English
On April 8, the event center Paradiso in Amsterdam will present American DJ Steve Aoki. The concert is part of a promotional tour for his latest album of electro house music, Wonderland, which is now for sale and available for download and as ringtones on iTunes.
Steve Aoki Hiroyuki was born in Miami in 1977 but grew up in California and graduated with a degree in sociology and women’s studies from the University of California Santa Barbara, a city which was the cradle of rock movement, the hippie movement and progressive attitudes of the 1960s. Of course, he missed all of these revolutionary periods of time, but Aoki got involved with music during the pragmatic 90s. At this time, California still had a halo effect from the hippie movement, and many musical groups influenced the students who were forming their bands and developing an underground movement.
His first musical productions were for the university, specifically for the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative, where the underground movement of the anti-system students and musicians held their first concerts.
At 19, he spearheaded his own record label, which he called Dim Mak Records after the actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee, who had been his childhood hero. With this label he released music by many electro house artists, including The Bloody Beetroots, Klaxons, MSTRKRFT, and others. Together with the record label he released a clothing line which has over time become very popular with youthful fans of electro house. Even the green headphones he designed have become a must-have among aficionados of his music.
While Aoki has shown a great capacity for creating businesses, it’s his music that interests him and this is apparent in his persistence to form part of the band This Machine Kills, with whom he recorded Esperanza and The Fire Next Time with the label Ebullition Records. He also worked together with Blake Miller of the band Moving Units to produce remixes under the nickname Weird Science. He has also been an important promoter for DJs.
In January of 2008, he released his album Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles with great success. It was presented on BBC Radio 1’s Essential Mix, a program specializing in electro music that is hosted by the radio commenter best known by fans of this type of music: Pete Tong.
In 2009, he released the remix of the song Forever by the Canadian rapper Drake which had considerable success. This album was the result of participation by American rapper and musical producer Kanye West and actor, rapper and producer Eminem as well as rapper Lil Wayne and Drake.
In 2010, Aoki released the album I’m in the House with collaboration from Zuper Blahq. It had considerable success, landing a spot as number 29 on the UK Singles Chart for the week after its release.
For more information: http://www.paradiso.nl/web/Agenda-Item/Steve-Aoki.htm
Planning anything spectacular this spring? You won´t regret renting apartments in Amsterdam and attending this concert by Steve Aoki.
