[MUSIC]
Hi, I'm Joni Saldwin, for C-Net in New York and I'm here with Steve Aoki.
Hey.
The world-trotting DJ, EDM superstar.
Steve, thank you for coming in.
Yeah.
So, anyone who has seen any of your shows, your fans know Technological spectacle
Mm.
is a key part of your peformance.
Can you talk about any of your very favorites, whiz bang, show stoppper, technological performance elements.
My LED wall is kind of like the narrative thread that runs from the beginning, end of my show.
[MUSIC]
It's just this huge visual of the song.
And then you have the lights, and you have the ambience and the feelings that really elevate your emotions in certain ebbs and flows of the songs.
Just seeing the evolution of festivals, festivals are entirely this experiential feeling
Whereas it's obviously more than auditory it's like you're seeing you're being like completely overwhelmed by the visual stimulation the lights.
they're like kinda strobing at you.
And obviously the energy around with all the people.
Plus, the good cake in the face.
[LAUGH]
That's a very lowpex.
Definitely.
But a big show stopper.
Definitely makes you realized you're at a Steve Aoki show, which is very important to me.
[LAUGH]
Are there any tech spectacles you really wanted to pursue but the technology just isn't there yet?
Anytime you wear some sort of the Oculus Rift's kind of technology and you try to apply that in your shows, it's been a fail.
It hasn't worked because it's just too clunky, it needs to be easy, and it's gotta be like ding.
It's gotta be already in your Brain or something.
I think we're all trying to integrate more tech into our experience.
Because that's the driving force of my business, is providing that experience to my fans.
I make the music that brings them into my show, right?
They're excited to see me play these songs that they're hearing in their car, or with their friends at the parties.
And they come for that reason and then I have to present it in a way where they leave going that was the most insane experience.
Your interest in technology and futurism embues your music.
Yeah.
Can you talk about some technological progress that really excites you?
Okay so for music making It's been an ongoing evolution of going from big room studios to a singular laptop and headphones.
So that's been the evolution to make that easier.
I think [UNKNOWN] is supposed to make things easier for you.
So the things that you love to do, it's about how accessible that is to your life.
What do you think about on the consumption side of music, we've seen this transition from owning CDs, to downloading tracks, to streaming.
Where the universe of music, really, is open to anybody at any time, as much as you want.
How have you seen this movement to streaming impact your career, or impact the popularity of EDM?
Okay so in passing my career has helped immensely because I cross genres constantly.
The streaming platforms allow me to jump into producing songs with a K-Pop artist like BTS.
Because of streaming artists like BTS are global and are getting massive attention in America that a country that doesn't Speak Korean but they love BTS or working with Latin artists where streaming, once again, has increased the globalization of Latin music to the point where my song with Daddy Yankee that's an entirely Spanish-sung song Is bigger in countries like France and Italy than it is in Spanish speaking countries because of streaming.
Streaming is a big deal but my songs that are streaming in big.
Ways are songs where I've jumped into different worlds like working with Louis Tomlinson from One Direction on Just Hold On.
And now my new song Pretender with AJR and Lil Yachty another genre bending record.
I suspect high streaming numbers for that.
Steve thank you so much for coming.
