RS: The name Pillow Face And His Airplane Chronicles, what does
that stand for?
Steve Aoki: Pillow Face is a character I created who is really the
alter ego of myself, traveling and surviving with no sleep –
practically, no sleep for weeks, yet still being able to function. His
head turns into a pillow. Airplane Chronicles – we're just traveling,
living in airports and going global. That's part of what glues all
this music and all these artists together. There's artists from
Sweden, to New York, to Paris, to LA to, everywhere, all kind of
coming together for this one. All these artists, all these singers –
from Pedro, who represents Justice, to Uffie, to the Faint… everyone
was really supportive in putting this whole project together.
RS: Different people on the CD, like Justice and Princess
Superstar, have had big success in and out of the electro world. Do
you think that's going to help get this CD out to more people?
Steve Aoki: Oh yes, I'd say ninety percent of the reason why it's
important. It's down to them. This mix CD is not about me, it's about
the artists. It's really my vision of what the current state of
electro is. To me, it's all about them, and that's why this record is
out there, and the main reason why I want it to be everywhere. I want
all these new kids to feel and hear all this music, and also hear
songs they already know like the track from Does It Offend You, Yeah?
People know about the group. There's no official release of them in
America at all, other than that track We Are Rock Stars, which is such
an anthemic track of 2007. With Spank Rock over it, it makes it even
more current.
RS: I want to ask you about a few of the other projects. How's
the clothing line going?
Steve Aoki: Oh it's great, we have a whole new line, Magic, coming
out in February. We've been putting it together for two years, from
the very early stages. We've been progressing and fulfilling our
demands and it's been really good.
RS: And the infamous Aoki headphones, what inspired that?
Steve Aoki: Chris, the owner of WESC, and myself have long been
friends. We came up with the idea together to do the headphones. My
favorite colors always change and at that time my favorite color was
green and I was always wearing green, so we decided to do different
shades of green, tweak the sound and make really solid-sounding
headphones that have an artistic appeal.
RS: And how did you end up in the NBA video game?
Steve Aoki: I don't know, that was random. I guess they just asked
me to be part of it and was fun. I was excited to be part of a video
game but it was weird because I am horrible at basketball.
RS: And you have your own line of shoes also?
Steve Aoki: Supra is a skate shoe and they have a skate line, but
they started a whole new division called NS (Non Skating) and that's
when I got involved. Because I'm a skater, but I'm not professionally
sponsored by them because I always hit the curb. We came up with the
idea of creating a really cool non-skate shoe.
RS: So you can skate, you can play basketball, you can produce,
you can DJ. Is there anything you can't do?
Steve Aoki: Yes, many things.
RS: Just teasing. Now this is going to be a strange question,
but is it really true that your father created Benihana?
Steve Aoki: Yes, he's the founder of Benihana, and that's all his
world, that's what he does with his life.
RS: Did any of his cooking skills rub off on you?
Steve Aoki: No, I'm a horrible cook. Growing up, I was vegetarian
for fifteen years. So first of all they had a steakhouse, and I just
recently started eating meat. I just was never really interested in
being part of the restaurant business at all.
RS: Is there anything you want to say to all your fans out there?
Steve Aoki: Yes, I tour a lot, so check out my MySpace page for tour
dates and come to the show.
Originally posted January 29, 2008