{"id":2448709,"date":"2019-09-13T15:31:22","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T21:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=884157"},"modified":"2019-09-13T15:31:22","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T21:31:22","slug":"the-first-time-with-steve-aoki","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/music-news\/the-first-time-with-steve-aoki\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Time With Steve Aoki"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If there\u2019s one thing you need to know about Steve Aoki<\/a>, it\u2019s that the guy is prolific as hell<\/em>. He\u2019s a Grammy-nominated DJ-producer; he\u2019s the founder of music label Dim Mak Records; he\u2019s a fashion designer, surfer and philanthropist. But this year, the 41-year-old polymath leans into another occupation: he\u2019s now a published author.<\/p>\n

Titled BLUE: The Color of Noise<\/em><\/a>, Aoki\u2019s new memoir captures a lifetime spent making beats, starting parties and slinging [vegan] cakes into the faces of his fans. This month also saw the release of \u201cLet It Be Me<\/a>,\u201d his joint pop-EDM<\/a> single with the Backstreet Boys<\/a>. In celebration of his latest endeavors, Aoki rocked a classic BSB shirt and spoke to Rolling Stone<\/em> about some of the firsts he chronicled in his book: from his first punk show at 14, to the first of his many sold-out concerts and festivals.<\/p>\n

On his first live show:<\/strong> \u201cBefore I was in a DJ, I was in bands,\u201d says Aoki. \u201cMy first live show was in the guitarist\u2019s living room \u2014 it was four of our friends, and their parents in the back. I taught them the lyrics to one song, so they could sing along with me when the song came out.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the first song he ever wrote:<\/strong> \u201cI actually played guitar, I played bass, I played drums and I sang on a 4-track Tascam recorder. Without that, I wouldn\u2019t have broken down the barrier of entry for me to try to create my own future.\u201d<\/p>\n

On taking his first women\u2019s studies class:<\/strong> Aoki graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with B.A. degrees in sociology and feminist studies. \u201cThe first course I took was a feminist professor teaching the history and social critique of pornography,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the gateway drug for me to take more courses.\u201d<\/p>\n

On meeting a personal idol: \u201c<\/strong>Fugazi was performing at the Shrine,\u201d recalls Aoki. \u201cFugazi is one of my favorite bands of all time; it was an incredible show. I was waiting on the side where the band would walk off the stage. Joe [Lally] the bassist walked by and reached for me. He reached out, almost touched my hand\u2026 and like a puff of smoke, he was gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

On his first sold-out concert:<\/strong> \u201cIt was at the Palladium in Los Angeles in 2011. That was a big year for me; I remember doing the Identity<\/em> festival tour across the United States, and that\u2019s when EDM exploded in America. That\u2019s when I could start doing my own show.\u201d<\/p>\n

On meeting the Backstreet Boys:<\/strong> \u201cWe were all on a flight from Vegas to L.A. We landed and I was waiting for my bags [when] they approached me. I was like, \u2018Oh damn, it\u2019s the Backstreet Boys!\u2019 I couldn\u2019t believe how nice they were.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one thing you need to know about Steve Aoki, it\u2019s that the guy is prolific as hell. He\u2019s a Grammy-nominated DJ-producer; he\u2019s the founder of music label Dim Mak Records; he\u2019s a fashion designer, surfer and philanthropist. But this year, the 41-year-old polymath leans into another occupation: he\u2019s now a published author. Titled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2448709","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 19:25:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2448709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2448709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2448709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2448709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2448709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}