STEVE Aoki had to air his laundry in public recently, after an anonymous online post revealed he requests six pairs of underpants on his rider. “I travel with a crew and we travel light, so we need clean underpants or we’d get sweaty balls,” he explains. Those hectic live gigs — which feature Aoki throwing cakes and also explain why his rider requests a rubber dinghy — and equally hectic tour schedule are partly why it’s taken the California-based Aoki until now to release debut album ‘Wonderland’ after 16 years of DJing. With vocals
Style: “Electro, dubstep, moombahton.” Best known for: “‘Wonderland’.” Tune of 2012: “Steve Aoki ‘Ladi Dadi (Tommy Trash Remix)’ (Dim Mak).” Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2012: “Knife Party.”
from Lil Jon and Weezer’s Rivers Cuomo amongst others, ‘Wonderland’ expands upon his Dim Mak label’s electro-rock sound. “I wrote each song specifically for each vocalist,” he says. “So rather than just define one sound I put elements of dubstep, electro and progressive house on there.” Clearly he can have his cake and eat it. PAUL CLARKE
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If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? “Green Lantern. Any- thing you can imagine is at the palm of your hands.” Should you play to the crowd or for yourself? “Both. You play what you want, but you need to speak to the crowd through your music.” What does EDM mean to you? “The latest and simplest way for people outside this world to categorize ‘Electronic Dance Music’.” Should celebrities be DJs? “Sure. Anyone can be a DJ. You can be a bedroom DJ, a wedding DJ, a club DJ. There is room for everyone.” Have you ever been thrown off the decks? “Yes the owner threw me off because I didn’t play hip-hop in the Hamptons [expensive seaside resort outside New York].” Are you a DJ if you don’t beat match? “Yes. There are many differ- ent ways to DJ. It’s not about beat matching so much as all the many things you can do to manipulate one song with another, and create a story throughout the night. DJing is much more than the beat match.” Where’s the next dance music capital? “Las Vegas.”
16 0507 PAUL VAN DYK
ONE of Paul van Dyk’s principal achievements this year has been the release of his sixth artist album, ‘Evolution’, and the ongoing global dates he’s played to support it. “I think the reception to the album and the tour has to be the major highlight of 2012 for me,” he tells DJ Mag. “When you perform somewhere new and you can see in the first 20 minutes that everyone already knows the tracks from the album and are singing along to them, it gives you a great feeling.” Paul collaborated with a number of singers and producers for the multi-
Style: “Electronic dance music.” Best known for: “Electronic music!” Tune of 2012: “Judge Jules ‘The Attack’.” Breakthrough DJ/producer of 2012: “Maarten de Jong.”
dimensional album, including Russian wunderkind Arty, progressive house DJ/ producer Austin Leeds from Miami, Adam Young from Owl City, Italian trancer Giuseppe Ottaviani and more.
Paul also was one of the main acts at a number of festivals in the UK, Europe, the US and beyond. “I had a fantastic time at SW4, and the Ibiza season as a whole this year was totally great too,” he says. CARL LOBEN
If you were a superhero, what would your superpower be? “I would choose to stop all superhe- roes. As human beings, we’re all of equal importance on this planet.” Should you play to the crowd or for yourself? “For me, I have a 100% clear idea of what I want to play, but it always comes down to the interaction with the audience as to what the gig will be like in the end.” What does EDM mean to you? “Err, Electronic Dance Music!” Should celebrities be DJs? “It’s really down to the individual’s choice and not down to me to judge what people are doing or not doing.” Have you ever been thrown off the decks? “Yes, I have. When I was much younger. After one particularly long bedroom session I fell asleep across the turntables. My mother was unable to clean around me, so she picked me up and threw me off. She still reminds me of this.” Are you a DJ if you don’t beat match? “There are dif- ferent technologies to beat-mixing these days, so it’d be difficult to answer that very clearly. Instinc- tively, though, I’m going to say ‘yes’.” Where’s the next dance music capital? “Uttoxeter. Maybe.”