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The power of collaboration to get the best output for what you're doing is really about giving more and also learning and becoming more of a student and listening.
Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Louis Howe as a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur and each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.
Welcome back everyone to school. Greatness. Very excited about our guests. We have the inspiring Steve Aoki in the house. My man. Good to have you back again. The thing that I really appreciate about you is the way you think about.
your life, your career, your business through the lens of art and collaboration. Something I've really admired about you. You know, I've seen your stuff a decade ago. I've watched documentaries and seen things evolve. And a lot of it seems to be have this artistic expression along with collaboration.
And obviously, drive and hustle is moving all these things forward. You're like one of the most booked DJs in the world, right? And I'm curious, did you always think that collaboration was going to be a big part of your success and learning how to build great art with other people and lifting others up as well? Did you feel like that would always support you in this career, in this endeavor? Yeah, I think, uh,
When I think of collaboration, I think of your contribution. And so this brings me back to day one for me. So when I got, when I found music as like, okay, this is gonna be my life, my lifestyle, my culture, everything, like when I was like 15 years old, that's when I understood this term collaboration. But more this idea of like, how much can I contribute to something I love?
to this community. And then it's a collaboration because you have to come to the table with something, right? So if you're going to collaborate, if we're going to collaborate, so I'm like, oh, yeah, I'm just going to be just chilling and you're going to do all the work. And it's a collaboration. Like the best collaboration is like the like premium contributions from everyone in that group. And then you get a one plus one equals 100, right? But if everyone's too passive,
then you're going to get one plus one equals two, you know? So it's like, I learned luckily, I learned this, this idea of contribution and how important that is to my community. When I was so young, really, because because in the punk hardcore scene, which is what the music genre I got involved in, it was so small that everyone's everyone had an impact. And we felt the impact, you know, how did everyone have an impact?
Cause you all had to like bring like two friends and you had to create the experience and the whole thing, right? Like so you think about like this, like the way religion works, way like, you know, sports work, whatever communities are that have like, you know, strong sense of like, oh, I, I, you know, I want to be part of it. This kind of feeling of bonding. It's all based on like, how do you spread the message? How did you get people to understand what you believe in is so strong? Like I, I believe in it so strongly. I'm going to,
knock on every door and tell everyone about the word of Jesus Christ or whatever it might be. So very similar to that with this scene, our scene is so small. There's only like a few kids. I remember there's like five kids in my high school that listen to this music and no one gets it because it's screaming music and trashy guitars. But like once you feel like
Oh, this is changing my life. I just want to figure out how do you get the message out? You have to write a scene. You have to interview bands. You have to put on shows in abandoned warehouses. You have to start a band because you can, because there's no one else doing it. You have to learn music. It's all these things. You're no longer a passive
participant and this is like the main differential I think is when I listen to music before then I was I was a passive participant like listening oh this is cool I'm like I love these lyrics I'm gonna sing the songs you know I like this man or this group to like being a creator in the space because you now have an impact
Like when I make a zine at Kinko's and I'm like putting my stuff together and my poetry and putting this in and I give it to someone, it actually people are going to care about it because there's not many people doing it. Right. So it was like at that point I was lucky to have this kind of onboarding into contributing
And then that essentially has collaboration. So like the more you contribute, that's actually a quality service or quality thing that's like actually impacting your liberal culture. You once you feel it and resonates with you, then you want to do it again in a different means. You know, like I first started doing a zina and I see a band. I'm like, oh, I could do that too.
I want to like pick a guitar and with my friends that don't know how to play and we're gonna we're gonna thrash around and all of a sudden like we get good by the by the nature of just doing it you know and then that same philosophy has transcended in every single industry and every single evolution of my
My identity, like everywhere, it doesn't matter what it is. It's like I have this ability to just, as long as I have this passion to contribute whatever I know, like my toolbox, I can only bring it to the table. And then also, when you go into a collaboration, when you contribute, you can't be running the show and trying to be
Like the big man, but it seems like a lot of people just want it to be easy. They want someone to collaborate with them and them to do all the work. The other person as opposed to also contributing.
Matt, have you always had that mindset of I want to add maximum value to this collaboration or partnership or where did that come about? Whenever you add the maximum value, your output is going to be greater than what you think. So that's like, it's just, this is the kind of thing you learn early on. So once you put in all the time, then, you know, at least for yourself, you know, there's obviously like records that I've spent.
like a lot of time, way more time than records that just like nationally float in is a very quick process and they blew up.
and these ones don't happen, you know? You spend more time on stuff that doesn't blow up. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And other things, it's like one day and it's like the biggest thing ever. So like to manage that, okay, this is like I'm very digressive. To manage that, I once I started seeing that and it like kind of hurts your ego a bit, right? You're like, I spent so much time on this and it just didn't pop off or make the impact you expected to make. You just have to, you have to like level the whole field of your expectations of
I mean, back then it wasn't streams, but you know, yeah, whatever it might be how you indicate a success of the song. I have to, I just like at this point, I don't even think about how we have this managerial conversations, which like that's what the managers do.
is like, how do you make this record get more visibility or, you know, listenership? Yeah. But for me, it's like, I just need to know, like, in my heart, like genuinely, I'm happy with it, whether it gets like, you know, whatever, billion streams or a hundred streams. Exactly. Yeah. And then you got to love it. Yeah. Like, that's, that's the core of it for sure. And then like, in the, then I look retrospectively, okay, then I could be strategic.
But in the moment, I don't want to affect my creative process. But retrospectively, I'm like, OK, this didn't work. And now I have to learn to pivot. And I have to learn to try things. And that's the nature of being, I guess, an entrepreneur in many ways.
and innovators that you need to learn how to pivot and with culture being so unforgiving and so fast-paced. You're constantly changing. And how fast the attention spans are going and how you have to be ahead, you have to constantly reinvent yourself and pivot fast. And it's a very tiring, it could be very tiring as a creator because you can't just rest on your laurels or you can't
do the same wheel that you've already created. You have to, I mean, you have like this general wheel of how you do things, but you have to constantly like change the parts. This is fascinating stuff, man. I want to continue on this conversation about collaboration, because I feel like there's a lot of people in, I grew up in the sports world playing sports. And it was a lot about competition. It was like, you need to win in order to succeed. There's a winner and there's a loser.
Sure you need to collaborate with your teammates, but you're always trying to beat someone.
And I took that into my kind of entrepreneurial journey after sports in my mid to late 20s, where I was very competitive, win-lose. And I realized that that got me success, but it left me feeling very unfulfilled. And about 10 years ago, I realized that's not how I want to be anymore. So everything became about collaboration, became about how can I interview someone else and make it about them, not make it about me? How can I elevate other people and collaborate?
But it seems to be like a lot of people in business, in music, in the arts are still, there's still a competitive mindset in the world for a lot of people. Not everyone. Why do you think so many people are still in a competitive mindset in different industries as opposed to
in this collaborative mindset like you've been. So before we get to that, I do like this thing you're saying like how you would like to elevate who you're interviewing. It's like this collaboration is more about elevating someone else. So that really is the magical sauce in the studio.
So when I'm in the studio with an artist that comes, you know, now they end up coming to my house or because my studio is in my house. Um, and I have a studio here in LA. Actually I did, I did some legendary sessions here in LA. Um, and it's still here. So I have a studio here and I have studio in Vegas, but in any, in any case, the, I think the magical dust in this whole thing is, is like to elevate them. You know, it's not about me.
They're already coming to me. That's already enough. They already know that I want to work with that Steve Aoki power production, whatever it is that they come for. I don't need to flex or do anything. I'm going to do it anyways. You're going to have your moment. I'm going to do it. I don't need to show it.
It's about empowering them and giving them center stage and giving them this feeling of what you're talking about. This is about you letting them shine. Yeah, I want to let you shine. And then we could decide how we want to take it, what direction, what emotion, what are we going to go more in your lane? Are we going to go more in my lane? Are we going to?
take a whole new different lane, and that you find out later on, once the creative process is going, like, oh, actually, we're going to go more this direction, because that flow is more reminiscent of this, and now we want it to resonate with people here. I think that's the power of collaboration to get the best output for what you're doing.
is really about giving more and also learning and becoming more of a student and listening. So yeah, I mean, it is a power of contribution of what you're contributing. But when you've already kind of made it, you don't need to show that because you're going to contribute anyways. Yes.
So by the track record, you're like, this particular person, you could tell they contributed plenty. You know that their pattern is to contribute at the maximum level, right? You want to work with those people. Because you've already seen the track record.
So I want to work with them. And then when you're in the studio, then the human-human connection starts. And if you're overpowering, you're going to take away their creative space.
I'm here to let you shine. And the more and more they feel that and the more environment I give them to be in that zone, it's them. Then the magic will happen. But it takes time to get there sometimes. Sometimes it takes the whole two sections. Sometimes it's like immediate. You just don't know because everyone's different. Different process for everyone. Do you feel like if you had more of a competitive mindset for the last, since you started in this,
industry. If you were more like I'm going to hoard my secrets and my talents and my skills and I'm going to make it all about me and I'm going to try to you know you know build this thing about me and only me and kind of you know work with some people here and there but really working with people to build my platform more as opposed to shared collaboration. Do you feel like you'd be
more successful financially or have more of an audience if you made it more about you this time. I don't think so. Really? Yeah, I think if you hoard too much, I mean, the world loves this transparency. And like now, the way the world is, they want to see all of it. So if you're hoarding and you're like, there's no real secrets though.
You know, of course, like, yeah, yeah, like, you know, the secret sauce to pizza and like the sauces and the secret, like, you know, like, yeah, of course it tastes a little different, but like, the ingredients are all the same. Yeah. You know, music's music as it can be made differently, you know? So at the end of the day, it's, you know, it's like, I don't care to hide any of that because there's nothing to really hide. There's no, like, secret in the cakes.
You know, there is a six-page cake writer that goes, it's sent to like promoters that they have to follow, because I need that cake to explode all over someone's face. There's no secrets in my production. And honestly, my music, I want it to evolve and change.
So the secret, or whatever, the ingredients of my productions, always going to innovate and change anyways. And the more people I work with, it's going to change even faster. You'll pick up ideas. You'll learn something. Yeah. Right. And I bring in not just like singers to the studio or the producers. I bring in instrumentalists, musicians. I'm like, I want to hear a sax player this time. I want to hear. That's cool.
someone else. I play guitar riff. I'm like, I need to get that played better and different. But here's the base of what I want. And I'm bringing it like a guitarist that's going to like, you know, take that to the next level. Wow. Because at the end of the day, I have to remember I'm the producer. So as a producer, you're listening for what is the best of all the takes. And so the best of all takes, you can't be selfish and be like, they're all my cakes. No.
You know, it's gonna be a better singer. I've seen a line. I'm like, I need someone else to sing it better. You know, or I have like a bunch of different people come into my house. We do writing camps and take different rooms and and we build like the kind of like the mood board of what we're going for over the day, but with freedom to kind of expand and then
you know, just allow everyone to be free. And then as the producer and the A&R and the ear, which I trust that, then I kind of pick my favorite parts and then go, we're going to Frankenstein or Comp and Stein, all these together. Comp and Stein's cool. Yeah. And cop these ideas into one thing, you know, and then and go, oh, this fits these five different artists I'd like to hit up, you know, and then then I do some
outreach. And then, you know, and like, you know, it's like, most of the time it's like, you can't, if you hit up like, hey, manager, can you hit up their manager? And like, yeah, they can. But like, that usually falls on deaf ears. Like, you got to reach out direct artists, artists that starts the conversation, because they have to really want it to.
And then they'll go, all right, team, you guys do the work that we started this. Yeah, I'm moving forward. It's like with me in podcasting, it's probably 95% of the bookings are through me having a relationship, sending someone a message at DM, commenting on it, say, hey, I'd love to have you on. And then figuring out the timing with our teams of when this is going to happen. Most of the time, that's the way it goes down.
So, what I'm hearing you say is that if you were more in a competitive mindset this whole time and hoarding your talents and information, you wouldn't be as successful as if you were been collaborating this entire time. So, I'm absolutely competitive. Right. Absolutely competitive. Everything is a competition.
Not necessarily with other people though. Right. Okay, so that's like, I think that's a major difference. Interesting. So, and I compete with myself with everything, you know, and this is not just like, for music, this is like my health. I know. Biomarkers. The sleep stores, everything. Everything. Yeah, like, you know, I got my...
I got all kinds of data. Data is everything, right? So I love data in this regard because that's how you truly can better yourself, compete with your previous self. And I do my blood draws and just check all my levels and go, OK, any a little bit more here, a little bit less of this. How do I tool this? That's a fun game. To gamify,
how you compete with yourself is actually fun and it engages you more and I'm a big, I'm really big in a gamifying. I like gamifying everything I do because it makes it more interesting. And then, of course, you know, you do something consistently over time. It's no longer a chore.
Right? So I already know understand that. You do that through lifestyle. Yeah. In the beginning, like if you don't gamify, it makes it more difficult. Whether it's like stop eating certain carbs, to working out a certain amount of time, to doing something that you need to do consistently that takes a lot of time.
or doesn't like meditation, whatever it might be, or reading a book or something like that, or you could easily disregard it and carry on through your life and feel satisfied. But you could always be more enriched. So I gamify competition with myself on all levels. But to collaborate with others.
Yes. I mean, collaboration is part of this competition. Tell me more about that. Yeah. So like, like to be, to be more like, like at the end of the day, I think one of my goals is just one of my consistent goals. I don't, I don't say it out loud. It's like unconscious. I care deeply about being a global artist because I love touring the world. I love playing in front of fans from all different like aspects and parts of the world. Right. So I love that.
I love that I've been consistently touring and playing all over the place for 15 plus years. I want to continue doing it. With that in tension, the collaborative process is a huge part of that. If I go to Australia, I'm like booking myself in the studio. Whether it's thought, I remember I did that, I worked with Trippie Red there, but I didn't.
I didn't work with Australian artists, but my intention is to work with artists in that region to learn, to collaborate, to try to build bridges and make new kinds of music and new kinds of art. What I'm curious about is health and relationships with you, because I remember years ago watching the documentary you had talking about this new obsession of health, I think it was like five years ago or something.
And you've really doubt in, you know, the data, the measuring and tracking things with your health over the last, I guess five years, you're deep in nutrition, sleep, sauna, ice baths, all these different things. You've set up your life to really optimize health.
But with 250 plus tours a year, how do you maintain that with all the travel? For me, it's like hard on the body. It is a good guy. Even if you've got a private jet, it's still like, man, just being up in the air and feeling bloated or whatever it is. How do you stay healthy is the first part. And then I want to talk about how do you keep healthy relationships in life
while you're always on the go. Yeah. So the health part, I think it's about eliminating certain things. So when as an artist, you're pampered.
You're a spoiled little brat. So you get whatever you want, really. I mean, you can get whatever. So you can become a gluttonous human and just be like, just me, me, everything I want. You can get to this point. So it's about not having discipline. Discipline is a really important key aspect of survival, one, and figuring out what is healthy for you long term, the long game.
because we all want to have that dopamine rush. We all want to have that luxury of not being comfortable or whatever it is because we have the means and we have the finances and we have the access to be comfortable. And there's alcohol and desserts and food and you're throwing cakes at people and you have every type of sugary alcohol, gladness thing you could have at your fingertips every day. It's just easy to have it all.
And but it's just it's a discipline game. So like it's about like what's more important to you. So I think that question. Yes. You need to answer that question and have a firm understanding of your answer early on and be very clear. I think like a lot of these like self affirmations and things like that are really important for any artist to be like, what is it that you really want?
Do you just want to live fast, die young, that kind of style and just be a gluttonous and just go through life? But you will be hurting later on. I promise you that. Or you're going to just be burnt out and not want to do this. Because you're going to have that lifestyle early on, where I was like, I'm just going to go hard and I'll just run it to the end and burn the candle on both ends. Wasn't that early on? That was early on. And then what was the switch for you to be like, actually,
I want to live a long, healthy life and not die young. I think as after my father passed away in 2008, a lot of these questions about life and death and dealing with tragedy in a way where death is as real as it gets and then seeing friends of mine pass away, other DJs pass away, artists pass away, it's like you could have it all and just die.
And then like, that's it, life's over. Or your career is gone. And you're like, how are these careers just disappeared? It might be of their own accord as well too. It could be for any reason. But I love what I do, and I don't want to see that end, and I also don't want to die. And I also want to make sure people around me have that same kind of knowledge base that I'm learning on how to play the long game.
You know, how do you play the long game because you love what you do for one? I love my life. I love the fact that I can do what I love to do. And so then it becomes an easier answer for me once I start putting those questions in front of me.
And then because of where I am, I was lucky to get the access to find out not just what everyone already has the access to because the internet is open. It's free to learn so much about health. I mean, a lot of what I learned about health
it's just like going on like Huberman Loud's podcast or Joe Rogan or whatever these different like avenues are they're free and there's different people interviewing these experts you know you know giving tips on like oh this could help okay let me try that if it's like in my means you know I you know I was sitting with Brian Johnson
It was really studying his body on a daily, weekly, monthly basis on what works, what doesn't work. And it's interesting because he's in his own space always. I'm not. I'm moving.
So we had a really interesting conversation of, you know, how, what are the applications I could take from what you're doing that, that like, that, that for someone that's moving as much as possible. Right. He's in the same environment every day. You're in a different environment every day. So he's going to always have
Perfect air temperature, perfect water, perfect food, and all these different things. Yeah, so his biological age might be 20 or 21 or something. Mine's 33, which is pretty good being 45. And I want to reduce that further by...
tooling and tooling and tooling, and then keeping check up on my metrics, on my analytics, on my blood, on my whole levels and everything. So that's where I really spend that game fight, and I have fun with it. And then I spend a lot of time on getting the diagnostic checks. I always tell my mom that she's 80 now, like you have to have a really true sense of your diagnostics, because that's the only way
you know, what was working, what isn't working, how to like, you know, stop yourself, you know, you now with AI, you can have these predictive models to so that you don't get the cancer, you don't get certain things that, you know, will debilitate your energy levels or debilitate you and kill you. That's fascinating, man. I love this.
Um, and I'm curious about relationships. Again, health is challenging enough being in one environment, but you've gamified it and you do the tracking and the measurements and then diagnostics, which is powerful, which helps you stay aware of where your health is at. What about relationships? How do you keep friendships, business partnerships going, intimate relationships going? How do you manage to navigate that when you're always on the go?
Yeah, friendships is tough as far as like, you know, these long-term friendships, like, you know, and like we have a few that always keep tabs on me, which like encourage myself to make sure that I am consistently building, you know, those long-term relationships and keeping finding time for them. That's difficult. That's like a very small piece of the pie chart as far as my time.
And then the majority of my, my friendships are people I work with. I think this, like generally just how around them all the time. Yeah, I'm around them. So the people I work with have to make sure that they're great people. But you like them. Yeah. They're not just like great for what they do, but they have to be great people because like that energy is going to sink into just me, whether it's my business or whatnot. It doesn't matter just about me, you know,
At the end of the day, we have to always work with people. They're just healthy for you. And then intimate relationships. I'm single, which is probably the big deficit as far as my relationships go. I've like somehow held on to some long term relationships.
through my really intense schedule. But as you get older, you're kind of like what you're looking for becomes a little bit smaller. And there's a certain, the window is small, so more and more selective. Yeah, exactly.
They have to fit in your world as much as you fit in their world, which makes it even tighter for someone like me. But I don't mind being single right now. It's not like lonely and desperate to find someone. I'm very fulfilled in all these other categories that I think I'll let time eventually just let it ride itself to the right person. Unfold it, yeah. Because you mentioned, you know, the
The amount of love that you feel doing a massive show is overwhelming. Emotionally overwhelming, you feel it in your body, you know, you're emoting and expressing yourself in beautiful ways. And you mentioned the only other thing that you get that from is love, intentionally, right? It's like the only way I could feel that more on a consistent basis would be love or in a relationship with that loving feeling.
Do you feel like you're missing out if you're not having that love also with one person to celebrate all these things with? It's true. It's true. Like I do think about that, but I'm not rushing it. Yeah. You know, I think when I was, if I was younger, when I was younger, when I was younger for sure, I was like, I really need this to have this person. But then that becomes more of this codependent thing that that I've learned to, to, you know, I understand what the codependency looks like feels like and is. It's not healthy.
Yeah, and in a lot of our relationships, they were codependent. Yeah. And it felt so good. But I didn't understand what codependency meant until my last relationship where we got to go to couples counseling and really understand what makes our relationship healthy, how do we sustain through that? And what codependency feels like because I always ended up becoming that way.
So, and once I realized that, then you just, you got more self-love and you just, you don't need to fall or rush for something that might be unhealthy for you. And luckily I have an immense love and relationship with my, my mom and my sister and my brothers and my, my, all my siblings. We have a great loving bonding relationship.
that I get fueled from that, and I see them consistently, like knowing that my mom is around the corner from me and from my house. I see her, we have lunch together, dinner, we hug, we talk, and we just, and we feel the embrace. Like that's already, I'm so lucky to have that. That's like a really big part of, like really big core of my love bank. So I'm so fortunate to have that consistently. That's beautiful, man. That's really beautiful.
This is inspiring stuff, man. I'm excited about everything that you're working on and everything that you're doing. I'm curious. This is a question I've been asking some of my guests because you've had a wild last 15 years. I mean, you've had so much success. We haven't even talked about the entrepreneurial mind that you have and the businesses that you built and the IP you're building and the fashion lines and all these other things that you're doing as an artist, not just in the music, but art and business and lots of other ways that you've done. But I'm curious.
If you could go into the future, 15 years, you've had a wild 15 years, an incredible run, but if you can go 15 years in the future, you said you're 45 now, is that right? So 60, right? You turn 60. And if you could just put yourself in that emotional mind space for a moment,
And if you're 60 year old self could give you three pieces of advice for today for everything you're about to experience over the next 15 years. And again, I've seen behind the scenes a lot of the things that you've done just in the last three years, you know, being in text threads with you and WhatsApp groups and seeing all the things that you've been doing. The speed of your acceleration in the last three years has been astronomical. You're also going to plan in the other moon at some point, which I want to talk about that as well, but
I can only imagine what the next 15 years look like if you keep with this speed of acceleration. Um, if that is your vision, I don't know what your vision is, but if you're 60 and you go through everything that you know, you're about to go through over the next three, five, 10, 15 years, what would be three things that you would say to your current self to prepare you for what's to come? So you create the best experience possible. Okay. So the first one.
is you probably wouldn't expect, but this is what I'm going back to what I would say when I was 15.
which is a big one for me. What's that? Wear earplugs. And actually protect your hearing, because my hearing, when you talk about biohacking and having a slowing down the aging process and my obsession with health, hearing is a big one. My hearing is like old as dirt. It's probably a 60 year old hearing at this point. Tonight is I can hear ringing right now. Consistent, constant, and forever.
So, and I've done neurofeedback and I understand like my markers and my brain. There's two areas of problems. One is hearing because it's like dominating my whole brain. It's so loud. Like all the time. Twenty-seven. And it just gets louder. How do you sleep when it's always bringing it? I'm just used to it at this point.
So it's like I did I live with constant ringing in my ears forever So it's just more way to heal it. There's no way to know. There's no way to heal it like I'm maybe in the future a whole thing But at this point like I accepted it'll be this way forever because it's just how it is and I'm okay with it once you accept it Yeah, it's like being in COVID like once you accept that you're stuck at home. You're actually okay with it
Like I love being home. So I'm, I'm almost like, you have to accept and like love it. Like kind of ringing. You're cool. Yeah. Sure. Okay. So hearing though. Yeah. So I, I, here's another thing with the neurofeedback that I learned. So, uh, the hearing is an issue. My memory is also an issue.
And I did a spec scan of my brain as well with Dr. Ayman. Yeah, me too. Fascinating, isn't it? Yeah, brain. Yeah, so my, what do you call it? My temporal lobes. You know, they're actually right near my...
area like they're like they come down like a helmet you know that area that's like kind of messed up and like you can see in the video near the years yeah so I think that has a lot to do with like the damage to the temporal lobes is the like loud music and the problem I have is when I'm playing shows
I need it loud. I want to feel it from inside. Like, like it's so important. I can't just be like, it's not like I'm playing like, you know, music, listening to cooking or something, you know, whatever, you know, I don't cook by the way, but, um, you know what I mean? It's not like, can you play it loud to the audience, but also have headphones and still be loud enough, but not damaging. I'm like blasting my monitors so you can hear.
Yeah. And I have earplugs in. So like, like this, I know there's some level of damage that's happening, but I need to feel some blasting and putting earplugs in. So I'm like cutting out the highs and lows. So that's like issue one, but my memory is being affected. I think, I mean, if I'm not mistaken, memory, a lot of your memory is in the temporal lobes. Possibly. Gotcha. I think I think that's what he said. So one you'd say to yourself, protect your hearing, protect my hearing. And that's 60 year old yet. Yeah. Number two, protect my memory.
aspects of my brain that I have issues in. Of aging, too, right? When you lose memory, you age more, right? Or... I mean, your life is memories. Yeah, it is. Your brain is an artifact. Your brain is an artifact of all your experiences and memories. Yes, and I'm neurotic about this idea of losing memory. It's like, you know, a kind of unconscious reason why I started my foundation to focus entirely on brain health.
because I want to find cures for degenerative brain disease, for Alzheimer's, also to do some really interesting science fiction kind of stuff, because a lot of that stems from one, our imagination.
Right. True. And two is a lot of it's like if we can understand how the brain works, we're going to be able to do things that are extraordinary. And we're doing it right now. There's certain things that are happening in the labs and
in real life that aren't really being discussed that are very science fiction based. But regardless, I'd say like those two. Okay. And the third, protect my brain, my memory, as much as possible by doing whatever I need to do that.
So at 60, I'm still, I can remember everything at 45. Because memories are so important to life. They are. So important to life. It's just like those movies you watch, you're like, the science fiction movies, like, okay, hey, I'm going to zap your memory of your wife. And you could feel the dread and you feel when like someone's going to do that to someone as like a torture mechanism.
Remember seeing that forgot what movie it was and he's like if you don't give me this information I'm gonna zap your memory of your wife and or your daughter or something and you're like
You're like, no, I'll give you everything. You know, it's like such a big part of, you know, and then that could just naturally happen. Right? And you don't want that to happen. You don't want to lose memories of things that give you love and make you who you are. So hearing memory are very important. And I think the most important is quality time with the people you love. Because when I really break down,
What are the highlights of your life? They're spending time with my mom, my family, my sister. And I limit that because I'm touring so much. So when I talk to my sisters on the phone, my brothers on the phone, and we're all traveling during things, a lot of things we say is we have to spend more time together.
Because life goes by so fast, you know? So I think like that is the number one is quality time with family because life is finite. It is. You know, in this understanding of what life is, it's finite until we reach this technological breakthrough point.
But as it is now, it's finite and any one of us can be gone. And we're like, God, the first thing you say is, I wish I had more time. So the quality time with the people that you love is the number one thing. And then memory and then hearing. Wow.
That's good advice from 60 year old self. Because I think that, I mean, career, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna excel, you're gonna succeed, you're gonna fail, you're gonna do all these things and let you're gonna do. But that's not really gonna be like, if I win a Grammy, I was like, you know, it's like a career highlight, like a goal of mine, get a Grammy, you know? It's not gonna change anything emotionally for me that I'm like, oh, like if I didn't say Grammy or like having more and more like amazing memories with
the people I love, I'm gonna be like, they're Grammy. Who gives a shit about this award, you know? It's clear that you need, the time you spend with the people you love is
by far, you know, exponentially greater. You've got some new music coming out pretty soon. Yeah. Can you share more about it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and your touring as well and all these different things. Yeah, exactly. So, this is the second part of my new IP called HeroQuest. Okay. And it's called Double Helix.
And it's a full list of collaborators on there. Like I said, Paris Hilton's on there. We're going to drop our single next month. I have a song with a country singer named Ernest. It's incredible. It's a really great song. Really excited to drop that new song with Danapala from Mexico. We're dropping that on the 29th right before the Canelo fight. Very cool.
I think she's going to be out there too, so we're going to be able to do some fun stuff around our single in Vegas. Every album I do is just tons of different collaborations. Latin, I got Gracie on the album too, she's a Colombian artist. I dropped a bunch of singles already.
And it's the continuation to the HeroQuest story. So what's exciting to announce with this one is for the first album, I dropped a CD, which I mean, no one does CDs anymore. But I put inside a HeroQuest card that you open in a pack.
People got so excited to get these packs that the CD sold 30,000 copies in five hours. Wow, which is ridiculous because I, you know, like most CDs just don't sell. So people were obsessed with these HeroQuest cards. And then I dropped like a second series of cards around the remix album.
and we sold 30,000 packs there. So, like, there's this real interest in collecting this IP and, you know, cards of the IP. Right. Is it the same business that you launched recently? Yeah. The card business? Yeah. So, I launched this company. I founded this company called Metazoo.
And it's a we create our own world based on cryptids. So like, you know, like Bigfoot, Loch Ness Monster, Chupacabra, you know, grizzly, like a smokey the bear, you know, like, like things that are made up by human lore, like we just make up because we see a ghost in the corner like, oh, that's the ghost of
Christmas past. Yeah, exactly. That's encrypted. So we made a whole world of all cryptids. That's interesting. It's all public domain. That's so cool. And then we, like, you know, people that are like obsessed with Bigfoot, now we have 20 million of the people that obsessed with Bigfoot might capture like five million of them, or one million of them, and they'll collect those cards. And we started in February 2021.
with a Kickstarter box with Kickstarter. And by December 2022, we already grossed like $40 million in selling carts and building community. Once again, the community is this collaborative process of
of how you can just need to enrich and grow and really believe in what you're doing. That's considerable. That's Metazoo. And then HeroQuest is his own IP that I created, which combines music culture, like my music culture with collectible card culture, and creating a whole new IP of characters. And this new album, I'm dropping a book I wrote with Jim Kruger.
which I'm still finishing up. So like the album is going to drop. And then this, you know, what's becoming to be around 250 to 300 page book that, um, that, uh, me and Jim are writing right now.
And Jim, I worked with, he's an Eisner award-winning writer for DC Marvel. He wrote Neon Future for Me and Tom Billieux. So we wrote this together, the story of HeroQuest, and it's also coming with cards and the CD and like all kinds of fun stuff. And, you know, that's gonna be like the entree or the onboarding into the world of HeroQuest now. It was all like pre...
IP, you know, what I was doing before and now I can drop the story. That's incredible, man. Because I want people to read the story of HeroQuest. You get the album, musical story, the musical album, and how it ties to the story. And then you get the cards that people love to collect. So that's exciting to be able to finally do all that. This is amazing. Where can we get access to all this stuff?
So obviously, when the album drops, you can just listen to it everywhere, you know, on streaming. But the book and the cards and all that and the CD, that's going to, I mean, we're going to have links everywhere on stvoki.com. It's like, you know,
Yeah, it's basically once you know, once you follow me, I'll see it. I'll be out there. You're everywhere on social media. I love your social media content. Steve Aoki on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, all these places. But SteveAoki.com.
for tour dates, the album drop, for everything that you're working on, the cars, the fashion. I mean, you got 30 businesses, it feels like you're everywhere, so. But that's the main hub where they can find everything. Exactly, yeah. Get on the newsletter, see everything. Yeah. And how many tour dates are you doing the rest of this year, or nights are you doing? Well, like this year, I'll probably do about over 250 shows. So, yeah, it's interesting. Since COVID, I thought I was going to slow down.
I mean, I was doing 300 at one point, and then I was just literally like no time off, but 200 to 250 is like my sweet spot, because then I have at least 100, 75 to 100 days at home, which I love being home.
So what I've realized, it's a mindset thing. It's a mindset shift. So it once I put my mindset into treating the road as my home and my home as my vacation, then it all works. That's cool. That's beautiful, man. Yeah. I'm excited for you, man. This is, this was a very inspiring to hear about your creative process, your collaborative mind and just the way you think about these things as an artist. It's really beautiful, man. Thank you. And hopefully I can get out to Vegas one of these days and just come, come watch a show as well.
Yeah, we do the cold plunge sauna. Let's do it. I'm going to go back and stay up till 3 a.m. I'm going to take a nap and come for part of it. But make sure if you guys are in Vegas to go watch Steve. I think you're there with 50 nights a year or 50 shows a year right now. So if you go there, look up if he's doing a show there for sure and go support him. Follow him everywhere on social media. I've got two final questions for you. Before I ask them, is there anything else we can do to be of support to you today?
No, I mean, I guess check out my social media. Yeah, check it out. The album, all these different things. I want to acknowledge you before I ask these final two questions. I want to acknowledge you, Steve, for and your consistency and your commitment. Because I think you mentioned this, there's a lot of artists or just people in different industries, whether it's business or writing or music.
There's a lot of people that don't stay consistent over time. They, they might have big moments, but then they fall off or they, they treat people poorly and people don't want to work with them. But I really acknowledge you for, you know, 15 plus years of consistently showing up and adding value to your communities, to other artists, to other business partners and saying, how can I provide value as opposed to only take? And I think in the world of,
you know, at least what it seems like in the world of social media and the world of celebrities or big artists who are on social media. You can't always tell if they have the best intentions in mind. And I really appreciate how you show up for people. I know you're not a perfect human being, but I appreciate your consistency over 15 years and just constantly showing up saying, how can I collaborate? How can I add value? It's really cool, man. So I acknowledge you for that. This is a question I, these last two questions,
I asked you about your 60-year-old self on the advice you would give your current self, but I have another hypothetical scenario. I'd love for you to imagine that you get to live as long as you want and accomplish everything you want to accomplish, but it's the last day on Earth for you at some point. Live as long as you want.
And for whatever reason, you've got to take all of your work with you, all of your art, your music, this conversation, anything you create, it's got to go with you to the next place. So we don't have access to your content anymore. All your IP gone.
but you get to leave behind three lessons to the whole world. Three things that you know to be true from all the life you've lived, and this is all we would have to remember you by are these three lessons. What would be those three truths? What would be those three truths for you? I love sci-fi. I was like thinking to myself, this whole new world of what things would be.
There's three lessons of truth, that's all we have to... Well, one is going back to what I was saying, the most important thing is you have to really give the best quality time to the people that you love. When you give, it's so much more powerful than receiving.
Because I think it's very selfish to give. Because it feels better. It feels incredible. When you give something, you could see someone's face light up with like genuine joy and happiness. It's the greatest feeling, especially when you love them and you want to just continue this feeling. Because at the end of the day, that's like life. You want to feel amazing in that regard.
Because if you can go to sleep and wake up with that same feeling every day, you're like, what can be better? Yeah. And that's free, you know, that feeling of gift is like it doesn't cost any money. So anyone could do that.
You know, just by just, you know, helping and being being part of someone's life in a positive way that's fulfilling. So that's that's that's like one for sure. I think I think that's like they're all they're all there. It's like one is that and then two is going back to what we're talking about the contribution like always give the most because like at the end of the day when you think about
reputation, things like that.
Whenever I think about people that have great reputations, they're transparent, they always offer more. And of course, we get greedy, we get selfish, and we're like, oh, but if I just take right now that I'll have more, but if you keep doing that, you're gonna lose all your relationships. That's 100% certainty.
If you think short term only for yourself, you will 100% have like no future in, in with those people. That's just, that's just, unless it's like a unconditional like mom, it's like, I have to like take care of my son is like always just taking, taking, taking, taking, taking, taking, taking, you know.
Even the mom might get a little educated. So I think you have to give maximum level, like, you know, give as much as you can on contribution. So I think it's about maximum value of what you put out. Whatever you do, don't be passive. Don't give the bare minimum. If you're going to do it, you have to give as much as possible. Yes.
And the more you do it, you're always going to be someone that people want to work with, you know, someone that people will remember, like, like, oh, they're great to work with. They're great that they give because they always do more. And they don't want, they don't want anything else in return. So that's actually a big thing to remember. The people that give a lot and they don't want anything returned consistently, they're like, they don't, they actually do it just to do it.
You know, those people, like you want to work with those people. You want to be those people. Right. That is like a powerful one. It's like giving as much as you possibly can if you are going to do it. If you don't, like you don't have to do it all. Like saying no is just as important too. Like I can't give as much time. So I'm not going to do it.
Right. So you have to make that decision. So I think how you contribute has to be the best that you can. So that's two. Yeah. And, and three, I think three would be on the idea of collaboration. Let's, let's stay within the box here. Um, three is having an open mind.
to try many different things and to learn and always be a great listener and always be a great student to learn. To receive and really, truly be present in the receiving side of things. And be grateful in that. This is where gratitude will help you be a great listener. Because the more grateful you are, you're gonna be more present. Because the second you're like, oh, I'm so,
I honor to be here. I'm so grateful to be here. You are 100% going to be present and you're going to receive everything coming to you. The people that go to school and they have to pay for it are usually the ones sitting in the front of class. And they're like, I paid so much money to be here.
I have to listen. I have to learn. I need to learn this. And the people that like, like their parents will pay for their education a lot of time, they're like, Oh, gosh, there's me here. Oh my God. You know, so it's like, if you, you got me grateful just to be in the room to receive. And then you're going to be able to use that information to go to number two.
You know, to contribute that. Absolutely. To give the most maximum value. Those are powerful, man. I love this. Final question, Steve. What is your definition of greatness? That's you. That's your whole thing, right? Oh, my God. I'm winging it right now at this point. I love it, though, Matt. It's great. Yeah. So I feel like stop and think. I didn't even think about things. It's all good. Yeah. What's the definition of greatness? For you, what is it?
I feel like I said it already, you know, but I know this is like you need this one. You need this one. This is all you. The definition of greatness. They can be simple. It can be short. It doesn't have to be long. Yeah, I know. I'm trying to think because it's like it is like an important one, you know? I mean,
The definition of greatness is very similar to the definition of success. What is success to me, it's not up to someone else to define that success. That's really important. I think it's a little bit complicated because
I think what we think of what's great is always what other people think is what's great. Success is always what society deems is what success or what's great. So it's really about how do I feel about myself? Do I feel great because I was able to accomplish these things? So it's more about how I feel. Did I do something where it made me feel great for myself?
You know, whether it's finishing a song or it could be simply just having lunch with my mom. You know, like, these are things that make me feel great today. Yeah. So it's, I think it's all more subjective. Yeah. And it's always, it's always like,
It's always a new challenge. I think the idea of greatness is a challenge. It's always a challenge. It can never be within your comfort zone. It has to be outside the comfort zone, but not impossible. So in this area where you need to go beyond what's comfortable and into this zone of what's attainable, but it's difficult.
I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel
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