The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 09. Steve Aoki: Biohacking to Become The Ultimate Entertainer + Dominate An Industry Touring 300+ Days Per Year

Episode Date: November 14, 2023

Get weekly tips on how to optimize your health and lifestyle routines - go to https://www.theultimatehuman.com/ Get more resources + information from Gary here: https://linktr.ee/thegarybrecka ECHO GO PLUS HYDROGEN WATER BOTTLE https://echoh2o.com/?oid=19&affid=236 BODY HEALTH - USE CODE ULTIMATE10 for 10% OFF YOUR ORDER bodyhealth.com/ultimate Want to know how to stay at the top of your game over a prolonged period of time? Today we have two time Grammy nominated producer DJ electric electronic dance music entrepreneur, and founder of the trendsetting record label events lifestyle company, Steve Aoki on the podcast. He is such an interesting individual as an artist, entrepreneur and biohacker. In this episode we get a real behind the scenes look at what he does to stay in optimal shape while he’s on the road, what technology he uses to track his progress, why he treats himself like an athlete, and what the high feels like performing in front of a crowd. Steve also walks us through how he has created the unique experience as an entertainer that has him dominating a competitive industry, and what it looked like doing a show for 5 people before he became the Steve Aoki you see today. Tune in for what being an Ultimate Human looks like for Steve, and the collaborations he’s excited for in the future as he will continue to run at this winners pace and feel great doing it. 06:00 How intellectual curiosity drives innovation and success. 09:00 What is the potential of turning science fiction into reality? 15:08 The Guinness World record Steve won. 23:00 How do you maintain peak performance in a high-intensity career on the road?  26:30 What the high feels like being in front of a crowd. 37:15 Challenges of the musician’s lifestyle including maintaining a touring lifestyle. 40:30 Steve Aoki’s meditation practices and devices he uses for tracking progress.  44:45 How to track and biohack your sleep. 51:15 What is unique about the DJ community and how they support each other. 54:45 How has biohacking impacted your career? 57:15 The shift from identifying as a DJ to Entertainer and how entertaining the crowd has changed over the years. 01:06:00 Are there any artists you would love to collaborate with? 01:15:00 How Steve tests new songs on live crowds. 01:17:15 What are you excited about? Follow Steve Aoki: @steveaoki Gary Brecka: @garybrecka The Ultimate Human: @ultimatehumanpod Subscribe on YouTube: @ultimatehumanpodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I always want to make a show that's unique to me. The Guinness Book of World Records most traveled musician on the planet. Having you in my life for the last couple of years has really allowed me to go, wow, this is how I can optimize even further the ability to share these experiences. That is the core of being the ultimate human. Everyone's like, damn, you're tired. How are you going to do this show? I'm like, don't worry. Just watch what happens. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human Podcast.

I'm your host, Gary Brekka, human biologist, where we go down the road of everything anti-aging, longevity, biohacking, and everything in between. Today, we got a really, really special guest. The entire podcast could really be the intro to this band's life, all the accomplishments he's had, his absolute stratospheric rise to stardom, and his ability to maintain his level of dominance in a very competitive industry for a very long period of time. He's a two-time Grammy-nominated producer, DJ, electronic dance music entrepreneur, and founder of the trendsetting record label Events Lifestyle Company and apparel line Dim Mock. Dim Mock Records has been the launchpad for some seminal acts like The Chainsmokers, Block Party,

The Bloody Beatroots, and The Gossip. I mean, these are things that when I did some research for this podcast, I was absolutely blown away. He started Dim Mock in 1996 in a college dorm room. The rumor is that he named it to pay homage to his childhood superhero, Bruce Lee. His career has boasted some incredible genre discography that includes seven studio albums, collaborations with Lil Uzi Vert, Maluma, BTS, Linkin Park, Louis Tomlinson, amongst many, many, many others. Born in Miami, grew up in California, Newport Beach, went to UC Santa Barbara. He actually graduated with two degrees, two BA degrees, one in feminist studies and the other in sociology. In college, he produced, this is hilarious, he produced do-it-yourself records and ran underground concerts out of his living room. So this has just been in his blood for a long time. And a little fun fact, his father,

Rocky Aoki, was a former Olympic wrestler and founded the restaurant chain Benihana. So I could not be more proud to bring to the Ultimate Human Podcast my good friend, Steve Aoki. Welcome to the podcast, brother. Thank you. Thank you. It's super to be here. And this room, I wish we could actually show some images of this room but i mean this is the coolest studio i've ever been in in my life appreciate that i mean so tell me about this place i mean it's well it's got a name so i call it the neon future cave okay and uh um it's when i moved to vegas you know it was important that i build out a studio and i was looking for studios outside of my home. But then I found the ultimate home, which turned into my compound creative space.

And then I saw at the basement level, the bunker level of the house, I was like, oh, that's the cave. But most people would stick a man cave down here. But this entire house is a giant man cave. Yeah, it really is. You feel like you're 13 again running around here um i mean not only all the biohacking stuff the pole plunges the pools the saunas the red light therapy the pmf the oxygen i mean he has it all which is why i'm a huge fan of yours and been part of this journey with you which has just

been amazing um but i mean he's got the foam pad launches in there. He's got a gym. He's got every arcade game known to mankind. Like if you want to ride the pandemic out, this is the place. Oh, this is the best house for that. This is absolutely the best house. We had activities from like 9 a.m. till 12 a.m.

So the pandemic didn't bother you at all? Yeah, no, because my family also, my mom lives around the corner. So my mom and my sister live around the and uh and then my girlfriend at the time she just ended up moving here from la because it was just there's nothing to do in la yeah so we just had like breath work for an hour then yoga then meditation then cold plunges then sauna yeah then like we eat healthy we we just like did like the healthiest routine as a family but it'd be like six of us lying

on the ground doing breath work and then we'd get into meditation pose and then we'd oh dude it's so awesome it was actually a really really fun time there's so many crazy fun facts about this house I mean it's the deepest pool in the state of Nevada maybe even in the country yeah because well it's like it's

usually like for the 10 feet deep Olympic size pools, they only go to like 10 to 12 feet deep. Even when they're diving off the high board. Yeah. Off the 33 feet, 10 meter high board. And here it's like 22 feet, 21, 22 feet. And so it's a lot less than a 10 meter, but I had the ability to go further. So I was like, let's go four more feet further because it was at 12. And they're like, okay, good. We haven't hit the stone that you can't break through.

Yeah. And which you can find in various parts of Las Vegas. And we're like, let's just make it 16. So I could do like, you know, my like, just like, you know. Scuba diving training. Yeah, exactly. You could really, I like, you know. Scuba diving training. Yeah, exactly.

You could really, I mean, you could fucking pull your eardrums down there. Yeah. And then you turn the water feature into a cold plunge, right? What was that? It was actually just a water feature. Yeah, so like I hate having useless space. You know, at least it's like, yeah, it was a great thing for just something to see. But I'm like, this will be a great, not necessarily jacuzzi.

I don't even use a jacuzzi, but this would be a great cold feature, a cold plunge feature because it holds 20 people at least. And I have my solo tanks, which are great. But the party, I call it the party plunge. Yeah, that is a party plunge. What's the highest number of people that you've had in the cold plunge out there?

Because I've seen some social media stuff. Yeah, I threw Steve Owen there. but like thanksgiving that was a funny one because uh we had 23 people come over to thanksgiving i got all 23 in the cold plunge oh my god and they had no idea they come they come to have dinner they're wearing like you know their thanksgiving nice clothes like some like you know like my my little niece at 12 and you just get down in their underwear i'm like guys after we eat at like 11 p.m but you know it's thanksgiving so it's cold in vegas at night i'm like it doesn't matter how cold is because it's much colder in the coal plunge and i would convince everyone and we all we did like two rounds one was 13 people and the other

was 10 yeah and uh and everyone did it so that's pretty cool too that's that's so cool man and i love how into the biohacking you are when we first met and we started our journey together um you know this this guy is super into his blood biomarkers he's super into um you know the functionality of different biohacking equipment we talked about red light therapy for hours pemf mats the oxygen tanks um because he just wanted to know everything. I was really, I love your intellectual curiosity. Yeah. You have a childlike fascination with biohacking,

and I assume that childlike fascination is what's transcended you in the music industry. I attribute my success to my curiosity. Wow. That's a big part of the reason why I feel like that I have risen to any level of success that I've had so far. Because I'm curious and then I engage that curiosity.

Yeah. And I arm it and I really dive in there and I might not be the expert, but I do my best to learn. You want to know, you want to push the boundaries. Yeah, yeah. And never go in there with an ego and just always walk in humbly into these new cultures or new communities and learn from all the incredible people that you meet in these different

worlds. Right. And then find what's applicable to your life and also be of service. You walk into these different worlds and you want to be of service the best you can. And the best way I'm of service is through my music. So I've been lucky to be able to talk to different scientists like yourself in different worlds that really help my life and enrich my life. Whether it's in business, entrepreneurship, obviously music, fashion, art, whatever that like, that really pulls on me, that really like, has that childlike curiosity.

You're kind of like all in. Yeah. I think intellectual curiosity is like the greatest attribute that someone can possess, especially in medicine, In my field, I think the intellectually curious practitioners are really the ones that are trying to act in the best interest of the patient. And it's probably that intellectual curiosity that just lets you show up over and over and over and over again for so many audiences. It's also the most exciting parts of what interests me

because the curiosity is also imaginative. So it's like, I'm always interested in what we can't accomplish or what we can't do and how can we get there? I always say my foundation, Aoki Foundation, sits in the middle between science fiction and science fact. Yeah. I love that. That's where I'm really interested. I'm really interested in the scientists and researchers that are like, this was science fiction, but we are doing what we can to make it science fact.

And how do we get there? And the ones that have already historically done that, those ones I'm like, yo, can I talk to you? Can we do something? Can I help you? Can I help like all the people that are interested in what I'm doing, help you raise money into whatever you're doing in the field of brain research, whatever it might be.

Yeah. And that's what, you know, for those of you that are not familiar with the Aoki Foundation, it's geared towards brain health. And, you know, you lost somebody very close to him to brain cancer. And was that the impetus for investing and trying to back non-pharmaceutical backed companies that are sort of leading the science in brain health? So for me, the big kind of moment that a lot of things changed in my life, as far as like, this is even previous to me starting the foundation,

me just understanding health and nutrition was really just under like understanding what death was like yeah my first the first death in my life that really traumatically hit me was my father passing away 15 years ago right so when i saw him die and uh i was this 15 years ago, I was 30. And up until that time, you know, I was very punk rock lifestyle. So like live fast, die young, go hard and party and just live in the moment, but like you're not thinking about the next day. Right.

You know? Yeah, so you're taking whatever the moment has to offer. Right. Right. And I didn't think about nutrition, even though I was like vegan or vegetarian for 15 years, it was not for nutrition or health reasons. It was more for ethical reasons.

But regardless of the fact, that death rocked my inner core and made me question a lot of things about life and what's important in life. And then I started thinking about the people I love that are alive. Like, what can I learn from this death that I can actually help, you know, my mom who's, you know, she's 80 now, but, you know, at the time she was,

you know, I guess 65, right? But, like, I was just thinking about life and how do I live my life in a different way? How can I change my course? And then that led me down, you know, like, you know, eventually it led me down like my, my serious interest in health, nutrition, biohacking, you know, and, and then, and then later on into, you know, Aoki Foundation and what I can do with brain research, brain science and, and my fascination with the brain research, brain science, and my fascination

with the brain. Yeah. And the foundation is, I know it's brain research, brain science, but you're specifically trying to find those people that are, like you said, somewhere between fact and fiction, somewhere between science and science fiction. They're trying to make science fiction fact. I love that description. So what are some of the innovative

things that the foundation is funding right now? Like what, if they're listening to this, would be exciting to know about the foundation and their research on brain health? I love the term, you know, mental fitness. I hate the term mental illness. Yeah, I love that. One of the main studies that we're focusing on is a study on heat therapy on patients that have severe depression. Wow. And we actually funded this woman, Dr. Mason, out of San Francisco, who I met through Rhonda Patrick. Oh, wow. Obviously, she's studied a lot on heat exposure, on cold exposure.

And I met her through Joe Rogan, who, you know, is also, as we both know, very curious about this whole realm. And, you know, so eventually I met this doctor and she was telling me she's doing this research and I told her I'd fund it for her. Right. met this doctor and she was telling me she's doing this research and i told her i'd fund it for her right and and uh the the studies showed so far from from what she's able to accomplish with her i don't know how many patients she's had is that it's and i like i definitely like i know i i don't want to i don't want to say wrong information but from what i understand uh 100 of the non-control study that that were, she was able to raise the heat in their body, right? Not their brain, but the body to raise it

to this fever-like temperature, like 103 degrees. So it's a very dangerous temperature, but it's like a head out sauna. Okay, so she keeps it hot. Yeah, she's not heating the brain, but she's heating the body. That it had like 100% of the patients had the results she's looking for.

You mean remissive symptoms from depression? Yeah, just for like a very long period of time with no drugs, no like prescription drugs. So I don't want to give out the wrong information, but whatever we're doing is actually showing incredible research that, that this heat, this like, you know, having heat exposure to the body actually does something with the brain that, that, that it helps with depression in a really big way. So I'm really happy that we're able to fund her and, and see some of the results there.

I would love to dig into that. See, now I'm intellectually curious and now I wanna see the research because I wanna know exactly what that pathway might be. You know, there's hordes of evidence now that is coming out on depression that is disproving the old serotonin hypothesis, right? That low serotonin causes depression and high serotonin is the absence of depression. It's not that simple of a seesaw.

And it's amazing to me when we start tapping back into the body's resources to heal itself, right? Things like platelet-rich plasma, taking your own platelets and spinning them down and putting them into the site of injury and having accelerated healing. And I'm a huge fan of research that uses the body as the chemical factory

to try to find a fix to a solution. So I've kind of always believed that disease and pathology doesn't really exist the way that we think it does today, that it really is nutrient deficiencies or deficiencies in the human body. So that's really fascinating. So you started this foundation in 2012? Yeah, so 2012 we started it's a while ago man i know i know it's crazy because i i don't realize sometimes you don't

think about how long something's been started from uh you know when you're just going along the road but um yeah it started out because i in the beginning i just wanted to to engage my fans at my shows really it was i had this whole mission the party with a purpose so when you come by a ticket at my show i donate one dollar from every ticket to a crowdsourcing fund that would go towards you know different areas of need right and then it later on became well the main the main area of focus for me is the human brain, because I really believe that, you know, there's so much that's undiscovered there. There's so many things that if we learn and understand, if we're really, if we're really funding the right researchers and

scientists that can dive into the brain more, we could do more of what I'm saying, take some of these science fact, science fiction ideas these science fiction ideas and have them become science facts so that we can apply it in our life. Like, you know, I think the main thing is, you know, how do we extend our life as far as possible? And not just our lifespan, but our health span. I mean, and that's why, you know, like I said, I love this term mental fitness, right? I mean, we think about becoming fit physically, but we don't think about becoming fit mentally. You know, what are the things that are not just able to heal and repair the brain, but what are things that actually can feed the brain and make it really, really healthy? And I know that you do a lot to take care of your own brain.

I know that you're into meditation. You know, a little fun fact, I mean, Steve won a Guinness Book of World Records for the most traveled musician in a year. Is that right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. 300 shows in one year. I mean, that is the craziest award to win ever. That is so random.

This is like the kind of funny part about it. So I won that award as the most traveled musician in one calendar year based on one website, Bands in Town, that documented 168 shows at this many miles traveled, right? Right. But I really did 300 that year. Whoa. But bands in town didn't document the other ones

because for whatever reason, they didn't put it in the site. And Guinness Book of World Records is like, we can only adjudicate from this website. No. So I beat that number, but in order to get the record, I had to just go with what was on the site.

Wouldn't it be funny if you resubmitted the same information and broke your own world record? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I should have done that. But like once you have it, you're like, okay, I'm good. Yeah, and there's not a lot of people going, I'm going to break that milestone. It's not like the four-minute mile or something. You know what I mean? But so on the foundation of that kind of travel, you know, it really begs the question, you know, what are you doing for your mind?

I mean, I know a lot of what you're doing. We've worked together and I'll say without disclosing any health information, your blood work is perfect. We just went over it for this podcast. And I mean, I appreciate you so much. And he's always so curious about it. I'm like, dude, what are you expected to see in here? It goes from better to best to better to best. I mean, and we actually just talked about it.

We're getting ready to slide him onto a younger scale because some of the markers for liver, lungs, pancreas, kidneys, some of these immune markers are so good that you're literally beginning to age in reverse. I appreciate that. And like, this is the kind of information that, that gets me excited.

Yeah. It's, it's like, it's really, I'd really gamify everything. Yeah. And when I gamify it. Yeah.

So like my whole, like my, I have challenges with like, whether it's like shows or music or whatever i'm doing i need a challenge yeah i need like a deadline a goal and i and i need to gamify it because you zero in you're like what is that how can i move that number yeah exactly and it's like okay this is what i had before this is what i could do to make that number yeah so i mean i'm a gamer at heart you know i've been gaming since i was a little kid and And you always wanna level up your character,

but what's better than leveling up your, like your fake character in game, but leveling up like you. I mean, that's the best character you can level up. And we're literally, because of your help and the data, and I'm a big data guy, right? Just like in gaming, it's like your XP and your HP. It's like, this is my way of

leveling up me, but I need you and a scientist to come in and show me the data. So I know what my real HP is, you know, what my real XP is, what my real power is, you know. I love working with clients like you because you're, you're coachable, you listen, you're, you're curious. And, and every time we, you know, we get together, it's like, you're like, I can't wait to see the data. I can't wait to see the data. Like you were itching to see the data. I actually tried to walk away from the table.

He's like, hey, by the way, can we go over my shit? So it's awesome. And I think if more people would actually be into the data in their own bodies, even gamify it, it makes it so much easier to play this health game. Yeah, it really does. Because you have some things that you're striving for, not just I'm going to try to eat clean

and drink more water, but like, I'm going to try to get this number down into the optimal range. And I'm going to try to get this up into the optimal range. That's like, so like some of this stuff, I talk to other people, I'm like, you just got to make it fun.

Yeah. You know, some, they don't realize that like, it's, other people, I'm like, you just got to make it fun. Yeah. You know, some, they don't realize that like, it's, oh, but it's, it's like, you think, oh, it's too boring. I, I don't know. Like I already just eat healthy. I'm good. Right. Like, but if you know, like the, the details and you could fine tune them, you, you can, you can have a better performance at your show. You can, you can have more quality of life because I think of quality of life as more energy. I want to have more energy through the day. I want to have more

creativity while I'm in that space. And actually that space is not just being in the studio. Creativity happens all day. And it's about being able to capture that. And those moments of capturing that have led to hits, have led to like big successes in my life. And if I wasn't able to capture it because I was so bogged down or I was so, you know, just like from a specialist like you that can help guide me. I'm going, well, this is what you do if you're lacking this or deficient here. Right. So having you in my life for the last couple of years has really allowed me to go, wow, this is how I can optimize even further. Thank you.

Because life is more exciting that way. Yeah, yeah, it really is. So I want to talk about some of the, you know, the habits that, so you were, you know, a rock star, balls out, you know, live life to the fullest, burn the candle at both ends. You have a catastrophic event in your life, rattles your cage, you take a step back, and you're like, this is not the direction I want to go. And from that time, like what are, what are some of your travel hacks? What are some of the things that you're doing on the road to maintain that level of insanity? I actually was watching your Instagram this week and you did three shows in one day. I'm in five cities in seven days. And I think I'm a baller.

I was like, this guy was in three shows in one day so i was about to post about my difficult travel schedule and i saw your shit and i was like man this guy is like blowing the doors off me yeah so i mean a big thing is just like resets it's like mini resets having these like moments to just to find your balance again yeah because you can't just be in red the whole time and um and you and you definitely can't do it artificially so if you're doing it off like certain uh other things stimulants yeah whatever it might be like eventually like your body just can't sustain that right so i i just like there's certain things like it's like first of all it's mindset right so i really think of myself as an athlete wow so i'm always in competition so when you're always in competition if you're actually

an athlete in competition you are you have to focus on what you need to be efficient in so that you you know like everything has to be for this so you like embrace it you're like yeah exactly so like third show bring it on give me a fourth show. I always say that. Yeah. I did five shows in 40 hours, and I was like, we could definitely do six. Your team was like, no, Steve, no. My team's also on the same kind of regimen. Are they?

They drink, they have fun, whatever. I don't limit their level of fun of what they think is fun right um but you know as long as they're within a certain as long as they're performing yeah yeah a certain boundary of like uh responsibility but for the most part like we all like no they know at the level of the pace that we move right and i mean to be honest with you they're interchange they interchange so that they can... I go full scale, 200, 250 shows a year, and then I have teams that change in and out. So they have time to rest. I just keep going. You're just balls out. And it's a couple of things. Obviously, I need my times to reset. My meditation. Meditation is really important. And there's there's different devices

to actually see if you're meditating like i have a device that i wear on my head and it actually checks for theta waves yeah it checks if like it gives you it gamifies things once again yeah on like okay your your your theta waves really went down here so you have like high level of efficiency on meditation so i can just know I can like learn how to meditate better. So I can get my brain to this very, very, very low state that I needed to go. And obviously the sleep is the hardest part, but I, you know, I got my whoop data. So I'm always looking at my REM and deep. And although it's minimal, you know, if I was to show you, it was pretty scary how low it is.

It somehow allows me to be able to deal with the jet lag and the traveling and all that. And then the most important thing is the music. Like playing a show is my true love. The stage is where I'm destined to be. Literally, it's like. Yeah, because you put on a show. Like I'm meant to be a DJ. You don't hit play and step back and wave your hands in the air.

You're up on the table. You're caking people, which we're going to get to in a second. I got to know like what the impetus was behind that. But, you know, you're caking people. You're jumping around. I mean, you're singing into the mic. Like you're so present for these shows. It's fascinating to me to watch an athlete that can dominate a sport for 10 years, 12 years.

It's fascinating to me to see somebody that actually can stay at a level, you know, the upper 1% and cruise at that level and maintain and not burn out for so many decades. And so you're driving to some of the points. You're curious, you gamify everything. But I often talk about the frequency and the energy that we get from other people. Yeah, absolutely. You get energy from these crowds. Oh, it's like, I actually wanna see more of a study.

Yeah. I heard there is- I would love to see that too. I think there is a study of something to do with, because like one of my shows, and you definitely wanna put this in the video, but there's a video of me clapping in Chile. I'm clapping and then there's like,

I don't know how many people, like 100,000 people clapping at the same time. So like this moment of complete, like being in sync with this many people doing the same action, the same motion, and the same energy that's being produced, there is something cosmic happening. And I'd love to see more research behind that

because I don't want to get too metaphysical because I'm very scientific with a lot of this stuff. But there's something quantum happening. Well, there's a- Yeah. There's something quantum for sure. Like, I mean, I've never been in front of the kinds of crowds you have,

but sometimes when I'm on big stages and I feel super connected to the crowd and there's like an interaction, you get like, you get high from, Oh, the high is ridiculous. And the high is like a level of like mental clarity and alertness and happiness. And you're like, I don't want to be anywhere, but right here in this one moment. Like, like for example, I could be like, you know,

when I do these three shows in a day or, you know, like these, you know, all these different cities and the jet lag. Yeah. Yes, I do.

I'm human. I get tired. Right. I get tired right before the show. And, but I never, I never like before, you know,

I'm like, I learned like different things before I would grab the Red Bull and take a sip. And I would take like one sip, you know, cause I really try to take the minimum dosage I need from like anything like artificial. Right. I don't touch anything anymore.

Really? I literally just like, I'm okay. Everyone's like, damn, you're tired. How are you going to do the show? I'm like, don't worry. Just watch what happens.

I'm like, my body literally wakes up on its own. On its own. It's a complete natural. It's like, it's, it's it's i'm so alert so connected yeah in that moment and yes like after the show i do like yeah i do ride this adrenaline and then when the adrenaline drops my body just immediately like get me to a bed before i crash out like

wherever i'm at yeah yeah i'm the same because i will sleep anywhere, you know? Like, so it's, it's incredible. Like you said, there, there is like this natural high. It's so much higher than any drug, any artificial external upper that they, that it can't come close because it's mixed with, with, you know, serotonin, endorphins, like the the like all like the happy yeah feelings going on your brain and this yeah and the connecting yeah which i realized this is what i love to do is i love to connect with strangers yeah with my music amazing you know and i talked about that during covid it's like during covid we connected with family with familiar faces right right and we're but really as a species we want to connect with

people we don't know right and that's why gatherings are you can't take them away right you can't take away a gathering you can't take away a sporting event you can't take away a festival music events because we want to be around people we don't know experiencing a high yeah and it's like it i i get to that. And I remember I was talking about it on stage to a crowd. I'm like, I care so deeply to connect with all of you. I don't know.

And to turn that into something that I know. Yeah. To make it like a real connection. That's wild. And when that really does happen, just like you said, when you're on the stage and you finally connect,

the high gets higher. It's insane. It elevates you more. You're almost disappointed when the show ends. Like sometimes, you know, I've been on stages and I see my, you know, clock go down. And again, it's a fraction of what you're experiencing. But, you know, my clock goes down and I'm like,

God, I really didn't enjoy that. I could go like another two hours. Like I'm just, I have so much to share and you guys are receiving it so well. And it just is that, it's that high. And maybe that's a piece of what keeps you creative because you're not just doing the same show over and over and over.

Like you're creating new music and you're creating a new experience and no two crowds are probably the same, right? So you get different energy from right from from each one but when it's really on it's got to be the best oh thing in the world like there's nothing that replaces it there's nothing that comes close to that high yeah it's just i mean i don't i've never done like uh you know cocaine i've never done mdma i've never done like the you know certain popular drugs that that are the uppers that that get you really high right um i've done like you know lots of coffee

and stuff like that you know but and i've drank myself silly to you know like that's that's a high as well smoked uh smoked weed a little bit um but that's that that actually is not a high for me right that's like that's like an internal suck-in. It's not really, yeah, it's just like, I sucked into myself. I'm like, like all of a sudden, you know, like, it's like, well, how was your dick when you go on the cold planche?

Steve, no okay. I'm just like, I'm like fucking, like I'm just like internal into a little ball. I'm like, oh, what do I do? So I was like, this isn't really for me but um but i mean this it's i'm sure for other people for me it was it didn't give me the high that regardless of what um the like it just i can't imagine there would be a greater high you know yes no i can't either and that's why you know sometimes i i want people to experience

things like cold plunging and and and uh you know red light nip for its honest and breath work because it's a different kind of stimulus and high for your body and when you learn for that to be your drug of choice then ever all the benefits are positive yeah right um and that's definitely my addiction. Yeah. I mean- It's the crowd. Yeah. Yeah. And like I said, I'm like, I'm meant to be a performer. I'm meant to be on the stage.

Yeah. And I feel so naturally myself when I'm able to communicate at that level. You know, there's actually a law in physics. It's called constructive interference. And you might know this as a musician, but it says that if two frequencies of equal wavelength meet, the size of the frequency doubles,

the size of the wave doubles. So two waves of equal wavelength meet, then the size of the wave doubles, which for the people that believe in the universal law of attraction, this is some physical proof that it exists, right? It means you can get energy from conversation. You can get energy from other people.

Like I'm getting energy from this conversation. Like I'm amped right now. I'm like, I'm really, like I'm seriously, I'm enjoying this interview. It doesn't feel like work to me. And when you're performing, I bet the frequency coming from that crowd. Yeah, it's like.'s like has yeah it really is

and yeah obviously just like anything a great conversation to a to a great reception receptive crowd yeah it's like it just keeps bouncing back and forth and it just keeps growing yeah you know i mean like there's like it's difficult to play uh my music to a dead crowd. Oh, that would drive me crazy. But like, well, there's destructive interference too, which is opposite wavelengths.

I mean, like when I first started DJing, you know, it was a different story, you know, like I'm trying to play everywhere. You showed me a picture out in the hallway of you playing to five people. Yeah.

So like, there's been like, I think you made five bucks. Yeah. So, I mean, in in those cases it's like i'm hoping those five people i'm like like at least pay attention at least like give me your attention you know like because i because i could see i could see like right into your pupils like i could see everything like i won't let you i won't let you like talk to someone thank you all of you for coming to the show.

I'm like, I know all of your first names. So to go from doing this in your college dorm room to five people, literally, as you said, sleeping on a beer soaked floor to where you are now? I mean, do you look back and just think, there's so many times that I almost gave this up? Or did you always know in your heart, this is my purpose? Okay, so when I was playing in my college apartment, it really was my apartment. I wish we could cut to this picture out there, because first of all, you look like you're 12 years old.

And I think you're actually singing into a microphone. Yeah. I used to sing in a band too. Yeah. Yeah. So, because my first, my first evolution,

uh, of music was, was, was rock. It was like, you know, punk, punk,

you know, playing guitar, playing bass, singing. I played all those different instruments. Awesome. And, um,

and you know we we always played in front of like literally 5 to 40 people 40 is a lot wow yeah that was 40 is like oh my god this is crazy you know so and we toured all over i toured the united states by the time i was 21 like 14 times wow playing to 5 to 40 people how How could you afford the gas? I mean, we would either like, we would either just put all the money in the gas and we always stayed. We never stayed in a hotel. So the 14 tours, I never stayed in a hotel.

We'd always stay at a fan's house that would allow us to stay there or in the van or a friend's house. No. So at the end of the show, I'll be like, hey, if there's a house we can crash um you know that'd be great so one of the five like might feel guilty enough to be like you said that to a crowd now hey guys thank you for for coming tonight by the way if anybody has

a couch i can sleep on about 31 000 offers yeah so i mean obviously on those tours when you're tours, when you're doing it, we're not doing it for the money, right? Yeah. We're doing it because we love playing music. I love making music, writing music, recording these records, and hoping that maybe Juan knows a lyric or two. Right. And listen to my...

Because actually back then... Oh, you were playing your own... You weren't playing cover bands. No, no, no. We played only our own music. Wow. And we only released it on bands. No, no, no. We played only our own music. Wow. And we only released it on vinyl. Oh my God.

Yeah. So the, like, it was only like limited to like 500 copies that you'd have to actually buy the vinyl and drop the needle and read the lyric sheet to even know the music. Cause it wasn't available digitally or on CD or on cassette. Wow. So it was like, you really had to discover this kind of stuff. And so, of course, we're only playing to a dozen people at a time. After $3 a ticket.

Yes, exactly. So the boot camp of that life of touring, it really set me up to become the guinness book of world records most traveled musician on the planet right because i was already touring with my band you know like driving to city to city playing in front of whoever would show up and loving every minute of it wow and and showering once a month right or and but like we were like pouring our hearts and sweating our faces off and you know at these living rooms and basements that we could find to play yeah and so when later on you know to my my next evolution of in music was becoming a dj yeah then you know i was like wow i get to actually stay in some shitty motel this time.

Yeah. Yeah. And I got and like, you know, like instead of getting paid, you got the shitty motel and you got you got a drink tab. You know, I'm like, sweet. Yes. That's a score. Yeah. Like maybe like, you know, some money, you know, maybe a meal.

But like so it starts off there. But like that's a major upgrade, you know maybe a meal but like so it starts off there but like that's a major upgrade you know yeah so like everything because i was lucky i think that this boot camp lifestyle like understanding what it's like to love what you do at the core principle because that really tests you there that's that's like stayed with me through you know like all the touring that i do now because everything is it's so much nicer even though i hit the road so hard i my my like i'm just i'm a soldier in this kind of way you know right so like there's an artist that blows up off a song which is how most djs blow up it's like you have to make the music and then you DJ. And their first understanding of what tour life is, is the DJ life. You already are eating caviar at the top from the get-go.

Right. You know? Right. So for the people that are in bands, especially punk bands, I literally like give all my respect to because they really are truly doing it for the love. Yeah. And they're living a hardened life. Yeah.

They're like punk rockers, like doing whatever they do just to have fun. Right. And they're going from small crowd to small crowd and just having that. And then be famous, but then come home and having to work at a bar, being a bartender, or doing whatever job they can find in their home. And then three months later, they go back out on the road, come back still broke. Yeah. Because that's like 90% of musicians are like that. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, the tour just pays for the tour. Right. It doesn't actually feed the lifestyle. Yeah. So when you're on the road and you're, you know, you're going show to show to show and you're traveling the way that you are and you're, you know, winning Guinness Book of World Records for the most traveled musician, which I still think is just mind-numbing, what are some of the hacks that you do? You said that you meditate, but I mean, when and where and how do you find time for it? Are you doing it in your hotel room? Yeah. So I, I do it everywhere. I

actually do it a lot on, on transportation. So cars, plane, I like the plane is like my, that's like where I just sit back and close your eyes and you start to, and how do you get yourself into that meditative state? I mean, for somebody that's never meditated, I mean, what does that look like? Yeah, I mean, for me, it's like, it's just finding, I find a center. I have, like, when I meditate, you know, people have different ways to meditate. I got to meditate through transcendental meditation. That was like the first real lessons of meditation I took. Right.

In 2015, I had a vocal cord surgery. So I couldn't talk for a month. Whoa. Yeah. So before I got the surgery, I actually got a coach, like a life coach, because I thought I would go crazy. Right. Because you can't express yourself and you're, you get stuck in your head and you were like, you feel stuck in like caged. I didn't know that. Yeah. So I was like, I need to talk to someone to like help me through it. And one of the things they suggested was fill up your time with things that can help you. And so what I did was like the, I just started creating a schedule of things I wanted to learn and to better myself. So I, I was like, I did was like the, I just started creating a schedule of things I wanted to learn and to better myself. So I was like, I did meditation, like I got a meditation teacher. And I know it's uncommon, but I just got one.

They came in two hours a day for like two weeks. And then we just spoke to you. Yeah. No, just meditate with them. And we'd meditate and we just get into the rhythm just like anything you know so you find the center and you just you just focus your mind on it and yeah so what i've done now before like with tms you have a word that's given to you and you like repeat that word so there's like that form of meditation that the tm uses another form is is follow your breath work your breathing right for

me i follow um i have like this image in my head it's literally a point with a triangle balancing at the top of the point and a triangle that's holding the point wow so it's like it's like two mountain peaks with like this this really I think about this like this circular orb that is so powerful it can hold two mountains, balanced between two mountains. So I just think about this in my, when I close my eyes and I see the pattern and I just focus on the circle.

Focus on that orb with your eyes closed. Yeah, and then and then i you know as being a data person i want to just make sure like i'm not just not i'm just thinking about this you know i want to see like hopefully i'm doing something so then you know i wear the device and make sure that i'm actually you know getting to this lower state are you getting that information in real time or you get it afterwards and you say, okay, I was focused and I got into theta for that? There's two devices like I've used. There's one from Japan called V.

Okay. And the other one, I forgot the name of the other one. Actually, let me find out. And so these are measuring your theta wave. Yeah, I don't know exactly what it is measuring, but it's... But is it accurate enough that when you look at it and it says you've had a good meditation, you also feel like you've had a good meditation?

Because that's sometimes the things with the aura watches or the aura rings and the whoops is like, you can go, man, I feel pretty good this morning. Then you look at your aura and you're like, oh, actually I don't, I really had a shitty night's sleep. Yeah, I know. See, that's like one thing I have to be careful with because I get so obsessed with the data.

Yeah, that it's like, hey, Steve, you had a really shitty night's sleep. You are really tired. You know what I mean? The show is going to suck. It definitely affects me. And it kind of like really scared me a bit so um i that's why i like i used to wear the aura ring and that showed very conservative rem sleep it scared the living like hell out of me like just scared me a lot because i was getting like

10 minutes of rem like 30 minutes of rem REM and I'd sleep for seven hours. And then the- And your brain foundation's like, Steven, that's really bad. Well, I share the data with Matthew Walker and he was like, if you were like a close family member, I would tell you, you really desperately need to fix this

or else you're gonna have severe brain issues in the future and um and then i i wear the whoop at the same time and the whoop gives me different data and i have an apple watch it gives me very similar data to the whoop which i'm assuming it's because it's on the wrist yeah versus the finger right and the whoop gives me more REM. It's not your device serving, dude. I'm like, you know what? I'm going to take this off. And I just don't, even if it's the more honest one. This is like getting to the therapy level here.

We need to fucking dive into this, dude. So now he's device serving. He's like, you know what? I'm not actually going to change my sleep. I'm going to change my device to tell me which one I sleep in. I'm not saying the aura doesn't work. I'm going to change my device to tell me which one I sleep in. Yeah, I'm not saying the aura doesn't work. I'm just saying like the whoop shows I get better REM. So I'm like, this at least allows me to like live my life,

even though data is important, right? No, it is. I mean, if you can't measure it, you can't change it, right? You can't fix it. So, you know, by being, at least you know where you stand. But I think a lot of it's probably made up by meditation because, you know, by being, at least you know where you stand. But I think a lot of it's probably made up by meditation because, you know, theta wave REM sleep is that part of the sleep where the brain is repairing and detoxifying and eliminating waste, dividing.

And it's doing all of those things to heal itself. And there's evidence that that happens in meditation too. So it's probably a good way for you to offset you know the lack of yeah the lack of sleep i think all those little mini mini breaks that i i use at time to completely drop and another thing i learned is uh there's this app called true diagnostic which checks your your biological age yeah and it shows that my biological age is 33 and i'm on the top percentile right my age group i was actually without knowing that data, telling you that tonight too,

that you were moving into the 30s, remember? Yeah, yeah, you did, yeah. And you told me about the true diagnostics. So it shows you that, you know, what do you say to those people that say, I just don't want to know? I don't want to know what's going on in my blood work. I don't want to know what's going on in my genes

or if my bacteria is off in my gut. It's like if you don't understand a baseline of where you're at then you can't improve right so it's like if you don't want to improve then that's okay you know everyone's different like so i actually know a few people close to me that don't want any of that information because it gives them too much anxiety i'm like it's, but you won't understand what your baseline is so you can improve to be a more optimal human, to be the ultimate human.

Give me the ultimate human. That's the bad one. That one's going viral. Cut that one out, Max. I mean, I truly care about being the ultimate human. I really gamify it so i can have fun with it yeah and i could be a better person and i can you know like just give better shows give better like have my quality of life engaged more yeah and uh i want to live and the most important thing is i just love

life yeah that's the end of it like i'd love to yeah i don't too i like i always say man i keep talking to my stuff on the ground but i always say like i wake up in the morning and i'm like fuck yeah another day like i i don't like sleeping not because i actually don't like to sleep i enjoy sleeping but i don't like to not be awake yeah yeah because i'm the same way yeah before literally that way and other people they're like they don't get No, no. I used to be like that. I used to hate sleep because I needed to, I wanted to be awake to do more. To experience. Yeah. To experience as much as possible.

Yeah. Like I thought that was the most important. Then I started realizing I had like a fogginess of certain memory. I'm like, that's because I'm not sleeping. Yeah. So memories are part of your experiences. So it sounds like, you know, I started changing started changing like the you know putting the sleep as a major tenant of what's important to my you know what's important to me right but i think the the basis of all this the basis of this data and this gamification all

the stuff that i do and and touring so much whatever it is is that i just love life yeah i really truly love life and i love spending it with strangers as well as spending with people that are very close to me right and um and that's that that's that balance is something i'm working on because i've i like follow this addiction to be on the road and i come home and i see my mom and i just give her a big hug and i'm like i just never let her go to your mom i see that man and yeah and it's heartwarming and it. But it's like not enough time. Right. You know, and then you're like, when you're in those moments, you're like, I need to balance that more.

So that's one thing I'm, you know, maybe I have to gamify that. Start measuring the amount of time you spend with your mom. Get a chart. Yeah. get a, get a, get a chart. So, you know, on this massive, you know, journey, this, this, this career, you know, they, sometimes they say being like the lead Rhino in the herd is difficult because there's no one to follow. So who are you following or who is inspiring you and what is keeping you inspired to just continue to create and, and to make music and actually try to deliver a better experience for your audience? I think it's okay. So there's different people inspire me in different worlds. Cause I'm

involved in a lot that, that really pull my curiosity and then allow me to create in those spaces. And in music, it's, you know, I mean, there's tons of DJs and artists out there. And the great thing about EDM and the music culture that I'm part of is that there's not like beefs really. Everyone gets along generally. No, I work with a lot

of djs you guys all speak highly of each other it's really kind of an interesting it's the most harmonious music community i've ever experienced yeah of all the communities that's what i would say yeah yeah i agree everyone like like because a dj's you know nature is to play other music so if if your competition makes a banging record that would essentially, well, it's your competition, you can't support that, you play that. It helps you. So when you support your contemporaries,

you support your colleagues or your competition, that could be your competition, you know, that could be your competition. Yeah. Like it, it like benefits your show and, and then they get excited. And then like, you know, your ideas, like, you know, can I make a record that other DJs will play? That's so funny that you say that. Cause I, I, I just had Cedric Gervais on the podcast and he said almost those exact words. He said, I've made my greatest music when I was just trying to make music for my friends. I just wanted to make music that my friends would want to play, that other DJs would want to play. And his Grammy Award-winning song, he said he just was making that in hopes that his friends would just play his music.

Yeah, it's true. The songs that everyone plays, that eventually becomes part of culture. Right. Those are the songs that live the test of time. They become your legacy. And then for me, there's also this pursuit to tell a story that creates almost like a shell

to not be played by other DJs, which is a problem because I care so much about storytelling. So I have a whole series called Neon Future. I did four albums of Neon Future. And I did a comic book series with Tom Bilyeu around Neon Future. And I did an NFT project. I was just building this whole world. And each album had scientists and people in science on each album to really

bridge the two worlds together of science and music. Wow. Yeah. I had Ray Kurzweil on a song. I had JJ Abrams on a song, Bill Nye. I had Brian Johnson before Blueprint when he was just doing Colonel. And what did you do on the song? What's that? What did they do on the song? I just record them. Really? Yeah. Really? So we could do a song.

Oh, I'd love to do a song. Do you want me to do a song to CMA? Yeah, yeah. So yeah, that's easy. We could do a song. Dude, I'd love to do a song. That would be so cool. With Brian, I was at Colonel.

He was showing me all the brain technologies he's working on, which is really exciting. He can test the age of your brain with his non-invasive headgear, which I'm excited to check out because the one I looked at was like five years ago. So he's advanced far further on that. And back then he was still doing the leading research on brain technology. Wow. And I'm big in the brain. So I met him and I just recorded him. I was like, talk about a neon future. What does the future look like for you? And then, you know, he went into what that was.

I asked Bill Nye the same thing. And you just played those vocals? I just used the vocals and then I would write music under it. So like, they didn't have to write any music. Like, you know, you just have to talk about your version of the future but neon future has since you know i've tabled it because i've created a whole new ip called hero quest which you know this is here which is the tour you're on now yeah exactly so i have like two albums second album

dropping november 17th. Wow, congratulations. But, you know, it doesn't mean that, it doesn't like eliminate the fact that we're going to do a song. We're going to do a song. All right, awesome. No, I'm definitely holding you to that. Yeah, yeah, we'll do something. Yeah, for sure. That's so cool, dude.

I'm going to do a song. And if it becomes a smash hit, you know, maybe I'll start DJing. Yeah, this will be your first, I don't know if this will be your first Spotify song. Yeah, this will definitely be my first Spotify song for sure. Let's do it. Dude, that's so cool. So, you know, you're out on the road, you meditate, you know, you're gamifying your health.

How much has that impacted your ability to keep up that pace? I mean, there's a lot. So there's meditation, there's diet. Diet is a big one too. And it's really tough to be on the road to have like the diet that I want because I am an impulse eater. Like I just eat what's in front of me.

So the ways I can control that is by just making sure my rider is a clean rider. So when I go into the dressing room, I have my vegetable tray, I have my water, whatever the basics are. And of course, there's the party stuff, the drinks and everything else. And that's for everyone right we have you know what you know if anyone wants to come and enjoy themselves but i have like my impulse bites if i need it my little energy bites so so so your crew knows that this is what we put around you yeah exactly so i have that around me as well as well in my hotel right and i just i i just have like a very restrictive diet i try not to eat too much on the road.

And plus, like before I show, I don't like to have a big meal anyways. Right. So I try to be efficient, try to eat like, you know, non-processed foods. And that's been a game changer. That's a huge game changer. Yeah, not eating like junk food. I hope you guys are listening to this, yeah. It's a huge thing.

So not having junk food, having eating as much non-processed foods as I possibly can. I can't control that entirely, but I try to do my best with that. And meditation, these little resets, naps whenever I can. And I don't get sloshed. I think that's one of the main things is before up to 2009, it was part of my shtick

to like be like downing at Grey Goose while I'm DJing. And it's like, the best way for me to explain it is like this, it's like literally like, so at a club and you're at a party and it's like raging, when you do that, go crazy right so it was like always like oh that's my shtick because i always like was like i was consistent with the theme yeah and then at one point i had a raft and i was riding on a raft so i was thinking about like i gotta entertain these motherfuckers out there you're entertaining yourself yeah let's be honest

yeah so when i'm doing that i'm like no longer I don't even see the crowd anymore. They don't exist. I'm just like lost in my own like crazy place. And when I stopped doing that in 2009, I stopped. I'm like, I can't do this anymore. It's not sustainable. That's when I started thinking like about the crowd. That's why I started thinking about like different ways to entertain them and not myself, just like you said.

Yes. And that's when the cake, you know, the cake idea came out. Is that where it came from? And what was the impetus for that? Where you were like, I'm actually going to start smashing people. Okay. So the impetus was Coachella 2009. I had my first time I had a stage where I was like, okay, I have a really big crowd.

I played 2007. That was my first time playing, and it was kind of like a tough show for me because of just technical issues. But it was really eye-opening. 2009, I was like, okay, now I'm prepared to be able to put on a show. I'm not just a DJ anymore. I'm an entertainer. That's how I started mentally thinking. So at these different moments of the show, it's almost like a play. I'm going to do this. I'm going just a DJ anymore. I'm an entertainer. That's how I started mentally thinking. So at these different moments of the show,

it's almost like a play. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. I'm going to jump in the crowd here. I have these girls that help me make these crazy outfits. They're going to jump on the stage with me. We're going to shoot water with super soakers in the crowd. And then here's a really interesting idea.

We're going to get a raft out four of them and we're going to just jump on the raft and raft on the crowd. Wow. I did that. And then all of a sudden I'm in Rolling Stone. You, you, you,

you put the song on. Yeah. I put this on. Like it's a seven minute song. I got to be back to the fucking booth by. No, it's, it's three minutes,

three minutes. And then the song ends. Like half the time, the song ends. And you're like, you guys got to get me back. I'm just like a sailor. I'm like a pirate just going like pointing this way. And then they're just pushing me forward. So that's happened a million times when the song just ends.

And I'm just like, guys, I've got to get back on stage. Yeah, yeah. But anyways, that was my thing. I got on the cover of another cover i got in rolling stone magazine like paul mccartney was in the page and then there's a picture small picture of me so it was a big deal in 2009 like who's this asian guy on a on a rap that's a dj playing at coachella yeah so then i started thinking like then i did every show right so then i was like i gotta be consistent with this thing. And then I started just having fun with that. I did that for three years.

And then 2011-ish, then I was like, I got to come up with something new. And then I was like, oh, if I cake someone at a show, I wonder how that would go. So I went to a bakery. And this is like i'm by the way up until this point i'm traveling totally alone wow i'm doing like in 2010 2011 i'm doing 250 300 shows but i'm doing it totally alone you're traveling by yourself and just myself plugging in all your shit and plugging everything in like every like I never thought about having a tour manager until 2011 midway through. Cause like, it was just, I was playing bigger shows and actually I had a long talk with,

with Skrillex at the time we were playing a show together and he had a tour manager and, uh, and he's like, I don't know why you don't have a tour manager. It's just makes life so much easier. And then he broke it down for me. And then I was like, you know what? You're right. I'm going to do that. I'm actually going to bring someone out on the road with me. I never thought about that before. Right.

But anyways, in 2011, I was like, oh, let's see how this would go. And I got the local guy to film. Yeah. And I just brought the cake. I was like showing the crowd like the cake. Yeah. And this like crowd crowds completely confused. Yeah.

You know, like it's someone's birthday. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're like, what's he doing? And then like there's, you know, at every show, it was always like that. But it's always like without a doubt, it happens every time. There's always one person at the very least that's like, please cake me. Yes, dude. Because it's my birthday. Yeah.

And I just want it. I'm just so like lit right now. Yeah, you're so lit right now. And then like I started caking people. We started filming it. It started going viral pre-Instagram. Oh, it's major viral now. Yeah.

And then, yeah, so it's 13 years later and I've, you know, cake like, now I cake like 10, do 10 cakes a show. Yeah. So, you know. You do 10 cakes a show? Yeah. So it's like over 20,000 people I've caked at this point. It's just now, you know, I retired doing, I retired doing the boat because I used to

have a boat and I used to have an inflatable bed. An inflatable bed, like a mattress? Yeah, I have this inflatable mattress and then I would climb to like the second, like, you know, the balconies. You know, dive off the balconies into this inflatable mattress. Oh, my God. Yeah, because like, you know, like I'm a punk rocker. So I come from like a world in punk rock and hardcore where people would do the most insane stage dives into the crowd.

I'm like, oh, if you stage dive onto an inflatable mattress. Yeah, at least you're spreading the inertia out a little bit. Exactly. And then I eventually retired all that. And then, but the cakes, I never retired because I did for a short stint, like in 2015, I wrote a whole like to cake or not to cake uh four page kind of uh i don't know what you call memoirs yeah yeah kind of like why i'm gonna retire the cake and i put

it up in the daily beast like it was a whole like it was a whole statement of why i'm retiring the cake yeah and i retired for like a, but everyone's demanding the cake. Really? And I just was like, okay, I'm bringing it back. Really? So I brought it back in 2016 or something like that. And I just haven't gone back since. It's just, it's just.

Dude, it's so awesome. Cause I actually see, I mean, somebody did like a montage of probably 20 or 30 cakes. I saw on Instagram or TikTok or maybe it was something somebody sent to me. It was hilarious. But every single one of them was like, you know, people were like begging for it. And you're pretty accurate now. I mean, you're like a major league pitcher now. You don't miss. You never whiff. No, no. I mean, that's like anything is experience, you know?

Yeah. But like throwing a cake is like throwing a piece of plywood yeah the wind and you gotta make sure that it doesn't hit them sideways yeah i got it all down yeah it's just like when you see someone so perfect in slow motion it's like yeah it's like chariots of fire yeah yeah yeah that's that's video that's the video right there but just like anything when you watch like uh you know someone doing a remarkable throw yeah you know football or baseball like how do they judge engage it with all that and you know you know it's just i mean experience anybody ever gets like really pissed off and be like you fucking threw a cake in my face dude what's the matter with you bro i think i think you hear some music the problem is is like now steve aoki

is synonymous with cake that's the problem it's so it's so true it's like it's a good and bad thing you're like the cake boss yeah yeah the cake whisperer i definitely have the cake whisperer for sure have they gotten cheaper and cheaper i mean are they just straight whipped cream now or oh no it's like some of these cakes are like i mean they're pretty pretty grandiose cakes i mean yeah i i mean the bakers come to my show really they're excited to take pictures of me. And they tell me like, we spent two weeks making these cakes. I mean, because we have a six page cake writer. So the cake writer, it's like the promoter has to adhere to this cake writer and sign off. There's a dimension.

Yeah. It's just everything. It's like the material, the ingredients. You know, there's a lot less cake, to be honest. It's kind of no pun intended yeah it's not it's not that much cake in the cake yeah yeah and uh because it's too heavy i mean yeah exactly it's a it's it's more explosive and it's just it's just a mess yeah it's just a total explosive mess you know i think that's just so awesome that you're still having fun with it is

that part of like um that part of putting on the show, and I said this before we got on, like, you know, I watch your shows. I mean, you're on the DJ booth. You're throwing cakes. I mean, you're engaged. You're grabbing the microphone. I mean, you're super in that moment for them. And I think at

some point, that's got to contribute with why people love to see your shows live so much i i always want to make a show that's that's unique to me so they're like oh we want to we want to like go to see a stevie oki show like oh that was a stevie oki experience instead of just any ordinary dj so that's it's like that's the difficult part is how do you create something that is unique to your show as a performer? Because whether you're a DJ, whether you're a rapper or singer or band, we're all trying

to do something that's unique to our experience. And just saying, hey, ho, sit down, jump up. Everyone do a mosh pit. You know, it's like, those are things that are historic with all music and big live shows. And I'm sure you follow other artists and what have you, but are there any artists that you would just love to collaborate with? There's a lot. The list is really long.

And they are all different genres for different reasons see yeah exactly so because i crossed so many genres yeah this is actually like like increasingly increasingly getting bigger and bigger and when i get into a new genre that i haven't haven't collaborated with before then as i collaborate with those artists in that genre it opens me up to a whole plethora of you know yeah new new followers new people new listeners and not just like who are like the big the big movers and shakers in that space but then the next one's coming up because that's what excites me as well right i want to work with the next one's coming up that vocal

that's like about to break yeah getting the Getting the artists that's like, you know, is bubbling and like you want to work with them before they break. Because like I'm an A&R at the end of the day. Right. Like I think with everything I've ever done, you know, I always say that curiosity is a big part of my success. Yeah. Being an A&R is also a big part of my success. And the A&R is in everything. It's in being an entrepreneur.

You have to like know which, you uh you know companies to invest into right and put your time into which as a record label owner which bands to to like focus your energy and and yeah and you want them to blow up and scale up so you're not really following a trend you're trying to set the trend yeah i want to and then with artists i collaborate with it's like of course like to work with Post Malone or Drake or any of like the big names out there would be a dream. Right. But also to work with the artists that just about to blow up. Yeah. You know, like Natanio Cano from Mexico.

He's this artist. You've heard of Peso Pluma from Mexico. Well, Natanio Cancano is in that same world. And we made two songs with each other last year. Really? And he's like dominating. Same with Santa Fe Clan in Mexico. So like in Latin, I'm going and working with a lot of the,

you know, the underground artists that are just about to blow up. And right after I released with them, it's amazing to see Santa Fe Clan is another artist from Mexico that's just literally exploding now.. That's just literally exploding. Yeah. You know, just literally exploding. And you try to stay true to their music or true to your music,

or do you try to create something brand new and unique? It kind of goes in all different directions. It's, it's a matter of our connection, you know, in some cases, like they want to go more traditional in their space, in their space. And I'll, I'm more of the producer. Right. And I will, traditional in their space. In their space.

And I'm more of the producer. Right. And I will follow them, right? Okay. So I go into each session in a very humble manner. It expands your horizon, too, because then you're not always dictating and directing. I mean, it's probably good as an artist to take some direction and see what you can create. Yeah, that helps me with my production prowess for sure. So I definitely grow

my caliber of production and my just expansion of creativity when I allow them to lead. But in some cases they come in here, like, what do you got? I'm like, okay, good, sweet. Well, these are the ideas. So I kind of let them, you know, it's just like hosting at your house. Yeah. You know, you want to it's just like hosting at your house. Yeah. You know, you want to make sure everyone's comfortable first. And then when everyone's comfortable, now we're going to truly party. You know what I mean? It's also like you want people to listen to it and go, holy shit, that's Steve Aoki?

That doesn't sound like Steve Aoki. Yeah, I love that. That's fucking badass. I love that. Yeah. And then I also love that sounds exactly like Steve Aoki. Yeah, yeah. You know, like I like both.

You know what I mean? So I like having the surprise and going, wow, I can't believe he did that. You know? That's cool too. Yeah. So, I mean, some of my biggest successes was doing something complete outside of my world, like working with Louis Tomlinson from One Direction. And we had a massive record.

It's got like over five six hundred million streams and and you know my first uh collaboration with BTS it's 1.2 or 1.3 billion views on YouTube wow yeah so like and that was like the first big K-pop breakthrough song in America it was the first time a K-pop artist broke in the Billboard Top 100. Really? So that was a massive one for K-pop. Right. And that's why I love to work in different areas and fields.

Yeah. And my new album, I'm working with this country artist named Ernest. Oh, I was going to ask you if you've done anything in the country. Yeah, I did a song with Kane Brown on my last album. Yeah. And this new artist, he's going to blow up. He is. He's wrote for Morgan Wallen.

He's an incredible writer. And he's also- Does he have country roots or are you just using the country twang to his voice? So the Kane Brown record had a lot of hoedown country, kind of like what I imagined, what I wanted people to be TikTok dancing to in the country culture. This one is more of electronic record with the twang.

Okay. So it's like every record has a different kind of trajectory. Yeah. And when you sit down with the artist, you don't have this preconceived notion. No, no. You're like, let's really collaborate.

And are most of the artists open to that? Or are they like, hey, let's see kind of where this goes? I like, just like with anything, like with everything, I like to let them lead first. And if they're like, okay, let's hear what you have. Yeah. And then, you know, I mean, that's easy. And how does this,

because I don't know much about producing music. So how does this come together? You come into a studio like this? Yeah, yeah. So a lot of my sessions are here. Okay. But a lot of sessions are, you know, just sending stems back and forth.

Okay. So with artists that are really far away. Drop it up, you send it. Exactly. Like, you know, like with BTS, for example, there's a song called The Truth Untold, which also did fairly well. It's an album cut that, I mean, I think it did like, you know, 100 million streams or something. Wow.

And it's just an album cut. Okay. And I don't know the exact number on the streams, but it did really well. And that song, I delivered it to them, like, you know, with the melodies and the music. In some cases, they just sing it. In some cases, we write together. In some cases, they write it. So there's so many different ways, you know.

I have songwriters that come to the house, and we'll do camps here, and just take up the whole house. And is the songwriter somebody that's like, are they, they're writing the lyrics, but what else do they do? Do they pull in the vocals? Do they help put the song together? Yeah. I mean, in some cases, like I have other producers in here that will work together on different

aspects of different songs. Yeah. I'll have different musicians come in here just to write different riffs. Okay. With Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine, we made a song together. Yeah. And so I had him send me like 16 different riffs. Okay.

Just different like guitar slides and stuff. And I would take, like I took like maybe three of them, and then I would start working on our track. And then once I had a beat to it, and it had like some electronic drop to it, and get his approval on it, then we're like, okay, let's think of a singer that fits that. So then we sent it out.

Wow. Yeah. So then we sent out to rise against the singer of residence and he loved it and he wrote the lyrics and he recorded that in his session. Tom Morello recorded guitars in his studio. I'm doing, you know, I'm putting the record together and putting it all with the electronic

production underneath the guitars and the vocals here in my studio right so you know it's everything is different and then how do you just try it out on a crowd i mean do you do you sort of sneak it into your set and just i sometimes i sometimes like it like go this is my new one tom rolla no idea what's coming out. Let's hear it. Really? Yeah. And you just see how they're like, are they feeling it? And you get that vibe from the crowd.

And you're like, we're onto something here. Yeah, exactly. And sometimes the crowd hears something that never comes out. Yeah. That happens a lot, actually. Really? Yeah. So I always tell the crowd.

You try it out and then you just end up not liking it? Or changing the whole song. Really? Or the crowd try it out and then you just end up not liking it or changing the whole song really or not the song never comes out so sometimes I even say you might not ever hear like you're the only people

that will hear this version yeah so let's like let's make it special because you know that's kind of

another thing that another DJ was explaining to me he's like look we're not like a traditional artist where we go into the studio we put a whole album together and then we're like okay i hope everybody likes it yeah exactly this album it's like you kind of get the luxury of you're out there every day we're modulating like we're yeah we're we're always evolving

in real time yeah and and we need the crowd. And if something's good, you can dig into it. Right. If you fucked up, you can drop it and you're onto the next show and you kind of get that feel like in real time.

And like, you know, with everything, it's like you need to feel it with other people. Yeah. So like here in my studio, I'm going to hear it in the best quality.

Right. Right. And of course, I play it in my car and on like my phone because all the different ways people listen to music right but i really need to play in front of people yeah to to like really get the true sense of your own head exactly okay i really like this but maybe i've heard this beat so many times i'm so familiar with it because i've been in the studio mixing

this thing for so long but then you just drop it on the crowd. And then I'm like, okay, this drop does work. Or this drop is way, like, it's just not what you expected. Yeah. And you go back in the studio. And what I like to do is I like to go right back to the studio and tweak it right away. Right away. Yeah, or like-

And then you'll bring it right back out again and drop it on another crowd. Yeah, and drop version two. And then sometimes I'm up to version 50. Really? Yeah, like I've gone up to version like more than that you know like and sometimes i've had songs that never came out for years and and and then i find out that the band breaks up right about the time you're making them famous yeah yeah something happens and like it's just like okay we they're they're too big now and they don't want to release something from the past. So sometimes that happens.

I've had incredible sessions. You're like, it's perfect. Are you guys ready? Literally, some of the most insane sessions with some incredible musicians and artists that I think people would drool to hear, but they'll never come out. And then after a number of them, you just, you know, just like anything, you, you,

you're not as hurt because you've dealt with that and you're like, this is part of the nature of how things go. Right. That's so awesome. So looking forward, I mean, where's, where's Steve Aoki going? Like where is Steve Aoki in the next five years? Like what's exciting you on your horizon? God, I'll be 50 then. Not biologically, brother.

No, no, not biologically. You're not even in your 40s. With your help, I'm going to stay like in my 30s. Young forever. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I can't imagine not doing what I'm doing, but like, so whenever I think about what I'm doing five years from now, I always think about what I would have thought five years ago and where I'm at

now. Yeah. Cause like, cause like obviously it's a great way to think about it. I know what I'll be doing in the next year. It's already planned. Yeah. I got my schedule planned.

I already have like my album, my release schedule. Even like I have an idea that I like to stay online. Even with HeroQuest, I have like at least minimum four albums under that. So like I know that's going to go out for the next two more albums. Right. Right.

So, I mean, two more years after this because I have HeroQuest 2 dropping in November. So I have that going on. So that's like a guiding line because my career is so stable with what I do. Right. You know, it's like when you're younger, it's a lot more choosing your own adventure

of where you can go. Right. And as your career gets so structured, it's easier just to know what five years looks like than 10 years ago. Because you have a lot of the same venues and you know, yeah years looks like than 10 years because you have a lot of the same venues and you know yeah yeah they're booking you in advance and you like yeah and like you just it's more about maintaining because you've you've reached a certain level that like you know of course it's like i love to play in bigger venues right i'm also like

very content like just controlling it in this space as well right and just maintaining at the very least maintaining right and if there is this pipeline or this moonshot moment that happens right you know where like i have a couple breakthrough songs and all of a sudden i'm playing somewhere else that's a bonus that yeah i never never thought that was an equation yeah but that's that's that's gotta be the like fun of the career it's like you don't truly know where it's going yeah i mean you always want all your songs and all your things to be hits and you and like when when i leave the studio and i finish the song it's already a hit to me right now i've already been happy i'm not putting my songs on someone else's like uh you know roller coaster ride rollercoaster ride. And I'm just like letting

that just go up and down because it will do that regardless of what I think, you know? So I'm just like, if I release it, then I have to be okay. And be proud of that. And that that's, that's the, it's already a hit to me. Right. And, but I, yeah. So in the next, the next five years, um, have a pretty good structure of where I'm at, of where things are going. I can't imagine doing anything but music as my main core. Right. Because it really- I mean, you're involved in a ton of-

Yeah, for 30 years. But I know I'm going to get deeper into understanding my body. Yeah. I know I'm gonna get deeper into understanding my body and try to reverse my aging process as much as possible. That's a big, big passion project for me. Right. It's a hobby. Yeah. Because it requires a lot of time.

You're very good at it, yeah. And I love it. Yeah. And I think the amount of time that I do and all these little hacks that I do to slow down my aging process and to give me more energy, whether it's doing it or not, I really enjoy the process.

It's like going back to me as a kid when I was playing in bands, playing for 5 to 40 people. I really enjoyed it. It wasn't about how much money did we make at the end of the day. Right. So it's like with everything. I think as long as you enjoy the process,

I like enjoy going in the red light bed and the hyperbaric chamber and the coal plunge, which we're going to do later. Yeah, I know we are. And the sauna. I enjoy it, even though I enjoy sitting in the pain and going,

fuck, this feels like fucking hell. That's actually opposite of hell. It's the opposite of hell. Yeah, it's like ice hell. Yeah, ice hell, but I love it, you know? So, you know, I think that's like, that's part of it. Yeah. So I wind down every podcast by asking the same question.

There's no right or wrong answer to the question, but what does it mean to you to be a superhuman, an ultimate human? The ultimate human. Well, I think, you know, going to what I was saying earlier that, you know, understanding the basis of why I do what I do, that I love life. Yeah. And I love sharing these moments with people, strangers and like close people around me.

Yeah. Like the ability to share these experiences like that that is a core that is a core of being the ultimate human because from that only great things can blossom only then you then you care about longevity not just for yourself but for the people that you love and for the people that that can you can inspire. I mean, I think it's something really interesting. It's like you inspiring people that you don't realize you're inspire. You don't, you don't feel or see that that's going to have an effect. And you're like, okay, that's great. But when you meet someone that's been inspired by, you know, you just being

you and you've see them and you, they like, and you hug them and you have this moment and you're like this, this human, real human moment. Yeah. You're like, that's, that's what you live for. You're like, fuck, that was really cool. Yeah. You know, like, wow, these songs touched you in a way that, you know, yeah. It's like, they touch you so deeply. Like I met this, this woman in Chile and she had this sign, she was in a wheelchair. She looks like she was probably like between 50 and 60 years old. And, and I came down and then I took a picture with her and she was like talking in Spanish to me and she was crying, bawling, but her heart was so open and vulnerable and like so giving and so loving.

And we're like, I was like hugging her and I was like crying with her. And I didn't know what it was, but like, like I could understand some moments. So like that there was these deep connections to whatever I was doing that made her life meaningful. And it's like so fucking powerful. Yeah. It's so fucking powerful. Yeah. Like those are moments that I cherish, you know?

Like it's, you play in front of all these people. If you don't look deep into the crowd, if you just look over the top and glaze over all of them, you can literally just pass by life in a blurry way. And it doesn't, it doesn't have this impact on you. But when you go deep and you like see that person that's like meant like this song or whatever, this moment, that like moment has changed. Like they're waiting for that to connect with you for this moment. And you like, and they're crying or they're screaming and they're, they're waiting for that right to connect with you for this moment and you like and they're crying or they're screaming and they're they're just fucking like completely vulnerable and free

that's everything dude that is that's fucking everything powerful man yeah just those singular moments and i and i look for that every show every single show yeah you you i find those people that are like that like are waiting to be connected from that that song that like got them through this this moment in their life and i don't know what it is but i can i can read it and we're connecting we're totally connected i don't know what their story is but i know it's meaningful. And I'm telling them, I appreciate everything that, like, why you're here. Just by that visual connection. Yes. And then when that gap, when that, like, the circuits connect, that's the magic happens,

you know? That's so awesome. Wow. This has been one of my absolute favorites, brother. I have enjoyed every freaking minute of this. I know this podcast is going to explode because that was just so good, man. You dropped so many. You're so vulnerable and you're so sincere and you're clearly so passionate. You're on God's plan for you for sure. And I really want to thank you for coming today and you know being a guest on the ultimate human podcast and as always that's just science