On Purpose with Jay Shetty - Steve Aoki ON: How To Aim High But Manage Expectations & Never Allowing Doubt To Stop You

Episode Date: April 20, 2020

Can a person combine science and literature with music? This interview between Jay Shetty and Steve Aoki, the two-time Grammy-nominated producer and DJ, proves you can. From his start as a women’s studies major to his rise in the music industry, Aoki has never stopped aiming high and giving 100% to everything he’s working on. You'll learn exactly how he turned Dim Mok into a successful business, his fascination with the human brain, and his new album, Neon Future IV. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to season eight of Family Secrets on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Debbie Brown, host of the Deeply Well podcast, where we hold conscious conversations with leaders and radical healers and wellness around topics that are meant to expand and support you on your well-being journey. Deeply well is your soft place to land, to work on yourself without judgment, to heal, to learn, to grow, to become who you deserve to be. Deeply well with Debbie Brown is available now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Namaste. Every contribution I made to the community was meaningful.

So I learned at a very, very young age, even when I got into hardcore and funk music. The contributions I made to the community were my cool points. They're the way I got respect. Hey everyone, welcome back to on purpose. The number one help and wellness podcast in the world thanks to each and every single one of you who turn up every week to listen, to learn, and to grow. Now I know that my promise to each and every one of you is making sure that I find guests to help us innovate.

We help us think differently, who shape culture and redefine the way we live our lives. And today's guest is going to do just that. He's none other than Steve Aoki, the two-time Grammy-nominated producer, DJ, one of today's most successful American cross-genre artists, collectively counting 2.8 listeners of this billion music streams on Spotify. As the founder of the TransSetting Record Label, Events Lifestyle Company, and a Power Live, which he found in 1996, Steve Aoki has helped launch

the careers of global acts, like the Chain Smokers, Block Party, the Bloody Beat truits, the Gossip, and the Kills among many others. Steve, welcome to the show. Thank you for being here. I'm delighted to talk about your new album and much more neon future for available everywhere. But thank you for taking the time to do this, man.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. It's a pleasure to sit down with someone who I truly believe has just got this incredible mind where you're able to find juxtapositions and connections and things that most people wouldn't be able to find similarities in synergies, which is what I find so fascinating about you. So I'm really excited that we get to dive into that. Yeah, yeah. I feel like, you know, whenever you're fascinated about

like a genre or a topic that you like someone might not know so much about, but the person in the middle is doing things like, wow, it's like magic. Well, it's like the same thing as when you are doing your own thing. And you know everything around your little corner. And it's the same kind of thing. It's like my whole life is music. As my platform.

It's kind of like everything that I, that I live and die for, my passion, my what I bleed for. And so you try a couple of things, one of them hits, then you start finding that success and that pattern and then things are happening. Yeah, absolutely, man. Now, I know we were just checking in a bit earlier,

you were saying you're in your Vegas playhouse. It sounds like the best place to be quarantined in the world. Tell me about the inspiration behind it and how you've been moving through this time. Yeah, so I bought my house in 2013. I moved out here from LA. I was living in an LA for a good amount of time over maybe 13, 14 years. And it was very difficult for me to leave Los Angeles because that is where my career really broke. That's where I started to DJ. All my connections and music started to grow.

And, you know, it just like I have so many heartstrings being pulled when I was leaving. But I was barely even there. I was there like towards the end of it. I was there maybe 60 days, 50 days of the year because I was torn so much. So, and then I saw the residency in Las Vegas here. And so I was like, well, it just makes sense to move to Vegas. It's a 45 minute plane ride back to LA where my whole team

is. Dimock is still based out of LA. My management is still based out of LA. I still have all my friends there. And I was like looking for a place in Las Vegas and I realized, you know, not just is a great place for me to get away from everything. Because that's sort of what sort of happening when I was in the LA. In the beginning, I was like in the thick of it. Like I was at every single party. I was doing every little thing. I could just to get my, you know, brand out there and do what I was supposed to do. And then towards the end, I was like, once I built enough of a stable career, I didn't want to be in the thick of it anymore. I just wanted to dip in and dip out whenever I needed to do to beat. So now Vegas is kind of like my, what I was living in the Hollywood Hills at the end of it. I was, this is like my lots Vegas hills, you know, because I still got an LA work, you know, not so much anymore.

But yeah, so when I moved out here, the residency was great because I was doing, you know, 40 shows a year here, I still am, but not anymore. And it's a suburban community here, it's strange. It's like the people think of Vegas, they think of the strip, you know, the craziness in city. It's like it's just pop in 24 hours, you know. But really, it's a sprawling desert. And there's track homes everywhere. There's just small little community outfits all over the place. And this was a perfect place for

me to have my mom, you know, and I was across my fingers to see if my mom would move in my neighborhood. Because I never get to see if my mom would move in my neighborhood. Because I never get to see my mom, you know, who's always traveling and she lives in Newport Beach. And I can't always get down there. But she said, okay, you know, she dropped living in Newport Beach for 40 years and moved to Vegas. And I, one of the best investments I ever made was buying her house. And then I bought her a nice house. She was like 15 doors away.

Actually, I can see her from when she was a baby. And then I see, I don't see her as much anymore because we quarantine a lot of her, make sure she is full of proof, you know? Yeah. Or micro proof, whatever we can do. But in any case, so when I got the house here, I didn't realize how big these homes could get.

That's the other thing. It's like, the Los Angeles, there's a limit. You know, if you have like a 4,000 square foot home, that's pretty big in LA. And that's like a multi-million dollar home, it's depending on where you live. So you could only get so much for the money that you spend. But here, for a couple million dollars,

I was able to buy this home, which was 16,000 square feet. Yes. Way more square footers that I can even imagine to deal with. But it was a scoop. Like I was like, I have to take this, regardless of that it's so big, and grow into it or something

because of the opportunity that was in front of me. So now I spent like two years building it out and developing and like turning into what is now called Aoki's Playhouse. And it really is a playhouse. It's like, I got a foam pit and a trampoline in a gym room. I put a DJ booth in there. So I do my DJ sets. I have my live stream set up there. I do all my workouts there. I work out pretty much every day. I got a barrel son.

I got a cold plunge situation inspired by Wim Hof and Lerid Hamilton. Yeah. And then I have like, I have a really great kitchen. I got this room right here, which doubles as my design studio, fashion design studio, where I do all my clothes design and all my meetings with my team, which is now just me zooming. And I stream out of here.

I got my studio downstairs. It's just like, now my day is so full and I just go from one room to the next room to the next room. And it's just become the best quarantine house. I don't even feel like I'm in quarantine. So just because I have this luxury, right? I'm trying to at at the very least one, entertain, you know, anyone that's watching my streams or live.

And two, just inspire people to like, you know, do your workouts. Here's the wads. And later on, I'm going to do something that I haven't really announced yet, but I could talk here about it. It's a, I have a foundation called the Aoki Foundation and we focus on the brain. Our whole mission is about the human brain. Learning about the brain mainly. Learning about it in every aspect.

One, to find cures for degenerative diseases. That's like the main goal, right? Obviously just to find curious for Alzheimer's Parkinson's, even to the point of depression, like understand what that's all about anxiety, all those things, and work with organizations that do that. And then, and then, too, is, you know, unlock the mysteries and the doors of the brain that we can, if we, if we got into, we could do things that would be science fiction. We could start inching our way towards turning some science fiction concepts

into science fact, which is really, that's my passion point. Do things like live through our technology, at the extreme, live through our technology, things like that. So I work with researchers and orgs that do that. So, with the AOE Foundation, our whole mission at this point, which is about the brain is mental health. So, we're going to be planning out doing this kind of challenge, and almost like a new instruction to certain things that people can do

while they're stuck at home, like breath work, even a cold plunge because everyone's got to, if you don't have a bathtub, then I don't know. Yeah, it's a cold challenge. Yeah, a coach can't do. That works. Yeah, obviously obviously cold shower You know meditation yoga. I already did the exercise So a nutrition obviously and then bring on experts and talk about these things to the fans to you know

Especially to the younger demo because I feel like as you get older you you pick these things up at you know as our mortality starts increasing but when you're young, when I was young, I thought I was invisible, you know, invincible, not invincible. You know, I mean, so like it's kind of like feeding, feeding the right stuff then you're just going to, you know, you're going to have, you're going to have, you know, it's just better for you. going to have, you know, it's just better for you. Hey, it's Debbie Brown. And my podcast deeply well is a soft place to land

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Big love, Namaste. I'm Jay Shetty and on my podcast on purpose, I've had the honor to sit down with some of the most incredible hearts and minds on the planet. Oprah, everything that has happened to you can also be a strength builder for you if you allow it. Kobe Bryant, the results don't really matter. It's the figuring out that matters. Kevin Haw, it's not about us as a generation at this point.

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Ensure that your resolution turns into ongoing progress. Listen to how to money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I think that's good. That's really good to hear. I like how much synergy there is in the Aoki Foundation and the World Get I'm Trying to Do because my book that comes out in September, it's called Think Like A Monk.

What I've done is I've lived as a monk for three years in India. I've got every lesson that I learned as a monk, but but I found all the modern science that backs up the stem. So I don't if you've ever seen any scans on monks' brains, it's phenomenal. Like the neuroscience behind a monks' brain that's meditated for four to five decades is just phenomenal. To the point that you can, there are studies done where monks have been put under physical pain, where the parts of their brain that show physical pain light up, but there's no emotional pain associated with the physical pain. So for most of us, we experience two forms.

We experience the pain of burn or hurt, and then we associate pain with that physical pain, so it hurts us mentally and emotionally. But for these monks that they scan their brains, they found that they only felt the physical pain but zero emotional pain, which is insane to comprehend. I talk about it in the book, so I'm excited to share that with you when it drops. Yeah, absolutely. that like what you just said that combining the science, you know, behind the practice, you know, because because like obviously like with other science, it already looks really great because you're so Relaxed, but I want to know what's happening up here. I want to know what's happening in the body

Me too. And because like what's you know that kind of information that raw data? I mean, then like you could do so much more. You can ask the questions that can actually dive deeper into our psyche, deeper into finding that place that we're trying to find. So, the data is incredible. I mean, that you're combining both of that. Yeah, I find that the parallel, the juxtaposition between timeless wisdom

and modern science is so fun because there's a great thought from Martin Luther King where he said, if you want a new idea, read an old book. And I love that kind of like finding that synergy between like this was said 5,000 years ago, but it's being proven through data and insight today and therefore it's relevant to you and me and it's repeatable and scalable

and we can share it across the whole world, right? And like I love what you said about turning science fiction into science fact. I think that's brilliant because I think you're so right that so many of us when we're watching science fiction, even if it has a message or it has powerful story lines or plot or characters, we all go, ah, but that's fake, right? That's not real. And I think you're so right that if we can try and push people along the way to show them

that it's actual fact, it's actually possible, that makes people feel impossible in their own lives. It's that, that's like science fiction is our imagination on steroids, right? Science fiction is like, it's like science fiction is our imagination on steroids right? Science is like it's like what like what can we? What would be the wildest dream scenarios and let's put that into you know illustration or comics or TV show or you know animation whatever it might be And you just take that imagination that we all have,

that we're all excited about. We all, as a species, we were here 2020 alive out of all the other bipedal species because of our imagination, large part, that we dream for more. We imagine things, and some of those things can actually happen by doing the right step.

So it's like, you know, just like the, like certain ideas like a telekinesis, you know, moving things with your mind. You say that to someone and they're like, well, that's obviously impossible. You can't just be like, mm, and then like, you know, my keyboard lifts up. But you can actually telekinesis

exist now, but in a different context, in a way where, you know, people that have paralysis that are paralyzed have technology in their brain connecting to a computer and it's able to, what their thoughts were able to move, the machine that they're sitting on forward or to the left, or bring like a robotic arm

with food to their face. Yeah, that's moving with your mind. That's your moving with your mind. You're not saying anything. You're not moving with your hands. That's telekinesis. That's our version of telekinesis. Yeah.

And I just like those kinds of things that we use technology to actually make some of these imaginations into reality. And whenever that happens, whenever those two things happen, they collide, I wanna be there, I wanna see it. I wanna participate somehow, you know? You wanna be a fly out of the world,

but you wanna be involved. You wanna, yeah, yeah. I mean, in some cases, I wanna be the test dummy, you know? I wanna be a fake, like, you know, not all cases, but in some cases, I'm like, let me try this out. I'm Dr. Romani, and I am back with season two of my podcast, Navigating Narcissism. Narcissists are everywhere, and their toxic behavior

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Anybody with two eyes and a brain knows that too much Alfredo sauce is just no good for you, but if you're going to eat it, they're not going to stop you. So he's going to continue to give you the Alfredo sauce and put it even on your grits if you don't stop him Listen to the art spot on the iHeart Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts A good way to learn about a place is to talk to the people that live there There's just a sexy vibe and Montreal this pulse this energy But what's been seen is a very snotty city? People call it Bose-Angulous.

New Orleans is a town that never forgets its pay. A great way to get to know a place is to get invited to a dinner party. Hi, I'm Brendan Francis Newdum and not lost as my new travel podcast where a friend and I go places, see the sights, and try to finagle our way into a dinner party. Where kind of trying to get invited to a dinner party. It doesn't always work out. I would love that, but I have like a Cholala who is aggressive towards strangers.

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And it's so sincere. I love you too. My life's a lot of therapy goes behind that. You're so white, I love it. Listen to not lost on the iHeart Radio App or wherever you get your podcasts. I love them, man. Tell me about the imagination because,

imagine going back into that mindset when you were saying, like, you know, LA is where you really broke through, but those early days of your career where it's almost like all you have is your imagination of where things can go to where you are now. And I don't know if you superseded your expectations or met them. But, you know, I think as someone who's like trying to make it, trying to break through and a lot of people listening and watching, they have that, and today, you know, you're buying your mama home, and she's close by to you,

and you have this incredible world that you've created. What was it that was getting you through that time? What was the mindset that you believe served you so well in that journey to where you are now? What was it that you were doing differently that allowed you to break through the noise and the clutter? Because there's so much more than a DJ, you know, and I think that's why what you do is

so attractive and so iconic to so many people. Tell me about what that was like on the come-up, which people don't see anymore. We just see Steve Aoki, the icon, you don't really see that journey. So when I moved to LA from Santa Barbara, I made that, I made it at a fork in the road at that point, because I graduated from college. And I was in love with academia. And I really wanted to pursue that as well. So I was a women's study, sociology major.

And with those majors, you can either go into like social work or something like that or you go right back in academia and do more research. So um and like a lot of my colleagues in class, they were going right back to academia, they're going they're going for their PhDs, their masters. So it just seemed like, well, I guess that maybe this is the route I'm supposed to take when I was in college, it's just so deep down this track now. And I'm respected in my small circle that it allowed me to, like, let's go for it.

So I did all the application process. And I think I applied to like 15 different schools or something. And I got rejected to literally almost every single one of them. I was, I realized I'm like, I think I'm hot, man. I'm like, for my 15 other, you know, especially women's studies, it's like, it's all women except for me and this other guy.

I'm like, you know, like they all love me. Like, I'm gonna make it, you know, especially women's studies, it's all women except for me and this other guy. I'm like, you know, like they all love me, like I'm gonna make it, you know, like through whatever feel I'm gonna do outside of this. And you know, it was like nope, nope, nope, nope, no rejection, rejection, rejection. I did get accepted to two, but they're almost like pity. Like it was like a pity. It felt like a pity call. And then at the same time, I was on my 36th release on Demock. So I was already pumping out music. And I was doing well in college in Santa Barbara. I had a distribution deal, so I didn't have to pay for anything. That was the best thing that could possibly happen

to me at that time, because I didn't have any money. So the only way I could make money is if I can deliver good music to the distributor and they produce everything. They produce the vinyl, they produce the CDs, they distribute it for you and they give you a check. And then that check allows me to use that money to give to artists so they can record their music, future artists. So I was like, sweet, I have a great situation

because I signed some other bands that actually worked out for this distributor. And I was just pumping out music. And then I found this band that was a friend of mine that played in my living room because I just put on children in my living room at the time. I mean, this is like, I'm gonna,

I'm gonna, this is the exact little bit, but. I love it, it's the exact as much as you like, man, it's great. So during this time, which is like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, this is exactly a little bit, but. I love it, it's exactly as much as you like, man, it's great. So during this time, which is quite interesting, in college, I had a small apartment. Our living room was like maybe 200, 300 square feet, so I could be a little bit off here, but it was very small.

But we had maybe 20 shows a month in that living room. So we would have like maybe 80 bands, because it'd be like four bands a show every single month, like clamoring in there with like 20 people, like moshing and whatever, give $5 at the door to the band. And that'd be bicycling and doing deliveries, you know, getting paid minimum wage to tell the fraternities delivering food. So that's what I was a tell- I was a telemarketer. I was on the phone like coal-calling, you know, poor people to like, you know, try to do something for a unicep or something. I don't know what I was,

I forgot what I was, but I was doing telemarketing, getting paid that way, and I was a bike messenger. A bike delivery guy. And then I would put on shows. So the reason why I'm going to talk about this is that like a lot of that ideology that ethos that I had when I was in college, when I was in high school, putting on the shows, except the time I was putting on shows,

I was in bands. Whenever you put on shows, except the time I was putting on shows, I was in bands. Whenever you put on shows, we need to make a dime. I wrote for a scene, this is a punk scene for seven years. I had a column, I'd write a column about whatever I wanted to write about, and then I'd reviewed everything under the sun. So whatever I go in there, there'd be a box of demos and zines and cassettes.

If you can remember that like vinyl, I would have, I would say give me everything. I want to review it all. So I'd review sometimes between 50 to 100 reviews for the zine. And I'd do this all for free. Like you never get paid. No one got paid there because it's like punks in. But it was the Bible for, for our hardcore community. So I wrote for that scene for five or seven years. And when the bands I was in, we weren't getting paid. The whole point of this is, is that I grew up in this culture in the music world.

I grew up in this culture where you're not supposed to profit from what you do. You're supposed to give everything and not actually get anything financially returned. It is not a business. Like the world I was in, it was not a business. And you can even actually make it a business. There's like, it's like pure passionate people

playing to pure passionate people. And it's a very, very small, it's a small little community and it's small and that you can't scale it out so much because the music was so like niche but it was small enough for me and this is where I learned something really valuable that every contribution I made valuable that every contribution I made to the community was meaningful. So, I learned at a very, very young age, you know, when I got into the hardcore and punk music, that the contributions I made to the community were my cool points. They're the way I got respect. It wasn't like, you know, like, we're in the fresh night he's going to school and getting that respect,

or like having a girl like, you know, talk to you in front of your friends getting that respect. It's literally you, you make a scene, you spend the time, you do the interviews, you go to the Kinkos copy center, glue it together, and then make a scene, zerox everything out, make a zine, zerox, everything out, or start a band, or like, you know, whatever it is to contribute to this little world,

it's like a religion almost. And we're like, you know, Jehovah's Witness going out there like letting people know about our world, but not to other people, just to our inside circle. Yeah. Right, so I learned that, and there's no financial return, right? And as a kid, you don't care about financial return, because all you care about is quarters playing your in Street Fighter.

That's all I care. I just need NF quarters. After every day, after a school, I would go to most Pizzeria, give my slice of pizza, and then pump in like three games of Street Fighter. And I was happy, you know? Because that's all I use in my mom would ever give me. It's like, here's your money for the slice of pizza and then pump in like three games of street fighter and I was happy, you know. Because that's all my mom would ever give me. It's like here's money for the slice of pizza and some quarters for your video games.

So I learned that at a young age and I followed that through with all my friends in the college or the community that was global but small, Niche. And I would tour and it just became my life and I never expected to make money. So after I left college and I hit that fork in the road talking about academia or music

and I decided to go down the music ground and do my label. I was like, I have something set up. I don't need to expand too much money and I can build this band that I just found called the Kills that were my friends. And like, they blew my mind. They were so different from all the punk and emo and the other stuff I was putting out that I love.

This is like, this is a rock and roll band. This is like, you know, kind of velvet underground. You got this whole thing to it that can, like, I wanna blow them up. You know, this passion, and I just literally hung up the guitar on the microphone. I'm like, I'm gonna focus entirely on Dimock, my record label, this band, move to LA,

and make it happen. So I moved to LA, but I still had the same ideology, right? So really, I had zero business acumen. I had no business history. I was, and this is where the double absurd begins, like, I have zero business skills. What's the lever? I don't know what the hell I'm doing about making money. Or how to, you know, I didn't understand what ROI meant. I didn't understand how to to save money. I just like was like, I'm going to give 100% and I'm not, I don't understand how to save money. I just like, I'm going to

give 100% and I don't really care about the return, right? So that was that really affected me. Later on, a few years later, I was in like major debt. But the other edge of the sword is that I know what I'm doing is what I need to do. Because I will live and die by what I'm doing, regardless of the money. The money was like so not important to me. It is definitely not the right business to make money in. Especially for a young kid that has no idea what he's doing with that world. And that's why at that time too, another parallel, my father who was a successful

restaurant tour and he he founded Benihanas and he was very wealthy and he's very, you know, showy with his wealth. He actually never gave me a dime. Wow. Never gave me a dime. Never gave, well, I wouldn't say just me. He never gave any of his me a dime. Wow. Never gave me a dime. I wouldn't say just me. He never gave any of his kids a dime. That's like how he was raised because he was raised. He wasn't necessarily, he was a working class man

when his family was working class one. They were in Japan. My mom was broke when she was in Japan. So my mom was very thrifty already because she grew up that way. My dad was just like, one, what you're doing is a distraction to what you need to do is get a real job.

Like working nine to five, life is supposed to be boring. You're supposed to deal with it because that's life. You can't just have fun all the time and think you're gonna get by and you're going to you're going to be broke and guess what? No one's going to help you, Steve. No one's going to help you. You need to learn your lesson. I'm not going to be throwing you a lifeline. You better figure this out. You better get a job. And like, and I'm an adult.

No, you can't tell me what I can't do. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to get that from? Where are you finding that confidence from? To come? I've been reared through my whole like this is exactly why I went back to my my high school and college days. I've been reared. I am like like a I'm steel. Like I know one could take me away from this. I don't care if I'm broke. I really don't care. I don't care if I was living in a small apartment. I'm like when I moved to LA, care if I was living in a small apartment. When I moved to LA, me and my girlfriend moved there together at the time, my ex-girlfriend, and it was $900 apartment. We spent $450 each. My cost living was so low. I was like, top ramen, and just whatever we could do to get my full pay by car my full by car insurance. So like, my total cost was like 800 bucks. You know,

so I was like, okay, I can handle that. My mom did help me out a little bit with that part because I just, I had no money. So, you know, and my dad would not help me because that's just, that's just how he is. And I, and I applaud him and I thank him, he spouts away, but I thank him so much for that because I learned myself. And, you know, he was very much that tough love kind of father. And I'm so, so, so grateful for that.

That's one thing I'm gonna take with me when I have kids too, is they need to learn on their own. You need to figure that out on their own. So in any case, when I started dimlock and I started, you know started hustling, no matter what the records I put out would sell, I was also expending just the same amount. So the business side was to shit. And I was learning far beyond the hard way because I was losing so much. You know, I was like, my credit card for, or it maxed out, I was getting on more credit cards

and there's no way out, like at one point, after a few years, and this is after I signed, like, some huge bands like Block Party. Like after I found Block Party, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna make it. It's not like I'm gonna be rich because I didn't really care about being rich. I was like, I'm going to be a self-sustainable label.

I want it to be a self-sustainable business that can run and have employees because I didn't have any employees. I just had a bunch of interns. I got my first employee in 2003 when we found Lockhearty. And I was like, I need to pay her, and I gotta pay, yeah, I gotta deal with this. And like my poor girlfriend is like 13 interns in the house,

in the apartment when she comes home from work. So anyways, fast forward, I'm signing some really big, and still I am not, I am like, now at this point, 10 cards maxed out $100,000 in debt. And, and, and I started throwing these dimmed parties, because what I did was like, I'm going to replicate. And this is like the, the, the, this is like what the saving grace situation. So I'm going gonna replicate the same thing I did in my living rooms and in my in high school at these house parties, but I'm gonna do that in LA at these bars.

And I can't, I'm not gonna be in a band because that LA culture, that life culture, if you wanna do it all the time, it's like these little bars, right? So I learned at a DJ, my friend got me my first gig, just playing some vinyl records, and then I started DJing at these small little bars, and we would make them these dimmed parties, and then we would bring block party in, we would bring the kills in, we would bring in other bands, two of those, friends with the YAaz, to Mars Volta, to, you know,

at the drive and play to my apartment. So like Mars Volta was their new band, they would come in to the shins, to the killers, I mean, before they blew up. And then we would have them DJ for literally 100 bucks. And I was the opening DJ because I was a nobody, right? So I was getting a bar tab at first, just while people were triggering the...

Oh, my! Now, in the beginning, I was, I was, I would set up, because I didn't have it, I didn't have a set up. I didn't have turn tables, and I was DJing vinyl. I had vinyl records, because that's what I did when I collected records. As a, as a punk and hardcore kid, what you do part of the culture is you collect records. So I had a bunch of records and I was playing those records and I was like, I got to buy hip-hop

records, I got to buy indie records, I got to buy electronic records. And so I started buying records and I was playing them, you know, learning how to beat match before the doors open. And as people trickle in, they would hear me train wreck and just be like the worst DJ on the planet. But I was promoting the party so they couldn't kick me out, right? And I'm only doing it for bar tap, so they just have to deal with me for the first 30 minutes or first hour. And I did that over and over and over and over again, and I finally got

better at DJing. I went from playing, you know, like opening to like one slot up, getting 50 to 75 bucks, including my bar tap, very important at the time. And then we started building the network of bands coming through, every time a band would come through, MIA to whoever, we would have their party. And then I was already doing my label, so I was already connected to so many other artists and managers and another

record labels that we started growing a little culture in LA, this dimmed culture, this culture of where we were helping foster and be developing platform for up and coming artists. And then soon it went to hip hop, soon it went to Kit Kuddy. Kit Kuddy was coming through, Kanye West was coming through, Lady Gaga did her first shows in LA to Skrillex, to the LMFAO, will I am was always there. Just like, so like the Black Ops was making those hits

10 years ago, they were at our party every single time we threw a party. And soon I was making, you know, from 50 to 200 to 500. And then I was, but I was DJing like four times a week. So you got to think, I eventually did pay off all my debt, but it was from like some off-shoot that I did not think was going to happen. And that was DJing and becoming, you know, I wouldn't say the DJ Steve Aoki say today, it was really the Steve Aoki that's trying to to help build the small culture outward, but realize that, you know, this

culture has, it has no boundaries. And I also want to find the use of that culture that you were trying to build? What was in your mind, what was like the underpinning foundations of that culture that was so powerful to you? Like, what were those values? The underpinning ideology of the culture is that for me,

I someone that's involved, that wants to be involved is it's the same feeling of signing a brand new act that you want to share to the world. So it's like when you really break that down, when you boil that down, it's the, the excitement, just like when you're a kid, and you share something to a friend. Yeah. It's like, yo, Eddie, I just found this toy. Yeah, it's like, yo Eddie, I just found this toy. And we're losing. You gotta like, like, fuck with this toy. And then Eddie thinks, like, oh my god, I'm like, I can't stop playing with the toy.

It's that ability to share that excitement to share with people. That is the, that's where I feel like my strong suit is. That is, that's where I feel like my strong suit is. Yeah. Like beyond, behind like all this stuff, it's all I care about is sharing things I love. Yeah. Okay. And then now I'm finding ways to monetize that. But if you put money in front of that, then like that ability to share doesn't have that

same feeling, right? You have to share first, right? You have to share first, right? You have to share first. And if they love it, then like it's just part of the how it works, they should pay for it. Or they should taste it and pay for it. Like you like a piece of the pie, here's a sample. But you can buy the whole pie, if you like the pie.

With this pie, it's the mother fucking best pie you have or eating your goddamn life life kind of pie. Yeah, and that's it. If you believe in, and I think that's half the challenge is when you're trying to sell stuff, you don't believe, or you're just trying to sell for the sake of selling, it doesn't have that effect or impact because people can feel that, right?

When you genuinely are obsessed with something or excited about, like you said, the kid's example is perfect because whether it's a new video game or a new movie or the latest thing that happened, that infectious feeling that we all get as children. Yeah. You can tell our best friends about that, but you have this, you have this really interesting perspective of aiming high, but managing your expectations.

And I wonder how you were doing that at a time and how people could do that because obviously you've exceeded and superseded many expectations, like you said. And I love what you said about your father because it's so beautiful that you've turned that into gratitude and that you're seeing it from a grateful angle because it's so easy for so many people to be bitter towards their parents

for not supporting their dreams, or not giving them money, or not believing in them. But I think that you're teaching us a really valuable lesson here because actually you're so right that because of that lack of support. And it's interesting for me to think about that because when I came back from the monastery and any other people that came back to,

we were all in the same position, I had zero and I came back to parents who didn't have a lot, who couldn't give me a lot. And a lot of my friends came back to parents who had lots of money. And it's really interesting to see the trajectories of the two types of people that often that can be so cripply when you have many resources. So I love that perspective of gratitude. But tell us about how you've always been able to aim a high but not take rotations. And what does that mean now? And how is that evolved for you? Yeah, I'm actually trying to think about the first,

you know, striking time of aiming high and managing your expectations. I mean, I think, let me tell you a story first before I did. It's like second nature to me. So for me to understand why or how I do it is, I need to tell a story first. So I remember, I guess when you sign certain, before I was a DJ, when I signed certain acts

that blew up, I was necessarily aiming high. I was just working with other underground talent, right? So that wouldn't be a good example. But one would be I remember I only managed one artist in my whole career. I've only actually managed one artist. It was in 2004 and there was this young singer and she had this video that just blew my mind and she got already on the cover of Fader Magazine. And Fader Magazine is like the ultra cool live okay, you got to check out the Sardis. And my friend worked for Fader, he was the editor there, Eddard and Chief Tharrant.

He interviewed Demock as one of the rising labels at the time. So he's like, you got to check out this artist. You know, she needs help in America. She's like, just blown up in England. And I listened to her music and I saw her video and I was just like, holy shit, she's, she's a superstar. She's a superstar. She, she's going to change the world. Like, I just was like, I've kind of fell to my knees like this. You know, first of all, I need a signer, possible, because I already got block party. So I'm like, I have like some cat-shade.

So, and then I reached out to her and I was like, can I sign you? So like now we're already signed to Excel for the world. You can't do that. The next cell is, you know, they sign Adele. They have like, they're one of the giant indie labels. Great, great, amazing indie label.

So obviously I'm small. I'm just like, I just believe in you so much. I might not have the infrastructure, but I have my passion for you to, like help you grow to be who you want to be, is like insane. I will topple everyone on that energy level. And she's like, well, I love your energy, but you can't sign me.

But we can do something else. I'm like, OK, can I manage you then? I'm managing a large online. It's like, I need to work with this woman. And then she's like, I love that energy, and I haven't felt that energy. So yes, you can manage me. And Erica and I was just looking in my head like, oh my God, I'm a fucking manager.

Now this is amazing. Did you play cool in person? Oh, you guys excited in person as well. Yeah, I was playing cool, but like I was, I was definitely, but I was showing it for sure. You know, but not to the level that I should. That would like throw, you know, tell her to walk away. Anyway, so I started like working with her and it only lasted for three months,

because I mean, I knew to a certain extent what I'm supposed to do, but I did aim high there. And, you know, I tried my best to the skill set and level that I knew. And I did, like, I have to say, a little bit of it came from me in the very, very beginning. She did it all of herself. She's an incredibly intelligent, she's just like an amazing, absolutely amazing inspirational woman. And she goes by the name of MIA. No, wow. Yeah, I was just obsessed with her. But you know, but like I say that was like one of the first times where I really aimed high.

But the my I felt confident that I could do it because like I would do absolutely anything to make it happen. You know, so I think that that's where it is. That's, that's the soul of what we're talking about is that if you really, really, truly believe that you're the best person, that you could apply something that other people can't apply. And another necessarily mean like you're the most well-rounded, you have the best infrastructure, you have the most money, it's more about like you have the heart, you take it to the next level, aim for that.

I'll obviously aim for that. And then realize when, as someone on the other receiving it, and if I see a kid coming at me with that same kind of heart, I mean, I'm gonna feel him. I'm gonna feel her. I'm gonna be like, okay, I want this person on the team, but not necessarily as a top. Yes.

But I'll find a way to include them in. And that's where the managing expectations comes in. You fight for the top, and then you understand what your level of expertise is in that space. So that's when you're like, okay, understandably, I'll start at level one, but I'm at least in. And then you grow up. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense, man. Thanks for telling that story. That literally that story crystallizes the point so well. Yeah. And it's brilliant. And anyone who's listening, you can tell that Steve's a phenomenal storyteller and his

memoir, Blue the Color of Noise, which he recently released highly recommended because it's the same these stories that you can dive into with much more depth than you get to extrapolate them. So for anyone who's listening and going, wow, I need to know more about this incredible person's life, then make sure you check out Blue, the color of noise. It was recently released. It was Steve's memoir. Steve, I want to talk a bit about neon future four because you know, it's it's out right now. I believe it's streaming and people can listen to it and get it. It's got 27 tracks on it. Now, now what stood out to me is that I know that Sapiens is one of your favorite books. Now, you, Val, not only is I know that Sapiens is one of your favorite books.

You Val not only is a good friend, but he also came on the podcast and I find him fascinating too. Tell me about how the song, Homo Deus came about because I wouldn't really think of you Val and you, you know, it's brilliant. That's why I love it. It's so cool. So tell us about how that comes about

and where that originates from. Yeah, yeah. So it's also, you wouldn't think about Yuval and Nian future so much because his version of the future is not Nian, Utopian. So that's where I've definitely allowed for various kinds of voices about what the future looks like that are different to mine. Because up until this time, an exception to like JJ Abrams who was more vague about Neon Future, it was very much like along the same lines. Like the Ray Kurzweil was very much along the same lines as you know, a future. Yeah, a future is kind of based on Ray Kurzweil's singularity approach.

And Brian Johnson definitely, he's had a kernel and he's like, he's got the incredible brain technology. So he's talking about the same kind of thing that I've been saying as well. But you've all is you know reading a second book which is also extremely incredible. You know it's interesting that like you know technology for us for the for homeless avians will we will take it we will take it for granted or take advantage of it in a way that's not good for us. But yeah, anyways, for every album on the end of the future, I'm approaching

scientists, authors, and people that have some level of, or some story that they're talking about the future. And I needed to get you all in this after I had a soapy and I had to get you all in this after I actually read Home of Days. But it was a bit difficult. He wasn't coming with ease. It wasn't like coming with ease, you know. It wasn't like pulling teeth so much but it was definitely like, I don't know if this is going to happen. Yeah. You know, like, I'm still across my fingers kind of thing like until it happened. I'm like, did it really come in? Is, you know, his voice by, did it really come in? I was, I mean, when it came in, it was like,

his voice bite did really come in. I was, I mean, when it came in, it was like, it was as if like Drake vocals came in. Yeah. It was as if like, Post-Balones voice, I love back in my inbox. Like, I'm like, I have you Val Herari on the album. So, yeah, that was, that was heavy for me. That was, that was really big.

Because like to me, me, it's just, I go just like you're talking about. I go for the heavy weights as high as possible. And you've all is my favorite author. So I go for as high as I can go, and then kind of like step sideways, and then step down, sideways down, you know what I mean? Yeah.

You know, and I feel like the thing too is I'm confident about me, I'm confident about my music. And more importantly, music connects the world. That's one thing you can't take away, that's one thing that has nothing to do with the opinion. It just, music's the most language. Yes, it's an most language. It's the most language. It's an emotional language. That's the thing about music. It's an emotional language.

And depending on the song, it could change your life. And artists have changed my life. I know songs that have taken people from the gutter and made them feel alive. Yeah. Change their entire life, you know, and I think we can all appreciate that. So it's like, you know, if like, you know, I'm not sure if he's a Steve Eoculistner, but. But I think he agrees on the music portion. Yeah, for sure. The fact that he came through means that he believes that you and your work and that he

believes that music has the ability to transform the world. And it's so thrown around, but you're so right about it being an emotional language. And tell us about that. Because it's so interesting, especially we're talking about it being an emotional language. And tell us about that. Like what, because it's so interesting, especially we're talking about it right now, I think sound, and I talk a lot about this during our time as living as monks, like sound and sound design was so important

to how we lived our lives. So we always woke up in the morning to nature sounds, whether it was a stream or whether it was the birds or whether it was always something natural. And then on meditation, we're full of gongs and symbols, like, and they were tuned perfectly to a resonance that was helped to get you into a deeper state of meditation, right? Each of the mantras that were chanted were chanted at a specific vibration to have a physical, emotional, and mental, and deeper effect. And so I'm totally sold on sound design,

especially when I lived in New York City, and all I heard was drilling and digging, and all of that, and you're like, wow, this sound design or this sound distraction is really messing up my brain, whereas the sound design, and right now I think, because people are stuck in their homes.

Sound is so important. What is the sounds of neon future? What is your goal with what kind of feeling or what emotionally you're trying to bring about in people through the music, through each of the tracks? I want a dynamic experience with the album. You know, I want to bring all the different colors to the table, different personalities.

And that's what music is. It's just like all these emotional personalities. So, that's why, if you listen to the album from front to back, it goes through all these different tempos, these different arrangements, moods. And it changes up. Like some songs are extremely blind happiness. I love my friends and some songs are just dark and visceral and like, you know, should be in a thriller or a sci-fi film or something.

I really want to take people on that kind of journey because it's 27 songs. So if you're gonna really sit there and you're gonna go into this album, then yes, I needed like give you a lot of texture. And like my previous albums, I consider them chapters. They're like between 10 and 14 songs.

This is 27. And it's also just different genres. I mean, it's just so different. Right, so like on just on that note alone, just on like outside of the feeling perspectives that we're talking about, it's having Spanish on there, having a K-pop group on their Maluma on there, to Zoli De Chanel, just like all these different kinds of artists,

it just like throws curve balls at you, which is what I prefer instead of like you hear four or five songs into it and you're like, well, they all sound the same. You know, in the end, because they all have, they're all the same tempo, the same arrangement, the same like, you know, punch line, the same whatever it is, then you start kind of forgetting. So I kind of like mix it up.

It's like almost like a DJ set. Like, you know, like back in the day when I used to DJ before I was producing so much, I was playing Dolly Parton into Daft Punk into, you know, Elvis Costello into Block Party, but actually mixed them, find ways to mix them, until like the Ramones, you know, like, you know, why the mix thing is up in a way that makes people go, oh, yeah, yeah, fun and go back into their childhood, go back to, or like a song they heard yesterday to like, you know, you know, and that's like, it's like what I've

learned about being a DJ is the attention span of crowds and how to get their attention if I'm losing if I'm losing them, you know, this album is like a very similar approach, but they're all brand new songs. I have to find new ways to keep them engaged because it is a book. It's like a heavyweight, you know, 27 songs, heavyweight. And most people, majority people won't be listening to it straight, but I made it.

So I made these songs, the grout of the songs, the songs that glue, you know, a future together, not just as an album, but as a whole series, or all my science-based songs, all the songs with you, Vaal, Brian Johnson, Ray Kurzweil, JJ Abrams, Kip Thorn, Aubrey DeGrey, and so forth. JJ Abrams, Kip Thorne, Aubrey DeGrey, and so forth. Yeah. Do you ever experience a creative block ever? And if you do, or how do you process that, what do you do to get out of those, or do you go into them? Like, what is your process?

Because I love asking that to highly creative people who are able to, like I said, connect all these ideas, but what does a creative block look like for you? And how do you process it? Creative blocks, they're camouflaged. They're hard to discern. And they're tricky beasts. Mm, they're tricky, because I'll work on a record

for a long time. And I'll think I'm getting there. And then at the 12th hour, I'm like, I have to restart the whole thing. This is like literally it just keeps like, the care is still at the end of the stick going, keep going, keep going, keep going. And then I'm just like, why is this not sound right?

What the fuck, you know? And like you go back into it again. And you don't want to give up on all that work. You spent 12 hours on an idea and it's so fleshed out. And you literally might have to restart the whole thing again. You know how painful that is? Yeah, that is. That's like the thing with like music and this kind of art creation. It's like depending if you're experimental, you can kind of flow with it, I guess. But if you have a certain goal in mind,

that's very specific, especially with collaborations, I have to, I have to tend to the other artists that are involved, I can't just experiment. And also, my soul will let me just be like, oh, I'm okay with it, it's fine. I just like my gut is like, you better start again. You have to work at it, you better start again. Yeah, so I mean, that happens a lot more than you think.

It happens a lot. And I think one of the understated qualities of a great producer is dealing with that managing that, managing that you have to restart and be okay with that and not give up and not like, it's frustrating. It's a frustrating situation that you have to deal with regardless of the situation. I have songs on Ni'an Future 4 that the one beat, one music, the whole melody, I changed the drums, but the drummer arrangement, the melodies, everything, I wrote in 2013. Wow!

Until 2020. That's crazy. And that was done. It was done in 2013. Actually, I'll tell you right now, I'm until anybody does that beat was for Kendrick Lamar. Oh, no, we did a tour together for three weeks and so we were working in his studio on the bus and he's like, he's like just on it, you know, and and I made it. I'm like, yo, I got the specific beat just for you and I play for him, I don't think he wanted it. He's like, oh, yeah, it's cool.

And then, you know, we went on our way. It's, but I made it for him. And then I sat on it and I kept on trying to revisit it through the years. And then, and then finally, I got, you know, a great vocal on it. And now it's put out. So there's that.

There's like, there's two songs like that where, in the reverse side of things things I had a vocal top line because I have so many vocals in my computer from so many different sessions I've had and this one I just can't toss so it's been sitting there for seven years and finally was able to turn into a song. Yeah, what I find fascinating about that is your ability to build something for someone, it not going as predicted, and then you're able to still let that live for seven years and then have its own moment that it obviously deserves. What's going through your mind in that time? How are you focusing on failure or rejection and then going, oh, actually,

this still has a place and it can evolve into something useful and great and beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. My failure rejection, working with artists, that takes time. That's just like, I mean, how do you deal with that? You just deal with the best you can. I mean, like, the first time you? You just deal with the best you can. I mean, like the first times you,

it hits you hard, just like anything. And unlike you just get kind of, you get okay to it later on. Obviously, that's just with anything. But like, there's times when I have had songs with huge artists that laterally were about to come out and boom, nope, it's not coming out. So I've had to get to that point where,

like, I am dying for this record to come on. I'm like, please, just like, when the clock hits 12, it's out of my... Okay, no one stopped it, because anything could happen, like especially with big artists that you work with, management, maybe the artists themselves, they're like temperamental, they're like,

no, I don't like it, I don't want to do this, you know? I mean, even Kanye has done, he's like changed music after he's dropped the records, you know? He's like, the album's out and he's like taking them down and retooling them and putting them back up again. And so it's like, you know, there's a lot of different possibilities that can start to

like stop something from happening. And you can have an incredible relationship with an artist and you have that bond and make music, which I've had tons of songs and then all of them get locked up, all of them. Not too long to do it. And then the artist goes like this and you're like, we had up, all of them. All of them. Not too long to do it. And then the hardest goes like this. And you're like, we have hits. We have hits. You know, and it's like, that hurts.

No matter if I've been doing this for, you know, now or if I just started producing, it's like, it just hurts really bad, you know? Because these are testaments of your life that you can get out to the world that like leave. Like my, like why I do this is I want people to like vibe on it. I want people to feel it like the way I feel it. And I, and I especially the combination between me

and this, this particular artist, like, that's going to blow people's minds away. And just, no, sorry, it can happen. And I self and I self songs that are like I'm like doing this right now I'm finished songs with artists that are just massive I can't talk about and I'm just like please have it come out because it's just been radio silence you know yeah no no no I get them and, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no It's not like you're putting out stuff that you don't care about. There's meaning attached to each of it and there's a part of your life in each of those songs and when it doesn't come out that feels like a part of your life that's been missed or lost and left.

So to somewhat answer the question because I just talked, I just complained a lot but like it was great, it was great answer but gone. But I say the only way you could deal with that is by doing more. You know, you know, the only way you could do deal with it is just by just being, you know, it's like you just got to be active. You just got to keep going. You can't just sulk. That's like, that's life, though. That's like, that's just a lesson of life.

It's like, don't sulk. You know, just move forward, move forward, do things. Just I don't even know if that's the right answer because like, you know, talking to someone like you, you might be like, you seem to meditate and let the emotion is not affected. They're just feeling it's a thoughts that aren't real. You know, with me, like the way I am, it's kind of the opposite. I'm like, everything, let's go. I'm just like running and like, I'm in my therapist is like, you can't just run and like go through life like that.

You need to sit and like face it, confront it, and know that it doesn't affect you. And I'm like, I just want to do another song. Right now. I'm gonna do another song. I'm gonna call this artist. We like, you know, it's like, it's like, if someone, you know, if you go through a breakup,

you're like, I've got to call the girls that like that like me someone, if you go through a breakup, you're like, I've got to call the girls that like me once. You know? Can I get my ego back up again or something? Hello, Levin. No, it's great. And I think it's a bit of both.

There's sometimes you've got to sit with an emotion and you've got to deal with it. There's sometimes you've got to push through. It's different, right? There's never one size pit soul for every challenge. There's different. Yeah, yeah. Shrek and the Pelis pit saw for every challenge there's different yeah I agree with you it's you know it's what works for you and what what up to shift there are times when there are times when sitting with something that's been I think when something's recurring when there's an emotion that's recurring and there's a feeling that

keeps coming back that's like a repeated lesson that we're not learning and so that's something you want to sit with but when it's just random things going on, you should have died through some turns. When we talked about your foundation earlier, I was fascinated by what piece of research or insight that you've learned about the mind or the brain that has changed the way you live in a particular part of your life. Like, is there one insight or one study or research that when you heard that you're like, oh, that's going to change how I live. Because you've lived at Crazion, you've traveled a lot, like you said, you've done like 300 shows in a year or you know, crazy amounts of shows in a year, you're always on the move. What has been that one piece of research that has changed the lifestyle

habit or changed the practice in your life that you are really happy that you found out and discovered about the brain. I think one of the first things I learned that was profound to me was just the brain plasticity. Just that general understanding that you're not necessarily fixed to what you think you're fixed to what you think you're fixed to. You know, you can't change things around and be agile and change bad habits and create good habits. The basic understanding has been really important to my life. You know, and it allows me to like always think about things like, why am I always doing the same thing? Why do I always do that?

I'm going to change it. I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna eat like the same breakfast every single morning because I'm just so used to it. I'm not gonna sit in the same seat on the couch. You know, like you always sit in the same area on the couch. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm the dining room. In bed, you know, like,

I told my girlfriend, I'm gonna sleep on your side one night. What did she say? She's like, no. But I'm just like, it's just like, you always do the same things. It's like, I think it's good to like, kind of be like, no, we're gonna do something completely different just to with our brain. Yeah.

And like that idea, I like the idea or the visual of You have like your brains got these neurotransmitters like just flying across everywhere and when you do something over again It just becomes this free way. Yes. It's like canal Yes, again from the wind of you know, just all of a sudden, it's just like firing. And in order to change that, it requires one little canal to be built up on the other side. You gotta create that freeway. And then soon this like becomes a drought. Yeah, it fills in, the sand fills in,

and it's no longer a freeway anymore. I love that, you know, that like visual of like yellow blue lines like and you're like, shh, about habit. That's a bad habit. And it's stuck in there real good. Yeah, like start creating this little bit. It's gonna take time to start shoveling through that area and then take a lot of manpower to get through that, you know. 100% yeah, I always describe it as like when you first have a tour and it's a baby tour, it starts off as like a wooden bridge and then that wooden bridge turns into a stone bridge and that stone bridge as you cross it more and more it turns into a steel bridge and now you put the steel bridge of conditioning in the pattern that you can't break anymore

until like you said you've got to start building that little narrow, that walkway, that little, you know, it's going to start taking that one and building that one. It's we've got these steel bridges implanted into our mind that are doing the default version of our unconscious life. And you go right that, sometimes we try and bulldoze it, and we try and get like a destruction company to come and wreck it. It's kind of like inception, you go right that sometimes we try and bulldoze it and we try and get like a destruction

company to come and wreck it. It's kind of like inception. You know that scene when they've got that train that flies through the city. And it's like it doesn't work like that. It just starts with a little like you're some perfect way, just like a little walkway just to keep strengthening that. No, I love that. That's a great, great one for everyone to think about because we want this big change to happen but that big change starts with just finding that small connection in our mind. So I love that, and tell us about, so we were speaking about earlier, that you know, we have a mutual friend and obviously one of your partners, Tom Billew, who's awesome, Diane Hitz, who's an impact theory and Quest Bars as a co-founder originally, but also both of you built Neon Future

together. Tell me about how music and comics came together. Why you saw that is such a fascinating form of story, can we? Well, Neon Future definitely is a story that needed to be told. It started at as a music narrative in the beginning because that's just how I'm creative. So, and I'm obsessed with this idea of, you know, our humanity, converging with technology in a way where we just do all these amazing ideas that we're talking about, science fiction and science fact. And I was talking about this with Tom, honest, on impact, or not in the theater, right, impact, right.

And we sat down, actually, we just before that was for quest, inside quest. Oh yeah, inside quest, that was where it was cool before. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We talked on that show and we were talking about all kinds of stuff like that, like, living through our technology, uploading our consciousness, stuff like that, like living through our technology, you know, uploading our consciousness stuff like that, like, you know, sci-fi stuff, that potentially who knows

could happen. And then I told them that I'm getting cryonically frozen. So, you know, just despite insurance policy that if we don't reach that reach it to that place in our in our in my timeline and I die, then you know, I'll just come back and when that time happens. So I mean, I'm already dead. So you have what the way I see is like you're dead anyway. So I'll still have like a grave site or you know, whatever people can see with like my hair or something. You know, like I mean no one's going to see the body anyways whether you're cremated or you're buried. So I'm already dead in like but I'm frozen. So that's why I see it. Yeah. That's amazing. I love that. That's

the way he was he was like shocked by that but in a good way. And then we just sat down we're like yo, we got to build out this neon feature idea. We got to do something together. And I'm like, this is exactly what I'm looking for a partner that feels the same way that can help put this put this on paper and build out a storyline that that we we both agree on that that. It's like we're flipping the whole, you know, the traditional sci-fi storyline on his head. The robots are the bad guys, you know, the technology is killing you. You know, and then like, you know, one human saves a day.

Yeah. Whereas the augmented, the humans that have technology in them, because essentially we will become more like that. I mean, we are like pretty much half Android, by the way we use our technology or phone. So soon, it'll be in our bodies, and we'll be okay with that. And that's the place that I want to start, is that those are the good guys, and we're trying to do good for the world, the kind of thing, and then the story evolves from there.

Yeah, it's an incredible storyline. We've produced six comics. We just dropped a trade paperback edition, 240 pages, which is awesome. And then we were just on the phone. We're just on Zoom just recently, because we're getting through the next five issues. So six issues.

So excited for the next series of Neon Future. Come out. Me too, but I'm always glad I get my delivery. They look great. They're in congrats on all the awesome work. These have been great, Steve. We end every on purpose episode with two segments. One's called Fill in the Blanks and the final five.

These are our fast fire, quick fire rounds. So there are one word answers, maximum three words, one sentence, no one ever follows the rules. But let's see how I go. So this is called fill in the blanks. So I'm going to read a sentence and you just got to fill in the blank at the end of the sentence. So it goes, the human experience is based on...

This is not harder than it looks, by the way. It is. It is very, it's not harder than it looks, by the way? It is. It is very much harder than it looks. When I get it, it's not a lot of nonsense. It's like, okay, the human experience is based on... The human experience is based on just one word. Or like finishing off the sentence, you can fill it in the blank. I might just play dumb here. I'm just going to say, the human experience is based on,

make as much time as you like. The human experience, human experience. This is like writing a caption. Literally, literally. How long does it run a stupid caption? I'm like, oh, the lead, no. It's exactly what it is. The human experience is based on

our connection with each other through our shared experiences. Yeah, beautiful. That makes sense. All right, second one. My music will never. My music will never not inspire you. Beautiful. Building a community starts with Good grid and Scotch tape. Connection to me means absolutely everything that I do. I wish everyone knew.

I love how seriously you're taking this. I really appreciate it. I want you to know that. My far have to give us no softances. It's great. I respect it and I want to point it out. I'm not a fast, fast one-liner guy. It's good. What's the statement? I wish everyone knew. I wish everyone knew that this hair is not real. It's a wig. I wish everyone knew that this hair is not real. It's a wig. You're joking. Now you're playing with us. Now you're playing with us.

Okay, good. These are your final five. So these ones are questions. One sentence to, sorry, one word to one sentence answers. What have you been chasing in your life that you no longer pursued? So what had you previously chased in your life that you no longer pursued? no longer pursued. So what had you previously chased in your life that you no longer pursued? The need to be... Actually, I love playing shows. I always pursue that. I was gonna say the need to be around lots of people.

Yeah, and I like thrive off my live shows. I love it. Yeah, you can tell, man. When you go to a footage, yeah, it's a good thing. Okay, I'm gonna say this, This is more personal, not emotional, but what have I been chasing my left hand no longer pursue? Then the need to like crazy sports activities. Right. I just like because as a kid, I would always like try to do, you know,

the, I mean, I still do the backups, to do, you know, the, I mean, I still do the back ups, but I, you know, in the snow, snowboarding or yeah, I'm like, I don't need to jump the highest or farthest off a cliff. I can do 10, 12 meters. I'm happy. I don't need to go 15 or 18 meters, you know. Mm-hmm. Uh, I do.

The two men those all pretty high, though. I still do, I still do 12, 15 meters. So, but it doesn't have to be the highest. I get do I still do 12 15 meters though, but it doesn't have to be the highest. I get it. I get it highest. Yeah, yeah. I'm going I get to protect my brain and protect my. Absolutely my good answer. Okay, next one. Oh, if you could only leave one song of yours behind to be remembered by which would it be one song to be remembered by pursuit of happiness be? One song to be remembered by pursuit of happiness by remix. It's not even my song, it's a remix I mean, but it's

such a classic song. Yeah, nice. I like it. Okay, third question. What is what this I really like this question? What is one thing you believe 100% when it comes to making music that other people may disagree on? So what belief do you have about making music that you're so convinced about, but that if you share it or making art that then other people are like,

I'm not sure with you. We want two things. One is that my need to collaborate with the world. Right. Because there's a lot of a lot of purists that just I obviously frowned upon that. Yes. I get a lot of a lot of flock on that. Yes. I work outside my genre. People are like, why are you doing that? Oh my God. It's horrible. If you go through my comments on Instagram, if I work outside my genre. People are like, why are you doing that? Oh my God. It's horrible. If you go through my comments on Instagram, if I work with like a different artist, people just, there's a lot of you.

Oh my God, what are you doing? Go back to this, you know, so. You're interesting. So I'll leave it with that one, actually. Yeah, no, that's a good one. I like that one a lot, because I get that sometimes for interviewing people that I find fascinating,

but people would be surprised to see me next to it. And I would always- Like me. People are like, why the hell you need to be this guy? You should be interviewing a neuroscientist or something. And we have plenty of you, but it's like for me, I'm fascinated. Like I've always said that, you know, for me, I'm gonna sit down opposite. Like I'm usually using this as an example, but it's like, I want to sit down opposite

like Cardi B and talk about mindfulness and your sense of the mind. Like to me, I get excited by the fact that me and you are connecting on stuff that I don't think people from the outside would know. And to me, that's where I get my kind of problems. I get, okay, last two questions. If you could create a law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be? Oh, wow. Wow. I mean, I'll try to answer this quickly, but this is definitely a good one to like, sit on around because we should be the wall that like everyone must do. There's like a lot of things that everyone should must do.

You know what I mean? Like, and I'm probably like, I'll probably be like, ah, I should have said the other one. But let me come up with something quick. You know, it's the kind of thing about, you know, the first thing I think about is like, what do I want in the world? You know, you don't want world peace. Those are like the most general topics. Like, you know, saving the world, saving ourself, saving animals, so many things. Like, you know, gruesome torture of animals, I hate that.

Oh, my God. To what would be the little kindness to war? Yeah, yeah. Also, the thing that kindness to all. Yeah, I'd like to invite everyone. Okay. Or else you, or else, or else, or you're going to be putting jail for a long time.

I love this brat as well. Yeah. That was the last question, Steve. What was your biggest lesson learned from the last 12 months of the year? What was the biggest lesson you take? Well, okay, so coronavirus is probably what we're living in right now. So, let's say the lesson I've learned during this time is, you know, something that we can all, you know,

that we should all, that we're probably all feeling right now. And that's know, that we should all, that we probably all feeling right now. And that's like, that's just being connected to our families. Yeah. Especially people that are really busy in their lives. Now they can't do that. So, yeah, I know, I just see it, I just hear from my friends, I see it from my friends. How they're like, zooming with their family members that they have never, that don't talk to at all.

Yeah. Two. So, I need, I'm still reaching out to family members, but like I'm so glad that I'm close with my family and I'm so happy. I don't have to have any regret that I did, you know, I just, I'm, that's like very, very important, very important, more, more important than anything. Awesome man, that's incredible. Steve A.O. Okay everyone, make sure you go and listen to the album Neon Future 4. And as I mentioned before, his memoir, Blue, the color of Noise Steve. Thank you so much for doing this man. Thank you for being so generous with your time.

So vulnerable and open with your answers. And this was a lot of fun man. I love this. I really enjoyed it. And I hope we can connect in person when this is all over. But thanks again, I'm going to do it this year. All right. Awesome.

Thank you, man. Thanks, Steve. I'm Jay Shetty and on my podcast on purpose, I've had the honor to sit down with some of the most incredible hearts and minds on the planet. Oprah, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Hart, Lewis Hamilton, and many, many more. On this podcast, you get to hear the raw, real-life stories behind their journeys and the tools they used, the books they read, and the people that made a difference in their lives so that they can make a difference in hours. Listen to on-purpose with Jay Shetty on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever

you get your podcasts. Join the journey soon. The world of chocolate has been turned upside down. A very unusual situation. You saw the stacks of cash in her office. Chocolate comes from the cacao tree, and recently, Varietis cacao, thought to have been lost centuries ago, were re-discovered in the Amazon.

There was no chocolate on earth like this. Now some chocolate makers are racing deep into the jungle to find the next game-changing chocolate, and I'm coming along. Okay, that was a very large cracker now. Listen to the obsessions of wild chocolate on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, I'm Brendan Francis Nunehm, I'm a journalist, a wanderer, and a bit of a bon vivant, but mostly a human just trying to figure out what it's all

about. And not lost is my new podcast about all those things. It's a travel show where each week I go with a friend to a new place and to really understand it, try to get invited to a local's house for dinner. Where kind of trying to get invited to a dinner party, it doesn't always work out. Ooh, I have to get back to you. Listen to not lost on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts. It doesn't always work out.

Ooh, I have to get back to you. Listen to not lost on the iHeart radio app or wherever you get your podcasts.