Dim Mak Interview

Since its inception in 1996, Dim Mak has gone from strength to strength, releasing revolutionary Electronic House music and throwing the best shows on the planet. Founder and owner, Steve Aoki, has helped many DJs, artists, bands and MCs to realise their potential through this mega-label, incorporating all sounds and genres, to create one masterpiece at a time. From Bloc Party to Felix Cartal and Borgore, there have been dozens of artists on the roster that deserve your attention, and with new releases coming thick and fast, you need look nowhere else for your next club playlist. To give you a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at the label, clothing company and lifestyle brand, we spoke to Dim Mak manager, Lee Kurisu, about the artists, shows and music of Dim Mak.

Hi Lee, how’s everything going?
Good!

For those that don’t know, can you describe Dim Mak and what it brings to the music industry?
We like to describe it as a lifestyle brand instead of just strictly a record label because we do more than just release music – we’re also an events company and a clothing company. We’ve been a three-pronged attack now since our inception in 1996. It’s always been about putting out great music, throwing great parties and having a clothing component.

The artists at Dim Mak are playing for up to 100,000 people all around the world, how do you improve on that and what are the next steps for the label?
As far as what we’re seeing in the Electronic music space now, people are getting more extravagant in their shows. What I like about we do is most people on our roster don’t have to rely on the bells and whistles so much because they are personalities themselves. They bring a lot of energy to everything they do, especially when they’re on stage. The guys on Dim Mak will still have very much a Rock ‘n’ Roll energy to their performances where a lot of DJs don’t. We started off releasing Punk-Rock and Indie music, and even though the style of the music we’re supporting now has switched more to the Electronic realm, we still maintain that rawness to the label and the personalities we want to work with.

Speaking of Punk-Rock, we checked out your Soundcloud and saw that Steve Aoki is now working with Linkin Park. Are any of your other artists reaching out to musicians, bands and singers that might surprise people in 2014?
I can’t really confirm anything for 2014 right now, but based on what’s happened recently, over the latter part of 2013 we had a collaboration we released between Borgore, Waka Floka Flame and a singer from the UK named Paige, and that was a really exciting collaboration that turned out to be one of Dim Mak’s biggest records of 2013. It had a ton of energy and a mixture of traditional trap beats and going into banging Electro-House. We also had a really cool one between Yolanda Be Cool, the Australian act, and Starving Yet Full and Fritz Helder, and they’ve done a really amazing cover of Ace Of Base ‘All That She Wants’. It’s a really dark and sleazy take on it that was a really unique collaboration that we really love over here. And one of our other artists, Kenna, collaborated on ‘Relations’ with Childish Gambino and that was really cool three-ways because it was produced by Chad Hugo, The Neptunes, sung by Kenna and the rap provided by Childish, so that was another really cool collaboration from 2013.

Does the label have much involvement with the collaborations?
It’s different on a case-by-case scenario; sometimes the label’s involved facilitating and putting people together and sometimes it happens from artists’ relationships outside of the label, so it really depends on the situation.

You’re signing artists like Felix Cartal, Arod & Bones and MegaMen; with such a range of artists and sounds being produced, how would you sum it up as Dim Mak?
The description we like to use is raw music. When we did our 15th anniversary we described it as “15 years of raw music”. It’s not dependent on style; overall we’ve shifted over more to the Electronic realm than we used to, but we still remain an eclectic label across the board and anything Dim Mak releases, we look for raw, forward-thinking sounds.

The Up All Night stage at TomorrowWorld 2013 was an example of Dim Mak putting on the biggest parties and events on earth; does the label have much to do with the stage production?
Very much so. Whenever we do a Dim Mak stage we program the whole stage talent-wise front to back. They basically allow us to come in and take it over. As far as the elaborate production at certain events, it depends – TomorrowWorld are very particular about their production so they have a lot of say as to how the stage looks, but when we do festivals over here (in USA) like Electric Zoo we have much more control over visually how it looks.

What’s the wildest party you’ve thrown?
I think the stages we did at TomorrowLand and TomorrowWorld were phenomenal and the energy throughout the day was incredible and it really showed how Dim Mak was a family. For instance, at TomorrowLand Steve (Aoki) played every Dim Mak artist’s big record and brought them on stage and it was a really crazy, family vibe. So that was a big highlight. As far as crazy things to happen at Dim Mak events, one of the most legendary would have to be at Dim Mak Tuesdays – our weekly in Los Angeles – when Daft Punk played without their masks for the first time, so that goes down in history.

Wow, that’s pretty awesome! You said about the Dim Mak artists being a family; what sort of rapport do you want the artists to have with each other? Are they all individual or a big unit under the Dim Mak name?
They all have their own individual style and we’ll always push that, but at the same time there are certain instances where we come together and the family aspect shines through. A great example would be our annual pool party at Miami Music Week, where you really get to see the guys and how well they get along and they end up collaborating with each other, which happens across our roster on a regular basis. They’re a family as far as hanging out at our events, but they are individual artists and we aim to give them their individual shine for releases on Dim Mak.

Which one has the weirdest rider request?
[Laughs] I think it’s probably Felix Cartal because, if I’m not mistaken, he asks for Slurpees.

Oh, cool! Are there any new signings on the horizon?
Definitely. New stuff for us is an Australian artist by the name of Uberjak’d, we’re gonna be launching him this March which is really exciting. We also have new material from a gentleman named Garmiani who had a really big debut last year and this one looks to be his biggest year to date. We’ve also got a really big record from Rehab coming out, so a lot of good stuff.

What’s the criteria for a potential artist and how would one impress you?
It’s about the music first and foremost. They’ve got to make music that Dim Mak is vibing to and that Steve (Aoki) can get behind. We like to deal with artists that are, in a nutshell, that just aren’t boring. [Laughs]. We’re pretty creative and animated and we like to work with people that match that.

Do you spend much time with Dim Mak creator, Steve Aoki?
Not so much these days as much as we used to, just because he’s such an animal on the road and never stops touring. When he’s back in LA he makes time to come by and catch up with everyone. We’re on contact online, so we may not see him a ton but we’re always talking about new ideas.

Do you ever have different ideas about what’s best for the label?
I think that happens in any creative endeavor; there’s going to be differences, but for the most part Steve’s vision for the label is something that everyone supports. For the most part we’re all on the same page.

What do you think about the status of Dance music today?
I think it’s getting bigger and bigger, it’s turned into quite the juggernaut. I’m really excited about it, I don’t think the bubble’s gonna burst and I think it’s here to stay. Over Europe it’s had more of a prominence, whereas in America it has come and gone as a fad, starting when Fatboy Slim, The Prodigy and The Chemical Brothers blew up and then Dance music went back underground. After this more recent explosion of Dance music in America, I think it’s here to stay. It’s gonna change and different styles will move to the forefront, but having reached its “peak”, I think it’s only gonna get bigger.

Is Dim Mak restricted to the Electronic genre?
Absolutely not. It’s one of the things that really makes us unique. Our first releases were from bands like Bloc Party and Pretty Girls Make Graves, and when the Electro-Indie movement happened and they started getting their music remixed by Electro acts, we moved into that and Steve’s first mix CD, ‘Pillowface And His Airplane Chronicles’ was a perfect encapsulation of that movement of Indie worlds crossing with Electro worlds and Steve was at the forefront of that. Now we’ve moved into Electronic music but we’ve still got an MC and we still work with Rock acts. We’re unique to have the ability to cover a lot of bases that other labels can’t and I think that’s due to our history. When we say we can, it’s because we have been; it’s not like we’re trying to manufacture that image – we’ve done it before and it’s authentic.

Finally, do you have a Dim Mak tattoo?
I personally do not. Many people on our staff do, but I recently came on board; I’ve been here a year now and Steve has been egging me on to get a tattoo, but I’ve been proudly tattoo-free my whole life so if I got one it would be my first one ever. It’s definitely a symbol of pride around here, though.

By Charlotte Mellor