistan paid off. He went to Afghanistan to film all these bomb sites and all this sh*t he was doing there. And then we booked interviews with Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn, as well as other people too, like Alice Walker, and we tried to meet up with Mumia Abu-Jamal and s*** like that.

I went to Boston and I met up with Noam Chomsky, and I met up with Howard Zinn. And Noam Chomsky was definitely the most professional… like, you just couldn’t meet up with him. It was like, “Okay, we want to have an interview with Noam Chomsky.” And they were like, “Oh yeah, that will be two years – waiting list.” Somehow, my partner got us in. I don’t know what he said, but he was like, “You have to be here from this time to this time, and that’s that. You have 30 minutes.”

And when we got there, it was literally 30 minutes. We had like 12 questions; he only answered two, because you know how long his answers are. He was just going off. But just sitting this close to him, I’m like, “You’re f***ing Noam Chomsky, dude. You’re a legend.” I have like 18 of your books.

Howard Zinn was actually…I couldn’t believe it. We called 411: Zinn, Howard. We got his number and we called him, and he answered the phone. That’s how easy it was… I mean, I just couldn’t believe it. We’re like, “Let’s just try that,” and he’s like, “Hello?” I’m like, “Is this Howard Zinn?” He’s like, “Yes.” And we met up with him, and he was like… no secretary. We went to his office… It was cool. It was like filming all his stuff – all his books and s***. And he sat and talked to us for a long time. There was no limit. It was just cool. I mean, they’re both f***ing cool, but that was an experience.

Steve Aoki’s debut artist album, ‘Wonderland,’ is out now on Dim Mak/Ultra Records. At last!