Steve Aoki
Born in Miami and growing up in Newport Beach CA, Steve Aoki is the son of Rocky Aoki, founder of the Benihana Japanese restaurant chain. He was a star Badminton player at his high school and received two Bachelors degrees in Women's Studies and Sociology from UC Santa Barbara. While still in college, and busy with two majors, Steve started what would be a long and diverse music career. He began producing his own songs and ran underground concerts out of his Biko room in the Santa Barbara Student Housing Cooperative , which was located in Isla Vista, a section of residential land adjacent to UCSB.
In 1996 Aoki started his own label, Dim Mak Records, and used it as a platform to start the careers of many artists including The Klaxons, Bloc Party, MSTRKRFT and the Bloody Beetroots. Aoki's debut album, Pillowface and His Airplane Chronicles, was released in January 2008; the title of which is a reference to his alter ego (Pillowface) and all the time he spends on and around airplanes. Steve has remixed huge artists (Drake, Snoop Dogg, and Kid Cudi) and created original productions that are now house music classics ("WARP" and "I'm In The House"). When he is not focused on music Steve runs and designs for his Dim Mak Clothing line and loans his design talents to sneaker company Supra.