From behind a heap of jet black hair, Aoki yells, crowd-surfs and pilots inflatable rafts across audiences during his electro house sets, pausing only long enough to steer the show’s momentum from behind his setup.
On Saturday, Aoki will shake up The Fillmore Silver Spring alongside wobble-friendly dubstep producer Datsik for The Deadmeat Tour.
It’s not just Aoki’s high-energy onstage antics that have established him as a DJ with a rock attitude. Hardcore and punk samples like the recently-reformed Refused’s “New Noise” are common over unrelenting waves of bass and synth.
Before his endeavors in electronic music, Aoki was a hardcore musician, regularly hosting and promoting parties while attending the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Aoki became fixated with electro when it rose to prevalence in the mid-2000s. Established under artists like Justice and MSTRKRFT, Aoki says the philosophy behind the music was reminiscent of hardcore’s evolution in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“[Electro] was like the punk baby of electronic music,” Aoki says. “The ideology was very much ‘We are sovereign, we are not part of this world. We are our own world.’ It was very anarchistic. The ideology seemed to be that way. It didn’t have to say we are anarchistic, it just felt that way in that approach. ... I automatically wanted to define myself with the electro with the electro artist.”
Aoki started out as an electro purist, but his first full-length release, “Wonderland,” released in January, demonstrates a genre-hopping producer who figured out the right recipe for dance floor anthems after cutting his teeth in clubs across the country. Aoki worked on the album for years, but says he was finally committed to completing it in earnest in 2011.
“The album itself chronicles that period of time from ‘08 to 2011 of all the different sounds that influenced me as an artist. It’s diverse,” he says. “There’s some punk background in it, there are progressive songs that I never actually released until this point, there’s obviously dubstep. There’s all these different sounds that are important to me as a DJ.”
Aoki’s curiosity with other genres not only is evident in sound, but by the number of guest appearances on the album. All 13 tracks feature industry names such as Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker and Kid Cudi to fellow producers LMFAO. Perhaps the biggest crossover on the album is a track featuring Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo called “Earthquakey People.”
On an album with eternally-caffeinated artists like Lil Jon, it’s hard to imagine how Cuomo’s cool vocal delivery would comfortably translate to a dance track, but giving Weezer an electro facelift is nothing new for Aoki. The two touched base after Cuomo said the producer’s interpretation of “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To” was his favorite Weezer remix.
“I was a big fan of Rivers Cuomo since ‘The Blue Album’ [the 1994 album ‘Weezer’], so getting that kind of notice was a big deal and I think that was the door opening for him to work with me,” Aoki says.
Aoki not only has a knack for tracks, but for business, as well. Under his label Dim Mak Records, he has helped launch the careers of artists including Bloc Party since starting the company in 1996. Aoki says he signs acts that are committed to developing a distinct sound. Among the initiated are psytrance-rockers Infected Mushroom and art pop act Fischerspooner.
One of the latest to join the label is Datsik. The two toured together during the Identity Festival in late summer 2011, a roaming festival reminiscent of the model established by the Vans Warped Tour. Aoki says his decision to sign Datsik not only was to help him release his first album this year, but because they worked well together.
“Relationships mean a lot to me. When I meet someone and they’re doing something unique and I work really well with them, it makes sense.
This is our first dubstep artist on the label and he wants to do something outside of the dubstep community and we want to do something in the dubstep community,” Aoki says.
When it came to releasing his own album, Aoki says several electronic dance artists have abandoned the trend. Top producers such as Avicii and Afrojack have yet to release albums, but still enjoy worldwide success.“Albums define bands. To define Kings of Leon, they would need to release an album with a few of those songs in there... With Avicii, he just needs to write the next levels and then it’ll redefine his sound again, just from one song. But for me, I come from the rock world so albums are really important to my personal accomplishments.”
With “Wonderland” under his belt, Aoki plans to continue doing what he does best: using electro and house music as the main ingredients for what has become a melting pot of electronic influences.
“I just finished [a song] with [producers] Knife Party,” Aoki says. “That won’t be coming out until later this year, but that’s another new bridge. I’m all about like advancing music by testing out and evolving the sound outside of its form.”
Photo by Dove Shore
No comments:
Post a Comment