Steve Aoki

I'm Dax Shepherd and I'm joined by Monica Lily Padman. - Hello. - Today we have one of the biggest DJs to ever live. - Yeah. - Steve Aoki, he is a Grammy-nominated DJ and record producer.

His albums are neon future, Wonderland, Colony with a K, like Crispy Crimes. - Yeah, that's right. - Quantum Beats, cool. And he's celebrating as he should,

the 30th anniversary of his record label, Dim Mach. - Yes. - And guys, if you're like me and you think, well, I'm not terribly interested in DJing, it doesn't matter, Steve is such a fascinating guy.

- What an incredible story he has.

- Yes. - The whole thing is just a fun ride. - Legendary father, such a good episode.

“I really loved him, I think you're going to,”

too, please enjoy Steve Aoki. (upbeat music) - From Henderson? - From Henderson, yeah. - My father-in-law lives in Henderson.

- Oh yeah? - Mm-hmm. - It's surprising how many people I know say they have someone in Henderson. You know what they call a "hender-tucky."

- That was a common thing in Michigan, too. Like people would deride tail or Michigan, they called it "tailer-tucky." They were a lot of people. - Yeah, yeah.

- I really just got to feel bad for Kentucky. - Kentucky, Kentucky news as a whole time, and all of these others say, yeah. (laughing) - How long have you lived in Henderson?

- From LA. - Newport. - Yeah, Newport. - Yeah, yeah. - Center for the LA, then move to Vegas,

move to Henderson, and I bought the house in 2013. - Okay, so 13 years there. - Yeah, then I moved there in like, end of 2015. My residency is in Vegas. - Okay.

- residency hasn't like my DJ residency, so I was playing there every month. - Yeah, it makes sense. - So it was like, why would you go there, but that makes sense?

- Yeah, yeah.

It's like if you're always working in Hollywood or LA,

“you're gonna be in LA, if you're an actor, you know?”

- Yeah, yeah. - So if you're a DJ, I mean, I have 50 shows of year or there. - Wow. - Yeah, I mean, you could live anywhere. How many days do you think you're home a year?

- Well, I do 200 shows of year. (coughs) - Oh God. - Yeah, 200 locations and shit, right? - Vacation is kind of tour.

- You'll just extend on either end of a show. - Yeah. - Maybe a day. - Okay. - Sounds like you don't really vacate.

- Honestly, the vacation for me is being home. - Yeah. - Right. - Because it's nothing better. I don't care to be on a deserted island or something.

- Yeah, I gotta tell you about the suspicious timing of you coming today. So a month ago, my daughter turned 13, and I was taking her to Disneyland for like the weekend. And I says, "Anything, especially you wanna do?"

And she said, "Yeah, I wanna eat at Benny Hanna." - And I'm like, "Oh my God." - That's great. I love Benny Hanna. I'm not even sure how she knew about Benny Hanna,

“but anyways, we go to Benny Hanna in Anaheim, right?”

And I'm looking at the wall inside of Benny Hanna.

And I'm like, hold on a second.

If I can Benny Hanna was sponsoring offshore race boats. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - I'm super into boats and all racing. So I was mesmerized by these photos of the Benny Hanna racing boat.

And I was like, that's a weird thing for them to sponsor as a restaurant. And then I'm fucking reading them out Steve Zay. His father is Rocky Aoki, started Benny Hanna. - No. - And race.

- Sorry, I said Aoki, I didn't see your last name right. - Aoki is the American way. - Okay, okay, okay. - If you're in Japan, it's Aoki, if you're in Mexico, it's Aoki, if you're in England, it's Aoki.

- Okay, so we can get away with Aoki. - But we gotta do, first of all, what was your relationship with your father? I do like talking about him. - I love talking about my father.

I mean, he's a legend for me. - No, he's a legend, but I love to bring up his name because the people that really knew him are older than us. You have to be like 55 and up. And then you knew you heard about him

'cause you didn't have an impact in the 80s. - He was crazy. - Yeah, he was the evil carnival of restaurant tours. - For sure. - Okay, so let's start.

He's from Japan. - Yeah, he's from Japan. - And he was a wrestler there. - He was a wrestler. He went to the US.

I think he was wrestling for the Olympics on the Japanese team or something. You know, he's a high level wrestler. Came to the United States. And then this is where it gets kind of blurry.

He came out there for some reason. I think some wrestling thing. Heard himself couldn't wrestle for Japan and then stayed in New York. That part, I don't know the exact story line,

but he then came to New York. - Did he speak any English? - No. - No. - It's 1961.

1961, he came to New York is difficult for Asian immigrants. - You're in the least friendly city in America, not speaking the language. - Yeah, I mean, it's got to be a joke. - Like, his book he does talk about,

like, living in Harlem and being broke

It's ice cream truck. - Uh-huh. - He's like, okay, you know what? I'm a wrestler. So I'm gonna paint a Japanese wrestler

on side of his ice cream truck. (laughs) - See what we do. - Can you try to run Harlem?

“I've tried to subscribe and it just didn't really work out.”

- What a cool guy. - And then he was taking classes for restaurant management at some small college. He also won like a flyweight wrestling division. Like he also was a really successful wrestler.

- And then he was like, let's start this restaurant idea. And his father, my grandfather, had the original Benihontas was in Japan. - Oh, it was.

- Yeah, it's Benihontam means it's a flower

basically named it after a flower that grew

outside of the Rubble of Post World War II. - Yeah, yeah. - Next to his cafe. And it's like this resilient flower, this red flower that just grows through anything.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Okay, well it's called, it wasn't a wrestler on the cafe. - Benihontam. - And it wasn't like Kabachi grill. - No, no, no, it was like a small, humble cafe.

And grandfather really helped him. He brought the chef's over, he brought the, he bought she grills over. - And starts with four grills, right? - Yeah, that's right.

- And the idea to like cook in front of people. - Yeah, yeah. - That's actually interestingly enough. That's not a Japanese concept. - They don't do that there.

They don't do that. So that's very much an American-born concept. Where did he get that idea? - I don't know where he got the idea. - He's a shellman of something, yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - 'Cause no one really did that. There's no inventions, not like he invented it. But like definitely found this idea of entertainment. - Entertainment.

- Already conceptually out of the gates, there's problems. You're gonna have huge turnover in concept. I can see someone going, well, how's this gonna work? You only have four tables and they got a cook at the table.

So they can't be cooking for other people. - On top of that, Japanese food in the '60s, they only serve Japanese people. They're like the little immigrant cultures. - Yeah.

“- If you want to try this, you have to go to Chinatown.”

- Uh-huh. - And you're gonna be eating with Chinese people. It's not made for Westerners, right? - Right, right. - So right, they open Benihana.

They open in like a Western white New York. - 56, three or something like that? - Yeah, yeah. - 56, three. So my father's thinking was like,

well, I want to try to break this open to Americans not to Japanese people. This isn't a Japanese concept. Japanese people won't adopt this. - They don't like it.

- They don't like it. - They don't like it. They want traditional Japanese food. It's not Benihana. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- So it was struggling because it was a completely foreign concept. - Yeah. - And it almost didn't work. - Sure.

- The first phase of it was almost a complete failure. Up until this one New York Times writer back in the days when you could make a restaurant with one review. - Yeah, from one review.

- Oh.

“- And she came in and ate there and was blown away”

and then she wrote this incredible review.

And then business picked up and the sustainable. - And when did he start franchiseing it and building it out? - This is 1964, he started it. I think in the '70s it just took off.

- Okay. - And it's privately scaling it out. - Yeah. - Like it's like late '70s or early '80s is when he went public.

- It was a publicly traded opening. - Yeah, yeah, at some point went public. - So he probably got absurdly rich overnight kind of from that public offering. - Then he became like an employee of the company.

But in the '70s when it was his company, he's like, okay, I'm gonna do the offshore boat ride. I'm gonna do all the stuff I wanna do. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - But I'm just gonna kinda be hot on the side of the boat.

- Yeah, so it's all right on. - He's gonna be hot on the side of the hot air balloon. - His father's the first person to fly a hot air balloon across the Pacific. - Oh my god, it didn't say Benny Hanna on the hook.

- Yeah, it would be like his face on the balloon. It was like a marketing, like, yeah, yeah. He was the Mickey Mouse of Benny Hanna. - Yeah, yeah. - He was like a Colonel Sanders.

- Yeah, Colonel Sanders, Dave Thomas from Wendy's. - Yeah, he definitely marketed himself really well

and he was never afraid to be in front of a microphone

or never afraid to talk to people. Never afraid to be in an interview. - Yeah. - Inspiring. - Yeah, and for Japanese people which are known to be more like

keep your head down, don't make a rocket stone, make noise. He was a complete opposite. He adopted it like this American mindset of showmanship. - They're very incredible story. - So what did he just do?

I mean, he's a thrill-secret. This whole hot air balloon across the Pacific. - He nuts. The fact that no one had done it and he does that. And then the actual racing was serious.

Like, he almost died in San Francisco under the Golden Gate Bridge. - He started a porno magazine. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. (laughing)

- He started justice magazine. He actually sold the layer flint. - Okay, yeah, for real. - Here's his magazine was around. - Yeah, you had a club.

- He was trying to be like Japanese, you have nerve. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was married to my mom but then had a whole other family. - There's a call from him saying he had three children from three different women at the exact same time.

- Oh, right. - Yeah, so there's that story too. - Okay. - I get names to the internet right when it's something's right.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, you kind of did it all. It was like a no rules. I'm just gonna do whatever I want. - Yeah. - Yeah.

- So you've like a million brothers and sisters

that you do or don't know. - There's seven siblings from my father's side. And honestly, we're all very close. - Oh, that's lovely. - Yeah, so we'll do family got together with all of us.

Now we're in our 40s. - Soon to be 50s, so soon. (laughing)

“- Oh, my, my big, I'll be the key to be young and hard.”

- And my longevity and so like that's important. - What a character in how present was Amy? Sounds very busy. He had a lot of shit going on. - He was definitely present though.

- He wise. - So when they go public, he's got some cash. He's like, let's go live it up in Newport. - The crazy part of the story is, and this is very public. - Yeah, yeah.

- Is that he out of major, boat accident, came out of the coma. And that's when he woke up to my mom on one side and to his girlfriend. - Okay.

- I don't know if I was born yet. So I think mom and my older brother and sister and his girlfriend and my brother. - Oh my God. - My half brother, her son.

- New steamer mom or she already was him on the phone. - Oh, shit. - Dude, this out of a movie, wake up at a coma and all your secrets are revealed. - He's just like, I want to go back

into my coma now. - He's out of the coma. - He's out of the coma. - He's out of the coma. - Like, oh, I wish I died.

- Yeah. - This is pre-social media. - Everyone's life was a fucking mess, but no new. - Eventually my mom did divorce

“and then she moved from Miami where I was born.”

- Great boat racing down there. You got to be in Miami. - Yeah, and also Benjana had quarters moved to Florida. - Oh, okay. - So you moved.

- I was one. So my mom moved to Newport and then I grew up in Newport. - Wasn't born there, but really I'm a Newport born and not born by Grace that we at one to 70. - Yeah.

- So did he stay in Florida? How often are you seeing him? - Yeah, to place Florida. He was really New York. He could not leave New York.

He was in New York. - It sounds like his arousal template. - What he needed to be alive. He could only exist in New York. - Yeah, Florida.

- He means a lot to New York. - He's not an already, and he is not a port. He is a New Yorker through and through. He had a brownstone when he was living in '63 for the last part of his life.

But he was in New Jersey 30 minutes outside of New York City when I was young. That's where I would go visit him in the summer. - And you know what? And that's where you can get acres of land and a big house.

I was surprised. I don't think the house was that extraordinary expensive. In the '80s, it's a different price point. - Probably a $380,000 house. - There's something ridiculous.

Like less than a million dollars. And you have all this acres. You have 10 square of big Victorian sell house. - Yeah. - Got a creepy not something I was excited to be at night,

in a scary. - Now I know you love Bruce Lee. This is weird parallels here. Bruce Lee was breaking the mold. He was this fucking sexy dude.

He was in San Francisco being cool. - Yeah. - And in the '60s, right? - Yeah, I guess so, right?

“'60s 'cause he passed away in '77, I think.”

- Okay.

- Your dad never met him by chance, did he?

Running in these fun circles. - He met a lot of people. He loved being out. So he's definitely extrovert socialite guy. - Is he a drinker?

- Not so much. - Oh, interesting. - Not so much. - Yeah. - My grandfather was a drinker.

My father wasn't. He had a whole book on soccer and stuff like that. You know, it's a kind of sort of Japanese food, but I never actually experienced him drunk. - That's right.

- That's right. - Yeah, from a child of '70s. - Well, he was getting high on other things. - Yeah, yeah, he's doing all the stuff. - Yeah, he's doing all the stuff.

- Yeah, he's doing all the stuff. - Yeah, he's doing all the stuff. - Yeah, he's doing all the stuff. - Yeah, yeah. - He is friends with a lot of people in the art world,

the club world. He also needs to be said, he visibly looks like a stunt. You can tell that he's a dude who wrestled. Like he is a stunt. - I mean, stocky, short, he's a perfect wrestler type

because he's not tall and lanky. - Good luck trying to take him down. - Okay, so in Newport 78 onward, I mean, for people who have met in Newport, it is like blonde chads who go surfing in skateboarding

and it just couldn't be wider in blond dirt.

- Yes, I always joke about this

because my mom who is through and through a very Japanese immigrant speaks eight-broken English. Move to the widest neighborhood in Orange County when 10 minutes away is Irvine. - Yeah, it's like majorious, is it?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You know what I mean? - I don't know what she could have meant. - Yeah, she could have meant it. - Yeah, she could have meant it.

- Literally nice on foot. - She could have been in some ways. She could have been in a Japanese community. - She could have spoke Japanese all that. - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- But she moved to Newport. We always kind of laugh about that. You know, in the end, I'm glad that she did do that for me because being a fish out of water in many cases, when you're younger, you know, it's just different,

you know, being a immigrant. It's very different life than when you're adult. You got a real experience, racism, you got a real experience feeling left out at the loudest levels.

- Yeah, at your most insecure, you know, you're all right. - And then you're also so impressionable, you're so vulnerable, you're so emotional, you're so confused. - There's multiple factors. A, you've gotten older and you've found success in status.

But also just being Japanese in 1978 versus now

is a much different thing in the US. - Yeah, definitely.

“You know, a social media is almost like an educational tool”

for so many kids to still go like, oh yeah, I shouldn't say that. - Right. - Yeah, that's not cool. - Like the social norms or if I do that,

I will get canceled so therefore I should not do that. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's like that and it was like, no. Oh, the social norms to not do this. - Also, we got a really big education on Japan

in the early '90s when Japan was really rising to economic dominance and there were now movies about it. Some of the culture was coming in this direction. - Yeah, I also just think the general understanding. - There's the kids now that love,

anime and manga, Japanese cultural stuff that's like cool. - And the food, everyone needs Japanese stuff. - Yeah, exactly. - Everyone's been to fucking Benny Hanna. Your father is like, your father is weirdly part of that movement.

- I'm so cool. - Yeah, I mean miseducated as I was like cool, this is how they cook in Japan. - I'm very sorry. (laughing)

- That's the other funny thing is that Benny Hanna is more American than Japanese and you don't realize it. They're cooking in the shellmanship, the hats. That's a French style hat. - Right, yeah.

- So there's a lot of interesting things that my grandpa was like, oh, we want the red French style hats 'cause they're louder. - They catch shrimp better when you forget me. (laughing)

- But it's smart because he was trying to get Americans in. So he has to visually make it appealing to Americans. You don't want to push them away if they walk into like, I don't know, I don't recognize anything in here. I'm leaving.

- Yeah, the only offering was the food and it was good, I love Benny Hanna. But if that was the only offering, it's not becoming some big national sensation. - Just going back to what you're saying about your daughters,

it's a birthday thing. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's like every kid's birthday spot. - Okay. - By birthday, I assume Benny Hanna.

It's just kind of like part of normal conversation now in your case. - Yes. - It's cool that it's become that. I forgot what that's statistics.

I still work Benny Hanna's when I was a teenager.

“I think that it's like 70% birthdays or something.”

- Wow, wow, wow, wow. - I don't know what the percentage is. - But it's a large percentage. You get any profile of people knowing you are associated with Benny Hanna.

- Better provide anything, cultural capital. - For me coming up as an artist, no. - No, I mean, it's like a kid on the playground. - Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. - I mean, my close friends, but like,

oh, can we get a Benny Hanna's money? - Yeah, shit, shit, shit. - Is it your birthday? (laughing) - Yeah, but not really.

- So how did you do in elementary and in middle school and how did you find your way?

- When I grew up when I was first through 4/5th grade

for a period of time, I was one of three boys in my class. - Whoa. - Usually that's a good thing, you know. (laughing) - But like when you're a kid, if the two guys

don't like you, you're kind of screwed. - So in your school there was only three boys in your class. - Oh, that's so bizarre. Was it a private school? I hopped around because I just could not make friends.

So my mom would like, okay, let's try this school, let's try this school.

“- I had bad socialization, like, I could not figure it out.”

- Yeah, yeah. - Well, let's be fair, I guess. - I don't think it was an awkward to figure out. - It was really tough to make friends. - So what was the in-road like for a lot of kids

at skateboarding or at smoking weed? Or you know, you find a little niche you can cement yourself. - Yeah, so the interesting thing that I saw is I went to public and Catholic or Christian. The Catholic and Christian private were the most difficult.

My grades were the worst. My socialization there was horrible. I wanted to recognize when you're an outsider. The teachers all recognize that and you just get sent to the principal's office all the time.

- Oh, really? It's like easy to pick on the guy that everyone doesn't like. There's something wrong with this kid. No one likes this kid. Okay, just go to the principal.

And then I would just get spanked and like, - Oh! - And back then I would get, oh man, it was horrible. - The spank with a big hole holes on the pedal. - Oh, yeah.

- I just hated. - That's brutal. - And my mom would have to pull me out. I was like failing in these classes and I loved being in public schools in Newport.

Because also public schools in Newport is gonna be different than other places too. But it was still pretty brutal sometimes. It's the dude who himself got shit on by another echelon of popular kids that decides he's got to find someone

to shit on. So you're just gonna be maxed. - My mom put me in school early. - Oh boy. - So I was one year younger.

- No man's on the moon. - So I was basically smaller. And that doesn't help. - You know, you ever, I was curious when I was learning about your dad.

I was thinking of kind of the pressure when you have a dad like that. I don't even know, but if you ever shared with your father, the challenge is, I would assume his response would be like,

yeah, you get tough. Like I did. - You know, it's interesting.

I never, ever shared that stuff with him.

- You did it. - Because he's not one to listen to that. You always want to hear the good things. So I'd always have to tell them the good things. I would never tell them the bad things ever.

- Yeah, yeah. - I would never like complain to him. One of the things I learned growing up. I was like, like, I got hurt. I think went to the hospital.

is I had to pay for that. Like, so I'm getting hurt. - How did I get hurt?

“- Like, where are you always go to the hospital?”

- Yeah. - You're not hurt. You can't really say the bad stuff.

I always want to try to impress him.

I think with him, he has a lot of kids. So we're always trying to compete for his attention. Even, you know, when we were like children to add a lesson until like adults when my late 20s when I finally was like, I actually make him money.

- Yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - And I wanted to share that with him immediately. - Yeah, of course. - Of course.

Your siblings were older. - Kind of in the middle, but from my mom. - Yeah, from your mom you were living with. - I felt like a only child because my mom's kids they're 10 and 11.

- Oh, you're the older than you. - So by the time I was eight, they were already out of the house. So from eight to 17, I was like a only child there. - Who welcomed you in in high school? Like what ended up being your niche?

- Like you said skateboarding and punk in hardcore music. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - And that changed my life. - Saved your life, maybe. - Yeah, it really was like 13, 14 year old age.

That's when the clay gets molded. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - My son's nine months. When he's 10, 11, 12, I'm going to make sure

that we set him in a really good clay molding. - Yeah. - By the environment. - Yeah. - That's a really important age.

- Well, you start becoming aware of people have identities. I've got to pick one. - Yeah, exactly. - And what one feels natural to me? Which one will I be accepted in?

- Most of the time, it's sports. - Yeah, right. If you're not a jog, you're like, "All right, I try this sport. I try it all that wasn't working."

And then it's always peers, peers have so much influence.

- Yes. - So when I went with these kids to a show, we're skating and going to shows. That's what we did. - That was my life.

And then you see other kids, they're your age. And they're like screaming around and like thrashing guitars. And they're like, "Not on a stage, they're right here." They also have all been shit on in school. So there's like a beautiful bonding

and they're spinning about it. - Yeah. - I relate to all this stuff. - Yes. - I am not the same kid up there.

You're like the barrier of entry to beat that kid is actually right there. - And they're not that good. That's another thing I try to tell. - Yes.

- The great thing about punk music is like, you go to a show and you're like, I don't know, I think in a few months I'd be able to play drums as good as this guy, that's what I did. - Exactly.

“That's why I love punk because I don't know how to sing.”

I don't know how to play any instruments. My friends that we were going were like, "We don't know, let's just figure it out." - Yeah. - We know a guy knows how to play drums.

That's the most important guy you need.

That's the most technically skilled thing that you need to have as a drummer that knows how to keep a beat. - Keep time, yeah. - We found a drummer and he will bring him to the shows

and get him inspired. Like, give me a try to do this in your garage. - Yeah. - And you let go of this beat for me. And then I would just go there after school every day

and practice and learn how to play bass, guitar, drums. And I was like singing, I didn't know how to say I was like, we're just fucking around. That was a start of my music journey. And it's like this rough and tumble like you could just show up.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Wake up out of bed and whatever and then just do it. That's the cool thing. - To care would be uncool. You're buffeted from any failure.

It's such a great entry point for creativity. It allows you to feel like you can become something. And then when I did that with my friends, we were like messing around and we were like playing and living rooms,

which was a start. Then everything opened up, this idea like, hey, if they I could do it all, whatever it's exciting to me, then we started riding in a zine. We go up with my friends, the kinko's,

making a little poetry and cutting up a little fun, like, you know, ransom note letters and making poetry out of it and making zines and passing out to friends. And it's still treating t-shirts.

Like everything was like, oh, this is all doable. We could actually make a business doing that kind of stuff.

“- Yeah, I think when people that weren't in that culture,”

they just see a mosh pit. They're like, oh, all these kids are crazy. But it's like, yes, everyone did zines. We all made collages. - Wait, sorry, what's a zine?

- It's like a handmade magazine. - That you're making at kinko's. You're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - He goes with a spacer like, - You're figuring out how to buff kinko's?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't remember like they had those big rectangular blocks you stick in there and then you can get a copy. It's like one, two, three, right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.

- So you go, you make all your copies, right? So you do like thousand copies. This is a lot of money. - Yeah, yeah. - If you sense a copy, then you take that

just go to the bathroom with it. You smash it, it goes like a million. If you go to the front, you can take like a thousand copies. Runs out to the front. It's like, I only made like ten copies.

- That was doing zines all the way to the college. - We had a friend, my roommate. He worked there. He's like, okay, he just like five cents. - We also all had this little device

that you would put on a pay fund so you could get free calls. That was like, everyone in the punk rock world and Detroit had these. When you drop a quarter in there, it makes a digital noise.

And that's actually what puts the credit on the phone. So we all had these little things from radio shake

like put like three dollars where the coins are. - Oh, that's awesome. - Yeah, all kinds of like mildly, gently illegal stuff. (laughing) - Oh, no, no, no, no.

Another fun, illegal activity I'd do when I was a kid was sticky in movie theaters. - Sure, we did all do that.

- That was always fun, yeah.

- I was always scared. - That was like one of my favorite. - When you had multi-plexes in Newport, so you could probably go in and bang out six movies. - We love doing that.

The way I do it, I don't know if you could talk about this, but it's kind of wholesome. - It is. - But you go in, first of all, in order to get it, you would say like, oh, I left my wallet inside the theater

so that you and you go in the theater, then you go through the back, I had a belt or a shoe. The shoe and through the exit door.

“We the door open, then you have to go down a whole flat of stairs.”

This is the Edward Cinema's in Triangle Square. And then you go to the bottom where it opens out to the street. And then you let in like six of your friends. - Oh, perfect. - And then they go.

(laughing) - And this is just to see that you go out to the friends. I got my wallet, thank you. And then you go around and then you go around the back and then you go around the back.

- And then once you're around and you can watch like, however many of you will just keep it going. - Okay. - Wow. - Yeah, let it rise.

- We would just buy one ticket and then see like, we did pay for one ticket. - For one ticket, you got, buy one, get eight free. - That would be the solution if you didn't want to pay. - And you know what I mean.

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“So you must have done pretty good in high school”

'cause you got any UCSP. - I'm surprised to be honest, I got in. I applied to like every UC school. I got rejected to every school. You didn't get accepted at UC Santa Cruz?

- Nope. My GPA was 3.1. That was pretty good. - Not horrible. - For UC?

- Well, not for UC, but in the general. - I don't like UC Santa Barbara. I don't think you can get in. Now, unless you're 4.0 plus plus. - Yeah.

- So I was like, I got in. I think they had to let me in in one of the UC schools. - Yeah, they all talk, and they all, just for the listener, I would say, I can imagine if you're a listener in the walkie right now, you're like, they wanted diversity and they wanted you in there, but you should know in 95 already all the UCs are already predominally Asian. They didn't need Asians.

- That's true. - In 95. - That's still a question in my head like, how did I get in? I think it's like it has to be 'cause they had to let me in one of UC school. 'Cause I from California, and they had preferential treatment to California residents.

- They're a little weighted, yeah. - I think that's part of it. 'Cause I went to UCLA in 98, and at that time it was 39% Asian and 31% white. - And there's no way they need, there's no way they need. - Yeah, there's no way they need it.

- I don't think you can actually see Asians, and I don't think that. - That wasn't the case. - Yeah, I did write in my newspaper thing.

“I was like, I think affirmative action helped me get into school, but then I was like, but there's so many Asians here.”

- Yeah, I didn't think. - I didn't think. - So here's where you and I could have potentially met in real life. Which is, I graduated high school in 93. I went on a road trip for a year with my best friend, and we ended up in I-Livista for like four months.

Just living in people's dorm rooms and on, they'll apply it to friends. - Yeah, yeah. - Just couch surfing for months, the most mind-blowing place imaginable if you're from Detroit. It's like this couch is on an ocean.

The first party we went to on her first night there was like these dudes living on a cliff with the ocean in the backyard.

In infamous I-Livista for these insane parties, right? Halloween is just this enormous party, tens of thousands of people come. It's a wild, exciting place. I then went back to Detroit and then I moved to Santa Barbara in '95 when you started at UCSV. - Wow. - But I was living downtown on Bass Street, like right next to the state.

- But I would go to IV. - Yeah, occasionally. - Yeah, I was like, there's a house party at every other house. When they designed I-Livista, I don't think they realized what was coming. - Yeah, what kind of chaos?

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - You put a bunch of 18-year-old kids in a bunch of houses. - A motion? - Yeah. - It's almost like editing.

Do what you want and throw in parties every night. I didn't want to leave, actually. - Yeah, I'm sure.

It was kind of a king of a castle.

- Do you start this record label? - Yeah, so I started my label.

“But really, that was a by-product of being in this hardcore punk world.”

We would just put on shows in my living room, which was the size of this from here. - Yeah. - In your in-student housing. So the first year I was in suitin' housing, and then the next year, I lived in a vegan co-op, typical for a straightage hardcore kid.

- Yeah, okay. - I'm vegan. - And you're not drinking. - Yeah, that's another interesting dichotomy, because I'm living in Alvisa with the party capital. One of the biggest party schools, because of Alvista, in the United States, and I'm straightage,

no drugs, no drinking. But there's a really small, but strong and prison. Trish, hardcore scene in Alvisa, Santa Barbara. That the whole hardcore community knew about it. - Oh, wow, okay.

- Mainly because of this label, Zine, distribution company called Abolition and Heart Attack. They're publishing, they're Zine from there, and they had a record label. That was putting out all of those kinds of bands from there. So when I went to school, that I was more excited to be close to this label. - Yeah.

- To be going to school, UCSB. Actually, that was the most excited kid in me. I was like, I wanna intern for them, and I ended up writing for the Zine for seven years. - Wow.

- Everything for free, and you would never wish to get paid.

- No. - You care so deeply about this, you know, and I just wanted to contribute. Like helping put on the shows and writing reviews for the bands, and eventually, starting my label, which requires no capital, by the way.

“That's the interesting thing, the most people think.”

- It's called Dim Mac. - Yeah, Dim Mac. - And how's that related to Bruce Lee? - I know it's a nod somehow. - Yeah, when I was coming up with this label idea, I'm like, what is that thing that represents

me in a symbolic way, that's cool. I love Bruce Lee. So I was like, oh, Dim Mac is a Chinese death touch. It's like a martial art movie where you touch someone. It's like a mysterious thing.

- They can die like two days later. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. But Bruce Lee was like known to harness it. And he was mysteriously died of a brain hemorrhage.

So some may say he was killed by it. So I was like, there's like that mystery. - That's cool. - Yeah. - Yeah.

- And I love it. - By the way, did you ever buckle? 'Cause I just tell you, my best friend Aaron and I we lived in a punk house, this band current that was huge in Detroit. - I love current.

- You know current? - I love current. - My cousin Justin was the bass player. - I love current. - Yeah, the greatest.

- Wow, council records. - Yeah, council records. - Yeah, council records. - Ottawa, Jihad, yes. - That was my world.

That's the real scream of email. - Yes, pre-emote. - Yeah, because people, when they think about email, they think about, you know, the produced email. - Yeah, a sunny day real estate.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - But like the ordination of Aaron, I don't know if you know. - Yep, yep, saw them play many times. - All these bands stayed at our house, so we're in Detroit in Dearborn. And I'm living with half of them.

- Oh my god, I love all those bands. - Yeah, they're the greatest, right? - They're a lot of job records, oh my god. - We could geek out for... - We could go down, I've used a tangent.

- Yeah, I've shuddered a thing. - I shuddered a thing. - Oh, well, shuddered a thing, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - I mean, at some point, I would love for you to see my violence.

- Oh, oh, yeah, I would love for you. - Yeah, I would love for you. (laughing) - Thanks for your time. - Yeah, I would love for you guys.

- That's very, absolutely. - I love for you by your butt to my house. - Okay. - I pick up these records of Constance and Caudi and that era, I love it. - Aaron and I move into this house half the bayon lives there.

Bands are sleeping at our house every single weekend 'cause they're in town playing shows. So just like every great band. And Aaron and I are drinking forties in eating steaks. And everyone else is straight edge and vegan.

But over time, we fucked them up and they started drinking. So I think we only won.

“So I'm wondering, did you ever buckle in when did you start drinking?”

'Cause that was a big deal back then. - Oh, you won, yeah. - So Australia's all the way till about 2002. - Oh, wow. Last year, before I left Santa Barbara, I was living in another vegan

co-op called Beco Co-op. And we were put on shows there. This is post-pickle patch where I had 400 bands play in my little apartment there. So anyways, I moved to the house.

Got kicked out of that apartment. - Oh, shockingly. (laughing) - This band came in town that I was signed to my label, called Kill Sadie.

They're from Minnesota. Anyways, they came over and then like I was really close with them. And those boys got me into drinking. - Sure, sure. - I mean at that point, I'm like, why am I straight?

- Yeah, yeah. I'm 21 now, 22 or whatever. I'm like, wait, you're like, what am I doing? - Questioning everything like that. - I'm not putting X's on my hands,

I'm like going in hardcore shows, really even more. I'm like, okay, let's do this again. - We can see how fun it is. - Yeah.

- And we're always drinking, they're all my friends.

It's like, you know, you have the nice bonding. - Yeah. - The drinking is a bonding thing. - Oh, yeah. - Yeah, sure.

- Nice and poor part. - The bond. This is fun. - Yeah, I love these guys. - Yeah, why is straight out?

Is it like you wanna keep your clarity? - Yeah, what is it, to like why? - My understanding of it is basically you have like the godfather of all of this, the Michael Jackson of punk is E.M.A.K.

- Yeah, absolutely. - Discord records.

- Yeah, Discord records which put out

all the greatest punk bands.

“- Oh, did you see it with the first ever?”

- They had real good musicianship. You would have heard of Fugazi. That was his next band Fugazi. - Yeah. - And so he was very vocally progressive.

He was like, into women's rights. He was into living a clean life. And he proselytized. And I think it all fell from him, no? - Yeah, it really did.

So like in the '80s, my no throat was wrong, so the early '80s. Punk music was the opposite. - It was skim heads and races. - Yeah, it's a lot of that.

But it's all a lot of nihilism, like I don't care. I'm gonna get drunk. I'm gonna do lots of drugs and just say fuck everyone. And this is like this negative energy of like fuck the world.

- Yeah. - Which is all British. That's all comes from love. - Yeah, it's like kind of like really angry energy. And then it's like, hey, we could be punk and rebellious

against things that are controlling us. But let's have this attitude of the opposite. Unfuck the world. - Yeah, okay. - Positive mental attitude.

- To help people at shows. - Yeah, yeah. - Some of the eyes down, help them up. - Communities. - Yeah, exactly.

“And then it's like, oh, you could be punk.”

You could scream, you could go to shows. But you could actually go, I live a drug free life, I don't drink. - No, things. - I don't have sex.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, everything. There's like the extreme.

- Yes. - And then there's a lot of strange people that are really into Heart Krishna, you know, like shelter. - Best merch ever, still have a ton of it.

- And I love those bands too. - Yeah. - And I was like, oh, I don't even know what Heart Krishna was. But like because of the bands, I was like, you've like learned about that.

- Yeah, like I'm into it. - Yeah. - Wow, cool. - And that leads all the way to Jack Antonov, a couple of weeks ago who we had,

which is like, then he's doing shows. He's eight years younger than us or 10 years. Every show has to have a philanthropic component. So it's like, you know, there's a food drive at every one. - Wow, right.

- He started a thing that really does come off. - That's a very dumb even doing Jack was doing it. - It's really cool. - Okay, so you leave Santa Barbara.

“I think I'd your drinking now and then you go to hell, right?”

- Yeah, so I moved to hell. There was a fork of the road because I was super into academia. - Yeah, you double-made German sociology and women's studies. - Yes, right. So when you're a sociology, women's studies major,

it's all critical writing and thinking.

And then once you get to that fifth year, I was like in school for five years. I just didn't want to leave school. - And you started early, this is perfect. You actually finished right on time.

- For real? - Yeah, yeah, it's true. I kept going, I'm like, how do I stay in it? Because now I found my groove. Now I'm hanging with professors.

Now I want to get professors respected and have them talk to me like a colleague on the computer. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, I'm like, okay, now I'm reading the text. I'm having real thoughtful conversations.

And those thoughtful conversations are already being had at these parkour shows. - Uh-huh. - So there's a lot of cross. And we're all reading books and talking.

It was just cool to be intellectual to talk about this. - Yeah, yeah. - So I was like, this is great. This is aligning with my academia. And then I was like, okay, well, that I guess

maybe I'll consider staying at academia. I sent off for graduate and PhD programs. I'm going up to the two. And then that's when I had to make the decision. 'Cause I was like, okay, do I go down this road?

Do I fall a music at the time? - My band or my bands? I mean, we were playing till like 30 people. - Yeah. - I was born but it wasn't like sustainable.

- And then I got a demo from a band that was like interested to get signed or probably released their music. - Yeah. - The singer of the band played at the pickle patch

which was my apartment. She was in this really cool band called Discount. - Don't know Discount. - Yeah, Discount was from no idea records from Florida. I was like obsessed with Discount.

She was on tour with Hotwater Music. It was Discount Hotwater Music in another band. And she's like, I'm in this new band called The Kills. It's a rock and roll thing. I couldn't believe what I heard on that demo.

And I was more like, wow, she just asked me to put out this record. - Yeah. - I'm just a little guy. But I put out some other bands

that kind of showed perfect concept. So I was like, you know what? Because she gave me the cosine and I like so inspired by her. I'm just going to do the music thing. - What?

- I think this is what I need to do.

- And the chaos was really your first release successful.

- It was the second? - Okay. - Actually the third, it's like, the first would be place per second for stars. It was like dimmox7.

And then this band called Pretty Girls Make Raves from Seattle, which was one of the members of Kill Sadie. They got me drunk. - Okay. - Okay.

- Yeah. - That band is the reason why The Kills was like, hey, I saw your success with Pretty Girls. Would you consider putting out this EP? And I'm like, yes, yes, exclamation point,

exclamation point, I wish I could find this letter because back then there was like a handwritten letter. So it's just interesting time, 2002. And then I moved to LA. I said, I'm just going to do the label.

I'll do the academic route maybe later. - It can be there waiting. - Exactly, yeah, yeah, you could resume that. - Yeah, so then I moved to LA. And then I was like, well, it's definitely the best place

for me to start dimmox. This is the music hub of America. I mean, by mind. - Well, you got capital records, you got one about it. - I mean, you really historically,

- Yeah, and then I moved to LA.

“Then I already got hit up by major labels.”

Smart major label A and R scouts are always looking

for other ones in the underground that are scouts, which are indie labels. - Okay, so they're tracking all of them. - Yeah, they want to incubate their bands with indie labels.

I'm like, free dinners, free lunches. (laughing) And so I started hanging out with capital group and interscope at all the different labels. And as I try to get the swing of things in LA

is already kind of like buzzing. And then the next band, I moved to LA. And this even before I was really DJing. So probably coincidentally, at the same time, but I was just kind of just playing it here and there.

Was a band called Block Party. - Oh, yeah. - And once again, the same kind of thing happened with Alice from the Kills, the manager called Block Party. I was like, we saw you doing some really great work

with the Kills. We would love for you to consider releasing our... - In Block Party is way more electronic. - Yeah, they're part British indie rock.

2000s like Franz Ferdinand, pre-Arctic monkeys, that kind of British rock invasion I was happening in the US. - Okay. - But they're one of the earlier ones

'cause we got the first demo in 2003. And that's right when I started DJing. - All right, so how do we start DJing? You're just, you get some equipment 'cause you're bored and you start fucking with it.

- Yeah, so when I moved to LA, I was doing the label full on. When I thought of turn tables, I had a record player. - Right, right. - People don't realize there's two different things.

- Yeah. - Turn tables with the ones you go backwards and forwards and scrap. - You need a technique with magnetic drive. - Yeah, a record player's boom, you put the needle down and you play a full side.

- Go make a cocktail.

“- I'd a record player 'cause that's how I listen to music.”

I had pretty sick vinyl collection. And when I moved to LA, there was this bartender that became my friend. He was tatted, he was cool, and he definitely welcomed me to LA.

I remember he was like, "I've seen your band." I was in a band called Esperanza as well in our punk band, I used to play guitar. It's like, "I saw you band play and headline records." But the word on the street is,

you have the sick is vinyl collection. Which I do. (all laughing) - I definitely am. - The aforementioned vinyl records.

- I'll tell you why I have it. I'm a collector. So I've been collecting this as I was a kid. And it's not like I had a lot of records,

but I always was a completionist.

I wanted all the revelation. I want all the discord. I want all the labels I follow. But the thing is, I'm also a hoarder. And I'm a known collector in college.

So when my friends would leave college, I remember the coach about an issue who's been strictly ballrooms this are a band. He left. He's like, "I don't know what to do with these records.

"I'm like, "Give 'em to me."

“- So you are dumping ground for other people's collections.”

- Yeah, I'm like, you can take him back whenever. I will just be a great, you know, - Sure. (all laughing) - They're like, you know,

people take all your records. It's not like it's like a valuable thing, like expensive thing. It's just heavy in the lot of space. - Yeah.

- So I just became like the dumping ground of vinyl. And I just amassed this insane collection. - I imagine your apartment being no room to walk. - Oh, I know. - It's like that.

- It just milk crates everyone. And so my friend, the bartender of three clubs. He's like, "Come to three clubs and bring your records." I'll show you how to DJ. It's very simple and play whatever you want.

And I'm like, "I could play hardcore." - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Wow, this is amazing. - Let me illustrate me and the bartender will be happy and all the other people hated.

- Yeah, I mean. (all laughing) - We had a night called Sides. And you just play whole sides of records. You just sit there and you play whatever you want. I was a radio DJ at KCSB.

I was K juice, which is like the platform for just a library. - Okay. - And for the dorms. - I didn't make a KCSB standards. (all laughing)

- I was like, "Oh, this is cool. "I get to play records for 30 people drinking beers "and me and my friend." I was like, "This is awesome." So I started going there and playing.

And then he's like, "Hey, you know, "we should just DJ together." And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm down." And we'll call ourselves the cry babies.

'Cause he was always thinking of ideas.

I mean, Callie DeWay, if you look about, he's got to incredible history of LA. He ran with the Red Hot Chili peppers and then he started his own record label. And now he has an incredible fashion line.

- Oh, wow. - Oh, wow. - Yeah, and he designed for Kanye West's easy collection. - Wow. - Like he's just a well-known curator,

creative director, Street Kid, just awesome, burst of creative energy. And I didn't end up DJing with him ever. - Okay. - But my first gig, I have to find the flyer,

was under DJ Cry. No one really knows this. It wasn't Stevie Oki and it wasn't Kid Millionaire, which I later used as a name. It was DJ Cry.

- How were you smelling Cry? - CRY. - Okay. - Okay. - Yeah, yeah.

- Yeah, and I opened for my friend, this guy Sam Spiegel, who was a producer. I was always in a studio. And he was a big part of my early part of my career. He let me open and stuff like that.

- When do you get bit by the electronic bug? - So this was like 2002 era, right when I moved to LA, I was starting to DJ a little bit. There was a record by James Murphy's LCD sound system. He dropped this record called Lizzy My Edge.

As 118 beats per minute and it was this loop of a beat

And he's just talking about the history of dance music. It was hypnotic. When I forgot that record, I went to Miva wherever I did to get that record. I'd play it.

And that was when I was like, wow, I could produce something like this. It's simple enough. It's hypnotic and it grooves and you stay on track with it for a long time.

- Beets have the same appeal that punk did. In that, okay, I get an 808 or I get these three pieces of equipment. I don't have to know how to read music. If I have rhythm, it's very again accessible.

And even like the hip-hop revolution is like, oh, I don't need expensive instruments. I have these albums. They already have the music on it. It's all very DIY.

It's kind of weirdly similar. - Yeah.

“I remember that beat 'cause it beats like,”

(humming) (humming) - Yeah, very, seven beats. - Yeah, very seven beats. - And the bass line just stays here the whole time.

And it rose with the vocal, and it gets louder with the live drums and stuff, but I'm like, fuck. (laughing) I think I could do this. And then I was like, okay, I went to Craigslist

and I got this guy that can teach me potals. I was like, I love the Neptune's. I loved that world of music. And I was like, I kind of want to do that. You know, it's kind of figuring out what I wanted to do.

- Yeah. - I'm a hardcore punk kid, but I love pop music as well. My sister, Devon. - She was in fast and furious. - Yeah, she was so key in fast and furious.

- Very attractive. - And she had a successful modeling career, which led her into some movies and it opened her up into music. So I was going with her in the studio

what she was doing more of an R&B thing. And I was trying to learn to do a very quick sample beats and sounds to make hip-hop beats for my sister, really. - That's adorable.

- And then I heard LCD sound system losing my edge. And then that's when I was like, - I'm the artist now. - Yeah. - My heart is going, I want to go faster.

I don't want to go 90 to 100 BPM. I want to go 1, 18 to 1, 30 BPM. I want to start playing this out. So I've to give a lot to the LCD sound system. James Murphy, what were he was doing in New York

at the time in the early 2000s and the party scene. You know what I was doing with Denmark at the party scene in LA? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was a wonderful, yes, that was wonderful. - Yeah, I was going back and forth.

- I love it. - So we took more time at the beginning which I love, that's my favorite. So we are gonna have to kind of fast forward a tiny bit. And let me on.

So whatever I knew about hardcore, I know nothing about electronic and dance world. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Just quickly remixes.

You kind of get known to remixes first, right?

- Right, right. - So you're just kind of mashing up different things. Remixes are remixing.

“Is the best way and this way I tell every young producer”

of someone wants to start producing or does someone's become a DJ era once again in the world, start with remixes. Because now there's technology that you don't need to ask for the stems.

Let's say you listen to a track. The stem would be like base guitar. - I salated in some extracts. - I salated vocal. - Exactly, and you need the stems in order to really mix.

Or change production. Back then, you need the stems. Luckily for me, I had my label, and I had the stems for the bands on dimmock. So by very first remix happened to be block party,

'cause I had the stems. When I was remixing helicopter, I also called my friend, who was on tour with MIA at the time, to also remix the other side of the 12 inch.

Because there was no digital back then, you would press the 12 inch, and that's how people would hear this. He was also throwing a cool party, and I was throwing my LA party.

So it's interesting, 'cause all around the world, there was these little hubs of communities growing, where we were playing indie, electronic, underground hip hop, and we had this cool little thing happening. I was doing an LA, he was doing a Philadelphia,

someone's doing London, Japan, and that's where we would end up, if I did a show, I would pipe, play it. He's underground little hipster parties. So he did the other side.

I did the other side with my friend, Blake Miller, okay, science.

It was his first remix, and now he's very well-known DJ,

and people have known him as Diplo. Another ding, ding, ding, ding, he was at the fight. I was at Saturday, and I was seated three seats next to us, and I love his body. So it'd just be clear, I love his physique.

But he was up and down a lot. We had to get up and let Diplo in and out a lot. And that was my first sighting of Diplo. - I would say it was tied in there. - Those tied, I was sitting next to a lion,

braker, and the Diplo was very social, so he was going back and forth. But again, a great physique, so I didn't hate seeing his by-subsans. (laughing)

- He doesn't regret it a lot. It's fun to go back in time and see who's still in the game, you know, in the west is still crushing it. So it's good to see that. - When do you start going on these massive tours

and when do you start getting the big audience? I mean, I know by 2012, you're the highest grossing dance artist in North America. I know by 2010, you've recorded with Will. I am now.

“When do you make that big leap to where you have an audience?”

- 2007 was a pivotal year for me.

That was the first time I played Coachella.

- Oh, okay.

It was a horrible show. - Okay.

- Okay, so there they go bad.

- Yeah, it was nerve-wracking. It's like kind of things you just want to throw up after a set because you're still bad. - Just 'cause it went wrong or people didn't like it. - Yeah.

- Many times. - Oh.

“- Technical difficulties are you just weren't on the game?”

- I listen to my game, I was nervous. The wind blew the needle off the record. - Okay, so when did you see this in the beginning issue? - Yeah. - They don't tell you about the wind.

- The wind blew the needle and went, oh, oh, oh. - And then the music stops. Oh my God. - Sorry, there's a crowd going, who are you? - Oh, oh, oh, oh.

- I don't know who you are, you suck. I'm on four hits at E and now I'm miserable. How do you make that happen? - Oh, I'm out there. - They still booked me again, I was surprised.

But by 2007, I had the most insane party in LA.

We had Lady Gaga's first show.

We had a lot of pop artists for show, a lot of underground hip-hop, like kick cuties for a show. Kanye was rolling through at the time. - What venue were you hosting this at? - So he's in a space right on Hollywood Boulevard,

which is very small, but we had the best underground shows. And then at the same time, I'd formed another allegiance with one of my best friends at the time, TJAM. And we had another party. - I was curious, I was friends with Adam as well.

- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yes, we were like running LAs, hipster, underground rock, electronic hip-hop, anyone that's about to blow up, they had to play at one of these dimmer parties.

I was just getting booked because of that, not necessarily because of my songs. I only had a few songs. I was like the guy that had the cool scene. - Take your dad.

- Yes. - Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - It's similar and different, yeah.

“And then 2007, I mean, I think I was already doing like 300 shows.”

- To how big of audiences at that time? - I don't know, a thousand, maybe last, I don't know. It wasn't crazy, but I was getting paid like 500 bucks. So it's easy to like spend 500 bucks. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- So I should have there's like a store in the town, yeah. - Yeah. - And now I was playing everywhere. Stay tuned for our share expert if you dare. (upbeat music)

- I was exposed to this world a little bit through Adam, DJ, and knowing what he was making on a weekend to fly to cities and play two cities in one weekend, and it was astronomical. - If you're making 40 grand in a weekend.

- Oh, yeah, that's huge. Like he was making 20 to 30 grand, turning him down sometimes because he's getting that consistently. And I'm getting like maybe a thousand dollars. - But I'm happy with the balance of dollars.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - I was, one point making $50 then at bar tab. You know, a few years before that now I'm making like $500 to $500. And then sometimes on like the private,

so you get like $5,000, this is crazy. - And you're probably thinking of all that, this is gotta be the ceiling. - Yes, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my $5,000. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

“- I remember like in 2007, I got booked in the Philippines.”

And they had billboards up of me everywhere. They gave me like five brand, get that time of getting like $500 at my own party. And sometimes a little bit more $500,000, $2,000 and five thousand dollars in the Philippines.

And this movie wanted to book me to be a DJ. It was like a scene where I was like a slave DJ and this guy's office. - Okay. (laughing) - It was traffic thunder.

- No. - So like, I didn't know, 'cause they don't say the movie title. They don't say who's gonna be in the movie. - I have a script, it says DJ Aoki on every, you know, 'cause there's like actual physical scripts.

- They're all watermarked, yeah. - Yeah, it was Todd Phillips. He was the one, I think it was. Still directed it. - Yeah.

- So they're like, okay, hey, we want you to be the slave DJ for the scene with Tom Cruise where he plays get low. - Yeah, yeah. - He plays the iPod take-off. He didn't have a book in our DJ.

I was like, my saw that, he didn't book in our DJ. I didn't use the iPod. I was like, yes, but anyways, I had this Philippines offer and I couldn't say no of the Philippines offer. So I passed on the movie.

- Oh, wow. - To this damn, like, I wish, it's like, I wish for this like, I wish I made it to that movie 'cause I would've been so epic to be part of one of the funniest movies at that time.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - But you had to say yes to the movie. - Yeah, because it's a free thing. It's like, you get $1,000. It's not like about the money.

It's about just being in it. - You couldn't pass up. - I couldn't pass up as a Korean. - So the fast forward to 2012, five years after that, you're the highest gross.

And now you're making millions of dollars in each game. - Yeah. - It gets pretty crazy, right? Imagine some of these festivals you're going to are astronomical.

- Yeah, the other thing that's interesting is that I did become the most travel musician in a calendar year on a planet. So I was touring the most. I didn't realize that I was.

But what got me there was being in the punk bands. - Right. - You're just so used to-- - When you're a punk band,

first of all, like every single tour I was on.

I toured the US 14 times by the time I was 21,

- Right, right, the other bands' house. - Yeah, you just stay in like friends' houses or you're sleeping the van or you just figure it out.

But you never stay no to tell.

So when I started staying no to tell, I was like, I get a whole to tell. - Yeah, yeah, I get a whole to tell my free. - Yeah, yeah, what are you guys talking about? - I get like a card to pick me off of this crazy.

- I'm touring, you get that boot camp of big in a band. When you go from touring alone up until 2011, I didn't tour with anyone. I was touring alone. And I was happy to fly eco and middle backseat.

Like, I was like, this is better than me than just van with force. What do you guys smell like? - Yeah, smelly. - We haven't covered him too much.

- Which ever begins, like, in so many beans. - Forty. (laughing) - Touring was essential for me at that point. - So 2012 you put out Wonderland

and that's your first solo album. - I'm just thrilled, I learned this today. I cannot believe you had John Duncan, the guitarist for exploited on this album. That's impossible.

(laughing) I saw explain why I was 11 years old

and my brother, I was fucking terrible.

- Wow. - It was a scariest event of my childhood.

“- Well, I think it's what I always think about”

the cover with the spiked mojo. - Yeah, I wear that shirt all the time. I still have it. - Yeah, it's at every butt patch, very punk. - Yeah, yeah.

- It was like one of the hunch. That was cool to have that 'cause I wanted to have some echoes from the punk and hardcore world. - Then you got nominated for a Grammy for that album.

- Yeah, did. - Have you been able to look back, obviously, 2012 to get that honor, that distinction of being the high-scrocing DJ, that's a moment. But being at the Grammys from where you started,

we have a little like be there and be present and accept that really at happy. - Yes, the two times that I've been nominated, I've went to the Grammys. And it's definitely that moment.

I'm like, it's really happening to me. - You're a shithead from my level. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Like, this doesn't make sense. How did I get it?

- And it was everything we were against. - Yeah. - And I was like, you know, it's so true. - Yeah, it's so interesting. - Yeah, they're trying to integrate that.

Like, oh, I'm at the place I made fun of and guess what I like it here. - Yeah, yeah, it's like, I'm like, get here. I'm not supposed to be here. - Yeah, yeah.

- You know what I'm like. - Yeah, it's like, make something like there's something not supposed to happen. Definitely felt that way for sure. - Yeah.

- I still feel that way sometimes. I'm like, how am I even here? And I'm just doing what I love to do. It is hard work, what you're doing the work. - Yeah.

- But when you're on stage and you're having the best time of your life, it's not hard work and you're like, wait, I'm getting paid for that. - Yeah, this is crazy.

“Now when you play shows, how many people are there?”

- Well, depends. So like, the festival is like, for example, EDC. I just played last weekend. - Okay. - Where's that?

- It's in Las Vegas. So that is the largest, I think it's the largest festival in the world. 200,000 nowadays. - Wow.

- Three to eight, 600,000 people. - Oh my gosh. So when you're in the pit and you're looking out, how many people are physically right there? The tens of thousands of people?

- I would say minimum like, 60 to 80,000. - Oh my god. - But it's like so massive. At some point, you don't know. It's just a C of P.

- Yes. - You don't share if it's a hundred or 40. Yeah, anything beyond probably 30,000. - Well, you're looking at, it's like just the flag poles of signs because it's just like,

a lot of heads, a lot of little flashing lights. And flag poles of signs, it's like, far as you can possibly see. - And you do a bunch of crazy shit. - And your shows are at least you used to, right?

- Yeah, I've toned it down a lot. - You have 'cause you're getting older. (laughing) - He said, don't bring that up. - Acrobatic crowdwork, surfing stunts.

Throwing cake at fans. - Cakes are still present. - Oh, they are.

“- Yeah, yeah, I think it's an arm surgery at one point.”

- But yeah, the cakes are definitely for people that don't understand it. Yeah, it is a signature. - Yeah, that's star. It's funny that you asked that I just posted

on my Instagram the first cake video that I had done.

And that was back in 2011. - Just picked up a piece of cake and threw it. - Well, though, it doesn't require, I had to go to the bakery. - Oh, it's a cake cake.

- I got a video about the film this. I think this will be a funny, cool idea. I have no idea what to expect. This is gonna be confusing to a lot of people. - Sure.

- Maybe no one's gonna get cake to that. I'm just gonna be holding the cake or what the hell do I do with this thing. So there's a lot of those questions that arose in the beginning. But now, when you do it consistently

and you post it up and you're like, that's what this guy does. (laughing) - I literally show up and I wanna get cake 'cause it's my birthday.

- Oh, yeah. - Birthday. Many on it. (laughing) - I think it's a heartbeat or just a repeat of our parents.

- Yeah, yeah. I mean, look, you have a real run with Wonderland and he nominated them between 2011-14. Now, you're substituting license. You're liking this.

So I, on commercials, Budweiser, you're in step up all in the movie. You and Diplo have a song in 22 Jump Street. I mean, look, I don't know DJs and I know your name. You become ubiquitous and one of the Titans of this space. It's a very drug-heavy space.

- It is, yeah. - Yeah, how have you navigated that aspect of it?

as we talked about.

But I never did drugs after.

- You never got one.

“- I never did Coke, I never did meth or heroin.”

- To some MDMA, wanna proprio. - No MDMA, as a DJ, yeah. 'Cause most of the audience is on MDMA. - Yeah, no MDMA, no acid, no hygienics. Before I was straight-edge, I tried one drug

and that was acid. - Oh, that's not a great style of drugs. - It's like a teen. (laughing) And I did it like, by myself, trying to be like Boasey.

And then I realized I was like, "I can't get out, it's not all you, I can't get out." - You're gonna be forever. - Yeah, that scared me away from all drugs. - That can take you out.

- I mean, yeah, that took me out. I was like, I will never touch this again and still I never did. Now, I'm like, in this place, if it has a healing or it's like a longevity.

- That might go pile on a porch. - If there's like some benefit that I could be more creative or something, then I can baby step towards something. - Yeah.

- So, I'm curious. - Yeah. - You're kind of like machine on Kelly and he's a volcano of things he is interested in and starts. Like you had or have and he sports company.

- Yeah. - And you're in a gaming, you're in different video games. - Right when Esports was taking off in the mid 2010, 1617, are you talking about how this interest, or curiosity, then it leaves me down into a base.

And then yeah, I wanna figure out, like, how do I get myself involved, monetize or to help provide another mirror into this world? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You're doing it in your soul, guys. - What year did your dad die?

- In 2008. - Oh, bummer. - Yeah, he missed a lot of this stuff that I wanted to. - I wonder what the moment would have been if he, A, would have been able to say like,

holy smokes, I think you're more successful than I was.

- He would never, he would never say that.

- If he would say that, I don't think he would. - If he would say it, would he be proud or would he have that terrible dad thing or it's like they can't be surpassed by this honor that I don't know about it.

- One of the most important things he said to me before he died was, I don't have to worry about you anymore. That was big for me. - And the subtext is, I'm proud of you.

- Yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - 'Cause you didn't overly say anything. - Not a lot I love using stuff. - No.

- Yeah, not really. - Not as Jim. - But he was relieved, like that Tim's saying, like, I'm relieved, you've done it.

“- Yeah, that's why I was always thinking,”

like, how do I get him to say that? - Yeah. - Yeah, you're gonna have to win and I'll show a raceboat. - Yeah.

- I mean, I do have the adrenaline junkie and that spirit of chasing the edge. - No, did you guys are very similar in a lot of ways? You're just like, this crazy modern version. - You're not certain a porno mag or something?

- I'm sorry, he made me something. - Yeah, yeah. - Well, luckily, he wasn't the castle culture. I mean, yeah. - Yeah, you weren't a man.

- Yeah, yeah. - Okay, my last question is, you had a baby in July? - I did. - Yeah, the way?

- Rocky, his, his, his, his, Rocky. - Oh, oh, oh, oh, yes. - Fuck yeah. - He's back. - I'm going to take him to Benny Hanover's birthday.

(laughing) - Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. - When you think about the future, obviously, I don't even need to ask him, I'm sure you're just fucking loving.

That's it's so fun, right? You have a little kid. - Yeah, because he's that age now, where he's laughing a lot. He's a learned, he's not a loof, he's not walking at, so I'm not sure what that'll be.

- Oh, I think he's crawling so easy. You're a control kid, didn't he? - Now, there's a very rough phase from when they learn how to walk to, they actually get good at walking. They just want to walk everywhere.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, my house lost stairs and stuff. (laughing) - Yeah, you might be shopping for a ranch in the next little while. - But obviously, you won't be able to 200 days a year once that little boy's in school.

- Yeah, yeah, so I don't know what that's gonna look like. I don't know how we're gonna navigate that 'cause my wife travels with me everywhere too. - Right. - We have a great nanny though, we have a incredible nanny.

- Yeah, and you can do that for the first five years. - Yeah. - They'll go to school, and they'll want to be with his friends, and you'll go, I can't take this kid out of his life all the time. - Yeah, exactly.

I don't know how to deal with that. I'll also be like my early 50s at the time. - Yeah, you'll be 50s for me. - You might get a different headspace. - It's hard for me to, like, I've been touring

since I was a teenager. - Yeah. - It's weird.

I've never broken below 200 besides COVID.

- Really? - Yeah. - 207 was a lowest last year, so it's strange to me to not have a free weekend, for example. - Yeah.

- So I'm getting a comfortable back. (laughing) - You don't have to worry too much about that yet. - You've played all the shows. (laughing)

- That's true. - What you haven't done is this chunk. If there's something novel left in life, it's that thing. - Right, right. Now, I'm excited about that chapter, but man,

I love stage. - Yeah. - I love playing for people. I thrive. - Do you have life?

- I thrive there. - Yeah, that's awesome. - I live for it. I love it. I'm so happy, 'cause you've been doing it

for a long, long time, and you haven't burned out. - No, and also, the thing is, is like when you play like festivals like EDC or Ultra or Tomorrowland,

“these festivals, you have to prepare all this new music.”

- It forces you to be creative.

- Exactly, yeah, yeah. - That schedule is important to me.

“That challenge to maintain my presence of my current music.”

It's not about like your last singles. It's not about all the songs that have impacted the culture. It's about, what about now? Do I have a song now that's gonna actually matter? - Yeah, and you'll get to, like a standup,

you'll get to evaluate that real time. You don't know if it works or not. - Exactly. - You'll have real feedback real time. - I love that.

That's why Vegas is like my laboratory. - So do you have a residency currently? - I do. - Where are? - So in Vegas, I do about 50 shows a year there.

You play Omnia, Hawkson, Top Beach, the whole world, but that's great, 'cause I'm in Vegas. - Yeah, yeah. - So I just drive from home. - And then, about 150 on average,

like, oh my god. - Wow. - Your aging slower, that's the only good news. - Yeah, yeah. - Time moves just a fraction slower at altitudes.

So you can say, you're saying, so it's time at altitudes. - I do know. - Yeah, your blocks a little behind ours at sea level. - That's a good thing. - I definitely think about my biological age a lot more

than I ever have. - Yeah, 'cause you also give a lot of money to regenerative brain research. - The brain is who we are. - Yeah, yeah.

- You know, like you could change your heart out, your liver, your body parts, but you're brain, you don't want to transplant about. - You can't do that, you can actually now, with Parkinson's patients,

could take a chunk of your brain out, so you're not having to have the jitters, and still be who you are, 'cause your brain is so neuroplastic, right? So who you are, can just move over to this side of the brain.

- Yeah, well, like, stroke people, they lose their verbal control. They just relocated to a different body of your brain. - Yeah, the brain is so interesting. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

- Well, Steve, this has been a delight. - I'm really infected by how much you like it. - You're so close. - Yeah, and you're so deserved to be here, the fact that you loved all this, since it's a kid.

- It's the gratitude. - When you're fighting for, for so long,

and then you finally get there.

- Yeah.

“- You remember, like, the second you don't think it's that important,”

do you? So when else does, and so when else will take it. - Yeah. - And then when you're like, oh, I'm back, guys, they're like, no, we already have someone else.

It's like, you better fight for that every single time you have the chance. - This is the 30th anniversary of the label? - Yeah, it's, yeah, 9th anniversary. - We're 26, we survived 30 years as an independent label.

- It's amazing. - That's so impressive. - It's really wild. - Well, this has been lovely, man. I'm really glad I got to meet you.

- Thanks for having me. - Yeah, you deserve all this. - Thank you. - You're old for you. - Yeah, thanks.

(upbeat music) - I sure hope there weren't any mistakes in that episode, but we'll find out when my mom, Mrs. Monica, comes in and tells us who was wrong. - Oh, some names water.

- He's so delicious. - Sometimes rarely.

- Never, almost never for you.

- I know. - At least one today for me, or I haven't. I just go like, oh, thank God, this exists. - It hits. - Yeah, I feel it hydrating me.

- Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. - It's got a good taste. I know people say it doesn't have a taste, but it does have a taste of taste like water. - It does, that's true.

- It's unmistakable. - Yeah, God. - Right, when you have a simple water, you know right away, that's water. - It can be good or bad water. - Ha, but you wouldn't,

that's interesting. - We've filed it under no taste, but that's not true. - Interesting, but it doesn't have any of the properties right that taste has. - Like your mom, me, salty, whatever, that's sweet.

“- I think one of my shoes I've, I can't possibly”

take off the left. - Why? - Oh, no, shit, no, I can't take off the right. - Why? - 'Cause of the deformities.

- Wow, well, just do it. - It's just like, you care. - You know, I'll keep 'em under the table. - Oh, that's how I handle that. 'Cause I didn't wear socks.

I'm in a special outfit 'cause we have a special guest. - Yeah. - And then I tried footies. - Oh, yeah. - They were visible.

- I hate that. I struggle with this as well. - I think it's a common struggle. - And even if you get the ones that are not visible, then it doesn't go up high enough.

- And then it's falling off the end of your shoes. - Or like 80%. - I know. - I know. - They need to make it with like an adhesive on back

or something. But all to say, I, 'cause this person is so fashion-forward, I was like, why can't I have socks hanging out? I'm gonna go socksless and shoes,

which I never do 'cause my feet sweat real quick.

And that's what happened, so. - Well, let's just see your feet. - Well, this one is fine, ish. No, let's get that green tone down. - Oh, yeah.

- Okay, there's the bris on it, and fuck, yeah. And then I grew disgusting toe nail, that I have to use it around the wall. - You can't really see, so it's fine, it's fine. Wow, well.

- We went to a momentous event. - We did, we sure did. - Yeah. - We went to a graduation, no, I'm sorry. A culmination.

- A culmination, exiting elementary school. - You know, I rarely, I'm almost never on the side of like,

for everything, like I'm generally like sure who cares, doesn't bother me. I do think it's crazy that we can't call it a graduation. - Oh, I didn't even interpret it as that, but probably maybe you're right.

- Well, I didn't think they put a lot of thought into it like, we're not, we don't use that word as much as just for calling it this. - No, I looked it up, but you don't call it that because there's no diploma.

- Oh, a culmination is a graduation without a diploma.

- Basically, by the way, they did give them a diploma,

I know, I know, a graduation, I guess only count if it's like high school or college. - Right. - But I think that's silly, and they can just all be graduations.

“- Well, that's what's fun about the experience”

of having kids in the modern society, which is it's so different from when I was a kid. And then so your knee jerk is like, this must be crazy and silly. 'Cause my thing is like, no, you got one graduation,

and it was hugely meaningful, you're dealing out one of 'em, and you look forward to it, and it was finally done. And that's where I enter it with. Going like, this is silly and indulgent.

- Oh! - Why do they got a step up from every grade? - Yeah, that part of it's the whole, I get a trophy for everything, you know? - Yes, I do think that's, yeah.

- Yeah, there's some, like, I have some hesitation against it. - Sure. - And then I'm there witnessing it and I absolutely love it. - I know.

- And then I go, why do I care? What is it I care about? You care about people getting soft in the world, getting soft, to which I tend to care a little bit about, but not, you know, whatever, all in the background.

- It's probably perfectly proportional to our age and generation. - Yeah.

“- It's like you guys had a little more of that than I had.”

- Right. - And now they have a lot more of that than you had. - I still I roll out a lot of the things that are happening now. - Yeah.

- But yeah, I had a fifth grade graduation. - And then I tried to step back and go like, there's no right or wrong. It's just, they did it that way when I was a kid. Now they're doing it this way.

And then if there is some real obvious problem as a result of it, people will notice no right-op ads about it and we'll probably fix it. So what's the big deal? But I do, you just, I just bristle like,

oh, there's another thing that's like, this is what I'm telling myself when I'm objecting to it. It is like, you're setting them up for massive failure in that. The world's not gonna celebrate them. - That's how I feel.

- A mediocre job, it doesn't get a ribbon. You're not gonna get a raise or a promotion at work for just being normal. It's misleading, right? - Yeah.

- But then I guess you could quite easily make the argument of, yeah, exactly. That's how life is. So when I give them during childhood when they're innocent and they're carefree,

they're like, why not let them have this experience

since they're never gonna have it again?

- Yeah, there's just different schools of thought like on childhood, like my parents' school of thought was childhood as to prepare you for adulthood. - Right. - It's like, it's not there just to be carefree and fun.

It's like to learn lessons, to learn things that once you're an adult and you're on your own, you don't have help from us that you can live. - But the Japanese, they're kind of the opposite. They go adulthood is fucking rough.

It's sacrifice, sacrifice, sacrifice. So they weirdly, really protect the childhood as being way more carefree 'cause they know what they're gonna have to take on. So it's like, I don't know, they've been doing it that way

there for a very long time and it's worked out, just fine for them other than if they're not having kids. - Yeah. - Now there's not my learning college, not my observation. - Oh yeah, I was gonna say I was like,

I don't like, I don't think of Japanese children as like being so effervescent or like running around or being like they're pretty contained in mellow. - Well, the AI, I haven't been-- - Yeah, I haven't been to Japan to even witness how kids are.

“But I do remember having a class where they are saying”

specifically they're not trying to prepare them. - Oh, I'm sure. - They're recognizing this is a once in a lifetime chapter which is like, no, this is the time to be all these things 'cause you're not gonna be able to be all these things.

- Which whatever, they're all fail. - Sure. - Okay, but then me event itself. - Yeah, it was great. So we went you in Chris and obviously in Lincoln

and grandparents and me and Anna and T.P. We all went and we're gonna talk to the whole thing, okay.

So first of all, you have been given a number before hand.

You didn't know what it was, but you doubt to give you a number. - An uh, a purple piece of paper and the number was 24. - Okay, yeah. So then at the top of the graduation,

the principal says, okay, if you were given a number, if you're in this person's class, you'll go to the left and you'll make a line and here-- - You'll go to the middle aisle. - Exactly, and then if you're in this person's class,

then it may no sense.

It was clear, everyone was confused.

- I was muddling around with all the parents holding numbers and no one knew where they were supposed to line up or in what order. - Yes, and then she said it again, also confusing. And then you did have a loud clarification.

You said, well, there's a-- - I raised my hand for a while and she didn't call me. - Okay, and then you-- - And I was like, okay, I got it, just. - Yeah, so I loudly said, hey,

there's a couple of middle aisles, is it the ones running parallel with the stage or these ones for a particular. - I was middle-- and then we got clarification on that. So the middle--

- We got clarification on that. - That's the middle aisle, and it's great. - I do think because it was an auditorium. - Yeah. - It was, it was with gust.

It wasn't exactly the way you just did it. - Why had to be heard in the back room? - Yeah, yeah, it was extremely assertive. - It was. - Yeah.

- And I was like, you were certainly nervous. - I got nervous, I did a little bit of sinking down because you know what happens is they see it. It's you, if they look at the group of, they look at

“your people obviously because that's how life works.”

That's how people work. They're like, oh, and people are laughing, and then they're looking and I was like, oh my God. - There's a lot of attention, a lot of attention. - I was thanked by all the parents

that were in the confuses because we were just trying to comply, but I just got that sense. We're not moving closer to this being lined up the way it's supposed to be. I stand by that it needed to be sorted out.

I agree with you, they are. - And a ton of the parents thanked me like this, but I think I just said I didn't know where the house was. So I was getting tons of validation there, but then I started getting really so kind of like,

does that principle feel like I just completely interrupted her thing? - Right. - And then I was planning to go apologize to her. - Oh, that's nice.

- And so my full intention was to find her and to say I'm so sorry if that was disruptive or rude. But she found me, I was like, in the middle talking to the teacher, and she came, she goes, oh my gosh, thank you so much for,

and I was like, oh, I think I think I was coming to say, I'm sorry if that was her, but she did at least express that she was grateful that I got involved here. - So I know you guys got lined up appropriately, and you were one of the lucky ones that got

a special flower. - Yeah, Dr. Hanler, me a flower. - He was thinking they were the flowers. - Yeah, it was so cute. Some of them, yeah, and then you sat back down,

and they sang beautiful songs. - Oh, they sing such a cute song, what was it? - And I just thinking on the last fact check, I've come to terms with the fact that Delta's little, which I didn't know.

- Right. - So weird. I really don't know how I didn't know that. I think this is because they're personally so big. - Well, also because she's just the person you see

every day. - It was when she went to the dance, and I saw these photos, and I was like, oh, she's a head shorter than everyone. - Yeah. - So then at the big singing thing,

I'm like trying to find her, she's kind of buried behind tall people, but you can see her teeth from a mile away.

“That's how you find Delta, her rabbit teeth.”

- She has the biggest smile. - She's the cutest rabbit teeth that you can see from so far away. - Yes, and the song was so, so sweet. - Cry, cry, cry, cry.

- Yeah, I've already cried at that point. It just has just begun. And then they did a really, really beautiful thing.

- Where at first I got anxious.

- Yes. - When this was announced, what's gonna happen? - You started doing math immediately. - Yep. - So the graduation is just two classrooms of fifth graders,

but-- - So probably like 80 kids or 70s. - So many, those, I didn't realize like how many kids are in these classrooms these days. A lot, and then that made me so like,

God these teachers, you know, oh my God. - They're nurses, you know, it's them and nurses. - Oh, and so for each kid a teacher spoke about them, like wrote a little like paragraph about them and set it out loud.

- As they came up and got their little diplomas. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - And yeah, so at first, when I hear this is happening, I was like, oh.

- I did the math, I was like, it's gonna take at least a minute to read each one. - Probably more. - Yep. - There's like 75 minutes at the quickest version of this.

- Yep, this is it, yeah. The brain starts doing that.

And then I was like, oh, okay, but good at her classes first.

Not that it even, well, no, I did too, but then I'm like, well, I can't believe that her good dick. So it's almost worse, nothing going forward too. - That's true. - Yeah.

- So anyway, they say all these beautiful things about these kids and it really, after the first couple, I was like, oh my God,

“this is just so important that they are doing this”

because as we know, what teachers say about you, sticks, it really sticks, and I was like, each one of these kids get some moment where they are being told about their assets and like,

So first run of anxiety was the time.

- Yep. - Second run of anxiety was like,

“oh, these teachers have to say something unique”

about each student, how are they gonna do it? How's it not gonna become generic? - Yes. - But fucking hats off to the teachers. It was each one was so specific and thought,

no one, no one phone, any one of them. - Yes, they were all unique and I was like, oh my God, this way. But then I did, I did have some, what's it called?

Like, mirror neuron, stuff happening, yeah, with some of the kids because I was like, okay, some of the kids got the teachers to cry. - Oh, sure. - Over them.

- But I thought in a great turn of events, it wasn't like the most popular kids in class.

It wasn't like they got double,

like, they were already really popular and the teachers crying over it to me that wasn't happening. - I know, but sometimes it was. - Sometimes, but sometimes it is or both, I guess. - Yeah, no, it just, I just know me.

And I was like, you would be the one that's so bad. - You wouldn't be the teacher to cry. - And not be able to keep it together at all 'cause they had to say fine to me. But it was the high bar.

- I just want them to be so sad. - Devastated. - Miss me, so bad. - I announced their retirement. - Exactly.

- I can't possibly go on here with my class. - Yeah, that's what I would have wanted or what have been what I was striving for. - Yeah. - And some people got it, some people didn't.

And there was one that was like, I have no idea what's, you have no idea about these kids, obviously, and what's been going up it. There was one that you based on the little speech, you could kind of put some pieces together

about this kid, and it was everyone was crying. It was so moving, and I did think,

“this person will hopefully never forget this.”

- Yeah. - And make decisions based on that. Based on, no, I'm a leader. I'm a, this, I'm a, you know, oh, it was just so lovely. And of course, the Delta was so, so wonderful.

- Yeah, we're crying, cry more crying. - Yeah, I felt, I did feel a little dead inside. - You did. - Yeah, 'cause all of you guys were crying so hard. - Ah, I thought you felt judged.

- Well, I, no, I didn't feel judged. - I didn't even clock whether you were. - I know, no one was, but I knew, I was like, I'm not like really, I was feeling. - When you were upset.

- But I wasn't, I wasn't, I wasn't. - Emotting. - Crying, I wasn't crying tears. And then I was like, not these people are pretend, not you, but I was like, some of these people are just performing.

- You know, I thought, it crossed my mind that you thought I was performing. - No, if it's your kid, I mean, I thought I was like, oh my God, I cannot believe she's graduating fifth grade. I can't believe she's this old look at her, oh my God.

I mean, I was definitely like, I had tears in my eyes. - In your mind. (laughing) - My mind. (laughing)

“- No, I had tears, but there was no spillage, you know?”

- It didn't break that. - And some people, not the parents, obviously, but some other people were crying so hard. - Okay. - That I was like,

- Is, is not real. - You were hoping. - And then, I know it was real. It was real and everyone's on a spectrum of how easily they cry and what they cry about it.

- You know, but I felt a little in my head about that. - Yeah. Stay tuned for more armchair experts, if you dare. - It's so great how you can be having multiple experiences at the same time.

- 'Cause I too was having like, I was having like three levels of engagement with it. Hey, it's my sweet spot, right? And we know what I'm gonna cry about. It's earnestness.

It's like it's earnestness in the face of a crew. - Yeah.

- That's, that always hits me.

- Of course. - Volatility and sweetness, in spite of the fact that everyone's in fucking terrible, I mean. - Yes. - I mean, there was this little girl

that was just brought the house down. The sort of girl with a lot of different developmental stuff going on who fucking graduate of it's great. The way she was celebrating, waving her diploma over her head. I was, that girl made me cry like five times.

And then I just stared at her in the front row swinging her feet. She's so happy. It made me so happy. - So happy.

- It's like, it was happiness cry. - I know. - It was like too happy for her to not be crying about it. - It was beautiful. - Yeah, okay.

I had an experience with that beautiful girl as well, where I was like, oh my god, she's so happy. - Yeah, it's so happy. But then I was struggling. - In the front lane.

- It was so supportive.

“It was not like when I was in fifth lane.”

- No, no.

- Those kids were like separate.

- I know. - And they were in a room and you're like, oh no, stay away, you know. - I know, it was so beautiful. But I did have a moment of like,

I felt sad. And then I felt guilty for feeling sad. - Right. - And I was like, you can't feel sad about this. Or what you probably have is fear.

Which is like, look at this beautiful human being on earth. And Earth's not designed for her. - I know. - How will she do? - I know.

- But look at her. - I'm just fucking crushing it. - I hope it's still alive. - Yeah, yeah. But that's what's going on.

It's like you immediately care and want to help and protect.

And that's what a wonderful part of us

that we all feel that anxiety. - Yes. - Yeah. And that's nice. And then I go, we kind of nice.

Most of the time I think we're terrible but then we're kind of nice.

“All of us feel this way about this little girl.”

- Right. - And that's so wonderful. - Yeah. Oh, she was so cute. - So I had all that stuff going on.

And I was like very present for that stuff. But very, very actively as well. I got crazy aware and a very anthropological way. And this'll be so dot to you and to everybody. But it took me a minute to figure out why.

But ceremonies are often when we most coalesce around what our group values are. These are kind of the moments

where we declare group values.

- And like pro social and anti social. Like it's these rights of passages where we kind of talk about how you should be in the world. And I just got like hyper aware of like, oh, yeah, cultures being passed on to them right now.

Like it's so concrete right now. 'Cause it starts with a song about having dreams. Have a million dreams. Get go get those dreams. - I know.

It was just like, this is so American. Like this is how the system works. Everyone in the air should be dreaming of being spectacular, right? Which obviously is not reality.

Not everyone's gonna be spectacular. And then I was just thinking about how opposite this is probably from the Japanese graduation. That's more collective society, right? - Right, right, right, right.

- And finding probably how to be a great family member. Whatever virtues are reaffirmed in those moments for their expressing. So it was like, have a bizarre dream to the stars. It's just what we're interesting.

Again, I say it was zero judgements.

“- Of course, there was a moment I'll never forget it.”

And of course, argued with him at my brother's high school graduation, you know, the valedictorian comes up and says something and saluted training it is. And it's like, chase your dream, you know, it's all this dream star.

- One star, chase your dream. - Not work hard, you know, like that part's not really in it. - Yeah. - Even similar here, right? It's like, just go after it and be the best you can be.

And blah, blah, blah, blah. - Be great, be great, be great. - And my dad was like squarming in his seat and after he was like, what is this? He was like, why don't people just strive to be mediocre?

- Yeah, yeah. - He literally said that. He was like, he tried to be content. - He said mediocre, which was I was like, dad. - Yeah, that's a pejorative in our society.

- Exactly, but he means strive to be safe. Just strive to get some things. You don't have to get all the things. You don't have to be the best. Just have enough to live a life.

- Try to get enough. - Yeah. - And he really hated that. - Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. - It was a sweeter thing, is the right amount.

- Oh, lacuma, right amount. - Yeah, lacuma, boom. - Yeah, he really, and I was so, I roll it with him, I was like, dad, that is not, like, that's not an inspiring message.

It's not what you do. And he was like, it should be. And I, of course, I thought that was silly as someone who was chasing a dream. - Yeah.

- But I do as the older I get, agree a little more with it, I think. I mean, that's not really fair for me to say, because I didn't get a lot of the things I wanted to get. - Yeah, there's a certain reality,

which is like of these 75 kids. All 75 of 'em can't be present in the United States, and it's not gonna work out time-wise for them. - Yeah. - And they're not gonna be CEOs,

and they're not gonna be a world-famous artist. So, on some level, I start a little judgmental like, man, do we not set everyone up for total failure? Like, when they're not spectacular, which 99.9% of people are not spectacular,

then they're just disappointed in themselves. They didn't fulfill this thing that seems so easily everyone should be achieved. - Everyone should be achieved. - Yeah, I know.

- So, I think about that, and then I go like,

but then I step back in further and I go, forget, right or wrong, it's like, this is just how it is here. - And what's the result?

“So, we have a system, and regardless of what the intentions”

of the system were, whatever results, the system produces are what the system creates. - Yeah. - And the result is, yeah, a person came to this country from South Africa,

and became the first trillionaire to ever live.

Because he came here. - No, it's wild. - And every event, I'm not every, damn near every fucking invention happens here. And so, it's just the system by which you get this other thing. You can then decide all the way later,

is it good or bad to be America versus Japan versus Spain, versus whatever, I don't know. I kind of think, no, I think. - Well, they're all, they're, I don't know, - There's a matter of, yeah.

- It's just all trade on. - Yeah, there's good things about all the places. - So, I literally wouldn't, I didn't leave it going like, this, we shouldn't do this. I just like, oh, this is how we get this result,

and it's really baked in, and this is a very progressive and very self-aware school. - Yeah, it is. - And even they probably haven't consciously thought, "Oh, we're passing on this culture."

It's just, it's just what you do, and you do it, and mainly, 'cause it was given to you, and then you pass it on. - I know, it's hard though, because even though I agree that it,

it might be, maybe setting us up to all of fall short, I also fully bought into that, fully. And like, I was like, I'm getting what I want, I'm chasing this crazy dream, I'm gonna do it.

I like, you know, when you're like young, and you need like some so embarrassing design-wise now, but like, you know, it gets like words from like TJ Maxx.

I would, if there was a dream, I'd always get it.

Like, that was like such a word for me, and it worked, yeah, like, for me, it worked. - The system is living in brief,

“because 1% do break through, and you need to be motivated.”

- Yeah, and we'd rather live in a place where that's possible, even if it's not probable. - Exactly, exactly, yeah. - And a lot of people would, and then some people want it. - Yeah.

- It's just all really interesting, and so yes, so there was that thing that was me best, and then even the nature of this thing that was beautiful, everyone gets something, read about them, to identify something special about them.

- Yes. - And it's like, yeah, that we all need to be special. We all need to be individual. We all need to be uniquely special. - Yeah.

- I know. - And we'll figure it out, because that's what we want, and what we do. And again, I mean, that's not right or wrong. It's just like, oh, I was aware, I was just noticing,

oh, now this bit of culture is being passed on, and this bit of culture. - Well, yeah, now at first, again, she said the thing, this is gonna happen, and then I was like, oh my god,

we're gonna be here for so long, and then I was just like, oh, I also was like, Jesus, like, where can they just write-- - It was indulgent. - Exactly, it felt indulgent.

And then a part of it was like, can't they just write it on a paper and give it to them or something? Was a bit of this whole standing in front of everyone, while you're hearing nice things about you

if I was a little bit like, oh my god. But then it was happening, and I was like, this is a beautiful thing. - I love it. - Yes, because this is my culture, yeah.

- I don't know. - It's really, it's just funny. Before I had kids, maybe, I don't know. I just sat through all these things.

I never really was aware of what was happening during these things.

- And I was just, I just-- - It's like, I know each one was like, I know you're gonna be a star and sixth grade, or I know you're gonna be a mathematician. It's like--

- One of them was like gonna be run for president. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah, yeah. I was really putting myself in the position of being up there, and like what I would have wanted

them to say about me, and like what they have said about me at that age? - Yeah, I was thinking about that too, what they would say about me. - I know, I felt really, I was like, oh my god,

I'm busy with it. - Because I'm way naughty boy, but I bet I would have won them over enough. Like, they would have talked about me being naughty,

“and then said I was really funny, I think.”

- Well, there was one boy that before the teacher could speak about him, he said, "Okay, I got it, I want to say something." And I was like, "Come on, this is Dax." But then it was so sweet.

He wanted to call out a dude that works in the office. - Yes, it was so sweet, 'cause at first I was like, "Oh my god." - Yeah, this kid is way too confident. Who's he doing to you?

He's, everyone has come up and played their part. - And he had to do something to do. - He was like, "No, stop, stop. I need to say something." And you're like, "Well, what's this tall puppy doing?"

- Exactly. - And then he was selfless. - I know. - Oh, it was great. - It was great.

They took a turn, 'cause I was like, "Oh, no, I didn't know." I did, I was like, "This is just like, Dax."

I guess that is part of it."

- It was neat. I really enjoyed watching. - And then he parted. - He parted. - He parted.

- He parted. - What's that the kids crying? - All the kids were bawling after. - I was happy to see that, because as I told you when I picked up Lincoln from the fifth grade dance

knows, everyone was crying. So I realized they weren't going to see each other. And then when I picked up Delta, they didn't seem to have any awareness of that. But now it seems to have hit them at this show.

But that made me sad. And it is sad, like, these chapters, you know, was thinking about her little preschool graduation that we did in COVID. Remember it was COVID, so we just went by one.

- This is when I had just crests in the motor side. - Exactly.

- So it's a narrow sling, yeah.

- Same day. And like, I just, that, we were said by to that school. And now this school, and it's like, what the fuck is going on now? I hate time.

- You hate time. - Yeah, and you really, I think you specifically hate chapters. - Yeah, endings. I hate endings.

“- I think the, I think the more you look at life”

as chapters, the easier it is to handle the bittersweetness. - I don't like this. - But you just go like, yeah, this is sad. I'm leaving this chapter. And there'll be a different chapter, I'll experience.

And that will be special too. And I'll be sad to say goodbye to that one, but then another one will come. - I know, I said that to him when she was crying. I said, it's hard, it's hard, it's a really big chapter.

- Yeah.

- But yeah, my inclination was to say,

but there's gonna, but there's the next one's gonna be so fun, but I didn't, 'cause I was like, yeah, it's just, it is hard to end things. It's hard to say goodbye to things. - And, and also shows you that you cared about things

and that they were special and important, because you will miss them and long for them. - Right now. - Without that part, we don't get the other part. - I know.

- So everything's a given, then you just take everything for granted. - Right now. - But it's just, yeah, it's just hard. But I also, it is funny, 'cause I was like,

oh my God, they're so old, and they're in college tomorrow, and I hate this, but then I was thinking back to fifth grade. I was like, oh, that was so long ago. Like, I can't really remember it. So there's a lot, a lot will happen.

- Yeah. - It's not, it's gonna move fast, but it's like, things are going to happen and they're, and yeah, yeah. - I was thinking about that the other day,

I was, I don't know what I was journaling about, but I was thinking, oh, in a few birthdays, I'll have been on TV as long as I've not been on TV. - Enough. - Oh, I saved my life.

- I saved my life. - I see, yes.

“- I think I was 28, when I had 56, half of my life”

I'll have spent having been on TV. - Show business. - And what I weirdly liked about that was I thought, oh, that's so long ago. - Yeah.

- A lot of that. - So long ago, and I still have that chunk of time ahead of me. - Yeah. - That's really comforting. - Yeah, I know.

- Yeah. - I know, I think about that as well. It went by so fast, but also so much happened. - Yeah. - And so much will happen in the next chunk of time,

but it's still stressful. Anyway, well, happy graduation to all. - It's a time to think about life. - Moving forward, new chapters, next stages. - Yeah.

- What we are as a people, how we prepare each other for that, how we, I don't know. You know, ceremonies and rights of passages, maybe because I was in the answer. - It's just a human thing.

- Yeah, it's really interesting and we all have developed these things. - Actually, it's an animal thing. I mean, I feel like, right? Don't even animals like elephants do

like a little morning thing. - Or if it's more, yeah, they have elephant grave sites where they play with bones and stuff. - Yeah. - Yeah.

- But there rights of passage are more like,

“you get kicked out of the, they call elephants care of animals, right?”

- Oh, that sounds right. - You get kicked out of the care of animals because you're an adolescent male and you can't be around anyone. And then you get to come back when you've chilled out.

So it gets that's a right of passage. - Yeah. - I guess so. - But yeah. - Why don't you some facts?

- Yeah, let's do some facts. - The pack of elephants is a memory or a parade. - Parade. - Oh, I like that. - A memory?

- Yeah. - That's interesting. - Yes. - Do they have such good memories? - That was weird.

- That's why.

- You wouldn't call a pack of cheetahs fast.

- It's a fast cheetah. - That would be great. - A fast cheetahs. - That would be great. - They also look like they're fasting cheetahs.

- Yeah, because they're so fast. - They're so fast. - They also look like they're fasting cheetahs. - Yeah, because they're so fast. - Okay, well, this was for Steve.

- Steve Aelky, who I really, really liked. - Me too.

“- You know, I think I even said it in the episode,”

but I don't have a ton of interest in DJing. So when we're considering, I guess, like, Steve, I go, I gotta recognize it this guy's like a world-fucking famous, one of the biggest DJs to ever live. So that's worthy of an exploration,

but I personally am not so into DJing. - Yeah. - But this whole punk rock thing that happened and to see how enthusiastic this guy is

and always has been about music.

- Yeah. - I thought, boy, does he deserve all this? - Yes, I agree. - Yeah, I like him so much. - Me too.

He was also just very kind and sweet energy. - Very sweet energy. - Almost so sweet, it's amazing, he made it and want a cool counterfactual to his father's approach. - I know.

- But yeah, they both were wildly successful. - Yeah, it's true. - Okay, when did Benny Hanna start franchising? Wait, I pod. Oh, embarrassing.

- I peoed. - I peoed in 1983.

“- Click, that's not what I asked in 1983”

and started soon after the exact date is unclear, but by 1970s there were many locations first or opened in 1964. I want to go, I want that fried rice. I want it with butter.

- We're just talking about it last time. - Oh, I want that. - No info on the percentage of birthdays that are at Benny Hanna, but-- - Or defined up.

- I think it is 70%. - I think he would know. - Yeah. Is Kill Sadie banned from Minnesota? - Yes, for Minneapolis and active 1997 to 2001.

- What is this? - A banned. - Kill Sadie. - Not they were banned, like a book banning. - No, banned.

- He's got it. - Got it. - Yeah. - I'm like, I was having a lot of cognitive dissonance. I'm like Minneapolis is very progressive.

They wouldn't be on anything. - No, they wouldn't end us, sure. - Okay. - Devon, some fun facts, fast and furious and city. - This is true.

- Yep, D-O-A, mutant chronicles modeling career. Walked for Balenciaga, Khamdegar Sancha Nella. - Wow. - Now I immediately, not immediately, it took me three days weirdly, but I got on the phone, my cousin.

- Oh, yeah.

“- Who was in the band that Steve was obsessed with?”

- Yes. - And so I wanted to tell him, like, dude, that DJ Steve Aoki, he like, lobs current, you know, I just wanted to tell him all that. And then also passed on the fact that he authenticate

the records for his dad. - So yeah, he was telling us about that after and we were gonna talk about that. - Yeah, so he has a company that now authenticates records, and yeah, he gives them a quality

and then encases them, so that. And so he had offered to do that to my uncle's record collection, which is kind of famous. And then my cousin said, oh, yeah, he was like a Santa Barbara punk rock kid, huh?

Like he kind of knew that he had that origin. And he goes, and doesn't he, he's got a super hot sister? - Yeah, yeah, he was like crazy. - Yeah. - So they're the two things he knew about him.

- Well, yeah, she replaced Naomi Campbell as the face of Versace in '98, at the age of 16. - Dude, wow. - Okay, 2007 Coachella, the headlines were "Biorke Red Hot Chili Peppers and Rage Against the Machine."

Steve played on Saturday afternoon in the Sahara tent. Sahara? - Sahara, Sahara. - What year did esports take off? He guessed 2010s, yes, sources cite 2010s

as the big surge in popularity, mostly after the launch of Twitch in 2011, in 2013 viewers watched 12 billion minutes on the platform. - Oh my God. - Oh my heavens.

- Yeah, I mean, there's also like some obviously fun stuff on his dad, was he wrestling for the Olympics? He came to the US with the spot on Japan's 1960 Olympic team

but never competed in a scholarship to wrestle in the States.

It's Springfield College and Springfield Massachusetts. His 1979 office for a powerboat crash, the Golden Gate Bridge resulted in many injuries, including a ruptured Aorta, a last-arrated liver, and multiple broken bones in his arm and leg,

leaving him with a 10% chance of survival. - Oh my God. - Yeah, grocky. - It is claimed that the hepatitis he had at the time of his death was from a blood transfusion from the crash.

- Oh my God.

and power-boating backgammon, hot air ballooning.

- Backgammon?

“- Yeah, won the world leisure class backgammon championship in 1974.”

- This guy might have devoured life more than anyone we know. - Exactly. - He's kind of my new hero. - Part of the hot air ballooning, part of the foreman crew

that completed the first trans-Pacific balloon flight in 1981,

setting a 34-year record for the longest man balloon flight. - Covering 5,200-8 miles. - Probably until Richard Branson. - Oh, you didn't have to do that. - He traveled the world.

- He didn't need it.

- He circumnavigated the earth on a hot air balloon.

- Or rocky. - Well, you got us seen.

“- I think you, you correct for his level of technology”

versus the other balloon. I think it's probably more impressive going to cost the Pacific and the thing they did. - Really? Those are the facts.

- Well, Steve, if you're listening, you're so likable. It's crazy.

“- Yeah, that was really a lovely interview.”

- Really? - It really is. - A lot. - All right, love you. - You're special. You're great.

You're gonna be the president. - All right, back at you. - Yeah.