Up Close & Personal: Steve Aoki

GRAMMY Pro will bring their exclusive Up Close & Personal program to the GRAMMY Museum for a special evening with GRAMMY-nominated international DJ/producer and Dim Mak Records founder Steve Aoki. The electronic dance music entrepreneur will discuss his impressive career and creative process during a conversation before an intimate audience in the Clive Davis Theater. Aoki’s 2014 studio album Neon Future I soared to No. 1 on the Dance/Electronic Album chart and features the Gold-certified single “Delirious (Boneless)” with Chris Lake and Tujamo featuring Kid Ink. His follow-up, 2015’s Neon Future II, featured collaborations with Linkin Park, Matthew Koma, Snoop Lion, Rivers Cuomo and NERVO, plus a very special appearance by J.J. Abrams, who voices the outro to close the album. Ranked Best DJ in America by DJ Times in 2015, Aoki is renowned for his pandemonium-inducing sets and whiplash-inspiring travel schedule, averaging more than 250 tour dates per year, including headliner slots at summer music festivals throughout the world as well as prestigious residencies at mega-clubs in Las Vegas and Ibiza. His recently released Netflix documentary I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead reflects on the driving force behind his career — his father Rocky Aoki, founder of the dining-as-entertainment Benihana restaurant chain. Steve Aoki launched Dim Mak Records out of his college dorm room in 1996, eventually breaking bands such bands as Bloc Party, The Gossip, The Kills and Klaxons through street-smart underground marketing (the label boasts more than 500 releases to date). Aoki’s nose-to-the-grindstone DIY work ethic has propelled him as an entrepreneur and performer, ultimately placing him in the top five on Forbes’ Top DJ Money Earner list for three years running.