'I would love to work with any Bollywood singer'

EDM maestro Steve Aoki, recently returned to India for a three city tour with Vh1 Supersonic Arcade.

The Japanese-American apart from his mesmerising music and talent is famous for his crazy on-stage antics during concerts like throwing cakes at the audience, riding rafts over the crowd, spraying champagne on the crowd and frequently interacting with them. In a telephonic conversation with Metrolife, Aoki was effusive about India and the people here. “I love India so much, and I am very happy to be back here. Actually, it is one of my favourite places to freak out, travel, explore, go for crazy adventures and perform in front of the moving crowd, I just love all that.”

Briefing about his new album Neon Future he says, “It is a very interesting concept, merging science fiction with real science, extending our lives, extending our creativity, opening up the mysteries of the brain. My roots weren't in-house music or electronic music, my roots were always in live music and rock, punk and hardcore. That was really “My influences and my references and where I'm shaping this album have a lot of influences. Where my head is at as a DJ and where my album is-- I'm walking this fine line. Because what I want to do with this album is different to what I want to do with my DJ sets. When I DJ, I try to programme playlists that have the best potential to make the kids go crazy! This album is not really about that. I just want to put together a really great diverse musical album,” he adds with a passion that is impressive.

Widely known for his on-stage antics, Aoki justifies, “The idea of caking was from a music video by this guy on my label called Autoerotique. He did a video for his song, Turn Up the Volume, where these cakes would explode in slow motion in peoples’ face after they blew out the candles. It was really cinematic, beautifully shot. The song went viral because of the video, so I came up with the idea of promoting the song by caking someone. In Coachella, 2009 was the first time I actually introduced the rafts to my show. It's an interesting way to have fun with the fans, and it’s safer for me because previous to that I was stage-diving—not the safest way to jump into a crowd. But if you have a raft you have some sort of soft suspension and cushion.”

He points out that, “Like America, electronic dance music in India seems to be having more of an impact on other genres this days. If you see at the shows, the energy and growth is happening. The concerts are driven by the youth culture. I am still very much underground here, but it is growing with great energy and enthusiasm. A lot of young people are pushing the electro dance music into their culture.

Aoki has collaborated with a lot of very well known artistes from across genres. He says, “As inspiration evolves I get new interest, and I meet new people all the time, providing me an opportunity to work with. I would love to work with any Bollywood singer in the future and some sort of collaboration between Bollywood and dance music will be great.”